Archives for December 2010

#HAPPO Day for PR Folks is December 8 2010

There’s an event taking place tomorrow, Wednesday December 8, called Help a PR Pro Out, or HAPPO. Organized by two people I’m proud to call friends, Arik Hanson and Valerie Simon, the aim of HAPPO is simple and does exactly what it says on the tin – helps a PR professional out.

Specifically, helps a PR pro out when it comes to finding a new job, or putting them in touch with an agency that may be looking.

A Little Back Story

When I was first starting out in the corporate communications industry, no-one wanted to let me speak. I was the new kid on the block, the greenhorn that was good for getting coffee and licking envelopes.

If I had any ideas, I had to run them by my junior account manager, who ran it by the junior manager, who might run it by the manager (depending on their hormones for that day).

It didn’t matter how great my ideas were (and some were crap, I’ll admit, but there were some that I knew were blasting anything my “peers” came up with right out the water). It was frustrating. It was soul destroying, knowing I had more in me. I was about to give up when fate took me for a little spin.

I was at a dinner reception for one of the company’s clients, and managed to be seated next to the boss. As the night and brandy wore on, he asked me why I was so quiet at work. I said I didn’t mean to be, but I wasn’t really given the opportunity to talk. So my boss said talk now. So I did.

And kept on talking. And kept on talking.

Two hours later, I was pretty sure my boss was hammered and I had just spoken to someone for two hours to help then pass the time at a dull party, and they wouldn’t remember our conversation on the morning. I was wrong.

I was made a junior account executive and made a key part of three accounts. I had the foothold on the ladder and didn’t want to look back. All because someone that could help finally listened. So now I want to listen and help out where I can.

Help a PR Pro Out

On Wednesday December 8, PR and communications professionals will be ripping up a storm online, all in the name of helping a fellow PR-ster out. Tweets, blog posts, job pitches, Twitter chats, Facebook status updates – you name it, it’ll be happening. You can follow HAPPO on Twitter or on their Facebook page, as well as get involved in the following ways:

PR job seeker. If you have a blog, write a post about why potential employers should give you a chance (telling them Danny Brown said so might work, but don’t put all your chickens in that basket!). Then tweet it out, link back to it, and have yourself on display to potentially hundreds or thousands of agencies. Use the #happo hashtag so we can retweet your information. Offer an email where agencies can contact you. (If you don’t blog, leave your details in the comments and/or email me and I’ll tweet you out).

PR agency. If you have a position open, or one coming up, follow the HAPPO hashtag conversation on Twitter. Or leave your details in the blog posts that are going up of the folks you’re interested in, or email them directly. Or use the HAPPO Facebook Page and let us connect you.

I would have missed on a fantastic career if someone hadn’t taken the time to listen. Let’s make sure that no-one else needs to. Let’s show our fellow PR pros that we’re listening, and we’re here to help.

You in?

photo credit: Jose T?llez

Why Bloggers Deserve to Be Deserving

This is a guest post from Danielle Smith and is a follow-up to my recent post about PR and blogger relations.

Danielle is a former award-winning Television Anchor and Reporter who has turned her attention to the online sphere. She is the founder and primary author of ExtraordinaryMommy.com, a vlogger, online TV host, speaker and author.

More important than anything she is a mom to two sweet and sassy small people and is having the time of her life.

You can find Danielle on Twitter at @DanielleSmithTV.

I’ve said it before.

I’m not easily offended. I respect that many of us have different opinions and often feel peaceful enough about my place in the world…. that I can simply smile when we differ and walk away.

But sometimes, as was the case with the recent anonymous post from ‘Sarah’ on MomBlogMagazine, I felt as though I, as a blogger, was being baited. Sarah, an “actual employee from an actual PR company; one you have heard of if you’ve heard of any”, wrote a post titled, “Why PR People Get Paid, and You Don’t”.

Never mind that Sarah seems to think I use jealousy and misplaced entitlement as a barometer for gauging what I should be and shouldn’t be ‘getting’ in the blogging world. (That theory was inane enough for me to ignore) ** see her references to Annie A-List and Thanksgiving Dinner

Never mind that Sarah also seems to believe my blog is a whim that I may or may not choose to play with tomorrow or the day after. See this quote:

Let?s stop pretending your blog is a world-changing event and recognize it for what it is?something transient that may be gone tomorrow if you flake out or change your mind or your Uncle Vinny finds your blog and you realize you don?t really want him to know where you live because you still owe him money.

What I truly take issue with is one little word.

Deserve.

According to Sarah, I don’t DESERVE a damn thing. I’ve chosen to work at home. I’ve chosen to have this transitory-may-shut-down-any-day-blog. I’m not required to show up in an office, dressed in business casual, ready for a day of meetings. There are apparently a slew of bloggers who work much harder than me and my site may or may not be ‘ugly’.

To quote:

Make sure your number is based in reality, not what you think you deserve. Actually, if you?re using the word ?deserve? at all, you?re already sunk. You don?t deserve anything. There are hundreds more bloggers out there that are willing to take a cold, hard look at what they are producing now and how they can improve in the future. Those are next year?s Annie A-Listers?a list that no one deserves to be on, but one that women work like dogs to get on.

I find this paragraph confusing – because on one hand, Sarah is right….. any number I give, any compensation I request MUST be ‘based in reality’. By ‘based in reality’, I imagine Sarah means that I do, in fact, KNOW what my time is worth… that I do, in fact, KNOW what my quality of work is worth – and NOT that I am arbitrarily assigning a ‘what-would-I-like-to-get-paid-today’ number when asked to be involved in a project.

Now, here is where things get slippery. The very next two sentences say, “Actually, if you?re using the word ?deserve? at all, you?re already sunk. You don?t deserve anything.”

Yes, Sarah, I do. But not because another blogger has been compensated. Or because I’m jealous. Or because ‘you’d pay me if I was a guy’. And not because ‘PR professionals get paid, therefore I should too’. This is not a game of comparative analysis.

I deserve to be compensated for my work as a blogger.

I deserve to be compensated for the work I do because it is work.

I deserve it because I work hard and because I believe my time is valuable.

I deserve it because I provide a product (a post, a video, a campaign, etc) that benefits someone – a PR firm and/or a brand.

I deserve to be compensated because the platform I have created for myself, beginning with my blog is actually worth something. And fortunately, I know that my ‘numbers’ are based in reality.

And while Sarah is apparently not JUDGING me for…

“choosing to be a stay-at-home mom who makes money or gets stuff for the kids and family by blogging or decides to be a blogger because they were laid off and wanted to create a portfolio”

it certainly sounds a lot like judgement and an absurd over-generalization to me… Did all bloggers, or in this case ‘stay-at-home-mom-bloggers’ decide to start blogging because they were laid off? Or wanted to create a portfolio? I know I didn’t.

I understand from Sarah’s comments that she intended the post to be ‘funny’. I think it is challenging to be ‘funny’ on an average day, but on this topic? I think a more ‘serious’ tone might have been more beneficial.

How about you – do you feel deserving?

A Special Interactive Book Review with David Siteman Garland

This coming Wednesday, December 8, at 12.00 noon eastern / 11.00am Central / 9.00am Pacific / 5.00pm GMT, there’s going to be a (hopefully) cool and special interactive experiment here on the blog.

Using the interactive features of the Livefyre comment system that’s used here, my special guest will be David Siteman Garland, who’s probably better known as the Rise to the Top guy.

David is one of the leading voices on building and promoting a business, and has a book out called Smarter, Faster, Cheaper. Instead of me writing “just another book review”, David has agreed to be a “live guest” on this blog on Wednesday.

So how’s it going to work?

David will be recording a video, which will be his own take on the book – what it offers, who it’s for, how to use it, etc. I’ll embed it in my post, and then at noon, David will be here to answer your questions about the book, starting a business, promoting it and more.

The difference is, this will all happen in the comments section.

Because Livefyre offers real-time live updates, it’s more like a chat system than your normal blog commenting system. The cool thing is, when a new comment has been posted and you’re on the page, a little alert box pops up to say there’s a new comment (or several, if more than one new comment has been posted as you read).

You can then click on each alert, and it takes you directly to the new comment, so you can see what questions and views are being shared as soon as they’re posted.

So all you need to do is ask your question for David via the comments, and he’ll be spinning his fingers all over the place to respond. You can then reply to David, or anyone else’s comments, and really make it an interactive book review and discussion like no other.

Not only that, but David also has some special giveaways for everyone taking part in the experiment on Wednesday.

To take part, all you need to do is the following:

Choose your profile. Because Livefyre is a profile comment system, you need to either have a Livefyre account (which you can create here by using the Join option), or sign in to comment using your Twitter or Facebook profile. You’ll see these options under the Comment As option to the right of the comment box.

Set yourself a reminder (I’ll be tweeting and using Facebook to send out occasional reminders) to be here between 5-10 minutes before noon on Wednesday December 8 to watch David’s video review of his new book.

Get your questions ready, and fire away from noon onwards.

Like any experiment, there could be some technical gremlins, but hopefully not. The Livefyre guys are working behind the scenes to try and make it as smooth an experience for you as possible. And David has his gremlin-slapping gloves ready, just in case.

Hopefully you’ll join us on Wednesday and have a bunch of great questions for David. I think this could be a lot of fun, and something to show how blog comments can really come alive.

Look forward to seeing you here – cheers!

When PR Has Its Head Up Its Ass

I read a post over at Mom Blog Magazine that left me shaking my head the further I read, and reinforced why so many bloggers don’t like PR agencies.

Entitled Why PR People Get Paid And You Don’t, it was a post by an anonymous PR professional (“Sarah”) who, in her own words, is “an actual employee at an actual PR company; one you?ve heard of if you?ve heard of any.”

Basically, the post was an “explanation” of why bloggers shouldn’t get too full of themselves and expect cushy blog promotions with companies that are represented by PR agencies.

Some of the gems of wisdom from Sarah include:

But you also aren?t getting hired. You?re writing a blog post. Let?s stop pretending your blog is a world-changing event and recognize it for what it is?something transient that may be gone tomorrow if you flake out or change your mind or your Uncle Vinny finds your blog and you realize you don?t really want him to know where you live because you still owe him money.

You don?t promise to say nice things about the company. The PR person does. They have to sell a product no matter what that product is, and they sell it with a smile even if it kicks puppies and makes babies cry. You don?t have this obligation. You have the freedom that comes with NOT having a paycheck to answer to.

You are not expected to show up at 8 a.m. dressed business casual and go to countless meetings.? You get to do and say whatever you want as long as you plop a disclaimer at the end.

Inspiring stuff, huh? It doesn’t stop there – in the comments, Sarah continues to dismiss a lot of valid responses that question her logic (she does also answer politely as well, to keep the balance). She also implies that the post was humorous in some of her comment replies, but I’m not too convinced.

But humour aside, Sarah does absolutely nothing for the case of PR understanding the importance of bloggers, and a lot for the mindset that PR sees bloggers as second-class media.

Bloggers Are Your Marketers

In Sarah’s post, she’s specifically writing about mommy bloggers, but it could be about any blogger from any niche. And Sarah’s implication – which, by default, is indicative of he employer – is that bloggers aren’t really meant to be taken seriously when it comes to PR needs.

So bloggers don’t have to say nice things about a client or their products? Bloggers are fairweather transients? Bloggers get to say and do whatever they want as long as they plop a disclaimer at the end?

Bullcrap.

It’s exactly because bloggers don’t have to be all fairy dust that they’re so valuable to brands (and the PR agencies that represent these brands). The problem with too many businesses is that they have PR Yes people crawling up their butt saying everything’s great, when it so clearly isn’t. And then they wonder why new Product A failed so miserably on launch.

Getting feedback – honest feedback – from bloggers and their readers is the best focus group a company can ever have, because it is so honest. Want to improve your product? Listen to the folks that matter – the people that use it.

As for being transient? It’s a well-known fact that the PR industry is one of those that has a particularly high turnover rate when it comes to jobs.

One-off projects and cutthroat practices mean a lot of people are left high and dry at the end of a project. Or burned out, from demands of the industry itself.

The saving grace for PR professionals is that this leads to a lot of job hopping, with agencies looking to fill spaces left by previous owners. Bloggers, on the other hand, don’t have the luxury of being able to job hop. The closest they come is getting a new Mac or PC, and possibly a new chair.

And Sarah’s point about not having to go to countless meetings? Perhaps not physically, but that view discounts all the Skype meetings, conference calls, email exchanges and IM chats that regularly happen as part of a blogger outreach program. And I guarantee you that many bloggers would LOVE to be able to sit in on client meetings to offer some more insights and gain a better understanding.

If you don’t like going to meetings, don’t work in a service-related industry.

Open Up and Smell the Bloggers

I look at the whole blogger and PR relationship from both sides. I have a PR background, and Bonsai Interactive offers PR services. Part of that is blogger relations and who should be used for individual campaigns.

I’m also a blogger, and I work with PR agencies now and again to promote their clients (always disclosed) so I get to see firsthand how bloggers are viewed by PR people.

Sarah’s viewpoint is disappointing. In one blog post, she’s basically implying that bloggers should be grateful for anything PR throws their way and that they should also know their place in the pecking order (again, Sarah’s words).

I don’t know if this is just her personal viewpoint, or reflective of the agency she works at, but either way it’s disheartening to see. I know a ton of amazing PR folks that truly value all that a blogger – any blogger – can bring to the promotional table.

People like Gini Dietrich, Shonali Burke, Dave Fleet, Rachel Kay, Arik Hanson and many more. These guys are bringing great successes for both their agencies and clients – all because they treat bloggers with respect and as a key part of any communications strategy.

Perhaps Sarah’s post was meant to be humorous. If so, she missed the funny boat. She also didn’t paint her employers in a great light, as the readers of Mom Blog Magazine made clear in a lot of their replies.

Perhaps bloggers don’t get paid the same way PR professionals do. But the minute a blogger is contracted to write a review of a product, or promote a new book for a PR agency’s client, that’s being hired. As such, you should extend the professional courtesy and dealings you give clients to the blogger.

After all, they’re the ones making you look sexy to the client when they get the jump in brand awareness or sales that a respected blogger can offer.

And that’s got to be worth more than some outdated PR view that “it’s not a proper job”, no?

image: Whyatt
image: Zen Optic

A Christmas Video from Bonsai Interactive

As December begins and the Christmas season arrives in earnest, we wanted to share our Christmas message and say thanks to everyone that has helped make Bonsai Interactive Marketing such a pleasant success since launching six months ago.

Launching a business is never easy, but if we’re fortunate enough to continue to make the friends we have; work with the clients we have as well as new; and (hopefully) continue to do right by our families, then we can’t wait for the next six months and beyond.

Here’s to a wonderful end of the year for all, and we look forward to continuing to get to know you all in 2011!

This post contains a video. If you can’t see it displayed in your feed properly, you can view it directly here.