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PR 2.0 Tactics

Been doing a fair amount of reading and pondering about the future of SHIFT, and of PR in general. 

We’ve come to think of our agency as a “tween.”  No longer a scrappy start-up, and increasingly finding ourselves punching above our weight-class in newbiz pitches.  It’s exciting to be pitching for FORTUNE 1000 business, even if it means the competition is far more fierce.  We wrestle with how to best present our credentials.

Meanwhile, the PR industry is catching-on to this whole Social Media thang: although too many agencies still view Social Media as a “checkbox” rather than a sea-change, my arguments to this effect sometimes fall on deaf ears, especially when talking to less savvy prospects. 

Lastly, a friend gave me a copy of the Arthur W. Page Society report on “The Authentic Enterprise.” There were no big surprises in the study, but, it did a good job of summarizing our industry’s challenges and opportunities.  For example, this quote jumped out at me:

“What happens when analysts and media – once necessary aggregators if a business wanted to reach mass audiences – lose their unique ability to reach those audiences or to legitimize the company’s message?”

This future is coming and will crush PR agencies unprepared to meet the advancing wave of change.

And yet, change is scary.  Even for a bleeding-edger like me.  Some of the preparation we must undergo lies far outside our comfort zone.  Here are 5 random thoughts on The Future of Public Relations…

Agencies must become comfortable with the personal branding of individual employees.  Agency employees will increasingly need to step out of the shadows, to serve as transparent client advocates in a community relations role.  Many clients will handle this on their own with internal resources, but even in those cases we can expect Agency personnel to supplement the effort – and in the process, become well-known to various online community segments.  This is a far cry from our historical role behind-the-scenes.  It also is scary from a talent retention standpoint.

Agencies must do a far better job of training staff.  The days of paying lip-service to Training are over.  With the sunlight shining on every pitch and community interaction, woe betide the agency who lets greenhorns loose behind the keyboard.

Agencies must explain to clients – with crystal clarity – that mistakes will happen.  No one likes to admit to fallibility, especially in a newbiz situation, but the reality is that mistakes will be outed.  More to the point, you can do everything right but, because the Agency now often deals with (unpredictable) edge users, even their best moves risk being unfairly skewered by the community.  The burden is on the Agency to plan in advance for such contingencies.  No one likes surprises and, everyone appreciates an Action Plan that can be turned to in a crisis.

Agencies must help clients move from Reactive to Proactive to Interactive.  This was another interesting note from the Page Society report.  For years it’s been enough to offer “Rapid Reaction.”  Nowadays, Agencies can differentiate by developing proactive community outreach models that minimize the impact of inevitable flare-ups.  But, what’s next?  Outside our comfort zone, but within our reach: collaborating with all stakeholders (executives and employees, customers, online and offline communities) on an on-going basis to help guide corporate strategy.  To help companies “conduct public relations as if the whole company depends on it.”

Agencies must reconsider their core value.  While I think that the PR industry can legitimitely evolve to include aspects of Community Relations (a.k.a. Social Media Relations) under its banner, there are other ways to think about value.  This is particularly pertinent for the hundreds of small to mid-size shops that can’t afford to compete on all fronts as they had when “Media Relations” was the universal specialty.  Maybe it’s time to specialize?  Is the Agency keenly tuned in to a specific vertical market (e.g., healthcare) or demographic (e.g., baby-boomers)?  Start staking your claims.

These are mostly high-level musings – and there are more to consider, of course.  What are your thoughts?  Will you help me prepare for the future?  With such high level concerns in place, my challenge will be to think about the strategies and tactics to address them for both our clients and agency.  You’ll hear about these adventures (and misadventures) here at PR-Squared, ‘natch.

I was talking to a really smart recruit a couple of weeks ago. 

Today was her first day, and we’re excited to have her, since she was already so well known to us via her Twitter presence.  In her honor I’m relaying something she said during the interview process that stuck with me:

“Everyone holds the predecessor in higher regard than the modern equivalent.  The book has more gravitas than the newspaper; the newspaper has more gravitas than the blog; the blog post has more gravitas than the tweet.”

Given how gosh-darned busy we all are, it’s no surprise that each cycle of evolution represents a condensed approach to content (though I shudder to think what will proceed from 140–character tweets). 

“Gravitas” comes not only from history, but from the thoughtfulness and effort required to create and consume the content.

Welcome aboard, Sandy.

Like Morgan McLintic’s recent (excellent) post about “Timesheets,” this post may be a bit too much “inside baseball” for most readers – but hey, this is a PR blog after all.

I recently overheard a junior staffer complain that “Briefing docs are boring.” 

Briefing documents are what we use to inform a client executive about their media appointments: the who/what/where/why stuff, including basic info on the publication, background on the writer, the pitch we used to secure their interest, personal details, etc.  (For a juicy tale about these “secret dossiers,” check out this year-old kerfuffle.) 

It’s true that it can be boring to create a briefing sheet.  It’s tedious.  But I urge our staff to put themselves in the shoes of a busy client executive:

She’s harried – too many meetings, too many emails, too many deadlines, too many distractions.

She’s anxious – what if the article reflects poorly on the company or her?  what’s the reporter’s agenda?

This exec is about to support and defend her company’s precious reputation in the marketplace.  She needs to be well-armed!

Enter the humble, boring Briefing Document.  It’s often the client executive’s only way to gird for the meeting.  Our careful preparation of this document – and the client’s willingness to make the time to read it in advance – can all too often lead to the success (or failure) of a media briefing. 

There are a fair number of boring things to do at a PR firm – even one as “cool” as our shop.  In addition to Briefing Docs, we need fresh & relevant databases … we need to monitor mainstream and new media for issues and client mentions … we need to attend umpteen meetings … we need to prepare umpteen reports about those umpteen meetings, and about our workaday milestones.  It can be a snooze. 

But each of those “boring” tasks need to be assigned and viewed in a larger context.

• The “boring” Briefing Document can make or break a client’s reputation.
• The “boring” database can head-off a poorly-targeted outreach effort (and the ensuing storm of complaints).
• The “boring” monitoring of the blogosphere can help us identify and respond to potential memes, which are crucial to protecting our clients’ interests.
• The “boring” meetings offer a chance to learn and interact with smart, successful, interesting people – and to learn from the process of seeing senior managers interact with clients and media.
• The “boring” reports are critical to ensuring that our value is accurately communicated to our client contacts (and their CEOs and Boards of Directors).

Ironically, people say, “Think Big Picture” when they want to coax you to forget about the details.  But the more you think about The Big Picture, the more you realize:  Everything’s Important.

Rather than boring nameplates, everyone at SHIFT is given a cheesey caricature to show off their mad skillz outside the office. 

Some folks are pictured as lumberjacks.  Some are pictured laden down with shopping bags.

Me?  In my spare time, I’m a superhero.  Didn’t you know?

Turns out I didn’t care for the caption that our caricaturist left in my li’l “thought bubble” so I turned it into a “thought experiment.” 

The wall outside my office door is bedecked with Post-It Notes – literally a “comments field” – which the staff use to mock me mercilessly.

“What is Todd thinking?”

Apparently, I drink wine coolers, poop on people’s heads, and steal from my fellow in-house bloggers.  Ingrates!

There are a few empty Post-Its left.  Let’s have a quickie contest.  What do YOU think I’m thinking?  Winners have the dubious honor of having their comments immortalized outside my office door.

Whether or not you choose to put out a Social Media Release, I am quite sure that you want your news to rank well within Google. 

In today’s search-centric culture, if you don’t show up on the first or second page of results, it is almost like not being online at all.  As Kami Huyse and Geoff Livingston noted during their recent NewComm Forum session, “The 1^st page of results on Google may as well be your company’s homepage.”

That’s where Search Engine Optimization (SEO) principles come into play.

While the SHIFT team has always tried to stay abreast of SEO techniques for publishing client news, like most agencies we wound up with a few in-house experts.  It was high time we shared the wealth more broadly internally – and more broadly still, with our fellows in the PR industry.

So here’s the latest PDF from SHIFT Communications, for your copyright-free use.  A handy guide to SEO for press releases. 

This knowledge was collected and collated from across our internal experts, with additional tips provided by both our friends at the wire services and an outside SEO consultant or two.  However, SEO is a complicated business, so, Your Mileage May Vary.

Like the brilliant David Armano of Logic + Emotion, and the inimitable Chris Brogan, I often wonder if I’m giving enough back to the community.  So I truly hope you find this stuff useful.  (And hey, before ya go, if you do get some value from PR-Squared, don’t forget to subscribe!)  Thanks!