BrandToBeDetermined

Social Media Optimization: Putting the Relations Back in PR

Essex House
Originally uploaded by eschipul

Presenting "Social Media Optimization: Putting the Relations Back in PR" tomorrow in Miami. Wish me luck!

Renaissance Generation Panel Tomorrow after Patricia Martin

Looking forward to being on the panel with the Houston Arts Alliance tomorrow following Patricia Martin's presentation on RENGEN; the Renaissance Generation.

So what is the RENGEN and what is this about?

Patricia Martin , the author of RenGen, and a panel of Houston business leaders, new marketers, artists and arts institutions will define the rise of Houston's renaissance generation - the RenGen - an emerging demographic of enlightened individuals and communities that are dramatically changing the society in wish we work and live.

Registration is here but may be closed soon.

Update: Read Patricia's recap of the presentation on her blog here.

Social Media Optimization presentation from PRSA SW District

From my talk on Friday at the Public Relations Society of America's SW District conference in Little Rock Arkansas.

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I did enjoy meeting a few folks in particular, although the whole group was awesome. But a definite twitter shoutout to some new public relations pros on twitter:

1. http://twitter.com/bonnieann
2. http://twitter.com/samsims/
3. http://twitter.com/margieJ11

and of course I am on twitter here causing the usual amounts of trouble time permitting.

breaking the taboo on women smoking

  greta 
  Originally uploaded by eschipul

I love this photo from Dr. Sketchy's in Houston. And I realize this is a talented model playing a role. Yet it reminded me of a famous story from the history of public relations that few are aware of. Bernays was truly a double edged sword.

From the BBC article on Edward Bernays.

Bernays was one of the main architects of the modern techniques of mass-consumer persuasion, using every trick in the book, from celebrity endorsement and outrageous PR stunts, to eroticising the motorcar.

His most notorious coup was breaking the taboo on women smoking by persuading them that cigarettes were a symbol of independence and freedom. But Bernays was convinced that this was more than just a way of selling consumer goods. It was a new political idea of how to control the masses. By satisfying the inner irrational desires that his uncle had identified, people could be made happy and thus docile.

For more: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Edward_Bernays

Fraser Seitel on Becoming a Successful PR Professional

From SandraSays's blog via twitter - Fraser Seitel on Becoming a Successful PR Professional.  Fraser Seitel is the author of The Practice of Public Relations. Excerpts from the video but skipping around a bit.

"Public Relations is the easiest profession in the world to get shuffled off to second class citizen status."

"What you want, what you must have, is a seat at the management table."

"You want to be appreciated for your contributions. How do you do that? I say it takes three things:"

1. A knowledge base "you've got to be the best communicator around" "that means study"
2. Experience "part of the job of a pr professional is learning about the organization"
3. Judgement "you have to have judgement"

View the video of Fraser Seitel on Sandra's site here.

 

The Opera Singer is Never Famous in their Own Hometown

I wish I could remember where I read that. Or if it was just a saying someone told me. But I do know that this:

The Opera Singer is Never Famous in their Own Hometown

is true. The familiarity factor makes people assume you are of lesser value. For the opera singer the solution is simple - go spend a year studying in Rome. Then you are the "Italian trained opera singer" and not from wherever you are really from. Unless of course your Italian in which case you have to go someplace else, but I digress.

And it isn't just my opinion. For example best selling author Tess Gerritsen, someone far more prominent that little old business me, comments on the hometown not famous phenomenon in Maine on her blog.

YOU'RE NEVER FAMOUS IN YOUR HOME STATE

A few months ago, I was delighted to be invited to be one of the two commencement speakers for the University of Maine graduation ceremony in Orono this May.

only to have a student write a letter to the editor including the following comment.

When the University of Maine announced the commencement speakers, the names Tess Gerritsen ... fell on somewhat disappointed ears. Students may not be aware that Tess Gerritsen is a local mystery author

Surely we all realize calling a person of such accomplishments a "local mystery writer" is an injustice. But yet we all think this way.

While I have personal Houston based anecdotes, it wouldn't exactly help me to blog them. Humans are so funny sometimes. Apparently even Faulkner wasn't famous in his hometown. Go figure. Does anyone have a name for this phenomenon from psychology? I am very curious.

Courts: a journalist is anyone who does journalism

I saw this on blogrunner and thought it relates to the Public Relations community debate on social software. Excerpt regarding the courts' view of bloggers versus reporters. (note: emphasis added by me)

No US court has yet weighed in with authority on the debate about whether bloggers count as journalists, but the recent federal decision from South Carolina does indicate that at least some bloggers are journalists. It's not about the title, it's about the content, said Judge Henry Hurlong, Jr.; a journalist turns out to be anyone who does journalism, and bloggers who do so have the same rights and privileges under federal law as the "real" journalists.

Unlike pornography which is much harder to define, "a journalist is some who does journalism". Interesting. And, well, there it is.

FEMA and Media Relations PR Nightmare

In the day and age when the Public Relations industry should be focusing more on interactions with the public and less on media relations, someone decides the best solution is to FAKE media relations. Brilliant.

From Bulldog Reporter:

FEMA employees last Tuesday posed as reporters at a news conference in Washington about the Southern California wildfires. The briefing was called on short notice and no journalists were on hand when it started. Instead, FEMA deputy director Harvey Johnson stood before a FEMA camera feeding live images to television networks and took questions from agency employees posing as reporters.

Brian Connolly, Strumpette Finally Out of the Closet

Still crazy after all these years. Just a lot less cleavage. Brian Connolly has come out of the closet and relaunched strumpette with the less-cleavage brand name of "futhermore". So if we weren't sure, yes, we now know he definitely wants the last, the further-mostest-wordest. Thanks for coming out of the closet Mr. Connoly.

Update: Had a somewhat funny conversation with Brian about this earlier this week. Very insightful actually and hopefully I'll get my thoughts organized on a future blog post about PR in general.

A few things to be clear about.

1. Yes I realize Amanda Chapel is a character that that there were numerous writers and not just Brian. I had a mental list to do a linguistics analysis of different posts just to prove this point, but never got around to it. Which leads to my second "update" point.
2. As snarky and sometimes mean as Strumpette was, I am disappointed that the experiment is now completely off line. Yes reinvent, start anew, experiment. But to remove the old site leaves the world without an anti-brand for PR. The void will be filled of course, we know from Primal Branding that you must have your "non believers". And Strumpette filled that void. It would be a shame if it remains off line. It means the spinsters beat strumpette in the end. That bums me out.

Update 2 - checking my links for this post - it seems Amanda's back (NSF link as usual). This is a good thing. I think. As long as the talons are pointed at me. But then again I would never bait someone like Amanda, now would I?

PR Losing Impact in a Web 2.0 World - NOT really....

This headline "PR losing impact in Web 2.0 world" in the bulldog reporters daily dog email caught my eye. My first thought was "Public Relations is more important than ever because PR is now be talking directly to .... um.... THE PUBLIC!"

Well it turns out it was just a catchy headline. What they should have said is "lazy PR people need to do less media relations and get back to working with the public". But that wouldn't have been politically correct. Good thing I didn't say it either.

From the article by MJ Gilhooley

Simply put: Audiences are more in control than ever and increasingly savvy about filtering marketing messages. As a result, PR pros have a new hat to wear: listener, learner. With the tables turned per the advent of Web 2.0, sheer Darwinism alone will lay to rest the pros who five years ago considered major market headlines and covers the end game.

And on that note, from talking to several PR people recently, it surprises me despite their study in their own field, that they don't bother to study branding. Advertising may not be the same as PR, but it is still awesomely powerful stuff and worthy of study, particularly when it comes to brand names and psychology. But that is another post.