A 20-something's Perspective

Recently I've had discussions with a lot of different PR professionals about how they conduct media relations, and it has boiled down to one question.

Is it okay to pitch media without talking to your client first?

I'm curious to hear from PR professionals and journalists. Is it okay to put the cart before the horse?


Here are the pros and cons as I see them:

Pros

• Opportunity to look like a hero
• Better chance of being timely
  
• No unreasonable client expectations going into the pitch

• If the client can't come through your reputation is damaged
• If the client can't come through their reputation is damaged
• Client may not approve of the pitch topic
• Unreasonable client expectations may result
  

I first saw this video on Todd Defren's blog, PR Squared.* I'm sure a lot of you have seen it, but I think it deserves another view. It's a satirical take on the agency-client relationship. 'Nuff said.



*PR Squared is one of my favorite industry blogs. Defren provides valuable insights on social media, public relations and what working in an agency is really all about. I highly recommend you check it out.

“I am out here for you. You don’t know what it’s like, to be me out here for you! It’s an up at dawn, pride swallowing siege that I will never fully tell you about. Ok? Help me. Help me, help you. Help me, help you!” – Jerry Maguire

Sound familiar? Admit it all you agency folks, at one time or another you have felt like Mr. Maguire. Sometimes, despite our best efforts we simply can’t deliver for our clients because they fail to give us the necessary information, access or help that we need.

Most of the time our clients are great, but we’ve all had to go back to a reporter to cancel an interview or miss a deadline.

To those who work client side, here’s a quick plea from your agency friends (and I do mean friends).

Please:

• Return our calls
• Answer our e-mails
• Take the early morning interview
• Send us the information you promised
• Show up to the meeting
• Seriously consider our expert advice (That is what you’re paying us for, isn’t it?)

Because honestly, we’re doing it for you.

I hope everyone had a good weekend and is ready for the start of another work week. In this week of links you'll find numerous Twitter stories, sweet Milwaukee airline deals, new studies and much more.

• Great speech by @skydiver about social media and "making it about you." http://tinyurl.com/kwgx6g
• RT @RochelleVeturis HOW TO: Back Up Your Tweets http://bit.ly/FHVut via @mashable
• RT @Razorfish What happens when u deprive American families of TV? @Razorfish did a study: http://tinyurl.com/ljbu54 #CannesLions
• RT @danschawbel REPORT: 88% of millennials said they still counted on their parents for advice http://tinyurl.com/m2ytw4
• NYTimes article on BB etiquette. http://tinyurl.com/nxcfqe What do you think? If nothing else it encourages presenters to be more engaging.
• Cool tool from @Culvers RT @culvers U can use our new Meal Builder tool 2 plan ur meal & learn its nutritional value! http://bit.ly/Z9qt1
• RT @julieannwarner Touche, Dan Bice? MKE Magazine says Bice is the real journalistic shame in Flynn's affair. http://ow.ly/fxnG
• RT @RochelleVeturis 10 useful Twitter presentations http://is.gd/1acjc via @leeodden
• RT @TDefren Wife & I were Alice.com (client) beta users. Love it. So many fewer trips to WalMart. http://www.alice.com. - Looks interesting.
• RT @NancyStall Just in. Vikings equip manager has already ordered #4 purple jerseys with Favre's name on back. http://bit.ly/NAbKq
• BK Blow job ad. http://tinyurl.com/b6sp24 Disturbing and hilarious. Thanks for the heads up @agencyspy.
• If you're planning to fly in or out of Milwaukee book your tickets now. http://tinyurl.com/mw5p7b
• RT @laermer @carlosdiamond Fortune 100 CEOs Who Are Social Media Slackers http://tinyurl.com/n6xwnz - This is kind of sad.
• RT @streetzapizza A listing of all of the summerfest deals and ways to get in for free... http://milwaukee.about.com/...
• Why Google and Virgin Airlines Online Scavenger Hunt Campaign Rocked http://tinyurl.com/lba3z7
• RT @briansolis A List of Top Media Outlets and Blogs: http://bit.ly/5jMRc - A handy list for PR pro's.
• RT @mashable Twitter Guide Book: Mashable Launches Hub for Twitter Resources - http://bit.ly/JfX4H - A great resource 4 everything Twitter.
• RT @prblog: Okay, PR friends, here's the tool for your journalist research: Google News byline search http://ow.ly/fVSS (via @DwriteN)

I hope everyone had a good weekend. I ran/walked a mile this Saturday! Hey, we all have to start somewhere. This week there are many good articles on social media, a new restaurant opens in Milwaukee, we take a look back at Obama's 100 days and much more.

• RT @danschawbel The Future of the Social Web: In Five Eras http://www.web-strategist.c...
• The new @ironhorsehotel restaurant Smyth opens Friday. http://tinyurl.com/dhx9aq The food and wine are excellent! Make your reservation now.
• RT @MikeBrenner: HELP! Need WI folks to do this survey for my MBA class ASAP - http://bit.ly/WfRbh
• RT @mashable Reading: "Where To Find Social Media Power Users" - http://bit.ly/CfUDw
• http://tinyurl.com/d8pnqs -- What Obama's been up to the last 100 days.
• A somewhat sad but true post about the state of news and how PR can make stories more "news-y." http://tinyurl.com/djdz26
• Get your $2 Summerfest tickets! http://tinyurl.com/cndqgd
• RT @danschawbel Let workers text and Twitter, business owners say http://tinyurl.com/crkem8 - Agreed. As long as you're doing your job well.
• Great advice from HR Block’s Paula Drum via @TDefren: 10 Lessons for Social Media Marketers http://tinyurl.com/ct4jdq
• A new service in NC allows teenagers to text their questions about sex. http://tinyurl.com/c8vhjx

In today's economy it can be easy to keep your head down and stick to what "works." This clip (courtesy of Agency Spy) of Leo Burnett helped remind me that even though many of us face potential layoffs and are uncertain about the fate of our agencies, it is not an excuse to lower our standards.

To everyone looking for jobs, battling to keep jobs and just hoping to make it through... Please do your best to stay inspired. Do your best work and come up with new ideas. Question the way you do things. That is the only way our industry will prosper.

This week there was a lot of good conversation and posts about the PR industry. Check out a new effort by @PRsarahevans, @skydiver and others called MediaOnTwitter.

• Lipstick Jungle is officially cancelled. http://tinyurl.com/c6p6tw
• RT @PRsarahevans Wish u could sort media by beat, location, name or media outlet? w/ the NEW MediaOnTwitter NOW YOU CAN! http://pitch.pe/7448
• RT @TDefren "The True & Remarkable Fate of Public Relations" http://is.gd/pGoG - Great post about the future of PR.
• Check out Decider's guide to the Milwaukee Twitterverse. http://tinyurl.com/c246oe
• RT @patrickstrother @brandonacox Five Twitter Analytics Tools You Might Find Addictive http://bit.ly/2pl6T
• Calling all linguists, IT, engineering and business professionals. The FBI wants you. http://tinyurl.com/ctg5cn
• RT @SocialMedia411 Who Wins the Struggle for Social Media Control In Your Organization? http://bit.ly/15SrtH - I'm voting for PR!
• RT @OGILVY The Real Joke About Marketing: Lack Of Integration http://tinyurl.com/dxwe6x
• RT @theGlenn Creative Commons usage tracker - Fair Share "Watch how your work spreads. Understand how it is used." http://tinyurl.com/c25yyd
• RT @identify_urself WTMJ4 will have a camera crew at the #milwaukeetweetup April 7th @The Iron Horse-RSVP here - http://kl.am/6k
• RT @prdude 10 hottest PR chick pics on Twitter. Go to: http://is.gd/qwVE - Maybe I'll make the next one. ;)
• RT @russfeingold STAFF: Introducing 'Fein'Tunes http://www.russfeingold.org - Ha! This is awesome. Wisconsin's State Senator rocks.

For real time updates follow me on Twitter @ladyhero.

The PR agency Waggener Edstrom has recently launched a new Twitter tool called Twendz. This tool is incredibly valuable for PR people and anyone else who is in charge of managing a brand. By now we are hopefully all aware that the first step to take before using social media is to listen. But even this first step can be daunting. After all, who has time to sift through hundreds of tweets? This is where Twendz comes in.

After entering your keywords the tool pulls the latest tweets and displays the overall mood be it positive or negative. It's a great way to monitor what people are saying about your company or client. My only complaint is depending on your keywords it can take quite a while to load before you have any tangible results.

You can read more about Twendz on CNET. Go check it out and let me know what you think.

This article on AgencySpy got me thinking today. With the invention of mobile phones with video cameras, YouTube and recording and editing software it has become increasingly easy for the average person to document their experiences with their favorite brands. We've seen this recently with the Dutch Heineken walk in freezer ad. (To view the original ad click here.) I'm still waiting to hear if this is for real.



And now we have this lovely ad for Trader Joe's or arguably the Palm Treo.



Not all consumer material is positive of course. The below Comcast video is enough to make any PR person cringe.



Even though some user-generated content is a cause for crisis communications I urge PR and advertising professionals to not take positive user-generated videos for granted. When a brand has consumers championing their product or service they should think of ways to leverage the attention. Maybe they would make good spokespeople? Heck, maybe they'd even do well in an ad? Perhaps you could use them to write a blog post on the company web site or become a regular contributor. There are lots of different ways to involve and embrace your brand ambassadors. Don't let them slip through your fingers!

Attending a PRSA luncheon today it was painfully obvious which PR professionals were tuned into social media and which were not. As I sat at a table with five other PR practitioners the MotrinMoms incident was brought up. Only two of us had heard of MotrinMoms. Coincidentally, we were the only two who had Twitter accounts.

The Motrin Campaign
So what is the MotrinMoms incident? Motrin developed an ad campaign aimed at Moms who carry children in baby slings. The ad claimed that Mom's do this to look like "an official Mom." Adding that baby slings are a great cause of neck and back pain. The solution? Motrin, of course!

The ads were placed online and in magazines. Once Mom's saw the ads they were deeply offended and began posting furious messages on Twitter. They organized and used a #MotrinMoms tag to make their tweets easy to find. To their credit, Motrin was able to respond to the outcry over the weekend and has since removed the ads. To view the ad and Moms responses view the videos below.





The Industry's Awareness
My question is after all this, how did only a select group of PR professionals have any knowledge of the event? The simple (and scary) answer is that many PR professionals are still not tuned into social media. I find this astonishing when social media is talked about at luncheons, at the PRSA National Conference, in news articles, trade publications... Social media appears to be so prevalent in our industry that popular PR vendors (Cision, Vocus and PRNewswire to name a few) are holding Webinars.

If Motrin has taught us anything it's that it is very important to listen to what people are saying about your company online. If PR professionals are not listening their clients will not be able to respond to negative attacks or benefit from this new medium.

The Solution
The only way to get comfortable with these new tools is by using them. My advice? If you don't have a Twitter, Facebook or LinkedIn account get one now. Never heard of Digg? Google it and start learning. The only way PR professionals will be educated about social media is if they invest the time to learn about it, and that means playing with these tools.

If you aren't convinced that Twitter is a valuable tool go to http://www.summize.com/ and put in your companies keywords. It will generate a list of tweets of what people are saying about your company. I urge all communication professionals, old and young, to start learning more about social media. I am confident that failing to immerse yourself in this new medium will cause you to find yourself unemployable.

Maybe it's just me, but it seems that those in the PR profession often forget that there's more to public relations then media relations. True a large part of our job is to reach out to media to get our message heard, but sometimes we forget who the audience is. Ultimately it's the consumer, not the reporter.

I realize what I just said completely disregards the fact that a story has to be interesting to a reporter before a consumer can hear it, but bear with me.

For PR people the big pay off is the article in the New York Times or the segment on Good Morning America. Big national media will have big flashy ad values to show clients, but what our industry somtimes fails to remember is it's what that article or segment will do for the business that's truly important. What is the media coverage trying to achieve?

The simple answer is to increase business. What story are you telling the consumer that will make them buy your product or visit your destination? And, if media relations is a way to talk to your consumer might there not be other ways?

Obviously, media relations is a key component of any PR plan but other ways to speak to consumers need to be considered. In many cases social media should be another key component.

Right now I only see large established companies like Dell and Urban Outfitters catching the social media bug. Perhaps it's because they have more resources, but smaller companies need to realize that even with a smaller audience and budget social media can still be valuable.

If you are a local women's clothing store in Milwaukee there has to be some Facebook group of Milwaukee fashionistas you could target. If you're in the tourism industry surely you'd want to target people who list traveling as one of their hobbies.

The bottom line is the more you engage your customers the better chance you'll have of increasing business, but you have to be strategic. Facebook and Twitter are not right for everyone. We need to remember, today's world is all about communication and building conversations and you don't have to be on a major network to do it.

This thing called the internet has turned our world upside down. In the course of a few years people have changed the way the work, shop and communicate. In this same amount of time businesses and PR professionals have been very slow to using this new technology and understand it.

Some people are still trying to convince companies to blog! As far as social media is concerned blogging is dinosaur. This is not to say that blogging isn't a useful tool. I'm doing it right now, but it is sad that our industry has been so slow to jump on this bandwagon. It is equally as sad that clients have been less than enthusiastic about these new tools.

Maybe it's the generation gap? Old people run the businesses and old people don't "get" new technology. How are PR professionals supposed to recommend new online tactics if they don't even know what they are? If they don't use them?

If this is the case why not appoint a millenial as your new Director of Social Media or Social Media Manager? Make it their job to investigate all these new tools and explain to you and your clients how they can be used and to what benefit.

If the generation gap is not the problem I urge you to find out what is. Everyone knows that social media is important. We owe it to ourselves, our profession and our clients to learn about it and use it correctly. Creating a Facebook group will not be right for everyone and it's our job to know that.

As the younger generation continues to enter the workforce they will want to be engaged on this level. I predict that PR agencies that do not use social media will not only fall behind and recieve less business but will also lose talent. I am happy that my agency is starting to embrace social media. In all honesty, if they didn't I probably wouldn't stick around long.

Those who work in public relations are constantly trying to form relationships and better relationships with journalists. As anyone who has worked in PR can tell you, there's nothing worse than cold calling a reporter.

That's why editorial calendars and services like Profnet are so valuable. I want to announce a NEW service that works like Profnet for FREE! HARO is run by Peter Shankman and has a membership of over 20,000 PR professionals and a growing number of journalists.

I have been part of the HARO "family" for a little over a month and can't say enough good things. Because the service is free more freelance journalists and boutique agencies are able to join. I am a Profnet member too and can safely say I get twice as many leads from HARO.

Peter has a policy about PR pitches that Profnet does not. If you provide a bad pitch to a source you are kicked off the list. This keeps HARO a credible source for media and a place they'll continue to go to for information.

The media on HARO include national morning shows, major newspapers as well as smaller media outlets.

If you are in the PR or media field I highly recommend signing up at helpareporter.com. You can also follow Peter on twitter @skydiver.