Your PR Architect

By Dan Altuz (Own work) [CC BY-SA 4.0 (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-sa/4.0)], via Wikimedia Commons An old magician's trick -- "look closely, nothing up my sleeve" -- threatens to alter our perception of what constitutes real news. Unless we wise up, and fast. In stage parlance, the word was legerdemain . Derived from a French expression for "sleight of hand," it describes a magic trick, or some other deceit. Screenwriters and journalists don't use the word much anymore.  But, in an era of false news, dusting it off would be a fine idea. Because we're looking at a year or more of childish sniping and Tweets whose true purpose is to distract editors and too-lean reporting staffs from digging at harder stories. Legerdemain isn't limited to the next occupants of the White House. In some cases, PR people have performed their own version of "here's an oversized check to charity" to obscure the less-than-charitable d...

When a U.S. federal judge in early May told Staples and Office Depot/Office Max that their proposed merger was dead , I was busy grading papers. But now, a couple of weeks later, I say: "Good on ya," Judge Emmet G. Sullivan. By Takkk (Own work) [CC BY-SA 3.0], via Wikimedia Commons I'm the guy personified in an old Staples TV ad, singing "It's the Most Wonderful Time of the Year," when back-to-school supplies go on sale in late July. I've strolled the stationery aisles of independent drugstores, looking for a hard-to-find ink refill or discontinued ballpoint. (All-time favorite: Pilot's long-gone GX300. ) And, I've been an advocate of Staples, because they often have what I need. But not this time. True, a Staples/Office Depot merger would have better competed with Amazon and Wal-Mart in the office/home-office category. But it would've doomed many smaller stationers, and perhaps crippled the buying cooperatives that educators use ...

We all have photos and moments from our past we'd rather forget. They show up online when we least expect them, like an un-scrubbable digital tattoo. On Facebook. On Instagram. On Twitter. Mine aren't as bad as others. I once played John Hancock in a community theatre production of 1776 . And despite my best efforts, a photo of me in that powdered wig surfaces every now and then. (It could be worse; it's not a photo of me with my own hair.) It's a digital shadow I can't elude. But it likely won't affect my professional reputation. Unless it appears on LinkedIn. Jian Ghomeshi photo by Canadian Film Centre from Toronto, Canada (ideaBOOST Launch Pad May 8, 2014) [CC BY 2.0], via Wikimedia Commons I'm better able to move forward from that awkward powdered-wig image than  Jian Ghomeshi, the former CBC radio host whose career imploded when, in 2014, multiple women accused him of harsh sexual behavior. CBC dismissed Ghomeshi from his talk program "Q...

By Greg Rakozy (www.instagram.com/grakozy), via unsplash.com More than one friend of mine likes to post photos to Facebook. Photos of their travels. Snapshots from their parties. Lots of photos. Every. single. photo. Like a sky full of stars, that's too much to absorb. What's worse? Often, they're near-identical images -- group shots of three or four people, taken moment by moment, with little change of gesture or expression. Or the dreaded BOH (backs of heads). Not action photos, which might call for a rapid-fire sequence of images. Just group photos. People grinning for the camera. Do we need to see four, five, or six iterations of the same snapshot? No. That's unfair to everyone who follows you. Sure, social media is a visual medium. Visual communications, from infographics to vlogs, are the common currency of the internet. And, one outcome of citizen journalism and the proliferation of smartphone cameras is that people take countless photos. This isn...

While Pope Francis led a spiritual resurgence of faithful Catholics in Cuba, Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, and New York City last week, a different resurrection was taking place a few steps away from St. Patrick's Cathedral. Brian Williams went back on TV Thursday to deliver news of the Pope's visit, working out of studios at 30 Rock. Except he's on MSNBC, the cable news channel that has fewer viewers than any other NBC-Comcast-Universal property. By fimoculous from Seattle (Flickr), via Wikimedia Commons Mr. Williams, you may recall, fell off the NBC News' anchor desk seven months ago, after sharing tall stories about his exploits in Iraq and New Orleans that proved inaccurate, to put in kindly. Williams -- affable, credible, and a good front man for NBC's news product -- had fibbed. He was suspended, and only through the graces of new leadership at NBC News, was given an opportunity to resurface at MSNBC, where he began his network career a few decades a...

Had enough of the content tidal wave yet? The web offers more than "stream of consciousness." It's scream of consciousness -- a term I attribute to the  artist Carolyn Kassnoff around 2001 -- but it's more accurate than ever. Every thought, idea, wry observation, or snarky Kardashian slap finds its way into the torrent of social media. And no place is it more evident than Twitter. PR pro David Ericson recently blogged about many ways to use Twitter for public relations . It's a good read, describing how Twitter's alliance with Google helps the social media site reach casual web consumers who aren't (yet) Twitter members. So, if you're a PR pro who's working to get recognition for a client's services and products, there's value to including a well-planned Twitter strategy. Yogi Berra, C. 1956, via Wikimedia Commons But there's another way for PR people to leverage Twitter, although you need a registered Twitter account. I...

Social media and public relations can work quite well together. If you know what you're doing. Trouble is, if Kelly Brady’s your expert on the topic, grab a parachute. Now. Your plane's on autopilot and you’re about to smack a mountaintop.  Howcast.com posted a 2013 video with Ms.Brady expounding on the value of social media in PR. And very little of it has any basis in how social media really works for most PR pros. Publicist Kelly Brady Note: Ms. Brady believes landing a story in the New York Post is a good PR hit. If that's your paper of record, then her advice might be worth following -- if your client loves Page Six. (Learn more about Ms. Brady here .) Here are excerpts of her pearls of wisdom: “Social media is relatively a new tool in public relations.” Sure, if you’ve been living the hard-partying life since 2009. By then, Facebook had more than 100 million users. Today, it’s close to 1.4 billion users. “Creating a buzz about the account...

By lululemon athletica [CC-BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons. org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons There's a bit of Twitter real estate that can help your organization or client create brand presence. And too often, it's just thrown away.  It's the "bio." That's what Twitter calls the 160-character summary about yourself or your company. One hundred sixty characters isn't much, but I'm often astounded how many organizations squander this real estate in unrelenting hyperbole.  Creativity's fine here. But jargon isn't helpful. Here's one example: BLANK BLANK, one of the nation's leading drug store chains, proactively empowers you in your pursuit of personal wellness. (Website) What does this mean? Should I expect the drugstore's employees to drop by and be my personal trainer? They sell vitamins, bandages, and personal beauty products. My pursuit of "personal wellness," such as it is, comes from diet, e...

Last week, this blog outlined the benefits of enlisting a PR professional to produce your business blog. When you share industry insights and winning strategies, your blog can be an effective instrument in your overall marketing ensemble. Writing and maintaining a blog is only half of the job. You also need a strategy to promote it. You can-- Link to your blog from your website.  Reference it in a Twitter post or LinkedIn user group.  Bring it to the attention of a Paper.li editor. Include links in your Constant Contact email.  Maybe even send out a news release. (How  retro .) Your blog is one instrument in your marketing ensemble. And yes, tell your friends. Should you use Facebook, Tumblr, and Pinterest to draw readers to your blog? It's a tough call. Facebook, first and foremost, is a social network. Your friends are sharing family photos, cat humor, vacation photos, and the musings of George Takei. There's a chance they'll enjoy looking at your ...

Ralph Waldo Emerson said that an "institution is the lengthened shadow of a man." Biographers sometimes use the phrase to describe titans of 20th century industry -- George Eastman, Henry Ford, etc. -- whose personal imprint lived on in their companies after they passed. Today, viewed through a PR lens, I view your personal brand online  as your lengthened shadow. Like a shadow, it follows you and says things about you that you don't verbalize. This is especially true when you create a Facebook or Twitter account -- and do nothing with it. Twice this week, I've looked up executives' pages on Facebook to try to learn more about them. Yes, I know -- I should be finding them on LinkedIn, where business connections override social contacts. But Facebook garners the most traffic of social media sites. And people often share opinions and stories on Facebook that offer some insights on their interests. Plus, I was curious to see how these women, both recognizable i...

My budget won't permit me to join the PRSA conference in New York City in Apri l. You could learn a few good techniques there. But I may be able to save you a few dollars, the joy of air travel, and the challenge of reading notes on a whiteboard with these media relations practices that seem to work for me: Get to know the reporters and editors you want to reach . Many still cover beats, such as education, crime, health care, personal finance, and more. You wouldn't pitch a health care story to a sports reporter, so do a Google search on a reporter's byline. If she covers biotech topics and your client has some expertise, there's a potential match. Twitter's real value in public relations? You can listen to anybody. Many journalists tweet about the stories they cover, and when they're in need of an interview subject. Don't 'stalk' a reporter, but do listen. Tie in with a trend.  Media gatekeepers think in terms of rating periods and packages. ...

It would be too easy to judge Justine Sacco's Dec. 20 hara-kiri on Twitter. It would also be premature, because as of this writing, she's still an employee of IAC and its boss, Barry Diller. Memo to Justine: ask friends to round up empty copier paper boxes for when you're back in the office.You'll need 'em. Justine Sacco, via NY Daily News Details on Justine Sacco's self-inflicted PR disaster are here, along with the preposterous Gogo tie-in. Calling this the internet equivalent of drunk dialing is an understatement. There's plenty of stupid to go around: For a PR person, Sacco's now-deleted Twitter account contained a wealth of borderline coarse comments that were stunning in their stupidity. Teachable moment: just because you have only 400 followers on Twitter doesn't mean the whole world can't see you be stupid. Diller has owned and sold more media properties than almost everyone, including Rupert Murdoch. He's not a shy pe...

Home Depot, like many large companies, outsourced the running of its Twitter feed to a nameless marketing "agency." When the agency posted a racially offensive tweet, HD acted swiftly to sever its relationship with the agency. Read about it here:  http://atlanta.cbslocal.com/2013/11/07/home-depot-tweets-alleged-racist-photo/ Brad Shaw of Home Depot, via Ad Age Maybe the practice of entrusting your brand presence to an outside contractor isn't as disastrous as it sounds. But someone, somewhere needs to have a broader perspective. With Twitter's huge IPO taking place this week, all eyes were focused on the micro-blogging site. Brands can live or die on Twitter. The irony: two years ago, Ad Age lauded Home Depot for its internal team's social media acumen .Why did this strategy go off the rails? So cheers to Home Depot for cutting its ties with an insensitive agency. But who the heck thought placing HD's online brand in the hands of a non-employee w...

Which Rochester ad agency didn't get the message about distracted driving? The Rochester Advertising Council's 2013 campaign "Yeah, You're that Distracting" has helped make motorists aware that texting while driving can have fatal results. It convinced me that multitasking behind the wheel was a great way to wreck a car, and likely injure someone. But their great campaign doesn't stop outdoor advertising initiatives like this one: The photo isn't mine. Someone -- perhaps a local TV journalist -- grabbed this image with a smartphone and posted it to a social media feed. I'm betting many other motorists did the same thing, and maybe even added a snarky comment. Free publicity? Sure. And Twitter users' tendency to repost and add their own comments are likely to give the athletic club's modest two-billboard campaign a broader reach than they'd have earned if they'd purchased 10 normal billboards. However: campaigns like this...

An effective PR strategy requires leveraging social media to drive visits to richer content: blogs, videos, podcasts, infographics, etc. Create great content, and you give a human identity to an otherwise faceless business or organization. But, the content must be rich and active . And, if you once used Alta Vista for online search, you know that, like early roses, nothing online is forever. Recently I revisited my list of links to blogs and other websites that carry content I’d created. To be certain the URLs were accurate, I clicked each link. More than a few articles – mostly posts I’d written for company blogs – had been vaporized. Broken links? Worse. After digging, I discovered the hosting service that managed the blogs had folded. The client company (the one with their name on the website) hadn’t restored its missing content, or explained where it had gone. With the hosting service’s servers inoperative, a large chunk of their blog content – the “real...

How many hats do you wear in PR? Counselor? Writer? Media negotiator? Strategist? Here's one more: ethicist. we need more authenticity. In PR. On Facebook. And maybe in life. Brian Solis, who blogs about the impact of culture, technology and business, thinks there's room for much more transparency online. Brian had an interesting take on authenticity in public relations and social media, which you can read here . He argues for disclosing your relationship with a client or company if you write a personal blog or reviews about that company's products. Brian's post doesn't directly talk about the 2006 "Wal-marting Across America" scandal, captured here . But the connection's clear. Fast-forward; in 2013, authenticity is on the ropes again. Facebook and Twitter, in particular, enable unbridled "liking" and "following" of products, brands, and services. When we cheerily agree to use a Facebook app, we often give it permission t...

This started out as some informal recommendations I shared with a colleague at a large not-for-profit institution. As with many large enterprises, not all areas within the organization get the online visibility they desire. My friend's area wants to earn some visibility with prospective customers -- but the "mother ship" organization's social media strategy doesn't provide the ability to promote individual departments or divisions. Here's what I shared with my colleague: Facebook would be an OK place to purchase ads, if that's where your target audience is looking -- and if they will take action based on your ads. When I visited (your department's) Facebook page, I saw 430 views, but just 24 "likes". You want the 'likes' to grow, because they show up on other people's Facebook feeds. For comparison, a small local non-profit's Facebook page has 64 likes. It's much smaller than your organization, so word of that pag...