PR

How PR and Bloggers Can Help Each Other

There’s been a lot of talk about the relationship between the public relations industry and bloggers. I’ve written about it in the past as have others, yet still there’s this feeling of a barrier between the two mediums.

As someone on both sides of the fence, I can understand each side’s views.

Yet I can also see where both sides could improve. So, with no bias to either the PR industry or bloggers, here are some suggestions to help both PR and bloggers help each other.

PR People – Think Like Bloggers

Consider starting a blog if you don’t already have one. Unless you blog yourself, you probably won’t understand the mindset of a blogger. It can be a lonely and time-consuming business – the last thing we want is added workloads through misunderstanding or laziness. If you blog, you’ll have a better appreciation of how we work and how our time can best be used.

Treat us as a bona-fide media source in both your pitching and follow-ups. True, we may not have the name of a New York Times or CBS journalist or reporter. But we often are more visible, thanks to Google and search engine awareness, which means our story could potentially have a much wider audience. Doesn’t that deserve some respect?

Find out who we are and what we do. You have a gardening tool to promote for a client. So why would you send your news release to a tech or music blogger? Don’t just grab a bunch of names from a blogger list – do a little homework, find out what we write about, our style, etc. Trust me, show me you know about me and my readers and you’re almost home dry with me.

Invite us to participate in what your clients are up to. Bloggers love to be involved early on – after doing your homework on who would fit you client base, invite bloggers into your inner circle as your official blog partners. Let us tell your story (without any major interference) and you’ll have a primed marketing team of bloggers ready to go.

Bloggers – PR is Not Your Enemy

Bloggers are wary of PR people. Lazy pitches, poor communication and being treated as second-class citizens are just some of the complaints. Yet there are ways to help yourself be more appreciated by the PR industry.

Have either an About Me page or an area that describes what your blog is about. This may seem like common sense but the amount of reviewer blogs I’ve seen without this simple addition is mind-boggling. How can you expect a proper pitch when you don’t advise on what you write about?

Display a PR-friendly badge to let us know that you’re open to pitching. Todd Defren and the folks over at Shift Communications have come up with some badge designs you can use. Clean and clear, they save both PR people and bloggers a lot of time.

Be ethical at all times and true to your beliefs. This works both ways. Your blog is your voice and your readers should trust that voice. Keep your views honest and untainted by PR pressure. And if someone in PR is pressuring you into a positive spin when their client doesn’t deserve one, don’t be afraid to call them out via your blog.

Contact us and offer your services as part of a PR agency’s blogger outreach program. Many PR firms and professionals are still far behind on the benefits of a blogger outreach program. Use Google, Twitter, O’Dwyer’s blog and other resources to find agencies in your niche. Then send them an email about your expertise and how they could benefit from it. Pro-activity never hurt anyone.

These are just some examples of how the PR industry and bloggers can help each other. I’m sure there are countless more, but it’s a start.

How about you? Are you a blogger? If so, how can PR professionals improve? Or are you in the PR industry? Where would you like to see bloggers improve? Feel free to share your views and let’s get the conversation going.

photo credit:?lepiaf.geo

Logan Movers Toronto and Adventures in Piss Poor Customer Service and PR

I don’t like to rant at his blog but Logan Movers of Toronto and their excuse for customer service (and incredibly bad PR) are a definite exception.

As you might know, my wife Jacki and I moved house this weekend. While this can be stressful enough, it becomes even more so when you get a moving firm that seem hell-bent on making it more stressful than dining with Hannibal Lecter.

Step forward Toronto-based Logan Movers.

It’s Rude to Whisper

I guess the first warning sign should have been when I called them up prior to the move to confirm their arrival time on the Saturday morning. A guy called Alex answered and couldn’t find us.

I gave him all contact numbers it may have been booked under as well as our confirmation number. I could hear him whispering to a colleague “Why can’t I find them?”, to which I was tempted to whisper back, “I can still hear you.” Eventually he found our details and confirmed the time. Except he had the wrong pick-up address.

Which I tried to correct. Several times. Only to have Alex continuously talk over me. So, I let him finish and then corrected him. Score one to Logan Movers Toronto for poor customer service.

Lies, Lies, Damn Lies

Come moving day, I went on ahead to the new house with my wife’s mother Traci, to start getting the place ready for my wife and the moving firm. Over at the old house, the fun was beginning.

Jacki was told that the movers wanted half payment before they would put anything on the truck. In cash. And they brought over a contract to sign that had $60 per hour for moving. Okay, fine – upfront cash was never mentioned, but if that’s how you want to play, we’ll do it. Since our quote had been $420 (or seven hours work), Jacki went to the bank, withdrew the money and paid them.

She was then told that the movers hadn’t brought wardrobe boxes. Despite us asking for them. Despite the Logan Movers Toronto website stating that all their trucks are equipped daily with wardrobe boxes and that they are given to every move for free.

The two moving guys then tell Jacki that wardrobe boxes need to be ordered and are extra. This is quite clearly BS – score two to Logan Movers Toronto for poor customer service.

Inflation and Hostage Situations

Now that Logan Movers have received their deposit, they eventually load the truck and make their way over to the new home. Here the fun really begins.

Before they unload, they tell us that the cost is now $847.50. Say what?!? This is double the quote that we received. The movers inform us that it’s nothing to do with them and that the cost is $847.50, broken down as follows:

Labour – $540
Travel time – $120
Stairs – $90
Tax – $97.50

To compound matters, they won’t open the doors of their truck to start unloading until the balance is paid in full. In cash or certified check. Which basically means cash, since banks are closed on Saturday afternoons.

Traci calls the owner of Logan Movers Toronto to ask him what’s going on and why we’re being charged double our quote. He hangs up on her. The movers refuse to call him back. We’re now at the mercy of two people who couldn’t care less about our stuff on their truck, and a dick in an office who won’t pick up the phone.

We get the police involved, but they can’t really do anything in a civil matter. So, the only thing left to do is pay the movers and get the move over with.

This is when they get abusive toward my wife’s mother Traci, who is understandably upset. She says the whole situation is BS, which the movers take for abusive language so they retort with their own. Except it’s much worse.

So I tell them to quit swearing at Traci, then advise them that they’re representing their company so they should be trying to resolve this situation. They simply say, “Nothing to do with us.” Score three to Logan Movers Toronto for poor customer service.

Epilogue and Where Next

The movers then milk the unloading for what it’s worth. They bring in stupid little bits of furniture at a time. Then have rests and smoke breaks because they obviously deserve it, with the hard work they’ve put in fleecing us of cash.

Eventually, the truck is unloaded and they leave. No doubt laughing at another rip-off. In the meantime, my wife, her mother and I are left with what to do next. My money (if Logan Movers never took it all, that is!) would be on legal action. I think we have a case:

Their contract said $60 per hour. Their website states there are no hidden costs. Our quote was $420. Their actual day lasted from 9.00am until 5.00pm approximately (it was actually a little less). So, 8 hours x $60 per hour = $480. Not $847.50. Hey, maybe they got the 8 and the 4 mixed up…
Their website states “free wardrobe boxes on every truck”. Not so. At least, not on ours. We still never got any.
Their website also states that they will wrap HD-TV’s – they must have forgotten about ours.

Conveniently, Alex (the dick in the office of Logan Movers that doesn’t know proper phone etiquette) took the copy of our contract away when he dropped off some more blankets at our old place, in lieu of the wardrobe boxes they never gave us.

The copy we received from the movers at the new address was simply a generic one. So, we’re also owed our proper contract which will also show that Logan Movers Toronto took us for a ride. If they haven’t already ripped it up.

One of the things I always emphasize to clients is the need to put themselves in the customer’s shoes at all times. Customers are your best (and most inexpensive) form of marketing, advertising, PR and much more. Get it right with your customers and you’ll get a lot of it right with your sales targets.

I’m guessing Logan Movers Toronto must have skipped this part of business school. Why else would they treat customers the way they did my wife, her mother and I?

So congratulations, Logan Movers Toronto – the award for Piss Poor Customer Service and PR is all yours.

photo credit:?yewenyi

Is #Journchat Losing Its Fizz?

Back in November last year, #Journchat was launched by PR maven Sarah Evans.

Its aim was simple – use Twitter to bring journalists, PR professionals and bloggers together on Twitter in a weekly chat format.

Since then, #Journchat has gone from strength to strength and brought in special guests from CNN as well as regularly topped the Twitter trends every Monday night.

Lately, however, it seems to have lost its way and some of its sparkle. That’s not to say that #Journchat doesn’t offer any value – it does, and an incredible amount at that. And it’s done a great job of bringing together industries that otherwise tend to just criticize each other.

But maybe #Journchat is a victim of its own success?

Too Much, Too Little?

The way that #Journchat works is simple, yet it can also be frustrating. Because it uses Twitter as the chat medium, each question and answer needs to be within the 140 character limit of Twitter.

This is good for keeping answers short and punchy, but it’s also frustrating when an answer needs so much more and you have to go to multiple messages. By the time a longer answer is out, often it’s the next question. So in that respect, Twitter as a format isn’t ideal.

Bigger Isn’t Always Better

#Journchat runs for three hours officially, every Monday night from 7.00pm until 10.00pm CST. The length normally means that around eight questions are asked, with about 20 minutes allocated to each topic. Then there’s a wrap up and pitch session to close the discussion. You can continue to discuss topics but it’s not part of the moderated session.

Is three hours too long, though? Are there too many topics being discussed that it’s easy to become lost?

Some people can be on Q6. while others can still be chatting about Q3. This then leads to potential confusion throughout the #Journchat stream as three or four topics are being discussed at once. Which can then lead to missed questions and answers.

Invisible People

One thing that #Journchat is immensely successful at is encouraging probing questions and discussions on topics that are often avoided.

The introduction of special guests has also helped get an insider look at larger corporations like CNN, with questions being asked about inner workings and how the various forms of media are co-existing.

Yet too often, important questions based on a previous answer are being missed. Guest speakers are (obviously) being inundated with questions that they may have already answered, therefore missing the really juicy ones that everyone wants to hear a view on. Which is a shame.

Where Next for #Journchat?

As I said at the beginning, I’m a huge fan of #Journchat and what Sarah Evans is both currently achieving, and also trying to achieve. I just think the current format is stifling and maybe taking away some of its sparkle.

Perhaps the very format that made it successful is now holding #Journchat back? 140 characters on Twitter is great for little info bursts but for an in-depth discussion panel it obviously has limitations.

How about swapping to something like the new WordPress template P2? It’s similar to the Twitter stream but with two key differences – no character limit and threaded replies. This makes it far more effective to keep up with conversations.

Additionally, how about changing the format a little? It’s great that so many people want to be involved in #Journchat but perhaps it’s time to scale it back?

Have a registration where 100 people across the three mediums – journalism, blogging and PR – are the “live chatters” each week, with questions being provided by everyone else. You keep mixing up the 100 people so everyone that registers is involved in the debate at some point, and there’s less on-screen confusion.

Or, go to UStream TV and have a live feed from there with special guest, and have a similar approach to the debate. Questions can be asked in the chat room and the most relevant or topical can be asked.

These are just some ideas. I’m sure there are countless others.

I love #Journchat. I love the reason for its inception and I support what Sarah’s trying to do 100%. I just feel there could be a more effective way of hosting it.

Then again, maybe it is perfectly fine as it is. After all, it’s been going strong for more than six months now, so that must say something.

How about you? Do you participate in #Journchat? What’s your take – is it good as is or does it need freshened up a little? I’d love to hear your suggestions.

photo credit: Cayusa