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October 14, 2004
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PR Fuel Mailbag: Tying Up Loose Ends
By Ben Silverman
It is time once again to dip into the old PR Fuel mailbag
and see what readers are saying and asking. This time, we'll
talk about blogs and antagonizing the media. I am also going
to elaborate on something you might have missed from the PR
Fuel website.
---
Loyal PR Fuel reader J. Michael Lenninger, Sales Manager for
The Saint Augustine Catholic magazine, has more than
twenty-five years of corporate communications experience,
and he writes the following regarding last week's column
(http://www.prfuel.com/archives/000320.html) on companies
missing the blogging boat:
I can understand why more companies aren't using blogs:
1. Conservatism rules. By nature, most public relations
folks are conservative when dealing with corporate values,
image and advertising. This is too leading-edge for them and
too hard to explain to top management, who still have
someone read and respond to their email for them. Yet the
extroverted, expressive side becomes frustrated with not
being able to try new things.
2. Something fun can't be effective! Again, the fear of
offending TPTB ("the powers that be") in the corporate world
keep public relations people from coming out in an honest,
fun way.
3. The fear factor. Wait until some crazy concept is
broadcast on a blog site, or a PR person pokes fun at some
corporate icon, and watch the sparks fly! Most public
relations people have to jump through so many hoops before
publishing. Think of all the approvals they would need to
get. . . legal, marketing, brand, advertising, executive,
department heads. . . Bureaucracy doesn't encourage unique
thinking. As you point out in a previous PR Fuel, many
public relations people have lost their jobs because of an
inappropriate comment they made.
4. Measuring success. If you can't count the clippings, how
can you measure the results? Most PR people know that
counting clippings, measuring column inches and then
applying the open column advertising rate to the total is
old hat. How many products did we sell? How many people
visited our site as a direct result of the blog? The bottom
line is the bottom line. . . how much money did we make or
how much money did we save?
5. Time factor. To do something consistently well, on a
daily basis, updating your blog almost every hour takes time
and commitment and manpower, which means increasing an
already overstretched budget. Most PR practitioners are
pushed to the max and wear multiple hats. If they can't keep
their websites updated, how can they possibly maintain a
good blog?
PRF Response: Lenninger basically hits the nail on the head
here and raises an interesting question: How do we change
the PR process at companies and organizations?
The amount of red tape some people have to go through just
to put out a press release is embarassing. Everyone from
sales, legal, marketing to the executive suite have to sign
off on press releases it seems. If that's the case, how
could a company expect to publish a blog - essentially a
daily, tidbit newsletter - aimed directly at customers,
consumers or the media?
The simple answer is that the PR process needs to be
streamlined to include less people. If a
company/organization has a well-crafted PR message, and like
a good politician actually stays on it, the need for
constant filtering is lessened. This is one of the biggest
problems I've encountered from PR people: mixed messages.
I believe a good PR staff can articulate a company's message
and do so without constant interference from others at the
company. PR people don't tell sales people how to do their
jobs, and it shouldn't work the other way either.
---
Regarding my column from last month about not alienating the
media (http://www.prfuel.com/archives/000304.html), I
received some interesting responses:
"Your logic of not attacking the media is flawed, because
many times the media is wrong/has an agenda. That would be
like not hiring a lawyer to defend yourself in court because
it might make you look guilty," one reader wrote.
PRF Response: I understand the logic of this argument, and
partially agree. However, the media is not legally bound to
the ideals of due process. No one should let themselves be
steamrolled by the media, but unnecessarily antagonizing the
media - as the company I used as an example in my original
column did - gets you nowhere.
The important thing to remember is that the media landscape
is drastically shifting. Newspaper readership is decreasing;
network news reigns supreme but is limited in its coverage
scope; cable news has - in my mind - some serious
credibility problems (and I suspect will find viewership
declining after the elections); and the Internet is finally
coming into its own as a serious information dissemination
medium. With this backdrop, PR people should be more
proactive and reach out more directly to their target
audience by using more traditional marketing methods in
their campaigns. By doing this, you sidestep the need to
rely on the media for all your "ink."
---
Regarding the same column on antagonizing the media, another
reader chimes in, "Do have one question -- It seems to me
that this tip is one which would alienate the media: 'Inform
a reporter at a competing publication of the problem and see
if they would be interested in writing a story about your
situation.' Isn't it better to try and rectify the situation
with the publication that wrote the inaccurate info rather
than go to the competition? I'd think that would create a
permanent rift."
PRF Response: I should have been less general in my comments
here and said that sometimes you're going to need other
people in the media to defend you.
Yes, you should try to work out any problems you have with
individual reporters or editors or with individual media
outlets. But this isn't always going to work, and if you
continue to suffer bad press from the same people - and you
think it's not justified - you need to battle this. This
will be impossible sometimes, especially in local markets
with one dominant media outlet.
Historically, the media have stayed away from attacking each
other (except in very localized ways where
circulation/viewer ship battles occur). But with the rash
of media disasters in the past few years, the media has
increasingly turned its attack dogs on each other. I know
few reporters who would love nothing less than to be able to
slam their competition. One needs only to look at the CBS
News Bush-memo scandal for a reminder that the media is
turning into its own watchdog (with help from others, most
notably bloggers).
---
A few weeks ago on the PR Fuel weblog, I noted a story in
The Washington Post
(http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A58074-2004Sep28.html)
about an incident at the Alexandria Country Day School, a
private school outside of Washington, D.C. Here's the
original post:
"In a nutshell, kitchen staff at the Alexandria Country Day
School, a private school outside of Washington, D.C.,
mistakenly gave students small cups of a drink they thought
was fruit punch, but in fact contained alcohol. Teachers
realized the mistake quickly, and no child was harmed.
Nonetheless, the school knew it must inform parents, so
Alexander Harvey IV, head of the school, quickly fired off a
letter to parents the same day.
'We ask the students to be honest and admit their mistakes,
and we should do the same,' the letter said.
Harvey says he's heard no complaints from parents about the
incident, and the vice-president of the Parent-Teacher
League praised the school for its quick and honest response
to the situation.
This may all seem a bit trivial, but consider this: the
240-child school charges anywhere from $14,200 to $15,600 a
year for tuition. Taking a $15K average annual tuition cost,
that works out to $3.6 million in tuition revenue per year.
That's nothing to sneeze at, and when you're paying $15K a
year for school, you want your kids not only to get a
top-notch education, but to do so in a safe environment with
competent staff.
Clearly an honest mistake was made, and thankfully, there
was no harm done. (If nothing else, maybe the kids who
tasted the drink will stay away from alcohol when they get
older!). The school responded quickly, honestly and in a
meaningful way. In doing so, they protected their business
and kept their customers happy (not to mention they built
additional good will).
The only disappointing news is that the story ended up in
the newspaper, and on the front page of the Metro section of
The Washington Post, no less. (What, slow news day in the
'burbs?). By the same token, parents who read the story may
come away feeling good about the school and its
administration. I certainly did, and the article was, in the
end, basically an endorsement for how the school handled a
mistake." (end original website post)
It's interesting to note that this story spread like
wildfire across the Net and that CNN and others came
calling. I fired off an email to Harvey praising him for his
actions, and he sent back a nice response.
What I didn't mention in my original post is that Harvey and
the school deserve additional praise for how they handled
the story. The incident was handled admirably, I noted, but
by talking to the media, the school once again fostered good
will by being open and honest about a mistake. The school
could have taken a "run and hide" approach, but that would
have done no good because the story was already out there,
and hiding would have made no sense.
It is a simple PR tactic like this - dealing with the issue
at hand in an honest way - that helps limit damage when
mistakes are made by a business, organization, or yes, even
a school. It didn't take a trained PR professional to come
up with this approach either, just an educator looking out
for his students.
Remember this the next time someone wants to duck an issue.
---
Visit the PR Fuel website at http://www.prfuel.com for daily
PR industry news and commentary.
---
Ben Silverman is a former business news columnist for The
New York Post and a Contributing Editor for FindProfit.com
(http://www.findprofit.com), an independent investment
newsletter. He can be reached via email at
[EMAIL PROTECTED]
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