Mutually Inclusive PR

Common Sense PR Blog Part of b5 Media

A while back I announced that I'd be making some blog changes.  The day has arrived.

Drop by Common Sense PR and let me know what you think.

At the time I decided to launch a new blog, Jeremy Wright announced that blogging network b5 Media was looking for writers for a planned business channel.  I sent b5's Douglas Hanna a proposal.  The next thing I knew I was writing posts for the blog-to-be.

I'll be writing primarily for business managers and communicators.  I've found that quite often managers don't know how to get the most out of public relations, and communicators don't know how to get buy-in to communications plans.

Yes, there will be ads.  Yes, they will sometimes get in the way of the paragraph you are trying to read and they may do annoying things to attract your attention.  I'll try to keep the writing and visuals exciting enough to get you past the distractions.  Thanks to ad revenue, I may be able to get to some more conferences and events in the future.

For people who subscribe to feeds, the blog will have a full text feed available, so you don't have to leave the comfort of your feed reader.

Please drop by, subscribe, and let me know what you like and don't like.  Check out some of the other business blogs on b5.  I'm pretty excited about the possibilities for creating an information nexus for the business reader.

Thanks to my editor Douglas, the designer Scott, CEO Jeremy, and all the bloggers at b5 who have made me welcome.  It's been hard keeping this under wraps until launch day (everyone I told about this -- don't tell Jeremy I was a bad boy).

Update:  I realized I didn't mention anything about Mutually Inclusive PR.  This blog will continue, with a bit less emphasis on public relations/communications. I'll be migrating the content to a new server soon at www.ericeggertson.com, but will keep posts active on this Typad server for a while, to keep the links from breaking.

Tags:  b5media, blogs, eggertson

Marketers, Welcome to My Readers

In the right margin of this blog, you'll find an ad aimed at Canadian public relations folks.

I haven't run ads here before, not from a misguided sense of the purity of my ideas, but because I didn't have the time and energy to pursue it.

Well, CNW Group sought out several Canadian public relations bloggers for a promotion of a media monitoring tool, so you could say opportunity came knocking.

The result, for those who click through to CNW, is an online game that has a PR flack trying to protect the client from whatever objects coming falling from the sky. Full credit to them for recognizing that advertising has to have some intrinsic value (in this case, a bit of entertainment) for the audience, especially an audience that is as jaded toward traditional marketing as your average PR person is.

Not wanting to host anything on the blog I wouldn't try myself, I checked out the game, and it's both safe for work and sort of fun.  The game animation is okay, but I liked best the descriptions of crises that are dropped on the poor PR person in the game. 

David Jones has a comment recognizing CNW for trying something different.  Much thanks to Michael O'Connor Clarke for being the go-between for several months while the idea took shape. Colin McKay is also selling his soul, as is Chris Clarke.

(Update: Donna Papacosta chimes in.) 

Knowing how much we bloggers like to talk about ourselves and our blogs, I suspect this campaign will get as much traction from the posts written about it as from the ads themselves.

This is an intermediate step for me.  Pretty soon I'll be delving much deeper into the world of advertising-supported blogging, and I'm really looking forward to it.  More on that next week...

Tags:  ads, socialmedia, promotion, blogs, cnwgroup

Flack May Have Ghostwritten a Celebrity Interview - News at 11

An L.A. publicist denies making up quotes by Ryan Phillippe and supplying them to a magazine as an exclusive about the breakup of his marriage to Reese Witherspoon.

How to file that item?  Dog Bites Man?  PR Secrets?  Celebrity Myth Revealed?

Celebrity magazines are an art form. They triangulate the star power or level of ridicule appropriate for their subjects, wrangle quotes, photo sessions and gossip from publicists, "friends", enemies and passers-by, and seek out details and images that will either feed or undercut the myths constructed for the celebrities who are in or out of favour.

The exclusive comments and revealing admissions about the stars are often pasted together by, or negotiated with, the publicists.

When a magazine posts an item revealing that Charlie Sheen has copies of The Iliad (in the original Greek) and War and Peace on his bedside table, what is more shocking -- that Charlie Sheen has a bedside table, or that it's possible he reads less esoteric literature?

If a celebrity has clout (and a lot of them do), the magazine is in the position of either currying favour or losing access.  A lot of favour is curried, and when access is cut off or reduced, the editor rarely lets it be known.  The gushing nature of most celebrity coverage overlooks or underplays the fact that much of the coverage is heavily controlled and managed by publicists, or is originated by publicists to affect how their celeb is perceived.

So, getting back to Ryan Phillippe, we find that the New York Post assigned three reporters to chase down a rumour that a publicist subcontracted to help him position himself during his marriage breakup was quickly unsubcontracted because quotes attributed to the star may have been fabricated.  Or maybe because an exclusive already arranged for one publication got handed to another publication.  Or maybe the firm that's been handling Phillippe's media relations for years decided they'd rather live with the conflict of interest while juggling with the interests of the star couple that is now uncoupled.

Liz, a public relations student, writes in her Crazed PR blog that  this is an example of bad PR, because the publicist fabricated quotes.

I highly doubt this is the first instance of quotes being attributed to a celebrity that weren't spoken out loud by the celebrity and faithfully transcribed by the publicist. And, other than a single unnamed source, my quick search didn't turn up any corroboration of the claim that this is something other than a freelance publicist losing a gig.

I suspect all celebrity publicists would prefer that their clients be available at all times to agree on a PR plan, provide quotes, approve edits, confirm facts and sign off on agreements negotiated with various media outlets.

In instances when that doesn't happen, I'll reserve judgement on whose fault it is.

Second Life Backlash Continues

The virtual natives are restless.  I'm waiting to see if this is an uprising of citizens for better corporate behaviour, or an effort to squash expression of opinions that don't please some Second Life pioneers.

Residents of a portion of Second Life have voted to ban companies and agencies from their portion of the virtual world who make unwarranted claims of accomplishments.

"The resolution: Some PR agencies and RL companies have abused SL and made claims in RL media of being first to do things many SL residents have done long before them ('1st radio station in SL', '1st fashion brand', '1st tabloid').

"SHOULD WE BAN THEM FROM DREAMLAND?
Group Dreamland Citizens  Proposal PASSED!"

Complaining that companies jumping on the Second Life bandwagon are unethically claiming credit for the work pioneered by others, "real" estate developer Anshe Chung issued a statement that the ban (see below) can take place if a company or avatar is judged to have falsely claimed credit for a Second Life innovation and hasn't apologized for the offence. (whatever that means) will take place.  Some form of quasi-judicial review will also take place online. Screenshot of Anshe Chung courtesy Second Life Herald.

According to the Second Life Herald, the gesture seems to be a call for repentance by anyone who is claiming to be "first" at things that have been done before in Second Life.

The Herald, meanwhile, takes offence at comments about Second Life by Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson on their podcast.

Update:  I missed this part of Chung's news release that explains the terms of the ban:

"Organisations and their avatars will be warned after a violation has been determined by a jury of residents. A ban will be issued if no adequate retraction and public apology is made by the offending party. In case of repeat offenses or especially severe violations a ban may be issued without prior warning."

Update II: With BL Ochman commenting that "IBM CEO Samuel Palmisano's avatar will become the first Fortune 10 CEO to appear in SL" next week, does that mean Palmisano will get spanked by a Second Life jury if it turns out not to be true? Has IBM called each of the other Fortune 10 CEOs to verify that they don't already have a Second Life avatar?

Previous post:  Backlash against Crayon's Second Life Launch

PR Briefs - News Items November 3, 2006

Battle for Net Neutrality Comes to Canada - CBC - The telco money grab moves north.
Abundance, and Five Years of Blogging - Ross Mayfield   
The Playmaker's Standard | The Strategy of Influence - Tool to help communicators map out the tricks being used against you, and the strategies you can use in return. Based on the book (which, surprisingly, is for sale.) Link via Andy Lark.
SlideShare - A site for finding and sharing PowerPoint presentations. Sort of a YouTube for PowerPoints. Link via Andy Lark.
Episode II: Revenge of the Portal - Steve Rubel - A personalized start page made up mostly of content from RSS feeds allows people to customize their start page experience. Now, companies are adding this as a way of keeping visitors happy.
Sometimes, the simplest communications are the most powerful - John Wagner - A personal message, delivered simply and with sincerity, can be more effective than a bunch of scripted, planned activities.
BarCampSaskatoon - Notes from the unconference Oct. 28 in Saskatoon.
Wal-Mart says PR firm quit following flap over TV ad - MarketWatch
Does the Internet Suck? Evans vs. Maich - Mark Evans debates Maclean's cover story writer Steve Maich.

PR Briefs - News Items October 21, 2006

1. Edelman, PR Ethics and Social Media - the Next Steps- Steve Rubel - Info on Edelman PR's response to controversy about its fake blog tactics on behalf of Wal-Mart.
2. Edelman Admits to Two More Flogs - Shel Holtz - Richard Edelman acknowledges that his PR agency has been involved in two more fake blogs.
3. What Is Edelman Doing? - Richard Edelman reports on what his PR firm is doing to ensure more openness and transparency around social media efforts and word of mouth marketing.
4. PR people, start using your common sense when it comes to disclosure - John Wagner   A review of the disclosure in the Wal-Mart / Working Families for Wal-Mart situation. Wagner suggests more disclosure would help reputations without negatively affecting the ability for PR people to be involved in helping organizations tell their stories
5. Managing Client Expectations: Your Public Relations Firm Must Operate in the Open - Dan Keeney   The PRSA calls for companies and their PR firms to disclose sponsorship of organizations, and avoid fake grassroots campaigns. So let's stop talking about breaches of etiquette, and talk about lapses in ethics.
6. 10 Signs of Life from the News Release - Kevin Dugan   A wrap-up of recent activity in the news release distribution business, and innovations in social media news releases.
7. How to support the troops and not necessarily the war - Rob Cottingham   Voicing opposition to political and military decisions doesn't necessarily mean you have disrespect for the soldiers who risk their lives.
8. Gesundheit, iPod - Rob Cottingham   Apple forgets to apologize after shipping iPods with a virus.

Edelman's Conflicted Role Led to Silence

When the large public relations firm Edelman went into a protective silence instead of engaging its critics over a pro-Wal-Mart blog, it reminded me of HAL, the computer in 2001, A Space Odyssey.

HAL was just doing his job.  But we learn in the next movie (or book, for Arthur C. Clarke fans) that HAL's psychotic behaviour was a natural reaction to being given two contradictory orders by its programmers.

Edelman has repeatedly stated it wants to uphold transparency and honesty in its word-of-mouth marketing and social media activities - both for itself and on behalf of clients.

Compare that to the military, man-the-barricades mentality that is ingrained in the corporate culture at Wal-Mart. Add a prevailing attitude in U.S. politics/marketing/culture that if you just repeat a lie long enough, the public will accept the lie as truth.

It's a very typical situation where the client doesn't want to operate in the real world because the rules of behaviour are inconvenient.

The public relations agency's job is to educate the client and show them how they can gain from behaving in a less anti-social manner. There are many, many compromises to be made on both sides before that kind of transformation can take place (if that's even possible).

The blog was one of those compromises, and president Richard Edelman has acknowledged "the cross-country tour that Edelman designed" was done in a way that violated the agency's stated principles.

His apology was a good step toward clearing the air.  I attribute the fact that it took him several days to respond to the criticism of bloggers to the HAL syndrome.  It's hard to respond to complaints about your actions when you're just doing what the client wants.

See Shel Holtz's Edelman and the One-sided Conversation, and a few dozen other posts - IR Daily, twopointouch, Open (finds, minds …, hyku | blog, JD on EP, Marketing Begins At Home, Joe Duck, PR Squared, Scobleizer, The Post Money Value, Blog Business Summit, Message, Publishing 2.0 and A View from the Isle (links via Techmeme).

Update:  Edelman's internal investigation has turned up two more fake blogs.  Surprise, surprise - both related to Wal-Mart.  That just reinforces my impression that the client is driving this particular wagon.

Tags: communications, consulting, marketing, edelman, agencies, walmart, blogs

PR Briefs - News Items October 12, 2006

1. Right On, Nikon - Joe Jaffe - Sometimes a company puts its faith in the creativity and talent of its customers, and it pays off. Nikon gave cameras to some Flickr bloggers, and created ads based on the results. Smart move.
2. Three Weeks into the Alpha Course - Darren Barefoot - Reality blogging? Darren Barefoot joins an Alpha course at a local church to learn about Christianity, and gives his response after the first three weeks.  Will he last the full 10 weeks? You have to subscribe to find out.
3. IABC Presentation on Technology in the Online Environment - Andrea Weckerle - Report on a session by Katie Paine and James Irwin.

Tags: photography, nikon, nikond80, communications, iabc, alpha course, christianity, flickr

Gay and Lesbian Communications Blog

A new public relations blog examines public relations and marketing as it relates to gays and lesbians.

Three staffers from international public relations agency Fleishman-Hillard want to add a new dimension to blog coverage of communications, and to the coverage of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender issues.

From their first blog post:

"[We’ll] talk about the world at large and the impact of business decisions and societal impacts on our community, but we’re not going to offer up our perspective on elections, which political party is best for the LGBT community, or why this or that politician should or shouldn’t come out."

Bloggers Eddie Evans, Ben Finzel and Steve Kauffman are all members of the agency's FH Out Front  practice, which focuses on helping organizations reach and interact with the lesbian and gay population in the U.S. and other countries.

Link via Fleishman-Hillard blogger David Jones.

Tags: communications, consulting, marketing, lgbt, agencies, rainbow, blogs

PR Briefs - News Items October 10, 2006

• Bloggers: How To Approach Companies - Mike Manuel - Some suggestions for bloggers who want something from a company.
• Will S**ttsburgh Forgive Sienna ? - Scott Baradell - Why screw around with words when a straightforward apology would do the trick?
• SNCR Symposium & Awards Gala in 3 Weeks - Elizabeth Allbrycht invites social media and new communications folks to a symposium in Boston Nov. 1-2. Put on by the Society for New Communications Research.
• Newspapers 2.0 - Doc Searls - Ten tips for newspaper publishers on how to get with the live web and avoid extinction.