PRSA Counselors Academy: Josh Hallett

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Josh HallettJosh Hallett‘s session, titled Bloggety, Blog, Blog, provided his audience with an overview of the social media and the tools used to create, view and search content.

Josh began by defining social media as “everything that is said, spoken, written photographed about your organization that is on the internet and that you have no control over.”

He pointed out that the February 2006 Forrester Big Idea report on Social Computing indicated that we have entered an era in which “individuals increasingly take cues from brand loyalists.”

From this, says Hallett, we should understand that, “It doesn’t matter how much advertising I’ve seen. If I hear something from somebody I trust, that’s what I’ll listen to.”

Hallett then provide an outstanding primer on blogs for the audience. His one digression from the orthodox was on the issue of transparency. He objects to the notion of transparency in blogs, suggesting that we can’t have true transparency until you have the ability to search completely into the files, correspondence and circumstances of the blogger – an opportunity we are not about to have.

(On this issue, I can’t agree with Josh. I think that there are enough people out there who know each of us to ensure that any misinformation or omissions would be found out. But, hey, time and experience will prove which view is correct!)

He followed the discussion of blogs with a review of bog search sites (Technorati,etc.) and other social media, including photo and video sharing sites like flickr and youtube.

He challenged the audience to consider why they should care about the people using these services. “Who are these people? And why should I care? Your mother, your sister, your son. More and more somebody you know knows somebody who is blogging.”

Josh went on to demonstrate the relevance to PR of social media by discussing the Sony RootKit debacle and Mark Cuban’s posting of interviews with reporters in order to wrest back control of his statements from the Fourth Estate.

He covered Creative Commons licensing, noting that many bloggers are motivated to share information, not by profit.

Again, addressing the concerns of his PR practitioner audience, Josh indicated that, “Blogs should never be written by the PR department. They should be written by the people who are doing the work.” He offered several examples to illustrate the difference between blogs written with an eye to corporate speak and those written with a genuineness of voice.

He stressed that bloggers can be honest and blunt in their assessments; so be ready for a candid conversation. You must be prepared to take the good and the bad.

In the remaining time, he covered RSS syndication technology (“more and more traditional media are providig RSS feeds”), podcasts, Wikis and Vlogging.

He suggested that, with all of these social media channels and the power of the search engines, paid media monitoring services are becoming redundant. Junior staff can be charged with monitoring the information flows without need of premium services. And the role of the practitioner becomes one of knowing what to do with the information and the social media

He also addressed blogger relations. He advised the audience to be careful to only “send something of interest to somebody you know.” He noted that he uses IM to send information to bloggers. This satisfies their appetite for timely information relevant to their interests. But to use this effectively, you must get to know the blogger you are dealing with.

He suggested that effective use of blogging requires PR practitioners to step outside of their traditional mass audience focus. “Do not think of blogs as a vehicle to get to 5,000 to 10,000 people. Think of blogs as a way to get to 100 to 150 very interested people.”

He also provided some examples of Media bypass – product launches directly to bloggers rather than through mainstream media.

As he wrapped up, Josh suggested that the audience should look at social media not as a technology tool, but as “a communications and search tool — it gives me the ability to find the 10 people in the world who share my passions.”

Finally, he suggested that people should look at Richard Edelman’s remarks about the press release at the Syndicate Conference as a preview of where PR may be going next in its use of new media.

Josh Hallett pitched his session at the perfect level for an audience that included less than five bloggers. About half the approximately 50 people in the room indicated that they use a feedreader. This level of use by senior practitioners suggests that blogging has a distance to travel before it will have penetrated into the mainstream of the public relations industry.

All in all, Josh’s presentation was a tour de force. In 75 minutes, he provided the complete introduction to social media. And even though the presentation ran overtime, no one left the room early. And people kept asking questions. The sign of a great presentation.

PRSA Counselors Academy: Julia Hood

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Julia HoodCounselors Academy Steve Cody conducted an interactive one-on-one conversation with Julia Hood, Editor-in-Chief of PR Week.

Cody led off the conversation by noting that the membership of Counselors Academy is predominantly small and mid-size agencies and that these firms have a sense that “PR Week seems to give inordinate attention to the large agencies.”

“The large firms have larger marketing budgets, more staff, huge global clients and better opportunities to get our attention,” Hood responded. However, she added, “We pay an inordinate amount of time trying to cover medium sized agencies.”

On the question of how she believes PR agencies are doing in relation to advertising in getting the seat at the executive table, Hood had a positive message, seeing PR, “Definitely making strides. The thought leadership that is coming out of the PR world is definitely resonating, especially with CMOs (Chief Marketing Officers). … More and more, you can see advertising agencies understanding this. Advertising agencies are bringing PR agencies in earlier and earlier. That shows that advertising agencies realize that they are not doing the total job.  …. For PR, this is the moment.”

The most animated discussion revolved around PR Week’s treatment of the ethical controversies in which major agencies have become embroiled.

Speaking directly to the overbilling scandal involving Fleishman Hillard’s Los Angeles office, Hood initially suggested that, “No agency leader can say, ‘It can never happen to me.’ So I don’t sense a lot of glee coming out of the industry at Fleishman’s expense on this.”

She was challenged aggressively on this position by questions from the audience. One questioner asked, “Where is the institutional control? the tone of the coverage has been allowing them to get away with it.”

To this, Hood responded, “I think we’ve been pretty unflinching about Fleishman’s responsibility. Fleishman, at the end of the day, was not on trial. I don’t think we let Fleishman off easy. There were times when I wasn’t talking to anyone at Fleishman. At times I felt we had a reasonable point of view and they thought we didn’t.”

This answer elicited follow up question, “Have agencies cut you off?” Hood seemed nonplussed at this question and after some hesitation answered that, “I sat with a senior Fleishman person one time and they were not very happy. But we got through it. For myself, I take this responsibility very seriously. Communicate your displeasure, but don’t abandon the normal rules of dialogue.”

Question: “Who is responsible.”

Hood: “The individual is ultimately responsible.”

Question: Why isn’t there more criticism?

Hood: “It’s not PR Weeks job to impose an ethical standard. That’s the job of organizations like the PRSA. I don’t feel the need to come out on this because I’ve seen evidence of the industry dealing with it.”

Hood was also asked about her reaction to recent reports of attempted “pay for play” (allegations made by Robert Reich). “When talking about the issues of credibility and media and PR’s role,” she offered, “PR has to have an interest in preserving the credibility of the media platform and not undermining it. … We asked CMOs whether they would consider paying for media coverage and, thankfully, the vast majority said no. … This is something you have to address every day. And you’ll have to challenge clients who want to take the easy way.  … It’s a very grey area. A daily reality check to say, Is this crossing the line?”

Hood was also asked for her sense of why mainstream media do not accord PR the same level of coverage that they give to advertising. She noted that, “Richard Edelman just did a Q&A in the Wall Street Journal. Crispin Porter + Bogusky [the subject of a cover story in Business Week] is not really an advertising agency … They were on the cover of BusinessWeek because they challenged the conventional mindset of their industry. … Richard Edelman has changed many of the rules of the game by being out there and talking about their clients. … A lot of PR people do not want to talk about their clients. …. What does that do to the PR industry and its own promotion efforts?

“Finally, I think there is still a basic discomfort on the part of journalists in covering PR, because they know how important their relationships with PR agencies are – and they don’t want everyone to know. …. There is a certain amount of plausible deniability going on in the media … As long as those people feel there is something wrong with disclosing that there is a give and take, there’s a problem there.”

Finally, Cody asked Hood to put herself in the shoes of a start-up PR agency and to suggest how she could get on PR Week’s radar screen. She responded “The first thing I’d do is go online and get a copy of the editorial calendar. Six weeks before publication, we decide on what to do the feature on. Idea generation is absolutely critical. … If you see something in the editorial calendar that you have a unique expertise in or a story about, contact the publication.

“The second thing would be to make sure I know who the news editor is and who the features editor is. All the reporters have beats and they will return to the people who helped them the last time. They want people who will get back to them. Be interesting. Be quotable and be prepared to go on the record. Let us know what the trends are. If you pitch us, give us a clear idea.

“You see stories about large agencies because agencies large agencies pitch us.  We need help to find you sometimes.”

To close the session, Cody asked, “Is Pr Week making money? How can firms here who can’t afford advertising help you out?”

Hood responded that, “PR Week is doing quite well. What’s really pushed us ahead are special projects. … I believe that display advertising is not going to be the centre of the universe for PR Week. …. One thing that does bother me is people who want to be in the magazine who don’t subscribe. That level of participation for your trade publication …. you should get at least one subscription for your company.”

Julia, I’d love to subscribe. If I do, can I persuade you to cover Canadian PR agencies?

PRSA Counselors Academy: Tom Hoog clarification

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I received an email from Tom Hoog that one passage of my post on his remarks at Counselors Academy may have given the reader the wrong impression. Tom’s email said:

hey Joe just reread the blog—-one thought that might clear up a question—on the fifth paragraph I think it was, I’m not sure if the reader may take away the thought that H&K made some mistakes or the industry made some mistakes—clearly my intent was to say the industry had made some mistakes 

My intent was to faithfully capture the intent of Tom’s remarks, which were both candid and full of valuable advice. I appreciate that he took the time to read my post and clarify this point.

PRSA Counselors Academy: Dick Martin

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Dick Martin, Executive Vice-President for Public Relations for AT&T from 1997 to 2003, drew on his experience to offer insights about public relations at the heights of corporate America.

He started by asking “What do we do in PR? Rhetoric? Politics? Ethics? When you start out in PR, it’s all about rhetoric. When you get to the senior level, it’s less about what your client should say. It’s really about what your client should do. And that places public relations in the realm of ethics.”

PR's Brave New WorldHe bemoaned the current state of PR. “Public relations has degenerated in recent years into a series of techniques that could be taught in any trade school. … If economics is the dismal science, public relations has become the merry art of pseudo events and parties designed to work people into a frenzy.”

“Today, there are armies of PR people trying to inflate expectations of company results. … When drawing attention to our clients, be sure that there is something there to draw attention to.”

Looking to the future, he argued that “PR’s success depends on our clients’ success. The very thing that makes our clients successful – their focus on creating and serving customers – can also be a weakness in communications terms. PR practitioners should consider themselves to be the peripheral vision for our clients, helping them to see and deal with the things they may miss because of their single-minded focus.”

Finally, when asked about the pressure at some firms to take on controversial clients, Martin reminded the audience that, “Every person has the right to a legal defence, but not every person has the right to public relations. There are some situations that are so heinous that public relations should not become involved. Every practitioner should ask themselves whether what they are doing is serving the public interest.”

A thoughtful, pull-no-punches presentation by a man who scaled the heights of our profession and lived to tell about his experiences.

PRSA Counselors Academy: Steve Cody

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Steve CodySteve Cody, Managing Partner of Peppercom shared his thoughts about the vital role that having a future-driven vision played in the turnaround and success of his firm.

Cody had to reinvent his firm after the dot com bubble burst. Not surprisingly with a name like Peppercom, his client base tilted heavily to technology. And when the bust hit, many of his clients evaporated.

According to Steve, “Complacency is a killer. It’s critical to figure out how to differentiate yourself because the marketplace is rapidly changing.

“Agencies that just keep on doing what they’ve been doing for years are heading for trouble. The field of dreams approach does not work. We all have the same kind of relationships with journalists. … The more you are seen as just an order taker and a tactical media relations operation, the more your business will be marginalized.”

Cody has based Peppercom’s differentiation on “understanding what is keeping the client up at night and understanding the changes in the marketplace and the business.”

Cody believes in the value of street level market research. He regularly calls “eight to nine people to find out what they see as their challenges.”

He has developed services and solutions that respond directly to the client concerns he has discovered.

For example, after 9-11, he was told by many clients and business executives that they were reining in their communications budgets. When he probed to determine what areas were moving forward, he discovered that companies were looking for ways to heighten their security and ability to respond to a security-related event. Seeing this, Cody sought out and partnered with a security company to develop a CrisisRx program. Through Crisis RX, the two partner firms provide clients with a realistic simulation of their crisis plans in order for them to preview how they will perform should they have to implement them in real life.

Other product offerings developed in a similar way include

Pain-based Selling: Peppercom partnered with a sales training organization to provide clients with hybrid sales training that draws on the basic principals of effective communications that Peppercom offers in its traditional media training.

Business Outcomes: a measurement program development in partnership with a marketing company.

Cody and Peppercom use the intelligence they have gathered through their research as the driver for an aggressive promotion program for Peppercom.

“We are very aggressive in treating Peppercom as a brand. From the very beginning, we treated Peppercom as a brand. Today, we treat it like a $25K to $30K / month client.”

He constantly mines the data for use in articles and speeches. And he says there is a constant appetite on the part of business people to hear “what is keeping their peer group up at night.”

“All of our senior people are tasked with asking what’s keeping you up at night? What’s keeping your firm up at night? Then we publish the results. Every two months or so, we have thought leadership articles coming out.”

Cody has taken much the same approach to establishing a blog: first research what others have done, test his own approach internally and finally launch it publicly.

Recently, he partnered with PR News for a survey of the C-Suite’s opinion of PR, further differentiating his firm in a hot area.

And now Cody is drawing on this research to create PepperDigital to help executives close the gap between traditional reputation management and marketing and what they are doing online. Another need identified through research.

Counselors Academy: Tom Hoog

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Tom HoogTom Hoog, Senior Counselor to the Chairman of Hill and Knowlton got day one of Counselors Academy off to a good start with a refreshingly candid discussion of the key drivers of reputation management.

Hoog framed his issue at the outset: “Lack of trust is a growing problem in all the pillars of society. If we don’t strengthen trust, it will hamper our ability to move the economy and society forward.”

He cited a recent survey of students at 34 U.S. universities that discovered that only 39% would trust government to tell the truth, 22% would trust corporations and a mere 18% would trust the media to tell the truth.

He observed that, over the past eighteen months, we’ve seen several top PR agencies get themselves in trouble. Questioned about whether he believed that Fleishman Hillard’s reputation will be tarnished over several years as a result of the overbilling scandal in Los Angeles, Hoog responded that he expected it would “because all their competitors will use this against them.” He noted that, “It took Hill and Knowlton a full ten years to overcome the Kuwait incident.”

He noted a particular problem for public relations agencies, “In many cases, you are judged by who you represent. If you are representing someone who may be perceived as less than honourable, it will affect your own reputation.”

He added, “In the downturn, we did several things that hurt our reputations. We took business we shouldn’t have. We put junior people on it who didn’t do as good a job as they should have. And this hurt our industry’s reputation.”

His solution? According to Hoog, senior corporate executives must play a role in restoring and sustaining trust. “Executives must live the culture 24/7. … To do this, you must lead and develop your culture from your own value set. Then it is easy to live the brand and culture day in and day out. … [If you do otherwise], people will see you trying to be something that you are not.”

He underlined the importance of a strong, postive corporate culture, noting that senior executives do not have “the ability to keep an eye on everything that is going on. … The lowest person on the totem pole can destroy a reputation just as easily as the top person.”

Hoog also highlighted the problem faced by principals of small and medium-sized consulting firms. “When I was running my own small firm, I became the chief sales person and the top account executive and I did very little to run the firm. This was a terrible mistake. People did not know what I stood for. … It is important that principals in small firms focus on running the firm.”
He contrasted this with the approach that he took when he headed up Hill and Knowlton. At that time, the company had been losing revenue. A turnaround was required.

He started from a couple essential premises.

First, “Client turnover is directly related to staff turnover. A client hates having new people brought into accounts. He who minimizes staff turnover wins.”

Second, “How do you minimize staff turnover? Reputation.” He illustrated this with recent data from the Centre for Creative Leadership that indicates that the top four things on peoples’ list of they they want to work at a company are: number 1, “my thoughts, my opinons are valued;” number 2 “The company I work for is well thought of;” number 3: Career opportunities; and only at number 4, salary. He noted that the first three factors were tightly clustered with a separation of about five points from one to three. Salary trailed another five points behind these.

The solution Hill and Knowlton put in place reflected this understanding:

  • “Our mission statement: We would grow through loyalty-based management.”Loyalty to clients “meant we would give clients ‘best teams’ regardless of geography.”

    H&K changed its bonus program for leaders of offices. “You had to demonstrate that you had given away 20% of the revenue from your office.”

  • “Loyalty to employees meant we would provide them with a career path. We instituted a “two year up or out policy.”
  • To support this, H&K introduced a new training program. Initially the training budget was 6% of total revenues. Once H&K stabilized, it dropped to 4%.
  • “Each employee had to take 30 credit hours per year. If they didn’t take it, they would not be eligible for a raise or a promotion.”
  • “We also put a serious mentoring program sytem into place.”
  • “And a 360 degree review process. It was cumbersome, but it worked.”

All in all, an excellent session. Hoog’s principals and methods can be used by firms both large and small. And while small firms lack the total resources of a giant like Hill and Knowlton, astute managers can choose particular initiatives to introduce to work to improve their situation.

The essential underpinning to any of these measures is that they are firmly grounded in a culture that reflects the values of the leadership of the firm. With this in place, any subsequent measures will ring true with employees and clients alike.

Blogging shines light on PR

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Zoey's got her eye on youFree-lance writer Zoey Castelino has been following my blog and those of David Jones and Chris Clarke and she offers some observations on the growing number of PR blogs:

I think this idea of public relations practitioners blogging is a great idea and a smart step in the direction of new and social media. It not only gives their clients a fresh outlook and an idea of what they can do, but also it gives anyone not familiar with the industry a better insight into what goes on behind closed doors.

From my experience, Zoe is absolutely dead-on in her assessment.

Since I started blogging, I have been delighted by the range of people commenting on my blog – not only other pr practitioners, but journalists, clients of our firm and students and teachers of public relations. I have learned a great deal from this conversation and sharpened my own thinking on several issues.

And while there is a certain feeling of vulnerability associated with posting my views on my blog (i.e. Do I reveal my naivete? Are my views unsophisticated or uninformed?), there is real satisfaction in having others respond sincerely and seriously to a post and to realize that I have indeed benefitted from the thinking and experience of people whom I might never have known otherwise .

I can only hope that my blog postings continue to throw light on the business of PR, best practices and life in a consulting firm.

Counselors Academy: Monday afternoon sessions I'm hoping to cover

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The afternoon sessions promise a good look at the present and near future:

Julia Hood: Town Hall luncheon interactive conversation with the editor-in-chief of PR Week

Not sure what to expect of this session.

Josh Hallett: Bloggety, Blog, Blog

The conference program says: “From Newsweek’s cover to CNN broadcasts, blogs are the most hyped tool for today’s communicatiors. Find out if the hype’s justified. And discover how our new communications world can evolve into a practitioner’s dream – or nightmare.”

I’m looking forward to this session. Given the profile of its membership, Counselors Academy is a good indicator of the extent to which social media tools have been adopted by small and mid-size firms across North America. At last year’s session in Phoenix, the people who attended Giovanni Rodriguez’s blogging workshop showed only very early awareness of RSS feeds and newsreaders. It will be interesting to see how much farther these media have proliferated in the past yer.

Tom Foremski and Robert French, moderated by Giovanni Rodriguez: The Future of Newspapers/The Future of PR

Another forward looking session. It’s advance billing: “This panel … will look at the financial stress that many newspapers are under and examine a number of possible causes. What does this mean for the future of newspapers? What does this mean for the future of public relations? The panel will debate and discuss a number of recent trends including the impact of Craigslist; competing sources for news; citizen journalism; and new media (blogs, wikis, RSS, podcasts, etc.)” Hmmm. Wonder what the “etc.” could be…

Counselors Academy: Monday morning sessions I'm hoping to cover

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So many great sessions at Counselors Academy. I’m forced to make decisions. Here are the sessions I’m hoping to cover on Monday

Tom Hoog: The Key Drivers of Reputation: Management for Agency Executives

The former President and CEO of Hill and Knowlton USA leads a breakout session described as “Agency growth is closely connected to the reputation of your leaders. One of the profession’s most accomplished executives will discuss authentic ways for managing reputation and brand persona for you and your firm.”

Steve Cody: A Future-Driven Vision

The Managing Partner of Peppercom asks the question: “What is your firm doing to develop a shared vision and commitment to the future? [Steve] will discuss the vital role that visioning played in the success of his firm.”

Dick Martin: Keynote presentation

The former Executive Vice-President of Public Relations for AT&T (1997-2003) “will mine his experience for lessons on how organizations should navigate their way through crisis and change.”

Bob Reed: From Mother to Mentor: Professional Development and Training for Today’s Workforce

Oh yeah. I’m up for this one. “Managing and training younger employees can be a challenge. They have perceptions, expectations and habits that can negatively impact how they act and perform on the job. So how do agencies manage younger associates to instill professionalism? And how must agency execs adapt to the needs of today’s workforce? [Bob Reed] will explore the issues and provide answers and information … to help upper management mold less-seasoned employees into productive professionals.”

I’m not sure about the molding. But I sure am keen to help young people succeed.