It is more than PR Spam...

I’ve started getting into the issue of PR Spam and I must say that I‘ve reached the point, when I just hate to call it this way, It is because I think that the term doesn’t really capture the nature of the issue.

Definitions of spam on the Web are very diverse yet similar:

• A common synonym for spam is unsolicited bulk e-mail (UBE).

• Spam is the abuse of electronic messaging systems (including most broadcast media, digital delivery systems) to send unsolicited bulk messages indiscriminately.

• A collection of unsolicited bulk electronic messages; Any undesired electronic content automatically-generated for commercial purposes

• Indiscriminately send unsolicited, unwanted, irrelevant, or inappropriate messages, especially commercial advertising in mass quantities.

• Unwanted, unsolicited email

So I am asking, what about the unwanted and irrelevant DMs on Twitter? The unnecessary and annoying phone calls and text messages? Other forms of information received without people requesting them? Based on the definitions of ‘spam’, the PR issue is not just PR Spam. It is more complex than that. In my opinion, the key aspects of what we call ‘PR Spam’ are:

• Inappropriate targeting => resulting in sending information in bulk

• Laziness to do the initial media campaign research => resulting in sending information in bulk

• Unrealistic expectation on PROs to meet crazy objective (i.e. every day coverage in the FTs) = causing high level of stress on the PRO to get some coverage => resulting in sending information in bulk

• Lack of appropriate education=>causing low practical PR skills=> resulting in sending information in bulk

• Expensive media training courses => little chance that a PRO will attend => resulting in sending information in bulk

I get it, journos and bloggers are angry because their email in-boxes are full of irrelevant information but they need to see the reality of being on the other side too. (I intend to cover this in my next blog post)

The campaign “An Inconvenient PR Truth" covers 10 demands on behalf of journalists and bloggers - “bill of rights: 

• Right 1 – Permission required

• Right 2 – Timely unsubscribe

• Right 3 – Don’t rely on media lists exclusively

• Right 4 – Read publication first

• Right 5 – Categorise interests in detail

• Right 6 – Types of release

• Right 7 – Telephone chasing

• Right 8 – Succinct headlines

• Right 9 – Use clear format

• Right 10 – No attachments

Are these purely about finding ways how to stop PROs from spamming journalists and bloggers? I don’t think so. It seems like the problem is hidden much deeper – in the nature of the ‘PRO – Journalist’ relationship.

I have noticed that some people are trying to cash out on this hot issue and came up with training seminars, webinars, blogs, and who knows what else. Here is an offer to ‘attend’ a webinar on how to deal with the media, in particular how to pitch journalists in the new media world. It will cost you ‘only’ $99!!! Is this helping?

‘CIPR training, qualifications and seminars for PR& communication professionals’ booklet offers only two workshops on basic level on how to deal with the media.

• Selling-in your stories (£350 + VAT for CIPR members, £455 + VAT for non-members)

• Working with the media (£350 + VAT for CIPR members, £455 + VAT for non-members)

 I am not entirely convinced that these two workshops are tailored to the needs of the journalists though.

So as I said above, the so called ‘PR Spam’ is more than that. PROs should think before they hit send. Do you all remember the definition of PR?

"Public Relations is the planned and sustained effort 

to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual 

understanding between an organisation and its publics."

  (CIPR)

How important is Social Media in Marketing Plan?

If this question was asked 5 years ago, marketers would go: “Maybe Social Media is important but we will wait and see what our competitors come up with first.” It is 2010 now and the answer has changed significantly: “Yes, it is very important to try something new ahead of our competition” ...Social Media are even crucial for some companies. The key point here is that SOCIAL MEDIA HAS TO BE INTEGRATED WITH THE OTHER MARKETING AND MARCOMS TOOLS. Social media doesn't drive marketing, but marketing doesn't drive social media. THEY WORK TOGETHER.

In the society where the main focus is on brands not products, it is immensely important that the brands put emphasis on engaging with their key stakeholders (customers and consumers) via a range of social networks. Social Media help communicate with the customers and reach them in more ways than the traditional mediums. Communication is also about listening to the customers and monitoring their attitudes towards the brand. You can learn about what your customers want and what drives your business. What more, you can spot any change in their behaviour and avoid potential crisis and reputation damage.

Social Media is most of all AN ONGOING PROCESS, so whatever you start you need to follow through. The key is to have seamless and consistent communication across all mediums and listening to what your target audience really wants. Start with thinking of your objectives: What do you want to achieve by integrating Social Media into your business plan? Who are the key stakeholders that you want to talk to? What you want to say? How much you want to invest in Social Media? What media are you going to use? How do you implement this step into your communications strategy? How will you measure ROI? Etc.

The social media strategy should integrate the following 3 steps:

Step 1 is about creating content. Focus on creating a comprehensive digital presence for your company or brand across key Social Media and digital platforms: Facebook Fan Pages, YouTube channel (or Vimeo), Flickr! account, AudioBoo account (or any other recording online tool), and blog. 

Step 2 is about communicating your content via Blog Directories (Technorati, AllTop), Twitter, Digg, Stumble Upon and Stumble Exchange, etc. There are so many of ‘seeding’ sites available, just go and do your research.

Step 3 is about integrating step 1 and step 2:

1. Generate content: create a blog post on your brand’s achievement/create a video of a  winner of your competition/update your Flickr! page with new pictures from your company’s meeting/record an interview with your boss using AudioBoo/etc.
2. Use Digg, Stumble Upon, Stumble Exchange, etc. to make others aware of the blog
3. Post the link to the blog post on your Facebook Fan Page and Twitter account  
4. Watch how the traffic to your website increase – don’t forget to use SEO so you can measure the number of hits and your ROI in Social Media

Social media can be integrated further. Use mobile apps, traditional marketing, customer loyalty, reward, and an advertising mix across the platform that is matching the client goals and market niche.

PR Spam & Campaign 'An Inconvenient PR Truth'

Background on the Issue

The Internet is affecting Public Relations in both positive and negative way. PR professionals (PROs) can research, communicate, listen, monitor and engage with their key stakeholders in much faster, therefore more convenient way. There are arguably many benefits of using the Internet but this brief is devoted to one of the negative aspects of the new PR practice: use of emails to send out irrelevant and often untargeted press releases and pitches to long lists of journalists, without considering the consequences. PROs have been spamming the opinion formers (journalists, bloggers and other non-traditional journalists) this way, and therefore the PR Industry is facing damage to its reputation and ability to achieve the influence it desires.

Recently, key PR industry figures have launched a campaign named ‘An Inconvenient PR Truth’ that aims to cut PR spam and help PROs and journalists work together better. The campaign includes a ‘bill of rights’, which is a list of demands on behalf of journalists and bloggers about how they want to be approached by the PR community. Prior to the launch of the campaign, several blog posts were published revealing the names and email addresses of PROs who had been spamming a particular journalist or blogger. This can be seen as a controversial step but it reinforced the debate about inappropriate targeting. The campaign was launched on the 28^th January 2010 by Realwire CEO Adam Parker and is backed by Borkowski founder Mark Borkowski, Speed Communications MD Stephen Waddington and Umpf founder Adrian Johnson.[i] Since its launch, the numbers of supporters, such as the 3WPR founder Stephen Davies, have increased and even the CIPR published a statement of support.

The research that contributed to the launch of the campaign has found that “78 percent of press release emails are received by recipients to whom they are irrelevant and more than half (55 per  cent) of recipients have taken action to block a sender of news.”[ii] This is shocking and potentially damaging to the image and reputation of the PR Industry.

 

The Importance of this Issue to the PR Industry

PR has gradually gained respect as one of the most cost effective and impactful marketing tools that are available to any organisation. The fact that some PR professionals have been spamming their key target audience – the media – may have a negative effect on the reputation and image of the PR industry. The media is central to PR activity. PR is about building relationships and should aim to achieve ‘balanced dialogue’ and ‘mutual understanding’ by the use of open two-way symmetric communication between PROs and the media (Grunig & Hunt, 1984). “Truly effective press relations starts with effective targeting” (Theaker, et.al., 2005). In order to establish and maintain good working relationships with the journalists, and therefore gain valuable media coverage, the PR “messages have to be tailored to the wide variety of media available, being clear about the target audience” (Theaker,et.al.,2005:59). There is a potential threat that if PR professionals don’t change their habits of sending out irrelevant and untargeted press releases and pitches, their key target audience may block their incoming communication, and as a result of this the PR message will not be received and published. PROs shouldn’t focus on”...filling up [journalists’] e-mail inboxes with unwanted material, but instead [provide] specifically targeted and relevant material” Theaker, et.al., (2005: 37). This practice will improve their relationships with the journalists and positively affect their success rate.

Time schedule

Week 1 (01/032010 – 07/03/2010)

Conduct initial research: “An Inconvenient PR Truth” campaign, media coverage (focus on the media side and PR side separately). Is that a PR stunt? Create a list of key journalists & PROs for a survey.

Week 2 (08/03/2010 – 14/03/2010)

Prepare two short surveys (media & PROs) based on the previous findings and seed them on LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. Send them directly to the key PR Practitioners and the key journalists.

Week 3 (15/03/2010 – 21/03/2010)

Conduct research on potential reasons behind PR spam and what actions have been undertaken to stop this bad practice (CIPR and other educational bodies). Who or what is to blame? E.g. lack of skills and education, laziness of PR professionals, technology (Internet), payment by results oriented pay structures (problems with measurement and educating clients), etc.

Week 4 (22/03/2010 – 28/03/2010)

Evaluate and analyse the outcomes of the surveys. Look for the real reasons behind sending out untargeted press releases and pitches, and what steps have been undertaken on the media side to stop this bad practice. Do the journalists and bloggers really mind?

Week 5 & 6 (29/03/2010 – 11/04/2010) EASTER BREAK

Start putting the information together & suggest possible solutions to achieve two-way symmetric PR.

Week 7 (12/04/2010 – 18/04/2010)

Summarize the data and create first draft of the reports and presentation.

Week 8 (19/04/2010 – 25/04/2010)

Create presentation – select the key information and decide on the correct structure.

Week 9 (26/04/2010 – 02/05/2010) GROUP PRESENTATION DUE

Practice presentation presentational skills as a group.

Week 10 (03/05/2010 – 07/05/2010) REPORT DUE

Edit the report (individually) – Introduction, Conclusion, Executive Summary, Appendix, etc.

---

[i] http://www.prweek.com/news/bulletin/UKDaily/article/980491/?DCMP=EMC-UKDaily

[ii] http://inconvenientprtruth.com/research/

Assessment Day at Diffusion PR

OMG! I’ve been shortlisted for a PR Grads Scheme at Diffusion PR! Yey! How exciting! After hours spent on filling in Grad Scheme applications and then days/weeks of waiting, I finally received an email saying:

“I am delighted to let you know that you have been short-listed, and are therefore invited to our Graduate Assessment Day at our central London office on Saturday 27 February 2010.”

Triple hurray!

Ok, what now? I was shaking for the rest of the day trying to deal with the news and also trying to figure out how to get ready. The last thing I wanted was to look like a complete fool. This may sound like an action of a complete control freak, but I started creating this document on PR, news, PR disasters and Social Media. I know everything by heart but once my nerves start working their way, I can easily forget my own name. Don’t laugh it’s a true. Unfortunately... (I think I could share the document with you – let me know what you think and if you are interested.)

I was so anxious on my way down to the office. The situation of tube lines closures didn’t help at all. What I found quite ‘funny’ was that the moment I arrived ... the anxiety was gone. All the fellow candidates were nice people and even though we were ‘competitors’ of some degree, the atmosphere in the office was great.

The day started with a short presentation about Diffusion PR as a company and the benefits of joining as a PR Grad. I think that the hidden reason behind this initial step was to motivate us. The “I am delighted to let you know” email didn’t enclose much information about what was going to happen so we were all quietly waiting for the big news. We found out very soon – it was a team work on a PR campaign creation and a presentation.

I was assigned to the Hackney team (team names based on London Boroughs – quite funny but great idea). It was interesting to find out that my team consisted of 6 girls. I think that once there is ‘a girl-only team’ the productivity can be either high, if we all work toward the same goal, or quite off-putting, if some girls become more pushy and competitive. Luckily, our team was great. Based on the Belbin’s Team Role assessment, we had all the key roles covered: the implementer, plant, coordinator, etc. I think that we have all delivered a fantastic piece of work, even though we didn’t know each other prior to the assessment day.

Once the assessment was over we were invited for drinks to Diffusion’s favourite bar. Oh God, I really needed a beer or two! The task of creating a PR campaign was both engaging and challenging in the same time and made my brain works really fast.

Feelings about the day? It was great! I definitely benefited from being put into a situation of working with other students on the campaign. It wasn’t entirely new experience for me but the speed of decision making and moving forward was really shocking and made me see what I was capable of.

Feelings about my chances to be hired? Positive but.... There were so many talented people so the team at Diffusion PR may possibly have it very hard to pick the top 8 candidates for the next stage.