Stop what you are doing right now. Seriously. Take a moment and read this post.
What have you accomplished today? Not just work, but everything. Did you say thank you to the guy opening the door or the gal who served you coffee? Did you tell your kids or spouse I love you? Did you make a difference?
Last week, I took a flight to Phoenix on my favorite airline – Southwest – to meet a client and a consultant. With two small children at home, I am trying to only do these trips for one night at a time and I am writing this post on Friday evening on my way home.
The unthinkable happened as we were on our final approach into Phoenix. A lady a few rows in front of me went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Southwest handled the situation perfectly, first by asking for a doctor and then getting the plane down as quickly as possible. We watched as paramedics carried her off the plane. For thirty minutes we sat as they worked on her in the jet way, presumably unsuccessfully based on everyone’s reaction as we exited the plane.
As I saw the real tears from passengers and flight attendants after the tunnel had cleared, it made me remember the blessing of today. Part of my trip to Phoenix was to plan for the future of our business in public relations. The funny way God works is that we are only guaranteed today. I didn’t know the poor woman, but I thought about how short life is and how thankful I am for today’s blessings.
Continuing my blog series on my experience with the Joint Civilian Orientation Conference (JCOC) earlier this month, I have highlighted eleven management lessons. Whether you are a platoon leader or a small business operator, these tips are completely transferable.
1. Invest and train young people
2. Respectful collaboration, but do not be afraid to show courageous leadership when needed to advance the mission
3. Be flexible
4. Discipline creates positive outcomes
5. Different ideas are powerful
6. Anticipating what the enemy is going to do next keeps you sharp and ready
Today, nonprofits across central Oklahoma will receive a letter from Saxum|PR announcing our inaugural Step Up community action project.
We are very much aware that this economic period presents an unprecedented test of sustainability for the nonprofit community. Many of our staff are engaged in the nonprofit community on a voluntary basis and intimately know the challenges this sector faces from donor communications to reduction in services to event execution and more. So we decided to do something as a company.
At Saxum|PR, we believe in corporate social responsibility (CSR) as an important part of being an active participant in the growth of our community. As a way to give back, we are launching a new and exciting grant program that will provide one nonprofit with the Saxum Experience, a $50,000 public relations service grant for one year beginning July 1, 2010.
We have partnered with an expert team of advisers comprised of some of the community’s most prominent organizations that have a firm understanding of the current state and needs of local nonprofits to help us make our decision. This team will ensure that our first recipient has the capacity and sustainability to continue generating success at the end of the grant period. Our advisory team includes:
Carol Wilkinson Troy, former CEO of the Center for Nonprofits, and Stephanie Hansen, who was the PR and event coordinator at Allied Arts, lead our team. Our goal is to create a meaningful experience that will help our selected organization establish and develop a communications plan that will effectively tell the story of your organization.
The grant recipient will receive the following services:
· Comprehensive communication plan and execution timeline · Media relations · Media training for members of your organization · Monthly meetings with your organization’s point person · Collaborative session with your organization to determine goals and objectives · Research component to learn more about your target audiences · Select creative services to compliment the communication plan At Saxum, we believe execution is more than making a connection, a press release or event. It is about telling your story and fulfilling the mission of your organization. When there is great need, there is the opportunity for great deeds. For important dates and information on the Saxum Step Up program, visit Saxum|PR.
It is good to live in Oklahoma right now for several reasons.
1) Oklahoma City has one of the lowest unemployment rates in the country and the state is not far behind. Just over a year ago, it was difficult to find talent because our state was virtually employed and those out of work didn’t want a job or were not qualified to get one. When compared to Texas and California, our job situation is great even though I still expect layoffs from big companies (probably oil and gas) sooner than later.
2) Oklahomans continue to ride the “prosperity wave.” Oklahoma business owners are hoping the recession skims past us because after riding the crest of the boom, we so far have not fallen victim to the undercurrents of the bad economy. The theory goes that by the time the national trends hit our state in Q3 or Q4 of this year, the national recovery will have started and we’ll miss the big downturn. Think of it like last weekend’s snow storm. Small oil and gas producers and public companies are certainly feeling the effects of the national recession, but most independent small businesses (defined as those with less than 1,000 employees) are pinching themselves because business is up. If I have heard it once, I’ve heard it 25 times.
The Bad
The AIG mess has President Obama scrambling to show his administration is in control of public companies who have received bailout money. As a result, the president flexed his political muscle on Sunday and has forced the resignation of GM CEO Rick Wagoner. The lead on Bloomberg went like this -
General Motors Corp. Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner was forced out after President Barack Obama’s task force decided he was unable to craft a plan to save the automaker he ran for more than eight years.
Huh? It is not that I’m upset about Wagoner being let go. I’m actually happy that he is gone due to the complete ineptitude of his leadership since assuming the helm in 2003. What I’m upset about is that the president’s task force “decided” has was unable to continue. Mr. Wagoner does not serve at the pleasure of the president. He serves the board of directors and shareholders of that company. If I’m Kenneth D. Lewis, chairman of Bank of America and others who took the T.A.R.P. money, I’m concerned (to put it lightly).
The Ugly
My Sooners fell to the Tarheels in the NCAA tournament to deny the team their first trip to the final four since 2002. Blake Griffin was terrific, again, with 23 points and 16 rebounds (an average game for Blake. No, literally it was about his average!). Yes, he is gone. The problem was the guards. I Twittered on Sunday before the game that two of three OU guards needed to have their best game of the year. Didn’t happen. I’m proud of the type of year they had, but shooting 2-19(!) from the three point line is not a prescription for success. Even though Griffin is undoubtedly gone (I said the same about Bradford) let’s hope that Jeff Capel calls a press conference today to confirm he is not interested in Kentucky, Virginia or any of the other available college jobs.
BONUS UGLY COVERAGE: If Travis Ford takes the Kentucky job, OSU would be crazy not to hire Billy Gillespie. I like the animated Ford, but Gillespie is his peer in every way.
The massive reset of the U.S. and world economy is still underway as we unwind from an era of excess(ive everything) and legacy cost burdens which are unsustainable in the on-demand information age. Public relations continues to be well positioned for future growth as old-school advertising morphs to look more like expensive PR. Advertising is certainly needed, just not as it functioned before. I’m coming off of two weeks of travel to Raleigh, New York City and Las Vegas. Below are a few of my observations on how communications and general trends fit into this emerging world order.
Make a connection. The more and more I read, observe and discuss, the more I am convinced that most meaningful brand interaction and reputation building will originate on the Internet. Not all consumers are going there first, but mavens and educated people are. Yesterday’s NYT had a full-page advertisement for the iPhone which showed all the applications that are usable right now for nearly everyone. Social networks? Restaurant ratings? Recipes? Weather? GPS? Yes. All of them and more. There are applications being created for smart phones every day to help people communicate and maneuver through life with more ease. These communications techniques (known as apps) will serve as hubs for meaningful interaction and value.
Be real. Authentic experiences are becoming more and more important to stakeholders. Cookie-cutter approaches to communicating for the purposes of scale are increasingly difficult. They can drive profits, but the break through communicators are seeking authenticity. How do you create authenticity? If you experience it, you know it.
This is me. Everyone wants to use the word transparency. It is today’s buzzword, but I submit that honesty could be a more descriptive word for how companies need to think about communicating with audiences, especially internally. Transparency is me being open to evaluation by others. Honesty is being able to share information in an open, tactful and, well, honest way. Honesty breeds trust. Think about the difference between the two.
Risk and reward. I read where Goldman Sachs is sending e-mails to clients with investment opportunities with projected returns. Surely this is crazy talk during the recession, right? No, I believe the best positioned individuals and brands are aggressively seeking new profit centers right now. Creativity and perception has always been a good trait for picking winners in America. The question for PR people is how to find the special people and tell their story and what avenues to use.
May I help you?Steve Rubel from Edelman Digital wrote about customer service in 2009 focusing on the giant social network world as a virtual customer service hotline. “Customer service is the new PR,” he said. Because of the glitz and over-the-top atmosphere of Las Vegas, customer service is tantamount to staying in business. While there for the NCAA basketball tournament, it was amazing how much more I was willing to pay for great service. Internal communications training programs on etiquette, appearance and customer engagement could be the difference between profit and loss and a PR professional can help you navigate that avenue.
Smile. Since October 2008, we have promoted that the best leaders should have an optimistic outlook and speak up. I’d like to extend that to brands. The bottom of the market may not be here yet, but consumers and business leaders-alike are tired of the bad news. Using bright colors, communicate the good news early and often. It might rub off on someone.
Public relations continues to grow in importance, yet globally and locally our industry still struggles with its image. Research continually shows that CEOs rely on their PR team more and more to make key decisions. In the past year, our profession has been hammered by USA Today , CBS Sunday Morning and earlier this month by left-leaning Rachel Maddow of MSNBC.
Last week, I traveled to New York City to judge the prestigious Silver Anvil Awards for PRSA. I had an in-depth conversation with Michael Cherenson, APR, the chair-elect for the organization, about the topic of integrity in PR.
Three key topics came up: 1) Why is PR counsel held to a different standard than professional services provided by lawyers or accountants? Lawyers are entitled to represent whoever they choose without the fear of being cast-out by other clients. Not the same for PR. We’ve certainly experienced anxiety on high-profile clients who are in trouble but who we believe in.
2) How should PRSA focus its efforts to fight the image that PR executives do not have transparency, ethics and the truth in mind when working for clients?
3) What else could PRSA do to help bring credibility to our profession?
Mr. Cherenson shared many of the steps that PRSA is taking to address this problem. Certainly, a formal accreditation process that everyone adheres to would be a start. Professionals like doctors, lawyers and accountants have this process, yet PR does not.*
*Author’s note: PRSA has an accreditation, the APR designation, but not all professionals feel it is imperative for this title due to a host of other reasons too numerous to discuss here. I do not have my APR by choice and joined approximately 40 percent of my judging colleagues who did not. This is a topic for a future column.
Secondly, we spoke of having a response team of senior leadership in PRSA to take action to slanderous attacks. He indicated this is happening. I urged him to recruit the biggest players in the industry to speak up when untruths are broadcast or written.
Finally, he argued that PR is still a relatively young profession with the first college formed some 50 years ago while other professions and their standards have been around for centuries. PR continues to grow in comparison to advertising and has more influence with CEOs than ever before. The public we seek to influence may not understand our value for years to come.
It is not appropriate to disclose the methods of judging the Silver Anvils in this forum, but as a first-time judge, I was immensely impressed by how serious the judging process was taken by PRSA and judges alike. The standards were extremely high and the winner in my category did not have a perfect score based on our criteria – or even get close. That’s good. PR is still growing and getting better. I’m proud to be part of a profession that is improving its processes and standards each day and year.
USA Today ran an article today by Seth Brown titled How public relations helps steer opinion and the news. It was generally off-base and full of old stereotypes. It is time to end the debate of the necessity of public relations. In a world where brands are one YouTube clip away from financial ruin, employing the assistance of professional communicators to help explain complicated, and sometimes messy, situations in plain English has never been more important.
The Internet and 3G networks have changed the definition of “reporter” from someone who is a credentialed journalist into someone who has an iPhone and a Twitter account.
Gathering quality news content continues to be a costly venture for an industry that feeds a public that believes information should be free. To make matters worse, our collective attention span has never been narrower, yet we are absorbing more content than ever before. As a journalist, how can you gather the quality content your editor demands and the public expects while still getting all the facts straight? Enter public relations professionals.
The public relations professional can be to reporters what Robin is to Batman. We are both working toward ideals all humanity can believe in – the truth. We are a team. We work together to get the story right. Not because we are ideologues and our clients pay us to get it right, but because we have to get it right. If not, we would be out of business. The public does not condone liars or cheats and most of us are neither. Like all partners, there are times for disagreement, but a harmonious relationship is how we survive.
Spin and scumbags are old terms used to describe our profession by those who still believe classifieds advertisements are found in the daily paper and the evening news is actually a 30-minute television show watched by most Americans. The world has changed and our profession has changed with it.
Conservative estimates show that Oklahoma legislators will have a budget deficit of about $600M as they return to do the people’s business this week. That is the biggest shortfall since Gov. Brad Henry’s first year in office. In addition, it appears Oklahoma will receive money from the pending national stimulus bill, which will be used for infrastructure and education in the name of helping end the recession.
Below are four ideas and suggestions for legislators and leaders heading into the 2009 session:
Leapfrog the competition. With a Republican House and Senate and a Democrat in the Governor’s mansion, Oklahomans want elected officials to resist partisan politics, please. People are tired of attacks and finger-pointing. Rally around a leader – any leader – who can show courage and forecast a vision of moving Oklahoma forward while other states face much bigger challenges than ours. Now is the time to brand our state and pass laws that make our state more attractive for knowledge workers who see the bigger markets as too risky in this bad economy. This is a classic buy low, sell high mentality we need to embrace.
No new mandates/Grow the private sector. It will be difficult, but legislators need to resist mandates and instead focus on spending the money we have wisely on the most pressing issues. Create incentives for the private sector which is looking for motivation to take risks. Government sponsored incentives encourage positive growth in the private sector. While others are passing regulations which strangle private sector growth, Oklahoma can become even more business friendly.
Spend more money on infrastructure than education. One of government’s core functions is to provide infrastructure. Research confirms Oklahoma has not done a good job of investing in our roads and bridges, although recent years’ allocations have been the strongest in 50 years. The Obama stimulus is coming, so let’s use it for promoting more commerce through our crossroads state.
Education is important – vitally important – but measures like Senate bill 1111* need to be passed before we throw more dollars at public education. Year after year, voters are told we need to invest more in public education only to be disappointed with mixed results.
Speak up. Finally, I hope that Governor Henry and House and Senate leaders can work together and take some tips from our Speak Up campaign. Now is the time to reach out to current employers and ask them what incentives they need to do more business here. The Oklahoma standard says we help each other in tough times. Encouraging people to give back in our communities during the recession will help social services and cultural agencies grow. If there is bad news, then disclose it. Mostly, we ask for our elected officials to present a great attitude. Smile. A positive outlook goes a long way. Doom and gloom only confirms people’s greatest fears.
Oklahoma is positioned better than any surrounding state. Let’s take advantage.
Three and a half years ago, I was at an IPREX meeting in Washington, D.C. when my colleague Ken Makovsky suggested everyone start and maintain a weekly professional blog. Since then, I’ve faithfully blogged 103 times. I have spent hours thinking about how to keep my perspective relevant and timely, hopefully offering insight that didn’t exist outside my head. I’ve received nice comments.
Now, things have changed.
In just the past several months, content has become even more specialized and more condensed. Technology allows for the sharing of information in a way that finds you, not the other way around. Print journalism has gone from changing to changed. Although blogs are still relevant, they flourish best in an environment that is rich in content and regularly populated. It is tough to keep up.
The remarkable power, influence and adoption of Twitter has been nothing short of fascinating. Communicating to a wide audience in 140 characters is a PR person’s dream – short sentences that communicate a point, succinctly! From news organizations to political figures, Twitter has become packed with community thought leaders. Twitter, to me, has become an opportunity to share my content-rich messages and reach a much larger audience than my blog ever reached.
My blog is not over by a long shot. Our creative team at Maxus is developing unique ways to feed daily content to our home page. Called lifestreaming, through Web sites like Ping.fm, is one of the big things we are exploring next.
One of our talented SAEs shared with me on Friday a survey I missed from the end of last year from the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press .
We all knew the internet would someday overtake print, but it is official at the conclusion of 2008 with 40 percent of people primarily getting national and international news from the internet (five percentage points more than news print). Television reserved the top spot, but not for long. The changed business of print journalism has been rapid.
US Newspaper Advertising Revenues (Billion $ and % change) Year Ad Revenues ($Bil) % Change from Previous Year 2007 $45.4 -7.9% 2008 37.9 -16.4 2009 31.9 -15.9 2010 30.2 -5.3 2011 29.1 -3.6 2012 28.4 -2.5 Source: eMarketer, December 2008
What about young people? Yes, young people go to the Web first and at the same rate as television. But TV is about to be the Web for all of us. Have you seen Boxee yet? It is a converter box for televisions to watch internet video. TV and online are now the same.
Perhaps the most astonishing thing about the Pew study is the universe studied – adults. Not voters. Not educated workers. Not employees. No, the survey asked adults.
Although the study does not cover social media, Social networks, such as Twitter and Facebook, are also no doubt driving news sharing. Last week’s US Airways plane crash was first reported moments after it crashed on – you guessed it – Twitter. Amazing, huh?
It is a different world we live in today. Speak Up to your audiences and have a balanced communications plan to break through.
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