This initiative by  IABC and Royal Roads University is something I support wholeheartedly.

Have a read here of a program that will allow you to get your ABC as a communicator in March, i am going. Will you?

 An important question this morning….

How is the your public relations changing to keep apace with  the evolution of mainstream news making?

Are you still doing the the time-honored media relations, in which you propose stories, arrange interviews with clients and third party experts? Or are you pointing mainstream media to important posts by bloggers or to content posted by companies that is high quality and easily accessed (such as video).

We  have been inviting bloggers and digital media content creators to help create buzz around our client’s products and services  for over three years now. The results, as in our recent Brian Mac Farlane band launch of The Resurrection, speak for themselves: viral content is built, digital photos spread, consumer generated content creates in real time an immediacy and  authencity. We then use the content to feed a regional and international media audience. 

This is the new media eco-system.

I stumbled across an amazing story that further proves the point.

In this story a PR firm representing a diabetes drug is having difficulty getting mainstream media to cover the drug and its implications. The Account Executive  later comes across an interesting blog  attracting 30,000 unique visitors per month that is written by a Type One Diabetes patient. They also see that  the blogger wrote a letter to Steve Jobs which sparked the design of a next generation diabetes measurement gadget so they offer the blogger an interview with the doctor running an important clinical trial with a human interest angle with a few of the patients who have benefited. 

She posts a great story and soon after the Wall Street Journal picks it up for the mainstream news. Next comes the New York Times and the Boston Globe. All this from a  PR firm mining blogsphere.

We are operating in a whole new media world. Consumers are now part of new media and PR and old media  can tap into the vox populi for direction to their stories.  

If old media brands, like the Trinidad Guardian, have already begun  their restructure. 

My question is, as a PR practitioner, have you?  

Ideas Grove, a Dallas based  PR agency came up with a cool list  that allows you deterine  if your PR firm makes the grade.

 Of course the main failing of the twenty question list  is that it postions  PR firms as doing only media relations, ignoring other areas of public relations: crisis communciations, community  relations, reputation manageement, stakeholder engagement, social marketing etc.

 Still the questions are  useful and pretty easy to score. 

Also, I bet if  you change around some of the funtions,  the quizz  that can be used to rate  your ad agency  as well. 

Score 1  point for each anser that is no, do the tally, and decde if your agency fits your bill. 

Answers are at the end.

Do you routinely catch careless typos and factual inaccuracies in agency-drafted news releases?            

2. Do agency-drafted news releases typically exhibit only a superficial understanding of your business?         

3. Do agency-drafted news releases too often miss the point, burying important information?

4. Does the agency ask you for ideas more often than it provides you with ideas?             
   
5. Does the agency seem to think PR stands for "press release," churning out releases but not offering other, more creative ways to build your brand?
            
6. Do agency representatives get the names or titles of your company's senior executives wrong in correspondence and/or conversation?
            
7. Examine the media list your PR firm uses when distributing your news releases. Are there more than a few inappropriate publications or out-of-date contacts on the list?
            
8. Do the agency representatives who pitch your company to media on the phone have only a superficial understanding of what your company does?
            
9. Has the agency ever arranged a meeting with a reporter and your company's executives that didn't seem to have a well-thought-out objective?
            
10. Has your primary agency contact person changed more than once in the past 12 months?
            
11. Does your primary contact person seem inexperienced or immature?
            
12. When you have a problem or concern, must your primary contact generally talk with a supervisor before responding to you?
            
13. Does the agency send a senior executive to meet with you every couple of months to smooth over complaints about the firm's performance?
            
14. Does the agency miss deadlines or seem to always be scrambling at the last minute to meet them?
            
15. Has a journalist ever complained to you about your PR agency?
            
16. Are the agency's billing statements confusing, so that you're not sure exactly what you're paying for?

17. Does the agency hem and haw when asked the hourly rates of various personnel on your account?
            
18. Do the agency's billing statements show that more time is spent on client relations (e.g., meetings and correspondence with you) than on actual client service?
            
19. Does the agency boast about delivering measurable results, but then only give you a list of press mentions that mean nothing to your company's executives?
            
20. Does it seem like the agency's heart isn't really in it - that it's simply working to get a fee?

  If your score is:
18-20: You have good agency relationship. Nonetheless, we recommend you discuss your "yes" answers with the agency to clear the air on those issues.

14-17: You can do better. But can you avoid the hassle of finding a new agency by improving the current relationship? It may be worth a try. Have a heart-to-heart with your agency about your concerns and gauge their response. If they seem reenergized and refocused on your account, give them another two or three months - then take this test again.

0-13: This agency is not meeting your needs. You don't trust them and they're not giving their all for you. It's time to move on.

Got this note from Quincy just yesterday. I admit  the question made me stop for a minute. 

My PR smarts tells me that Chris Brown’s PR team has the  tougher time, but read Quicy’s question, then let’s start the debate.

Here the note, by the way.

“Greetings judette,

love the articles. i always keep them until i get time to read them.

i don't know if you were even considering this, but we had some debates in work the other day about the kanye west incident. one of the big topics was "which pr team has the easier job? team kanye west or team chris brown.", wondering what each would have to do to get their clients back in good graces. another interesting observation was how the "imma let you finish" craze swept the digital realm from twitter updates, to facebook statuses, youtube vids and even full websites dedicated to kanye hate. was wondering if you would do a piece on it. would be interesting to get your view. here's the most comprehensive site on the topic which is a good place to start?"

http://knowyourmeme.com/memes/kanye-interrupts-imma-let-you-finish

Today I am soaking in Richard Edelman's  definitions about the role and function of PR both from the agency and corporate perspective. 

I liked  both statements because they reflect  the shift in thinking that has taken place since the formation of social communities have made top / down engagement virtually irrelevant and /or extinct. 

From an agency side Edelman states that: "PR should stand for  a transparent effort to advocate a client’s position, supported by depth of content, while offering an open place for dialogue and comment. 

Agencies should  aim is to educate when possible, build bridges when necessary, and respect the new market-based conversations always. They should also start at the end point--to dream about where they  would like their  client to be—and then create a dialogue-based communications program to get them there."

On the corporate side, Edelman writes that the pyramid of influence, the classic C. Wright Mills description of the power elite where information moves one way from pinnacle to the mass audience below, has been eclipsed.

The new reality for communications is the sphere of cross reference, in which information moves unpredictably among equal stakeholders. Conversations now occur spontaneously, in peer-to-peer discussion, with individuals creating their own webs of trust including people like themselves.

"Corporate communicators must  facilitate and contribute to the discussion in both the controlled vertical axis reaching traditional audiences such as investors, regulators and mainstream media, and on the horizontal axis to inform employees, passionate consumers, NGOs and communities."

...Controversial header  I know,  but so too is this video which looks at  a practice among black women  to lighten the colour of their skin so as to  to appear more attractive. The practice is  very common in Jamaica.

“We don’t do PR for PR’s sake,” I told Malika Moore, Mango Media Caribbean’s new Senior PR Assistant.

“We always ask ourselves, what's the objective? Are we changing attitudes? Increasing awareness? Changing behaviour? And if so, by how much?

That’s the strategic thinking behind any PR campaign. It requires setting measurable goals and working toward them, defining and refining the tactics as you go along but always keeping focus on the objectives.

Sure it can be boring. Painstaking even. Sometimes it’s more exciting to do things on the fly.

Same thing applies to life, I suppose.

If you don't have a goal  (a market share goal, a PR goal, a  personal career goal, a get fit goal) then all you can do, well, is just your best. 

You can take things as they come. 

You get to be more impulsive. 

You can switch things around regularly. 

And as for missing your goal, well no need to worry about that, because you never had one in the first place. 

See, what I mean.  Living your life with no goals has to  be so much fun, at least in  the short run.

It seems to me, though, that the people who have a destination in mind are the same folks  who lead, who grow, who make a difference and who make an impact. And almost always those are the people with goals.

 
 I stumbled across this piece by the marketer  Seth Goodin whose blog served as a major inspiration for  5am@MangoMediaCaribbean. 

The article makes for a brilliant read. If you work at a  PR agency or engage with one in order to manage your relationships with your varied publics, please pass this link around.

In the first quarter we are seeing an increase in business by 15% over last year's, I think this has less to do with  Mango Media Caribbean and more to do with  the fact that clients are recognising the strategic value of PR.  Don't get me wrong our customers are asking us to justify every penny and even cut some of the  fat from  the budgets, still the increase in business and inquiries points a direct finger at my reasoning: that in a recession, PR has a critical place.

 Here are the top 5 reasons why I feel PR's time has come:

1. PR's idea is now the central idea in the communications campaign as promotions and advertising budgets undergo a tail spin in recessionary times, our seat at the table has been strengthened.

2. PR always enabled conversations but in the new digital media environment where vertical dialogue is critical we are co-creating brands and enabling prosumers as we  build  trust and  relationships.

3. PR professionals listen, advise and develop strategies; more and more we are helping  shape new business realities.  

4.  We've gotten far beyond simply pitching to media. Hurrah!

5. Smart business leaders dealing in a world of 24/7 communications, instant messaging, NGOs and citizen journalists  have finally recognised there is no room for spin in PR.

I'd be interested in knowing how you feel:  what's  the role of PR in difficult economic  times?

5. The unpopularity of the Republican Brand:  Reputation is built on policy, communication and leadership. At all three touch points the Bush administration failed miserably.

When you lie to a public about your reason for staging the most expensive war in the history of the world (in human life & effort as well as in dollars and cents) you can bet that your leadership will be destroyed when the truth is revealed. And oh yes, in this interconnected world where no decision remains behind closed doors and veiled discussions, the truth always comes out. Welcome to the global village George Bush!

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