Your PR Architect

Every few months, someone's predicting the demise of the press release. Photo by Dustin Lee via Unsplash.com. See more at http://bit.ly/Free-RetroSupply-Goods And, if they're an editor or blogger or journalist, I think: baloney. My colleague Denny Wilkins shared with me a "press releases are dead"  post from Medium . The writer argues that issuing news releases is a zombie activity. Something PR people do automatically. A practice that cannot be killed.  And, like most who call for an end to news releases, the writer bemoans the flood of releases that clutter most editors' email in-boxes. He praises videos and Tweets that tell an organization's story digitally, and therefore "better." Because Tweets and videos don't clutter his in-box. Stop whining. You receive an over-abundance of releases because your employer gutted the editorial staff. You're now receiving releases those departed editors no longer read. Because they'r...

Public relations professionals today dream of having a campaign go "viral." Earning countless views, shares, Tweets and re-tweets, and unending shares on Facebook. By User:Otourly (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC BY-SA 3.0 (http://creativecommons.org /licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Last year's Ice Bucket Challenge for MLS was an extraordinary example, with people all over replicating and re-posting their attempts -- successful or otherwise -- at reducing their body temperature in the name of charity. And we couldn't turn away. This week, in casual online conversation, I contrasted the relentless ice-dousing videos with the chilling 30-second clip of a North Charleston, S.C. police officer unloading eight rounds at an unarmed, fleeing Walter Scott . It was chilling video, can't-look-away content. NBC knew it, and ran the clip three times in the first eight minutes of its Nightly News report. At first, I was ...

PR people know how to tell and sell a story. They know how to persuade. They don't always know how to promote themselves. This week, an agency sent a pitch and a link to their YouTube channel. They offered a series of 90-second clips showcasing their wisdom regarding social media. Here's one: Each of their videos sounded like it was recorded in a restroom. At a fast-food restaurant. Not how I'd want to come across on the web. PR is a business of persuasion. You must persuade clients that you know your topic, know your media targets -- and you know what you're doing. I'm sure these people are smart. But when you post videos with poor audio quality, or don't re-shoot segments in which a speaker makes an obvious on-camera flub, you're not persuading anyone. You're only telling me that you don't attend to the quality of content that's the meat of social media. Truly smart shops recognize that you can't persuade anyone with vid...

I have a bunch of orphans to look after. Not long ago, I worked on a series of video podcasts. Created them, actually, with the help of some very talented video professionals. Our videos profiled professional photographers (see the screen shot below), many of whom championed the virtues of film and digital photography. No one called our work "content creation" at the time. But we produced online material to help build the reputation and brand of a company struggling to re-imagine itself for the digital era. Digital eventually supplanted film, and the company filed for bankruptcy reorganization. Our videos, however, reflect the company's view at the time: that film gave photographers creative latitude that digital cameras did not. (View the series at this link. ) This view, in 2014, has changed. The podcasts -- including this one, profiling British photographer  Jocelyn Bain Hogg  -- live on as created in 2011. Frozen in time. I would have forgotten the...

Aside from the minor tedious nature of a 6-plus minute slide show, there's plenty to like about MillerCoors posting scenes from its 2011 diversity summit on YouTube. I like linking diversity to the fundamental goals of the business: "Diversity Sells Beer." Or a clear focus on "regular employees" from different backgrounds, not executives in $1000 suits. (Although diversity initiatives really catch fire only when senior leaders actively champion such change.) Capturing key points on whiteboards, and chronicling them in stills (and video) isn't a bad way to keep these learnings close at hand. It's not a Joe Sedelmeier film, but it works. The disappointment, however: MillerCoors' video has had a stunning 116 views as of this blog post. MillerCoors' parent, SABMiller.plc, has 70,000 employees worldwide. If only 10 percent are MillerCoors employees, that still leaves a stunning gap between the number of views and MillerCoors' workforce. ...