Review – Putting the Public Back in Public Relations

Putting the Public Back In Public Relations by Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge

First, don’t be put off by the “PR” aspect of the book.

Believe me, this is not another Public Relations theory book. Though Solis and Breakenridge do discuss the history and traditional practices of the industry, it’s more of a planning and practical guidebook for using new PR 2.0 strategies to build trust and credibility.

This book doesn’t just put the “public” back in public relations, it puts the human back into community relations and business promotion. Forget about automation and accumulating media hits, and think about creating a plan encourages others to continue to be interested in, and involved with, your company.

“Fusing marketing, PR, community relations, product marketing, and customer service in an entirely new, socially aware role.” -PPBPR

Solis and Breakenridge address the real problems with PR, and how the industry’s reputation has declined over the years. The internet has put a spotlight on PR’s worst-practices and blunders, and the authors identify how conscientious PR practitioners can begin to change the way others see the industry as a whole.

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The Future of Public Relations?

Last week, Jason Falls sparked a debate about the future of Public Relations in his post Social Media is the Responsibility of Public Relations.

Falls points out, many companies don’t have the resources to employ Social Media specialists and must rely on internal resources to create and maintain consumer and business relationships online. He suggests that social networking must become a function of Public Relations.

In my mind, social media is essentially public relations in the online world. Divide the category up by component — blogs, social networks, microblogging, podcasts/Web TV, wikis/collaborative software — they each ladder in some way to a component of public relations — writing, corporate communications, community relations, media relations, event management.

I agree.  As people demand more from brands and service providers, Social Media is enabling us to connect with our prospects and customers in very meaningful ways. Blogs, forums and social networking are changing the way companies interact with customers. Our communications are becoming more targeted and personal. We can expand out market coverage and create the opportunity to interact directly with the people who purchase our products. Moreover, companies that make the effort to adopt current technologies will gain an advantage over their competitors.

Solutions for Small Business

So what is the solution for the small business that does not have a Public Relations, Marketing or Social Media department?

Companies incapable of meeting the ever-increasing demands of Public Relations will need to outsource most of their Social Networking functions. In the future, Social Media Specialists will be in high demand as more companies realize the importance of these activities. For those of us willing to learn new technologies and participate, we have the ability to create manageable internal social networking strategies. If we want them to be effective, we will need to acquire the appropriate skills and dedicate ourselves to the ongoing process.

As media outlets become smaller, we need to find new ways to gain publicity and get people talking about our companies. We can’t always rely on media contacts to relay our positive image. We need to create continuous strategies we can monitor and alter depending on our observed results. Through direct contact, we have an opportunity to discover what our customer wants, gather relevant ideas and present a solution to their immediate problems.  If we create valuable connections, and refrain from using Social Media as another medium for our sales pitch, we have the opportunity to use these interactions to create a positive public image and develop desirable product.

Falls predicts:

Social Media will evolve into components of a sophisticated public relations effort.

Businesses that have clearly developed Social Media strategies, and use both Marketing and Public Relations resources, will be further ahead than companies that ignore online networking, or misuse it as a form of advertising and promotion. The main purpose of social networking is to create ongoing conversations. Companies that do not participate in the conversation, or use it solely as a means to push products in the faces of potential buyers will fail.

As more and more of our potential customers are using social networks to evaluate businesses and brands, we need to learn how to start conversations, build relationships and grow communities.

What do you think?

Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, media one-sheets, and warm letters, please visit her Copywriting Services page for information.

PR Lesson From Relay for Life

One of the sponsors for this year’s Relay for Life was a small local courier company. I say small because although he has a client base of 3000, his competitors are more than likely Fed-Ex, UPS, and (if you live in Canada) Purolator. These larger companies can be stiff competition. They spend millions on their advertising and marketing campaigns and their worldwide coverage makes it hard for smaller courier companies to break into the market with speedy delivery and affordable rates.

As a person who used to work for an established international distribution company, I know that there are a ton of small local courier companies out there who fight to match services and prices with these big names. I’ve used both big and small with mixed results, but the bad days stand out the most in my memory.

More than Just a Sponsor

More to the point, this is the only event that I have attended where I was shocked by the level of commitment from a sponsor. Not only did his company sponsor the new Caregiver Lap at our event, but he also sponsored the Survivor and Caregiver Laps at 6 other locations. On top of that, he sponsored the tribute Luminaries as well.

When I say sponsor, I don’t just mean that he donated money, candles and sand. I mean he collected and walked these luminaries to their designated spots around the track.

For an entire 1 1/2 before the luminary ceremony, he brought the candles down to the track and organized them in the appropriate order. At first he looked lost and frazzled, but eventually he started to find his groove. As the ceremony grew closer, he picked up his pace and started jogging back and forth between the walkers and the Luminary kiosk.

Dedication to the Cause

On every lap, we watched him tirelessly support all of the participants by helping them find the right place to stand and light their tributes while the bag pipes played a haunting hymn.

As one of the participants, I’ve seen first hand the dedication and commitment this business owner has to his community and the people in it. I’ve seen him labour tirelessly for the benefit of others. This was more than a sponsorship to him. That was obvious.

I’ve seen him walk the track as one of us. As someone who has more than likely lost a friend or family member to the disease we can’t seem to obliterate.

Finding a New Courier Service

Like many people there, and at the 6 other events, I’m a business owner. As much as I like the “guaranteed” service of the big three (who’ve all had their share of putting me in a tough spot by losing my packages), I now have a new company to consider in my business decisions.

I had never met him before this event, but because of his simple charitable act, I feel like I already know him and the values of his company. Before I send my next important package, I’ll call his company for a quote because I want him to be able to support the cause again next year.

We all will. He’s one of us now. Someone who was lost at first, but then gathered strength through the support of those around us.

Proper Use of a Press Release… This is Not It

This post is about a month late.

I had planned on writing a post on April 2nd, when I first stumbled on the Press Release.

I’m not going to say much about it. It really needs no explanation, but I thought it was worth noting because it’s an example of the Labour Congress’ blatant misuse of Press to downplay a very serious issue.

Well… they probably hadn’t intended to make light of the issue, but this doesn’t help the public’s view of their commitment to solving the problem.

I know, it was April Fool’s day. This was intended to be light-hearted and in the moment of the festivities (are there April Fool’s Day festivities?).

Here is their first release of the day:

Our Kind of Tax Cut
Labour welcomes government action on women’s wages

OTTAWA – The Canadian Labour Congress today welcomed news that the federal government will finally move to close the persistent and growing wage gap that sees Canada’s working women paid an average of 70½ cents for each dollar earned by men.

“Lower taxes for lower wages: higher taxes for higher wages. It’s plain old common sense that works for women. We work just as long and just as hard to support our families as men do in this country. It’s about time something was done to address the fact that we get paid less for our work,” says Barbara Byers, Executive Vice- President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

Last month, the CLC released a report that showed just how deep Canada’s pay inequity problem has become. The report, “Women in the Workforce: Still a Long Way from Equality” revealed that Canadian women who work at full-time jobs throughout the entire year earn just 70½ cents for every dollar earned by men who do similar work. Worse, the report showed that this wage gap was growing and growing fastest among women with post-secondary education.

“As women file their income tax returns, they see they are paying taxes on wages where they’ve done a dollars’ worth of work for thirty cents less. It’s not fair and, finally, the government has decided to do something about it,” says Barbara Byers, Executive Vice-President of the Canadian Labour Congress.

According to Byers, the Minister for Women will announce plans to have women pay, on average, 70% of the income taxes on their wages that men pay. Because nearly 40% of women who file income tax returns already don’t earn enough to pay federal tax (according to Revenue Canada statistics from 2005), the impact on the federal treasury is something the government can manage.

While greater access to affordable child care, higher minimum wages, and meaningful pay equity laws would do more to close the wage gap between Canadian women and men, Byers says this is an April 1st to remember. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca

My point is, they could have picked a different issue or dealt with it in a different way. They actually released this to an international PR website. So, it was released as genuine news about labour equity and tax cuts.

I’m sure it’s not the first time a company has done this, but it certainly should be the last time a governing body does this.

They issued this retraction, which was released later in the day:

April Fools! – Cutting taxes really doesn’t help

April 1, 2008

OTTAWA – Earlier today, we issued a release about plans to have women pay just 70% of the income tax on their wages that men pay as a measure to compensate for the fact that women earn, on average, about 70 cents for every dollar earned by men who do similar work. Of course, it was an April Fools’ joke.

While it’s true that something needs to be done to address this problem, there are better answers. To learn about them, visit onceandforall.ca or look for the Equality! Once and For All! campaign on our web site, canadianlabour.ca.

The Canadian Labour Congress, the national voice of the labour movement, represents 3.2 million Canadian workers. The CLC brings together Canada’s national and international unions along with the provincial and territorial federations of labour and 136 district labour councils. Web site: www.canadianlabour.ca

I agree that tax cuts aren’t the appropriate way to solve the problem, and the likelihood of the Government taking a stand in this way is pretty far-fetched.

Maybe they were attempting to gain more support by creating awareness of the situation and making people angry. Maybe they thought that this would spark some huge debate in Social Media and people would contact them or support them in their fight. If they were purely looking for a laugh, it didn’t work.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not averse to humor.

I just don’t support their idea of a joke.

Pamela Weir is a Marketing Copywriter. If you are looking for a sales writer with experience creating website content, press releases, squeeze pages, and sales pages, please visit her Copywriting Services page for more information.