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Tag: pr

  • Jay Carney Is Amazon’s New VP of Corporate Affairs

    Former White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has spent the last year as a contributor to CNN, but now he’s stepping back into the realm of PR.

    Politico reports that Amazon has tapped Carney to be the new Senior Vice President for Worldwide Corporate Affairs. It’s a new position – one that will put the company’s public relations and public policy divisions under one umbrella.

    From Politico:

    [Current VP of Public Policy] Paul Misener and PR chief Craig Berman will now report to Carney, who in turn will report directly to CEO Jeff Bezos. Carney will give up his post-White House perch as a senior political analyst on CNN to focus full time on Amazon.

    Carney served as Press Secretary for the Obama administration from February 11, 2011, to June 20, 2014. He replaced Robert Gibbs and was succeeded by Josh Earnest. Before heading to the White House, Carney was the Washington Bureau Chief for Time magazine.

    Image via Jay Carney, Twitter

  • Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift: Tireless PR Reps Working Hard To Squash Rumors

    Just days after models Cara Delevingne and Kendall Jenner made international headlines over a possible romantic connection, model Karlie Kloss also found herself at the center of a rumored lesbian love affair—with singer Taylor Swift!

    Although members of the public may be in on the joke that Swift seems to go through relationships with men very quickly, some people may not be aware of the fact that the 24-year-old has also dealt with rumors about her sexuality for some time.

    The gossip has persisted that Swift is in fact gay, with the numerous male relationships only serving to draw attention away from her “secret” preference.

    But the gossip mill practically exploded overnight when Karlie Kloss and Taylor Swift were seen in an “intimate” embrace at moments when they were in attendance of 1975 concert.

    There seems to be a war going on between gossip sites. Much quoted (and often trusted) gossip source TMZ posted images and the video of Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss together.

    The information came by way of a young concertgoer who shared her footage on Twitter and is not backing down about what she filmed.

    In the meantime, both the PR team for Taylor Swift AND Karlie Kloss have been working overtime to make sure everyone knows that neither young woman is remotely gay.

    Buzzfeed Celeb wanted everyone to remember that Karlie Kloss has a SUPER CUTE BOYFRIEND, meanwhile Taylor Swift’s PR people took a far more direct approach.

    Her reps flat out denied the rumor, and told Gossip Cop that the idea that Taylor Swift and her friend Karlie Kloss are dating is “hilarious”.

    Meanwhile, Taylor Swift caught another 1975 concert, sparking fresh rumors that she’s there to check out singer Matty Healy.

    Are Taylor Swift and Karlie Kloss secretly dating or is this one big misunderstanding?

  • Lyft Has Best Week Ever After Uber’s Run of Bad PR

    Uber hasn’t had a good few months, PR wise – and the past couple of weeks have been brutal. When one of your executives says that the company should start digging up dirt on journalists who criticize the company, well, it’s bound to generate some bad press.

    And then when one of your execs actually does breach privacy and access a journo’s history, well, things are bound to get worse.

    Big-mouthed investors don’t really help, either.

    You would imagine that if anyone would benefit from Uber’s bad PR, it would be rival on-demand car service Lyft. And you would be right, according to the company.

    A rep recently confirmed to Mashable that the past week was the company’s best yet.

    “A rep for the company says last week was the biggest week yet for the company. The rep declined to go into specifics, but said ‘percentage-wise’ it was the ride-share company’s biggest boost yet,” reports Mashable.

    Lyft has also just introduced an initiative called “Driver Destination’, which is pretty much a shoot-off of Lyft Line (the carpooling service), but with a focus on the driver’s side of the equation.

    Here’s how it works, according to Lyft:

    Nearly 80% of commuters currently drive to work alone. With the latest evolution of Lyft Line, now these drivers can easily turn their daily solo drives into shared rides. Here’s how it works: when drivers enter a destination into the Lyft app, they will only receive ride requests from Lyft Line passengers going the same way, with minimal detours. Drivers can earn even more every week by starting to pick up rides while heading to and from work – some of the busiest times of day. By enabling Lyft Line with Driver Destination to and from work every day, you could earn up to $400 per month – enough to cover a car payment – and connect with interesting people who live and work nearby.

    As long as Uber continues to receive bad press, Lyft only stands to benefit. That is, of course, until Lyft drivers start attacking people with hammers.

  • Press Release Sites Take A Hit In Google’s Rankings

    It would appear that some big name press release distribution sites have taken a hit in Google.

    Sean Malseed at Seer Interactive pointed out that PRWeb lost over half of its traffic, and dropped out of the first 20 Google results for over 8,000 keywords, based on data from SEMrush.

    “It looks like there’s guilt by association, as well,” writes Malseed. “Bloomberg, who partners with the press release agencies to disseminate releases, also took a huge hit.”

    Barry Schwartz took things a step further and looked at Searchmetrics data for PR Newswire, PRWeb, BusinessWire, and PRLog, each of which took hits after the Google released Panda 4.0. It’s unclear whether this was an effect of that Panda update or something else Google did.

    Last summer, Google updated its guidelines for what it considers link schemes. This included, “Links with optimized anchor text in articles or press releases distributed on other sites.”

    In a Webmaster hangout, Google’s John Mueller said Google wants all links in press releases to be nofollowed, and press releases should be treated like advertisements. He indicated that SEOs were using press releases more for search purposes.

    The press release distributors have not been shy about promoting SEO value either.

    A couple years ago, BusinessWire launched an SEO-enhanced platform after patenting its SEO strategy. Google is literally running an ad from PRWeb (pictured at the top) for press release SEO right now.

    Images via PRWeb, Google

  • How To Get The Media To Notice You

    How To Get The Media To Notice You

    Today, I would argue PR is more important than ever before. In addition to helping companies increase profiles and attract new clients, PR can be considered the secret weapon for SEO.

    Unfortunately, despite the increasing importance of PR, it is often misunderstood by companies both large and small.

    In this article, my aim is to de-construct the PR process, with the hope that you be able to better optimize your company’s opportunities for press going forward.

    Overview of PR

    PR can be broken down into 5 sections:

    1. Identifying which stories to contact media publications about

    2. Developing a press release

    3. Securing an exclusive from a recognized media outlet (for example WebProNews)

    4. Emailing other publications to further coverage

    5. Repeating this process every 10-12 weeks

    Identifying which stories to contact media publications about

    When approaching the media, whether it be WebProNews or another outlet, it is important to remember that not all announcements are created equal.

    Although it may really matter to you that your company recently partnered with a local restaurant, it is unlikely that a journalist will find this newsworthy. This is important because you can lose credibility if you reach out to the media with stories that are not likely to be written about.

    If you are wondering which stories are newsworthy, we have a list below. These announcements are typically effective at generating media coverage:

    Company Launches: These announcements tend to be newsworthy as entrepreneurscan explain how, through their startup, they are trying to change the world.

    Product Launches: This is similar to a company launch. With a new product launch, you should explain what it does and why people should be interested.

    Fundraisers: Reporters don’t always know what to believe about the pitches they get, but if they see numbers and names attached to a venture, they are more likely to be interested because of this social proof.

    Acquisitions: Once your company has taken off, acquisitions are something people look for to show that a business is staying aggressive in the marketplace.

    Milestones: If, as an example, you founded a mobile app company and have just reached your 1,000,000th download, this is a meaningful milestone that can be newsworthy.

    Developing a press release

    Now that you have an idea of what type of stories attract the attention of the media, it is time to take a step further.

    Enter the press release.

    The first thing to understand is that journalists are pitched dozens of stories like yours everyday. If your press release does not stand out from the beginning, chances are that it will not be read. The most important part of a press release, then, is the first line.

    The first sentence of any press release should provide the person reading it with a clear idea of what is important about what you have to tell them, and how they can present it to a wider audience. This is what we call the storyline, and this is where you should discuss your big picture announcement.

    You should ask yourself, companies launch all the time, what is it about your company that is going to change the face of the marketplace, or change the way people interact with a certain technology or product?

    An example of a story line is:

    Lingua.ly founded by a Stanford PhD & partner, launches and aims to re-imagine the way languages are learned online.

    From there, the idea in the press release is to include as much useful information as possible so that the reporter can take out whatever he/she needs for his/her story.

    Securing an exclusive from a recognized media outlet

    Modern news is competitive industry. Every day, publications compete with one another to break stories.

    When approaching PR, we recommend you offer one of the more well-read outlets, exclusive access to your story announcement.

    A tired journalist checking his email may not jump on any story he senses is being sent to 30 other writers. However, offer him the chance to break an original piece of content, and you can better receive his attention.

    Emailing other publications to further coverage

    If you can grab a top industry publisher’s interests, you stand a good chance of getting follow-up coverage from other blogs and outlets, or breaking through to a mainstream publication that uses industry-specific outlets as a feeder for stories.

    After an exclusive has been published, we recommend a company email other publications to increase press around the announcement.

    Repeating this process every 10-12 weeks

    With PR, your company’s efforts should not stop there. We encourage companies to aim for a new public relations campaign every 8-10 weeks. These efforts will only compound over time. If you can do this, your company will not be in the top 10% of PR, it will be in the top 1%.

  • Martha Stewart Broke Her iPad, and Apparently Apple Is Pissed That She’s Tweeting About It

    It looks like Martha Stewart dropped and shattered her iPad – the iPad that Steve Jobs personally gave her. And it also looks like Apple PR is upset with her about all the tweets she’s been posting concerning how to get it fixed.

    Of course, you have to take your broken iDevices into an Apple Store to begin the repair process. This confusion led to Stewart having an interesting business idea:

    I guess this prompted a call from Apple, who according to Stewart were non too pleased about her tweets. She is a high-profile Twitter user, with nearly 3 million followers. Maybe that had something to do with Apple’s frustration.

    She does seem to have changed her tone a bit…

    Don’t mess with Martha Stewart, Apple PR. She will cut you.

    Image via Martha Stewart, Twitter

  • eBay Gives $1000 to Dad Whose Toddler Accidentally Bought a Car, Wins Today’s PR Trophy

    eBay Gives $1000 to Dad Whose Toddler Accidentally Bought a Car, Wins Today’s PR Trophy

    We all know it’s dangerous to give your toddler your smartphone. Beyond the chance that they may just hurl it against a wall or something, you have to assume that all of that random button pushing is going to result in something unwanted.

    Like an old car, maybe? That’s exactly what happened to Paul Stoute. His 14-month-old daughter, Sorella, accidentally purchased a 1962 Austin Healey Sprite with his eBay app. Total cost: $202.50.

    According to KOIN-TV, the Portland, Oregon family is planning on keeping the car. It’s in pretty rough shape ($202.50, so of course) and will take a lot of work to get road-ready. Mr. Stoute says that maybe he’ll fix it up and give it to Sorella for her 16th birthday.

    Cool dad, right?

    “She decided to open the eBay app, and started clicking around and one thing led to another and we own a car,” said Stoute.“I’ve done a lot of body work in the past, like bondo and stuff like that. But this is another realm altogether.”

    Well, it looks like he’s getting a little bit of help – from eBay themselves. The company has pledged to give the family $1000 in gift cards, along with a restoration guide and a toy car for Sorella.

    “We sell more than 11,000 vehicles each week around the world via eBay mobile, but some of those purchases have more unique stories behind them than others,” says eBay. “We plan to stay in touch with Paul and lend our expertise whenever possible.”

  • Here’s What PRWeb Had To Say About The Google Acquisition “News” Flub

    On Monday, a bogus press release was issued via Vocus-owned press release distribution service PRWeb indicating that Google had bought Wi-Fi company ICOA for $400 million. Both companies eventually told reporters that this news was false. Apparently, the companies had not even been in talks.

    This was not until various publications picked up the story. In our version, we were careful to note that the only source of the “news” appeared to be a strangely vague press release on PRWeb that was not even acknowledged in Google’s own press center.

    Finally, PRWeb released its own statement:

    PRWeb transmitted a press release for ICOA that we have since learned was fraudulent. The release was not issued or authorized by ICOA. Vocus reviews all press releases and follows an internal process designed to maintain the integrity of the releases we send out every day. Even with reasonable safeguards identity theft occurs, on occasion, across all of the major wire services. We have removed the fraudulent release and turned the matter over to the proper authorities for further investigation.

    It’s still unclear who issued the release to begin with.

  • Controversy Makes Chick-fil-A One Of The Fastest Growing Brands On Facebook

    Controversy Makes Chick-fil-A One Of The Fastest Growing Brands On Facebook

    I probably don’t have to tell you that Chick-fil-A is at the center of a great deal of controversy these days, concerning its open views on gay marriage. These views have led to a seemingly endless debate among Chick-fil-A supporters, opponents, and those who just want to eat some chicken and go on about their business.

    One thing is for certain. The whole thing has given the restaurant chain a whole lot of press, and over the past month, the company’s social brand has been on the rise.

    Was stating its views on the matter of same-sex marriage a smart decision on Chick-fil-A’s part? Tell us what you think.

    Social media ad platform Optimal has released a list of the top performing brands on its Optimal Index for July. As a spokesperson for the firm explains, “The Optimal Index is an independent valuation tool to help determine the relative value of a brand’s current audience on Facebook by combining fan counts, engagement statistics and global fan valuation.”

    “Interestingly, amid recent controversial comments made by members of its executive team, Chick-fil-A added 524,238 new fans in July, and more than 550,000 people discussed, liked or commented on the brand in the past week,” the spokesperson said.

    Here’s the list. As you can see, Chick-fil-A cracked the top ten:

    Chick-Fil-A cracks top ten in social brand growth

    Chick-fil-A’s Facebook page currently has over 6 million fans. That’s about a tenth of what rapper Marshall Mathers (the most popular guy on Facebook) has.

    These graphs from PageData tell the story pretty well.

    PageData stats on Chick-fil-A

    The comments from Chick-fil-A took place in the mid-July, and you can see how the Page’s popularity has steadily risen since then, as the discussion continues around the web. Imagine what the monthly numbers would look like if the controversy began at the beginning of the month.

    Chick-fil-A President Dan Cathy was quoted as saying that he and the company as a whole are “very much supportive of the family — the biblical definition of the family unit. We are a family-owned business, a family-led business, and we are married to our first wives.”

    The company later issued the following statement via its Facebook Page:

    The Chick-fil-A culture and service tradition in our restaurants is to treat every person with honor, dignity and respect – regardless of their belief, race, creed, sexual orientation or gender. We will continue this tradition in the over 1,600 Restaurants run by independent Owner/Operators. Going forward, our intent is to leave the policy debate over same-sex marriage to the government and political arena.

    Chick-fil-A is a family-owned and family-led company serving the communities in which it operates. From the day Truett Cathy started the company, he began applying biblically-based principles to managing his business. For example, we believe that closing on Sundays, operating debt-free and devoting a percentage of our profits back to our communities are what make us a stronger company and Chick-fil-A family.

    Our mission is simple: to serve great food, provide genuine hospitality and have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.

    Wednesday became known as Chick-fil-A appreciation day, which turned out to be a pretty big hit for the company, with the company claiming a record-setting day. Millions of people turned out to support the restaurant chain, and their beliefs.

    Of course, the controversy also led to National Same-Sex Kiss Day At Chick-fil-A on Friday, which in addition to the turn out for beliefs on the opposite side of the equation, has still served to draw more attention to the brand.

    There’s no question that Chick-fil-A has alienated a large amount of customers, but even still, the company appears to have put together a pretty loyal audience, and thousands of people (and climbing) they can push their messages (and offers) to on a daily basis, through Facebook alone, not to mention the additional brand awareness the company has managed to spread.

    Some analysts have advised against businesses publicizing any political views, as to avoid alienating customers. It’s hard to say what kind of long-term effects this whole thing will have on Chick-fil-A’s brand, and how much it will ultimately affect the company’s bottom line. In the short-term, however, no matter how many people it has turned against it, the whole thing has clearly gotten people more interested in Chick-fil-A, and they’re selling a whole lot of Chicken. From my understanding, that’s their main goal.

    Do you think businesses should publicize controversial views and risk alienating customers? Was Chick-fil-A smart to do so? Has the whole thing affected whether or not you will eat at the restaurant? Let us know in the comments.

  • Chick-fil-A’s PR Team May Have Pulled This Laughably Transparent Fake Facebook Account Stunt

    Chick-fil-A’s PR Team May Have Pulled This Laughably Transparent Fake Facebook Account Stunt

    Apparently, someone on Chick-fil-A’s PR team really sucks at PR, as this evidence suggests that someone is creating fake Facebook accounts to bolster their position in the midst of the company’s worst public image crisis ever.

    As you probably remember, Chick-fil-A has been under fire recently for comments made by company president Dan Cathy, in which he said he was “guilty as charged” when it comes to opposing marriage equality. Although Chick-fil-A has been open with the fact that they are a Christian-based company (closed on Sundays, anyone?), and have also given money to anti-gay groups in the past, the latest certainty seems to have pushed some people over the edge.

    And couple of days ago, the Muppets said goodbye to Chick-fil-A as the Jim Henson Company posted this on their Facebook page:

    The Jim Henson Company has celebrated and embraced diversity and inclusiveness for over fifty years and we have notified Chick-Fil-A that we do not wish to partner with them on any future endeavors.

    But Chick-fil-A has proposed a different narrative for why the two companies have parted ways. This was spotted in a Chick-fil-A store, and subsequently went viral:

    Chick-fil-A has stood by this, telling The Atlantic “..it is true that Chick-fil-A voluntarily withdrew the Jim Henson kids meal toys nationwide because of a potential safety concern. This is unrelated to the Jim Henson announcement.”

    So, that brings us to this Facebook exchange:

    A redditor snagged this screenshot of the Facebook conversation, in which someone is busted for creating a fake account with two telling pieces of evidence: First, the account was only a few hours old when it began taking up Chick-fil-A’s cause. And second, someone happened to locate the origin of the young girl’s profile picture.

    And unless Abby Farle happens to be the actual model that took these stock images, I think I smell a rat:

    Sure, it’s possible that it was just someone who really really loves Spicy Chicken sandwiches who went to the trouble of creating this Facebook deception. But this isn’t the first instance of a Chick-fil-A employee creating social accounts to promote their story.

    UPDATE: Chick-fil-A has denied claims that they were the ones behind this. “Chick-Fil-A has not created a separate or a false Facebook account. We don’t know who created it,” said a spokesperson

    UPDATE 2: This Facebook post –

    Chick-fil-A7 minutes ago

    Hey Fans, thanks for being supportive. There is a lot of misinformation out there. The latest is we have been accused of impersonating a teenager with a fake Facebook profile. We want you to know we would never do anything like that and this claim is 100% false. Please share with this with your friends. Powered by socialditto  1,000+ likes ·  690 comments
  • Facebook Engineer Tells Reddit Sorry For Blocking Imgur Links, Offers Cute Puppy Pic As Compensation

    Facebook Engineer Tells Reddit Sorry For Blocking Imgur Links, Offers Cute Puppy Pic As Compensation

    Redditors are pretty protective of their Imgur. Though they may lambast the free image hosting site every now and then for having a tendency to be down for extended periods of time, redditors know that Imgur is their friend. And reddit is Imgur’s friend as well, as the site recently hit 2 billion pageviews per month. Of course, we can give a lot of the credit for that impressive figure to the reddit community.

    So, it’s no surprise that a post detailing how Imgur was being blocked by Facebook for supposed malicious links rose to the top of the front page Monday evening.

    “The content you’re trying to share includes a link that’s been blacked for being spammy or unsafe,” said the warning message.

    Here’s a screencap courtesy redditor AmericanDerp:

    The post quickly generated hundreds of comments, including one from user fisherrider about three hours after the original post appeared. User fisherrider just happens to work for Facebook and took the time to explain exactly how the Imgur problem was his fault:

    Hey folks – so this is actually my fault. Literally, I’m the guy who accidentally blocked imgur for a brief period of time today. I’m really sorry.

    Some background: I’m an engineer who works on the system we use for catching malicious URLs. In the process of dealing with a bad URL that our automated defenses didn’t catch, I ran into a rare bug that caused us to incorrectly block some legitimate URLs for a brief time. Right after I figured that out and removed the bad data, I reworked the UI so no one will get bit by the same issue in the future.

    As a form of apology that I’m sure is insufficient, here is a picture of my dog dressed up for the 4th of July: http://imgur.com/pR4mR .

    [edit: don’t put a period right after the . in the imgur link, as apparently the reddit mobile site linkifies the .]

    It appears that the picture of the dog in the scarf + the sincere apology was enough to win over the miffed redditors. This, my friends, is a PR win.

  • Washington Post Masthead On A Chinese Government Publication

    Freedom of speech — and thus, consequently, freedom to advertise — are fundamental principles of a free democracy and a thriving capitalist democracy, right? That’s what we’re told in this country from a young age. Well it turns out those freedoms are also employed by the Chinese Communist Party. In America. Namely, in The Washington Post.

    This is the source of an ethical controversy that has sprung up recently in the arena of journalism. Each month, the Post runs a paid supplement called China Watch, along with a regularly-updated website of the same name. The “paid” part gets done by the Chinese government. In return, China gets to publish articles produced by China Daily, the house organ of the Chinese government, in the Post, and using its masthead. Articles in China Watch portray China and its government in the way you might expect–that is, positively, or else with a particular diplomatic glibness. Ad copy, some call it. Others call it propaganda.

    It’s a hard boundary to find, that line between advertising and propaganda. People who don’t like being sold to are quick to label all advertising as propaganda of a kind, while free market advocates might suggest that if you pay for it, and if you make it clear that you paid for it, then even a government can simply advertise. The Washington Post says that it makes no attempt to conceal the paid nature of China Watch. Both print editions of the publication and its corresponding website bear a small disclaimer box in their top right corners. But critics of the Post’s partnership with China Daily argue that the disclaimer is not nearly as prominent on the page as the Post’s masthead at the top of the insert. While readers have technically been informed that China Watch has been paid for, critics argue that the prominence of the Post’s masthead makes a bigger statement, confusing readers who might think the Post at least officially endorses China Watch content. The web-edition of the pro-China publication is hosted under the Washington Post domain name. Moreover, the Post neglects to disclose who pays for the ads.

    (image)

    Of course, there’s no law generally requiring companies to disclose details about their advertising partners to the general public. However, things are a bit different when you’re dealing with a representative from a foreign government. The Post’s dealings with China Daily could run afoul of the Foreign Agents Registration Act, which requires that foreign agents and their activities be properly identified to the American public. Such disclosure involves more than a box in the upper-right-hand corner.

    Nor is this the only instance of dealings where The Post has been accused of serving as a mouthpiece for the Chinese government. In an editorial last month, Patrick Pexton, The Post’s own Ombudsman, lambasted the newsroom for at the very best, lazy journalism, and at the worst, kowtowing to the Chinese PR machine. Particularly at issue in the editiorial was the February 13 publication in The Post of an “interview” with Chinese Vice President Xi Jinping. It was later revealed that the “interview” was hardly an interview at all — Post reporters submitted written questions to Jinping, and in return they received a response to questions that had been modified, deleted, and added. Pexton disagreed with the newsroom’s decision to print the reponse:

      So, The Post submits written questions — already a far cry from a live face-to-face unscripted interview with journalists — and the Chinese say, thanks, but we don’t like your questions, so we’ll provide our own questions and answers. Take it or leave it.

      The Post took it. I think it should have left it.

    Of course, Pexton pointed out, this is a complicated issue. While both the printing of the interview propaganda and the lack of transparency regarding China Watch suggest the Post is soft, even misleading, in its coverage of China, The Post also does its fair share of reporting that embarrasses the Chinese government and others. It’s a difficult world to navigate, especially when dealing with China, which often withholds press visas, or grows mum around reporters asking too many uncomfortable questions.

    It’s not just The Post that faces this difficultly. China is sitting on a billion citizens, nuclear weapons, the world’s fastest-growing economy, and $1.2 trillion of U.S. debt. So it has a lot of weight to throw around with governments and major corporations, let alone media outlets. But is it right for The Post to lend its masthead and domain name to China Watch? Pexton observes:

      That’s the thing about China, whether you are The Washington Post, the U.S. government or Apple computers. There is interdependence in the relationship, and constant negotiation and compromise. The Chinese know it, and they take advantage of it.

    Right might not always come into play these days.

    Hat Tip: The Washington Free Beacon

  • StumbleUpon and Digital PR

    The latest stats from StatCounter show that StumbleUpon’s recent jump to the top spot for referring social media traffic in the US was not a blip. In July when they passed Facebook they hit 43% with Facebook coming in at 38%. Now, a scant month later, Stumble has edged up to 50% while Facebook gained just 1% to finish at 39%.

    Statcounter stats for social media traffic

    This is only in the US – globally Facebook still trumps all other sites by a large margin

    Statcounter traffic

    If you are practicing PR in the US, and you’re including social media to extend the reach of your news content, you should reach to the 15 million loyal SU users in the US, enggement them and nurture those relationships.

    Here’s how:

    1. If you have not yet done so, create an account and set up a profile
    2. Link to your SU profile in your About page or in your press contact listing
    3. Add the StumbleUpon button to all your news pages (instructions here )
    4. Start to build your network on SU, just as you do in any other social site
    5. Get to know the members of the community
    6. See who Stumbles the kind of content you have in your news releases, articles and videos
    7. Stumble their content – it is not considered good form to Stumble your own content
    8. Use the SU ads feature to promote your release headlines – it costs just 5c per impression and more than 60 000 brands have already used this paid discovery option
    9. SU recently added a search feature to their site so it is more important than ever to have your news content indexed there

    What makes this search function different is users are searching by interest, introducing thousands of new interests and millions of new websites.

    As with any other social site StumbleUpon is not a quick fix. There is no one-shot way to tap into this traffic. You have to do the work and become a genuine member of the community. But at leastyou are investing time in the #1 social referrer.

    If you have not used Stumble Upon before it will obviously not show up as a referrer to your website. Give it try – wouldn’t you rather spend time on a site that has the potential to send you 50% of your social traffic?

    Caveat: do not drop out any currently successful actions. Keep doing what you are doing and add Stumble Upon to the mix.

    Check out The Proactive Report for more articles by Sally Falkow

  • With iPhone 5 Release (Possibly) A Month Away, Guy Camps Out At Apple Store

    One man (kind of) has the distinction of being the first person to get in line for the upcoming iPhone 5.

    In what he calls a “marketing and PR experiment,” Robert Shoesmith is camping outside a London Apple Store until the iPhone 5 is released. Of course, as you know from our extensive coverage, the iPhone 5 has not even been announced yet. Rumors place the release date sometime in either September or October, however.

    Shoesmith has set up a blog for what he calls the “iPhone 5 Experiment.” On that blog, he describes what he plans to do for the next month or two (maybe longer).

    I will be camping out on the streets of London for the launch of the iPhone 5 in a marketing and pr experiment. There is one rule! I can’t spend any money on anything I take with me. I’m asking for companies to donate products and services to test out whilst I’m there. Can you help?

    That’s right, he has left his wallet behind and will be living based solely on what people give him.

    And so far he isn’t doing too bad – He has already received packages of lithium batteries from Energizer, a webcam kit from the folks at Skype, and candy from an online distributor. Some of the companies who have already agreed to sponsor the “experiment” – Cadbury, Mountain Dew, Domino’s Pizza, Kenneth Cole, Weight Watchers and Gillette.

    He has a Flickr gallery dedicated to all the stuff he’s already received.

    The blog also contains Shoesmith’s wishlist for his camping excursion. This includes items like table cloths, picnic sets, travel sized deodorants, hats, scarves, handheld video game devices and iTunes vouchers. If you help Shoesmith out you get your company listed as a sponsor, blog posting about your contributions and the “strong possibility of a book release after the experiment has been concluded.”

    This is a full scale marketing extravaganza, as Shoesmith is also advertising mobile apps that he is playing while patiently waiting for the iPhone 5. He is also schduling entertainment –

    During my stay in Covent Garden I’ll have a personal trainer helping to keep me in shape, many products to publicly test, and I’ve even managed to secure a number of live bands to perform. There will be much to see and do, so please make the trip if you can, and don’t forget to bring some friends too!

    Do you have a talent? Can you juggle, act, or dance? Can you breathe fire?! Whatever your talent, I’m eager to help you get noticed. As I’m going to be in London for quite some time, it’s important for me to keep the experiment fresh, so I’m actively searching for talented individuals to visit me in Covent Garden and perform.

    Call the “iPhone 5 Experiment” what you want, but it is inarguably inventive. A true marketing for marketing’s sake deal where the goal is win-win publicity for all. Plus, for Shoesmith, it’s a chance to score a bunch of cool shit for free. And you can’t fault a guy for that.

    [Hat tip to Tech Crunch]

  • GoDaddy CEO Links to More Footage From Controversial Elephant Killing

    GoDaddy CEO Links to More Footage From Controversial Elephant Killing

    Every time we think GoDaddy has tried to put to rest the controversy over CEO Bob Parsons killing an elephant, Parsons brings it back up. This time he has tweeted a link to a a cover story for NRA digital magazine America’s 1st Freedom, which reports in line with Parsons’ own defense for his actions.

    Do you think Parsons was right or wrong to kill the elephant? Comment here.

    Clearly there are people standing up for both sides of the argument. PETA has been the most vocal opponent, and much of the piece is for all intents and purposes attacking that organization. It’s not just animal rights activists that were outraged by the elephant killing, however. Many people claimed they were pulling their sites from GoDaddy domains, and some of GoDaddy’s competitors took advantage of this by offering special deals (with donations to elephant-related causes) for switching to their respective services.

    Parsons has staunchly defended his actions from the beginning, in the press, on Twitter, and even in unrelated GoDaddy press releases (which were about donations to Hope for Haiti), though interestingly enough, GoDaddy never put out much in the way of damage control following the outcry over the video – no press releases directly about the incident, though the video was later heavily edited to give it a completely different tone. More on Parsons’ defense here, and in the NRA article.

    The video has even drawn parody on YouTube:

    Regardless of where you stand on Parsons’ elephant-killing ways, it seems clear that the whole thing has done little to help GoDaddy in terms of PR, which is why I find it fascinating that Parsons keeps bringing it back up, rather than letting the story disappear into the past. It seemed like they were finally focusing their PR on charitable donations, but Parsons recently tweeted the following, bringing the elephant back into spotlight:

    @DrBobParsons
    Bob Parsons    Nice to see someone telling it like it is. I’m on front cover of NRA magazine. Love the NRA! http://x.co/XSHo 5 days ago via web · powered by @socialditto

    WARNING: GRAPHIC ELEPHANT BUTCHER IMAGES BELOW

    It gets more interesting, when you look at the actual article and find a different video with more footage from the elephant outing. There’s no AC/DC soundtrack in this one like there was in the other one before it was edited, though I have to wonder if this one has been edited as well. Before editing, the other one also showed many villagers wearing GoDaddy hats. This seems to be lacking in this video as well. It’s not embeddable (if you have a link to embeddable version, let us know, but you can see the video in its entirety in the article here), but here are a few screenshots. Please note that all captions are from the actual video. We did not add these.

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Elephant Butcher

    Since tweeting the link to the story, Parsons also tweeted a link to a new GoDaddy video where he talks about how to make good decisions.

    Is Parsons helping or hurting GoDaddy’s image by continuing to bring up the elephant? Tell us what you think.

  • Does Social Media Presence Trump a Website?

    I’ve been studying the web presence of Fortune 500 and INC 500 companies over the past few weeks and it is very encouraging to see a correlation between those at the top of the lists and adoption of social media.

    During this same time I’ve seen several blog posts and articles suggesting that websites are a thing of the past and that Facebook and Twitter will dominate business communication online. There is some truth to that, but it is not the whole picture. Websites with no social features and no connection to the brand’s social presence are becoming irrelevant. Facebook,Twitter and YouTube are essential tools in your online strategy, but they need to be connected to a very robust and informational website.

    Take a look at this research from Jeremiah Owyang, industry analyst at the Altimeter Group.   He calls 2011 The Year of Integration.

    Keynote: Social Business Forecast: 2011 The Year of Integration

    I wondered just how many of the  companies that are so avidly adopting social media – they have a Facebook page and a Twitter feed – are successfully integrating their social content with their website. Turns out not so many.

    Social Media Adoption in the  Inc 500

    Facebook  87%

    Twitter   71%

    Blog  35%

    YouTube  32%

    Integrated with website  66%

    Sharing tools on website 14%

    Integrated with newsroom 37%

    Share this in news content  13%

    So it’s not that you no longer need a website, it’s just that if you don’t integrate social features and connect your social content with your corporate website it will become irrelevant.   And looking at the stats for the Fortune 500 and the Inc 500 there is definitely room for improvement.

    The biggest gap and missed opportunity is with sharing tools.

    According to Pew Research when a visitor leaves news content the most frequently clicked link is the Share This button.

    “Searching online for news was the one factor that impacted news the most in the last decade.Sharing news will be the one that impacts it the most in this one.”

    Yet less than 15% use sharing tools on their website or their online  newsroom.

    Your website and your online newsroom are very important tools in your online communication strategy. Connecting them to your social presence is vital.

    Markets have become conversations. Find the right conversations and  create excellent content that adds value to those conversations.  Make it easy for people to find and share your content -whether it is on Facebook, Twitter or your own website.

    Originally published on The Proactive Report

  • 9 Online Resources For Those Looking To Break Into PR

    Last week TJ Dietderich, of PR Breakfast Club fame, posed a simple question to me:  I get a lot of questions from friends looking to switch to PR as a career. What are the best online resources to send them to?

    Good question, right?

    A number of blogs and Web sites came to mind immediately, but then I thought more about the term TJ used–”resources.” We’re talking about more than blogs here. What would really help someone looking to break into PR learn more about our profession, who we are and where we’re going in the next 10-15 years.

    After giving that some additional thought over the weekend, I came up with the following list. I really think the blogs, sites, podcasts, lists and other resources below would give someone thinking of making the switch to PR a pretty good glimpse of our industry:

    * Journalistics. Follow the heart of PR by subscribing to Journalistics, where Jeremy Porter and crew talk about all things at the intersection of PR and journalism. What I like most about Journalistics is that it doesn’t tend to cover the trendy, social-media-based topics of the day all that much. Sure, there are posts that include discussions of Twitter, Facebook and social tools du jour, but for the most part the blog sticks to topics PR and journalists would care about–tips for creating a great elevator speech, how to think like a reporter (for PR wins), and how to keep your news release from getting deleted.

    * #pr20chat. A fantastic weekly Twitter chat hosted by Heather Whaling and Justin Goldsborough that focuses on the PR “2.0″ world. Topics range from social analytics to educating the next generation of PR pros to writing and consulting basics. I can’t think of a better way for someone looking to break into PR to get up to speed on what’s happening in PR right now.

    * For Immediate Release podcast. One of the longest (if not *the* longest) PR podcasts on record (since April 2008). Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson typically record two podcasts a week taking on various topics in the PR and corporate communications industries. They usually use one podcast as the “report” for the week–think of it as a 45-minute CNN-type newscast for PR types. And, the other podcast each week is dedicated to an interview or panel discussion of sorts (just recently they featured a great discussion around social media analytics). I don’t listen to Shel and Neville as much as I used to (all due to time constraints), but when I did, I loved the fact that they included their audience in their shows. They had regular correspondents. They respond to voice mails. Real interaction with the audience. And, it makes the show. But the real reason I suggest this to those considering a career in PR–it’s a podcast; you can listen to it on the way to work, over your lunch hour, or while mowing the lawn (hey, I think I just convinced myself to start listening again!).

    * Follow HARO for a week. Like it or not, media relations is a big part of PR. And, contrary to popular belief, I don’t see that changing anytime soon. What better way to learn more about what reporters are looking for and how they frame up stories than to follow HARO for a week? I mean, really follow it. Read the inquiries. Try to understand what they’re looking for and what kind of story they’re developing. Reading HARO for a week will definitely help you get a sense for the kinds of stories and angles reporters take–and what they want, need and expect from PR pros as a result.

    * HAPPO. (Disclosure: I’m a co-founder of HAPPO). If you’re looking to make the move to PR, this may be where you find your first job. That’s the hope at least. And, it a part of the reason HAPPO exists. However, HAPPO isn’t all about jobs. It’s about helping other PR pros. That can mean, providing news and information. Connecting others with potential mentors. And, meeting new pros from across the world–all via Twitter. All of which I would think would be hugely beneficial to someone just looking to start a career in PR.

    * Bad Pitch Blog. Sometimes as much as it makes sense to learn how to do a job well, it also pays to learn from others mistakes. Exactly why I would encourage newbies to read the Bad Pitch Blog regularly. What I’ve enjoyed most about Kevin Dugan and Richard Laermer’s takes over the years–they’re not afraid to take on tough issues and “A-listers.” Case in point, this post which was fairly critical of Peter Shankman and his Klout-based holiday party last year. Of course, they also talk about everyday issues and lessons that impact us all–like the recent post on typos and proofreading. For either reason, I’d suggest BPB as a must-read for those considering a career in PR.

    * PR Breakfast Club (diclosure: I’m a contributor to PR Breakfast Club). Founded by Nathan Burgess, Keith Trivitt, Marie Baker and CT Michaels, the Breakfast Club is a great place to get all things PR–on a daily basis (sign up for the daily email–always one of the first things I read in the morning). Here’s why I would recommend the Breakfast Club to PR newbies–you can get a sampling of a number of PR voices in one daily email. Just since April 1, the Breakfast Club has featured a whopping 20 different authors and bloggers from across the Web (and country). So, you don’t just get one person’s perspective on PR–you get a number of different views. And, many of them are younger professionals (30 or younger), so you get a glimpse into what it’s like to start out in PR. One of the better group PR blogs on the Web.

    * Start following some great PR blogs. I mentioned a few already, but start a list of 10-15 PR blogs and follow them religiously for two months. I guarantee in those two months, you’ll learn a ton about the industry. Start by pulling blogs from lists that already exist–Journalistics, Paul Roberts and Jeff Domansky’s lists are good places to start. If that doesn’t do the trick, check out Alltop for a more comprehensive list of potential PR blogs.

    * PR books. While the online resources I’ve listed here are great, I’d still recommend picking up a good, old-fashioned hard-cover book every once in a while (or download one to your Kindle, if you prefer). Obviously, there are hundreds of books to read around the topic of PR–where to start? I compiled a list a couple years ago based on PR pros recommendations–still a good starting point. I particular like Kellye Crane’s suggestion of Elements of Style and Lauren Vargas’ recommendation of Never Eat Alone (not a PR book technically, but a wonderfully useful read). If that’s not enough, you can see what I’m reading this year–a number of great PR reads in here.

    What about you? What online resources would you suggest to someone considering jumping into the PR industry?

    Originally published on Communications Conversations

  • How Burson Marsteller Can Emerge From Its Facebook PR Fiasco

    The “dirty tricks” kerfuffle surrounding Facebook and Burson Marsteller that erupted a few days ago surely couldn’t get worse for the beleaguered PR firm – but it did.

    Burson was caught out in a covert anti-Google smear campaign on behalf of Facebook when it reached out to a US blogger who promptly published the email conversation between him and the Burson executive. In its outreach, Burson had refused to name its client. The mainstream media has been all over this since then along with much commentary and opinion about the fiasco from people in the public relations industry.

    While such commentary and opinion will no doubt continue, Burson isn’t saying much following its formal statement on May 12 and the odd  tweet here and there, other than that it won’t fire the two executives concerned.

    Instead, says Burson, both will receive training in ethics.

    That’s a very interesting approach to an issue that is arguably an actual crisis where not only is Burson’s reputation under assault but also its credibility as knowledgeable and skilful practitioners in public relations is being questioned as a consequence.

    Now the firm’s coming across as a bit clueless in how it’s addressing collateral issues (I almost said ‘damage’), eg, deleting negative comments from its own Facebook page.

    In my view, it is admirable that the firm clearly supports the two men at the heart of this fiasco and is willing to publicly say so; and is equally willing to state that, in effect, they will get some help to regain that straight and narrow path of best practice as enshrined in ethics codes such as that of the PRSA, never mind the WPP Code of Business Conduct (Burson Marsteller is ultimately owned by  WPP) as explained on the firm’s website – check this statement in particular:

    The WPP Code of Business Conduct sets out the expectations we have of our people.

    […] We will not undertake work which is intended or designed to mislead, including in relation to social, environmental and human rights issues;

    We will consider the potential for clients or work to damage the Group’s reputation prior to taking them on.

    But is this enough from a reputation point of view, both for Burson Marsteller the firm and for the two individuals themselves? Is such unethical behaviour deeply ingrained in the firm? You have to wonder, especially when you see scathing commentary such as this excerpt from a lengthy post yesterday by  Terence Fane-Saunders, past Chairman and Chief Executive of Burson Marsteller in the UK, entitled “Furtive and Creepy“:

    […] It has been suggested that at least some of the information that B-M was hawking to its contacts was not merely secretly sourced, but also actually false and misleading.  I have no idea if this is true.  For all I know, that’s negative PR from the other side. Once the paranoia box is open, its difficult to close it again.  But that’s not really the point here.  In this  grubby little attempt to seed negative stories without disclosing their source,  they were denying the media (and that means the public, and that means you and me) the opportunity to assess the value of those stories.  If you don’t know the source, you can’t judge motive.  In this case, source and motive were absolutely central to the story;  so central, I would suggest, that the story itself becomes incomplete and  misleading if that information is withheld.

    Throughout its history, the PR profession has struggled with the damage caused by its grubbier practitioners – the PR hacks, the press agents, the fly-by-night corner shops who live by false promises,  operating in the shadows, spinning half truths or downright falsehoods. But that struggle , generally, has been a successful one.  And it is firms like Burson-Marsteller who deserve the credit for establishing the profession as an ethical, valuable and often admirable part of the management process.  They have led by example. But if senior B-M professionals are now seen to be operating like shadowy, backstreet spin merchants, you have to wonder about the continuing value of that example.

    I think candid comments such as this from credible opinion-formers are hugely damaging. While I believe Burson Marsteller can look forward to reputation recovery over time – clearly depending on what they do and how they do it now and in the coming weeks – one foundational thing their CEO Mark Penn can and ought to do forthwith is come out with a frank, clear and genuine apology for the actions of the two executives, not the sanitized corporate-speak of the formal statement the firm put out.

    And maybe ethics training for those two isn’t enough – the firm needs to be seen to be addressing this and any hidden thoughts by anyone (such as clients) along the lines of Terence Fane-Saunders’ worries he stated in his post.

    Burson Marsteller could take a leaf out of Edelman‘s book by examining how that PR firm addressed their own kerfuffle with their client Wal-Mart back in 2006 by:

    1. admitting to and apologizing for their unethical behaviour,
    2. mounting a training programme for employees at all their offices worldwide,
    3. publicly communicating their plans and their actions, and
    4. engaging in conversation with anyone who has an opinion about the issues and solutions.

    It’s very unfortunate for Burson Marsteller that all this has arisen just after they won the Holmes Report award for US Agency of the Year 2011.

    Originally published at NevilleHobson.com

  • Facebook Caught Trying to Smear Google Privacy Practices From the Shadows

    If you’re still not convinced that Facebook and Google are competitors, this story should make you think twice. According to reports, Facebook hired the PR firm Burson-Marsteller to seek prominent publications and bloggers to blast Google over privacy concerns.

    Obviously with Facebook being criticized for its own privacy practices frequently, this is an interesting turn of events in the ongoing battle between these two companies, which has included not only an increase in competition among products,but Facebook’s poaching of Google employees and a more general competition for top engineer talent.

    Dan Lyons at the Daily Beast points to an email pitch from the PR firm to privacy advocate and blogger Chris Soghoian, who thought the story, centered around Google’s “Social Circles” was way overblown, and sensed something shady was going on when the firm wouldn’t reveal the client it was representing.

    The whole pitch can be read on PasteBin.

    Lyons says he got a Facebook spokesperson to confirm that it was indeed the company behind it. Lyons writes, “Confronted with evidence, a Facebook spokesman last night confirmed that Facebook hired Burson, citing two reasons: First, because it believes Google is doing some things in social networking that raise privacy concerns; second, and perhaps more important, because Facebook resents Google’s attempts to use Facebook data in its own social-networking service.”

    In an interview with BetaBeat, Soghoian said, “I really think this was an attempt by one large company to stab a dagger in the back of a competitor. For five or six months Microsoft has been making noise about Google’s privacy problems. Microsoft was the first browser to include a do not track options, and they realized privacy is an area where they can compete with Google and get good press.”

    “The difference is Microsoft can do it publicly, because they don’t have their own privacy problems,” he added. “Facebook is no better than Google on these issues, so to make these attacks they have to hide behind these PR companies. If they tried it in public, under their own name, people would laugh in their faces.”

    It’s worth noting that Microsoft and Facebook are partners, with Microsoft providing web search results to Facebook’ search feature, and Facebook providing data for use in the Bing search engine (it will be very interesting to see how that relationship develops in light of Microsoft’s acquisition of Skype as well).

    What’s most interesting about this whole thing is how Facebook’s strategy of trying to bring negative attention to a competitor has basically blown up in its own face, as press coverage has mainly focused on the company’s sneaky tactics, rather than any privacy concerns with Google – at least in relation to this story.
    There’s no question Google is the focus of a great deal of privacy concerns on an ongoing basis, with numerous critics happy to slam the company. In fact, just this week, Google has been testifying in Washington regarding privacy issues.

    It’s very interesting that Facebook is targeting a rarely talked about Google offering that it appears to fear on a competitive level. The pitch said, “Google Social Circles does not ask ‘permission’ from individuals who will have their profiles, connections and other personal data shared in the new network. Google will simply ‘scrape’ their information from dozens of sources and compile the data into one massive dossier aligned directly with user’s personally identifiable information.”

    For the record, USA Today reports that “Google said that Social Circle in fact allows Gmail users to make social connections based on public information and private connections across its products in ways that don’t skirt privacy.” The publication quotes Google Senior Manager of Global Communications and Public Affairs as saying:

    “We have seen this e-mail reportedly sent by a representative of the PR firm Burson-Marsteller. We’re not going to comment further. Our focus is on delighting people with great products.”

    Even the privacy advocates don’t seemed very concerned about it.

    “I would never have agreed to the pitch no matter what, but I was surprised at the case they were trying to make,” Soghoian said. “I’m a fairly outspoken privacy advocate and there are many things Google does that are really bad on privacy, but this isn’t the thing that is keeping me up at night. It’s something that I had never really worried about.”

    What do you think? Is there cause to be concerned?

  • BlogDash to Bring Businesses and Bloggers Together

    It’s no secret that there is an obvious disconnect between bloggers/journalists and PR professionals. Being in the media industry, we, here at WebProNews, have seen our share of bad pitches, as I’m sure many others can relate. However, I’m also sure that PR professionals detest when their requests go unanswered or when they get shot down.

    Have you ever been on either side of this situation? Tell us your experience.

    While there are blogger outreach platforms that offer some assistance to this dilemma, they are known for having their own set of problems. For example, services such as Vocus and Cision have been around for a long time but are often discredited for being too big. As a result, they have trouble keeping their databases current.

    This is where new blogger outreach platform BlogDash comes into the game. The platform hopes to connect both businesses and bloggers/journalists in a way that brings both parties benefits.

    “The idea behind BlogDash is to create an open communication platform so that all the needs and expectations from bloggers and businesses are matched up,” said David Spinks, Co-founder of BlogDash.

    Bloggers and journalists create bios that include their experience, what they write about, how often they write, and other noteworthy facts. BlogDash uses this data to match businesses with media that have the same goals.

    To avoid facing the volume challenge that others deal with, Spinks said that BlogDash would keep its focus set on building a good product. In addition, it plans to obtain the most accurate data and the highest-quality bloggers.

    These media databases also raise another potential issue in regards to the responsibility of PR professionals. Although solutions such as BlogDash can be very useful for media and PR professionals, some people who work in PR tend to rely too heavily on the results in the database and slack on their own research. Have you noticed this trend?

  • PR in a Blogger Versus Journalist World

    Or to be more exact, what is the role of public relations (not publicity) in a world where journalism and blogging continue to butt heads?

    It’s a conversation I’ve been having with friends and industry colleagues, and should be front and center for people in the industry.

    But no, this is not a PR is dead meme, or blogging is dead meme or any of those memes that crop up every year (heck, just today Journalistics had the “PR doesn’t change” version of the dead meme).

    This is questioning where PR falls now, through a few recent incidences. When PR blogs, are we bloggers our journalists? And extending that with Jay Rosen‘s SXSW post – why is there still that division? And with that division, where is PR fitting in – or should we not worry about the division, especially with the rise of community relations, aka social media?

    So it comes down to this: when PR professionals blog, are we bloggers or are we journalists? As gatekeepers and bridges and, well, examples for our clients, should we hold ourselves up to a higher level and standard than other bloggers? Should we take that extra step to verify and report?

    While I can understand the desire for opinion pieces, even those can and should be based on facts. I should know – it’s what I did in the college paper: opinion pieces that were still verified with sources. Picking up a phone (or emailing) isn’t that hard.

    So as PR bloggers (and yes, I am purposely ignoring social media blogs), do we have an obligation to get the full story, to tell a full story?

    Do we have a professional courtesy and obligation to other PR people to get their client’s (or clients’) side of the story, to present the other side, even if it’s just an opinion piece?

    If we are supposed to showcase best practices internally and externally for both our junior staff and our clients, we have no choice but to go the extra mile, to take the extra step.

    To take it further, as PR bloggers, can we just use the excuse “I’m a blogger” and get away with it? Should there be that line anymore between blogger and journalist? And, well, isn’t that line a bit tired and old, and let’s be honest, f***ing lazy?

    With all these fights between bloggers and journalists, is there really that much of a line anymore? With the disappearance of trade press (especially B2B technology), where do you go besides bloggers who specialize in those verticals? If we uphold those bloggers to a higher degree of veracity, why should PR bloggers get a pass when they are just “blogging” and not being a journalist?

    When we approach (or, come on, pitch) bloggers, we hope that they post the story with as much background and news as possible, and if there’s a mistake, we go back and tell them and hope for a correction. Nay, we should demand a correction if there isn’t one forthcoming.

    Shouldn’t we demand the same from ourselves? Is there really a line anymore between blogging and journalism, or is that all just the lazy excuse for not doing the homework, possible due diligence or good writing?

    The funny (sad?) thing is that this debate of blogger versus journalist still going on out there.

    The one panel I would have liked to see at SXSWi was Jay Rosen‘s on the psychology of the blogger versus journalist fight (also read his pre-SXSW post on the subject).

    Both blogging and journalism serve a function, both give the public information and tell stories. But as noted by Rosen, “blogging cannot replace the watchdog journalism that keeps a government accountable to its people.” And on the flip side, Rosen notes that bloggers try to keep that “outside the system” cred that allows them to say “I’m just a blogger” – which also means we can be lazy and biased (as bloggers).

    As he notes, neither are right. Bloggers can no longer be outside the system as the Internet has flattened everything. And while journalists DO put themselves out on the front lines quite often – a great piece by Simon Dumenco in AdAge encapsulates with a bit of snark – there are also bloggers out there that are on the front lines of war zones, disappearing and dying. The Internet has flattened and equaled many things out, and that includes content.

    As for PR people, what does that all mean? For PR bloggers, stop doing the whole “we’re allowed to be lazy and bias” because it’s bullshit. Man up, and own up. For PR people and outreach, well, the best line is from Animal Farm: All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others.

    At times, we need to draw a line in the sand for outreach and community relations. We can’t hit everyone; but at the same time, we’re that bridge for media and bloggers to our clients and companies, and we can engage and help out there (which is why Facebook, Twitter and other forms of electronic media and communications have become so valuable).

    BTW, yes, I do hold PR bloggers up to a higher standard than social media bloggers; PR is based on journalistic values and social media is based on well, who knows sometimes. There’s so much less transparency in social media, that that is a whole other blog post.

    Originally published at POP PR Jots