Your PR Architect

In an earlier life, I reviewed films for a small-town daily newspaper. It was pre-Rotten Tomatoes. Pre-internet. So if you wanted to know if a movie was worth your $5, you read newspapers or hoped Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel reviewed it for their TV show. USAF Snipers by By Tech. Sgt. Bonnie A. White (USAF)  (http://www.af.mil/weekinphotos/040730-02.html) [Public domain], via Wikimedia Commons Today, I don't review films. And I try not to wade in to debates about controversial films. I saw The Interview on pay-per-view. And I may see American Sniper , Clint Eastwood's latest film. But I'm unlikely to write about either movie. I gave up reviewing films because I found scribbling in the dark distracting. I wasn't experiencing or enjoying the on-screen stories. I found myself analyzing the product, much the way testers at Consumer Reports test toasters and microwaves. In a way, I was contributing to the PR buzz for feature films. And I decided that I wasn...

Radio Shack, where you bought your last blank cassette in 1998, could file for bankruptcy reorganization in the next few weeks. Retailers have had a rough start in 2015. Macys, J.C.Penney, and Target Canada, which never got its supply chain issues under control, all are shuttering stores. Coolcaesar at the English language Wikipedia  [GFDL (www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html) or CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/)], via Wikimedia Commons Radio Shack, however, has been losing ground for years, squandering opportunities to rebound. When it lost the computer retailing business to Best Buy, it went into cellphones and wireless phones. And remote controlled toys. And digital cameras. And even created a buzz-worthy TV ad for the 2014 Super Bowl . Of course, RS' marketing never drew crowds. Check out this 1980's ad for the Color Computer III, and you'll see why. Why did Radio Shack falter? A few reasons: its aging customers finally learned ho...

I don't do resolutions. Unless I'm performing as John Hancock in a community theatre production of "1776." But for 2015, I have a modified mindset regarding social media. What I read about my friends on Facebook is not their real lives, and I'm not going to compare my life to theirs. Your Facebook friends will post their successes, their celebrations, family photos, and maybe snarky comments about Kardashians and Biebers. Those friends are less likely to post about their cramps. Their firings. Their financial losses. Their private addictions. Queen, c. 1985, by Thomas Steffan (Own work) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0  (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) via Wikimedia Commons What we see on Facebook and other social media are a kind of PR version of their lives. Their "best of" experiences. It's like a CD of Queen's  Greatest Hits . You'll hear "Crazy Little Thing Called Love" and...

By Drapplesi (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 This isn't a rant. It's not a diatribe. It's simply my point of view. I don't carry a smartphone. They're easy to get and operate. But I resist using one. Why? Because it quickly becomes an intruder in my real life. And, if we're having a conversation, it's intruding in your life, too. I believe in the art of listening over the artifice of texting. I believe in building relationships between placing my order and the arrival of the meal. I believe in eye contact, not eyestrain. And I find the creepy blue glow of a smartphone casts an unflattering pallor over the face of the person using the phone. In a dim restaurant, it looks like a scene from "The Walking Dead." Yick. Yes, I've used Yelp to help me find interesting restaurants. But I don't want Yelp to tell me whether...

I didn't know you could buy surplus animatronic figures from Disney parks. Let alone install one from the Hall of Presidents as a company CEO. Animatronic at Disney Hall of Progress By SteamFan (own work (Nikon D80)) [GFDL (http://www.gnu.org/copyleft/fdl.html), CC-BY-SA-3.0 (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/) via Wikimedia Commons You'll read countless New Year's resolutions in the coming week. Some will be preposterous or hard to keep. But if you're a CEO or executive director of an organization, and you don't wish to be mistaken for an animatronic historical figure, there's an easy resolution to keep -- one that will help your internal communications far more than any newsletter or video message. It's simple: Be authentic. Be human.  Not every CEO is a "people person." The leader I'm describing -- call him Gerry -- was a good strategist and a charismatic sales leader. But he was never at ease talking...

Did you hear about the CEO who gave back his bonus because the company missed its financial target? If you did, great. If not, you'll have to look up the story elsewhere. I'm not going into it here. The most important part of public relations is being authentic. Being real. Acting like a human. So if you're reading this, a few short days before Christmas, here's my professional advice: Turn off your your computer. Browser. Tablet. Phone. Whatever.  Go out and do something real. Something authentic. Something that has nothing to do with clients, product publicity, or crisis communications. It'll keep. Be human. Celebrate the love of others, and be generous with your time and talents. Happy holiday. 

When you need to drop 2,000 words on "what PR Is not about," as a recent online opinion piece does, you're too much in love with the sound of your own words. And losing readers with every sentence. By Joost J. Bakker (Flickr: Do The Right Thing graffiti Amsterdam) [CC BY-2.0 (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons Is this really a checklist? It feels like a rant -- a  long-winded epistle about what PR is not about that strayed into TLDR* territory after 300 words.  So, in the interest of brevity and casting PR in a less-defensive light, here's a much shorter list of what public relations is: 1. Public relations is about building trust between an organization and its stakeholders: customers, members, employees, investors, partners, and media. Do this by telling the truth.  2. PR is  about helping organizations and their leadership act and sound smart, innovative, and authentic.  3. PR is about doing th...