For those of you who don’t know, our very own Luke Armour likes to spread his podcasting talents around … and he has his own weekly podcast at BlogTalkRadio. “The Rundown,” as it’s called, airs live every Tuesday afternoon and features Luke — entertaining as ever — and a guest or two discussing topics relevant to PR, marketing, the Web, etc.
Well, tomorrow, I will be Luke’s guest as we chat about Forward, PR, things I’ve learned during my first few years as a professional, and whatever else Luke chooses to ask me about. So if you’d like to listen in (and surely hear some audible LOLs from me, as I tend to laugh a lot when speaking to Luke), join us at 1:30pm ET tomorrow.
Earlier this year, the Council of Public Relations firms published a white paper on the evolving role of public relations in the age of social media. It’s an interesting and often frank report on the state of public relations. The report’s authors describe the “current communication landscape” as the “wild west, as the advertising agencies and other marketing providers deliver services that, in the past, have been the domain of the public relations industry,”
After reading through the report, I spoke with Matt Shaw, Vice President of the Council of Public Relations Firms, to get his take on the white paper and to ask a few questions about the changing landscape of public relations.
Here’s a snapshot of our recent conversation:
John: The report predicts that “[h]ybrid compensation models are likely to develop that are more closely tied to audience engagement than hourly revenue. This new model would be based partly on an hourly basis, on project deliverables, and measurable outcomes. Clients often are measured and compensated this way in their own businesses, so metrics will become increasingly important and sophisticated within public relations.”
If this is the case, it seems that tools like Google Analytics and Technorati’s authority rankings will become increasingly vital to PR professionals. If this prediction holds true, then will these tracking tools surpass the more traditional PR Trak in terms of how we justify ROI and ultimately develop business?
Matt: It’s difficult to predict how and when PR firm business models may change, but I would agree with the author’s findings that clients are looking at new ways to work w/their firms in this area (PR and ad agency alike). I’m sure there are many PR firms that are talking with their clients today about how to best measure newer social media programs. Measuring the many new forms of “engagement” should only grow in importance, and the good news is that these things are indeed measurable.
Another thing to keep in mind: An under-appreciated element in the overall measurement conversation is the fact that when PR has been measured, in mix marketing models or communications optimization models for example, it performs quite well, and generally comes out on top of other marketing disciplines. The P&G study of ’05 is the best-known case, but it is happening consistently, in all types of industries.
Bill Sledzik, Associate Professor at Kent State University, joins us for Forward Podcast 32 to give a snapshot of PR academia. Bill is a blogger, PR professor and former PR professional (can you really be a former PR professional?).
In this segment, Bill answers the tough questions that are on students’ minds. What are professionals looking for in a new hire? What questions are you getting from other students? Does blogging matter? How? What about Facebook? Where will I find a job? Is this thing on?
As mentioned in the interview, Bill posted a two-part summary of a study with Kent State and Burrelles Luce. As promised, Bill has threatened to send the full academic tome to anyone who requests it at wsledzik [at] kent.edu
During the Intro, Paull plugged the University of Georgia’s Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication “Connect” Public Relations & Social Media Conference. Well, look at that, Paull’s speaking at that conference! He’s right there on the Agenda talking about the Forward Blog. The conference has an all-star cast of some of Luke’s favorite PR bloggers. Paull, Kevin Dugan (twice the pr blogger), Constantine, Josh Hallett, and Katie Delahaye Paine just to namedrop a few…and Karen, mustn’t forget Karen. Seriously, if all of those blogs aren’t in your feedreader, get to it.
Paull then bravely mentioned that we’d have links in the show notes, which is easy to say because he’s not doing the show notes this week. So there they are.
Please let Bill, Luke or Paull know what you really think of them. You can email luke [at] forward-moving.com with all your sincerest and most personal thoughts about this or any Forward podcast or leave a comment right here on this blog.
You must be familiar with the argument by now. It’s the one about media fragmentation, message bombardment, cost and waste. In short, it’s about the failure of mass marketing. If you’ve missed it, where have you been? You’ve not been listening to the likes of Seth Godin, the Cluetrain authors or Al and Laura Ries. Even marketing academics such as Philips Kotler and Kitchen have been joining the chorus.
Add to this Punk Marketing, written by Richard Laermer (author of Full Frontal PR) and Mark Simmons (a British marketing consultant who lives in Los Angeles and who is - disclosure - my brother-in-law and the source of my review copy).
This manifesto for revolutionary marketing is an assault on the large and the predictable and a plea to replace it with the smart and the tailored. So punk marketing is defined as ‘a new form of marketing that rejects the status quo and recognizes the shift in power from corporations to consumers.’
Just a quick mention that DC chapter of the Social Media Club has a meet-up coming up this week:
Social Media Club - Washington, DC
Thursday, Feb. 22
6-8:30pm
Hosted by Edelman
1875 I St. NW
Washington, DC, 2006
I’m helping to host this one and would personally love to meet some of you that are in the DC area, so I encourage you to come out! There will be food, beer, wine and great conversation. It’s completely free, but we do ask that you pre-register so we’ll know how many to expect.
At each meeting of the Social Media Club, we discuss a variety of issues relating to new media. This week, we’ll take a closer look at the online aspects of the 2008 presidential campaigns. (Did you notice, McCain just launched a new site. He’s got my thumbs-up as far as the site itself goes. Want to hear more analysis? Attend the meet-up!)
And while students are very welcome to attend this and any other Social Media Club event, if you’re underage … and you have a drink … I will hunt you down myself!! Do I really have to say it? Be lawful.
For more about the Social Media Club, visit their site. And to see other events I recommend for young PR folks — including, perhaps, a Social Media Club event in your city — visit the “Forward - Young PR Events” groups at Upcoming.org or check out our new events calendar.
We all know that I got my current job at Edelman because of blogging. (Well, that’s the short version.) We know that employers — many of the large agencies, especially — have clearly recognized the need to build up their own online-focused practice groups, so they’re hiring webby folks as quickly as they can find them. You know social media, you’ve got a job.
Some students, however, make the mistake of thinking that learning about new media and understanding the online conversation points to a direct career path of all-day-every-day online-focused work. Wrongo!
I can say, with a good deal of confidence, that we are moving toward a time when all practitioners — whether you’re in healthcare, travel and tourism, or crisis management — will need to have some basic new media skills. The way I look at it, new media (dealing with social media, social networks, blogs, etc.) is just another form of media. The other types of media are all currently covered in pretty much every PR degree. I know in Auburn’s program, we learned how to write press releases, as well as how to write scripts for radio/television announcements. We learned how to work with journalists and how to pitch a story. Everyone seems to accept all these as essential skills for a PR professional. So why is it that when educators try to incorporate new media into the curriculum, they’re met with resistance — both from administrators and students?
View video below. (I can’t get the embedded video to work right, so you’ll just have to watch it here.)
I swear I’m not on a feminist kick, I’ve just been meaning to write about this for a while. I originally saw it at Toby Bloomberg’s blog, and then I caught the PSA on TV the other night, which reminded me and ultimately prompted this post.
First of all, I’m highly impressed by this witty campaign. Put on by Women’s Voices. Women’s Votes., it’s a great case study of a very integrated and innovative effort — complete with YouTube videos, TV commercials, viral buttons, and apparently, blogger relations — designed to motivate young women to vote.
Secondly, I do encourage you to vote. In a conversation with Paull Young recently, he informed me that Australians can be fined for not voting — which is unfortunate in situations when none of the candidates are worthy of support. Granted, Americans aren’t forced to vote with threat of monetary consequences, but we still have the right – why not take advantage of that?!
I came across this amusing post from CNET News.com’s David Carnoy that talks about this wife-acceptance factor (or WAF) idea that marketers are using to empower men to “spend large sums of money on sleek electronic gear without the slightest bit of guilt.” Hmm.
Granted, I’m stirred and amused by a few of the author’s remarks. For example: “And the fairer sex actually does recognize when a product performs a cool function.” (Amazing! Women are capable of recognizing cool things, too! So profound.)
But rather than poke good, healthy fun at this guy’s post (which I certainly could do, considering I’m a gadget and electronic geek, myself — so I totally rock the stereotype), but for our purposes at Forward, I’d rather stick to the marketing strategy at play here.
Since I last posted, there’s been quite a bit of coverage around this topic, including several high profile posts that have referenced this series.
In part four, we’ll explore how to write for and initially reach bloggers more effectively, using existing and new tools and services. In part five, we’ll review outreach techniques for good old fashioned relationship building.
Now that we have walked through examples of how to identify the right bloggers for your market, we need to determine how to best reach them and why they should even receive your news in the first place.
I had the wonderful privilege of attending ConvergeSouth in Greensboro, NC, this past weekend. Among the many great lessons and stories I have from that weekend, one that I’d like to highlight here comes from the Scobles’ session titled “10 Ways to a Killer Blog.”
Haha … well, we attendees really got over-serviced! Not only did we get to see Robert and Maryam Scoble share the stage and co-present (which believe me, is a HUGE treat in itself!), but they also offered up 15 tips rather than the promised 10. I’m delighted to share them with you here:
Blog because you want to. Don’t blog because you feel like you should, because everyone else is, or because someone else tells you that you should.
Read other blogs. (Extra tip: Read 50 blogs for two weeks. Either you’ll feel compelled to join in, or you won’t be a good blogger.)
Bill Sledzik
You must be familiar with the argument by now. It’s the one about media fragmentation, message bombardment, cost and waste. In short, it’s about the failure of mass marketing. If you’ve missed it, where have you been? You’ve not been listening to the likes of Seth Godin, the Cluetrain authors or Al and Laura Ries. Even marketing academics such as Philips Kotler and Kitchen have been joining the chorus.
Just a quick mention that DC chapter of the Social Media Club has a meet-up coming up this week:
We all know that I got my current job at Edelman because of blogging. (Well, that’s the short version.) We know that employers — many of the large agencies, especially — have clearly recognized the need to build up their own online-focused practice groups, so they’re hiring webby folks as quickly as they can find them. You know social media, you’ve got a job.
I came across this 
Since I last posted, there’s been quite a bit of coverage around this topic, including several high profile posts that have referenced this series.