PR

Never Mind the P, Just Get the Relations Part Right

There have been a lot of new definitions and suggestions coming to the fore over the last 12-18 months about what PR stands for. The traditional version is Public Relations, and has been since as long as anyone can remember.

However, solid PR folks like David Mullen suggest it should be People Relations, as does online marketer and social media guy Ari Herzog in a post from earlier this year. Often it’s called Press Relations or Print Relations. I had a little look at the topic last year and there are plenty more views out there.

But you know what?

Who really cares? Let’s take the emphasis off the P, and concentrate on what’s left – the R, or relations, because this is surely the one constant out of all the PR acronyms. For, without relations (and the conversations that spring from these relations), is there any point left to any of the P, whether it’s public, press, people or similar?

S. Neil Vineberg, President of Vineberg Communications, offers his take in a series of excellent little video snippets. What’s yours?

Pot, Kettle, Black

Kurt Greenbaum is the director of social media for the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. In a recent post, he mentioned how he’d been pro-active at contacting the employers of someone who left a vulgar comment on a blog post. The person in question resigned.

The flak started flying in in the subsequent comments, and Greenbaum refuted he stepped over-the-mark, maintaining that the comment had been vulgar.

Hmm… pot, kettle, black, anyone? Or is it okay to be abusive yourself about an “abuser” whose job you played a part in taking away..?

Learning from Rich Gubby of Wapple

Rich Gubby is the Senior Web Developer over at Wapple in the U.K. Wapple is one of the leading developers of mobile Internet solutions, from websites to WordPress plug-ins and more. And if Rich Gubby is anything to go by, then Wapple are also leading the field at customer satisfaction.

I recently installed the Wapple WordPress plug-in as I wanted more options for mobile visitors to this blog. There are a host of functional plug-ins out there, but a lot come with ads and many are limited in features.

Looking around I found the Wapple site, and the ability to customize the mobile version of my blog to replicate much of the web-based one appealed. Plus the fact you can tailor search engine optimization, even though it’s a mobile app, and I was sold.

I installed the plug-in and it worked. Then it stopped, and all I got was a blank screen when accessing from my BlackBerry. So I deactivated Wapple and switched back to the previous one. Cue impressed-as-hell experience with Wapple.

I received a pleasant email from Rich mentioning he noticed I’d swapped back to another plug-in, and was there any particular reason and could he help in any way. I wrote back thanking him for taking the time to contact, and explained what had happened. Rich offered to style up the plug-in and also look to see what the issue was.

It turns out that it was a comment that had messed up the code a little, so Rich fixed it there and then. He also made sure I had the latest version and new dev key that would allow me to tailor the plug-in more to the styling of my blog.

And this just impressed the hell out of me and it left me thinking that Rich and the guys at Wapple could teach many businesses a thing or two. Here’s why:

Monitoring your product. Rich knew that I had his plug-in but wasn’t using it. Instead of letting that slide, he contacted me to see if there was anything wrong with the product, and if he could help. This leads to the next point.
Excellent customer service. Rich saw there was an issue and made sure that his customer had the best customer service experience around. He resolved the issue and followed up to make sure everything was okay.
Brand loyalty. There are numerous WordPress plug-in developers, yet I’ve never been contacted before by one and offered an experience like the one I had with Rich and Wapple. That’s made me incredibly loyal to them and they’ll be the first I go to when I need mobile solutions.
Consumer marketing. I’ve talked before about the power of consumer marketing and why it’s an untapped weapon for many businesses. Through Rich, Wapple’s service now has me blogging about it and sharing with you, and that’s all free marketing.

As budgets and belts tighten, the people and businesses that are succeeding are the ones separating themselves from the rest of the noise around them. Rich Gubby did that in spades and then some.

Something to learn from, yes?

Response to Barbara Talisman?s Misinformed 12for12k Post

This is in response to a blog post over at Barbara Talisman’s blog, where she makes various disparaging remarks (and, at times, low blows) about the 12for12k Challenge. I’m posting here since Barbara has comment moderation switched on at hers.

Hi there Barbara,

I thought I recognized the name and company – you contacted me earlier this year through email (and then phone call) suggesting that donations raised go to your company instead of the charities. You would then use this money to “consult” these charities.

I mentioned at the time that I wanted all funds to go to the charities themselves, and not to a company that may or may not help.

If you think the 12for12k project is merely a “profile raiser” for myself, you discredit the great work of everyone involved, as well as those we’re trying to help. I also take great offense at your claim and can’t help but feel this is sour grapes because I never handed the 12for12k coffers over to you. Except there was nothing to hand over, because all the money goes directly to the charity for that month.

Also, your figures are wrong. WarChild didn’t come to us with a Paypal option until the end of the campaign – the actual total for them is closer to $6,000. Stop the Silence benefited by over $5.5k – the ChipIn widget did not take into account a corporate sponsor donating $1,000.

You’re also missing charities from your information. We helped Yehu.org raise more than $15,000 through a combined effort with Mom It Forward and multiple channels. And this month, Doctors Without Borders has benefited by $5k (so far).

But here’s the thing, Barbara – it’s never been about the money. Our goal is to raise a certain amount, and while we’ve fallen short of that, we’ve still raised almost $50,000.

Our real goal is to raise awareness and long-term change and effect. Donations are great, but it’s the real changes that we can put in place via awareness that will help those that need our help.

Here’s a question – why rant on something that’s meant for good? Why not say what you would have done differently, had I caved in to your badgering on the phone to hand over donations to your company? Criticizing is easy; constructive criticism is better.

Regards,

Danny.

PS – WarChild Canada, our first charity, has a fantastic social media presence, which can be found on their website.

Update September 27 – It looks like Barbara has removed the original post about 12for12k, follow-up and apology from her blog. You can see the original post as a PDF – open or download it here.
Update September 28 – Barbara sent me an email today on top of her apology. I responded, accepting her apology and thanking her for her approach in this way, and that hopefully we can move forward from here.

Maybe Some Authors Should Do Their Own PR

For some reason, I’ve suddenly started to get a few pitches from PR agencies and companies regarding business and marketing books. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing or a bad thing, but as I like to read I’ll take it as a nice bonus.

Going through the pitches, though, I’m beginning to wonder if the authors themselves should start composing the pitches to go with them.

Maybe that would stop some of the less-than-impressive ones getting through. Here are two examples – see if you can spot the difference.

Example One:
“Hi Danny,
I thought you might be interested to hear about a book by one of my clients [insert book title here].” There’s then a slew of recommendations of the book from other business book authors, as well as what looks like standard press release copy. The PR person then signs off the email with the closing comment, “I’ve attached a PDF version of his new book. Have a look and if you enjoy the book would you consider a blog post? Best,”. No name, signature, or where the email came from (except in the email address bar).

Example Two:
“Hi Danny,
I’ve been reading your blog for a while now and really enjoy it. I particularly found (Post A), (Post B) and (Post C) refreshing as I’d actually left a comment on another blog about the topics raised in these connected posts. I hope you don’t mind me reaching out to you, but I represent an author whose book touches on these subjects and more. I don’t want to send you a long introduction that may not interest you or catch you at a good time. Therefore, if you’re curious about learning more, feel free to reply to this email and I’ll call when convenient. Thanks again, and keep up the great topics, James.”

Whose book do you think I’d be interested in looking at?

photo credit: CarbonNYC