I Want to Know … Right Now!!

by Dan Ward

Late last week, I posted a tweet that generated some debate … after reading tweet after tweet proclaiming the L.A. Times and other traditional news media irrelevant because “celebrity gossip” outlet TMZ broke the Michael Jackson story, I said this:  “Enough … getting ‘scooped’ on MJ doesn’t make newspapers irrelevant. Role isn’t to be 1st, but to provide in-depth reporting & b’ground.”

My point wasn’t to defend newspapers; they ARE less relevant today than 5 or 10 years ago.  But the problem isn’t just that they are getting scooped.  It’s that in their rush to join the online revolution (which they admittedly neglected for far too long), they’ve forgotten what has always made them different … their ability to provide depth and background to a story that you just can’t get from a 100-word blog entry or a 30-second TV news clip.

It’s this rush to feed information to a public expecting immediate gratification that leads to headlines like this, from none other than Time magazine: “What Killed Michael? What the Autopsy Could Reveal.”  The autopsy could reveal a million things … drug overdose, undiagnosed disease, even a moonwalking accident.  Maybe instead of competing in the speculation game, Time should report on what the autopsy actually does reveal.

TMZ is a fun read, and should be commended for its amazing wealth of sources and ability to move quickly.  But it also makes statements like this, which I hope to never see in Time: “And this is interesting … Katherine Jackson apparently doesn’t know Prince Michael’s date of birth. Yesterday, in the guardianship papers, she listed his DOB as 1/21/02. The birth certificate says he was born on 2/21/02, one month later.”

Time and the Times both got scooped on that one, but perhaps they chalked up the typo to a simple mistake by a woman grieving the tragic loss of her son.  Being first isn’t the same as being right.

Flexibility

by Roger Pynn

Partner Kim Taylor, our resident social media guide, shared a great post from Chris Brogan’s Community and Social Media blog chock full of tips for anyone contributing to the online conversation … but as someone to whom strategy is everything what stood out applies to the essence of business success. Said Brogan:

“Strategies are flexible. People don’t realize this. If your goal is to land more sales, then making one decision and sticking to it is not likely going to be the best way to plan your blogging methods. For instance, if you decide to write about product features every post, and that doesn’t convert to sales, would you still do it? No. You’d adjust your strategy and try new content approaches.”

Isn’t that true of everything you do in business? If you’re stuck on a single approach – just like a blogger stuck on a single topic – you’re not likely to get a lot of traction.

A set of complementary strategies with a tactical “coat of many colors” support system will be far more interesting than a black and white, set-in-stone method. That’s why, for instance, even though we are primarily known as a public relations firm we emphasize to clients that advertising has to be part of their mix. And public relations doesn’t mean publicity … it means a cornucopia of communications techniques from traditional to cutting-edge that let you create lines of communication with a cross-section of stakeholders.

Most importantly, as Brogan suggests, you have to constantly ask yourself “is this working?” You can’t be afraid to shift to a new approach if the winds have changed and left your sails airless.

A Huge Loss

by Roger Pynn

Learning of the death of George M. Prince made me reflect on a man known by too few. His 1970 book The Practice of Creativity has stayed on my bookshelf for more than 25 years since I took the first of several workshops from Synectics Inc., the think tank he founded in Cambridge, Mass.

Prince taught creativity like a science. He pioneered the observation of creativity in the invention process, videotaping inventors at work. A wealth of his work lives on, including writings and his prolific “doodles,” as he called them. You see, George sat through so many meetings as perhaps one of the greatest meeting facilitators of all time that he learned to harness the creative energy that could otherwise have escaped that great mind by doodling non-stop from a pocket full of colored markers that became as much his trademark as his blue shirts (I don’t think I ever saw him in anything else).

He taught people the power of structured meetings that nurtured every participant’s ability to build creatively on the other’s thinking. If there’s a meeting going on in heaven, I’m sure George is in charge and it is no doubt producing some incredible results.

What You Know

by Roger Pynn

I’ve been thinking about how the economy has changed business. Like almost everyone, our business has changed dramatically. Budgets have been drastically reduced as clients have seen their business negatively impacted by the recession. Fear has caused many to keep their powder dry on new projects.

But everyone still needs help. Organizations need visibility. They need to protect their reputations. They need to communicate with stakeholders.

The challenge is to help people who may want to see the light at the end of the tunnel, but for whom the next bend in a tunnel that still seems very dark is likely far more important.

Just as Rome wasn’t built in a day, rebuilding markets is going to take time and smart investment of communication resources. And that starts with carefully identifying those most important to you, most likely to buy from you and most likely to endorse you.

In fact, it may not be what you know but who you know.

Expectations

by Kim Taylor

When you’re going about your daily routine solving problems for customers or clients, taking on tasks given to you by your superiors or even handling your personal to-do list, do you ever think about the difference between those expectations which are met vs. those that are exceeded?

An expectation is: the degree of probability that something will occur.

So let’s take this example. If you make an appointment to see a doctor, it’s fair to say that you ‘expect’ to be seen at your appointment time. Perhaps, with no explanation, you’re not seen until 45 minutes later … but you are, in fact, seen. Does the fact that the service they offered was rendered outweigh that perhaps they were running a few minutes behind?

Were your expectations met? Exceeded? Could you have changed the outcome somehow? Been clearer about your expectations from the outset?

Approaching every task with the intent to exceed expectations will create satisfied customers and bosses every time.

Style Still Matters

by Kim Taylor

The age of citizen journalism and user-generated content has surely shifted the focus away from proper grammar and style in many publications. But to coin a phrase my mom often used growing up … “just because your friends do it, doesn’t mean you should.”

We still proofread every document produced in our office (with the exception of conversational e-mail) paying special attention to grammar, punctuation and AP Style … the time-honored rules developed as the standard for journalists by The Associated Press.

In honor of the newly released 2009 AP Stylebook, here are 25 helpful style tips:

toward not towards; afterward not afterwards

ages:
Use figures for people and animals (My dog is 3 years old.), but not for inanimates (The building is fifteen years old.).
Hyphenate ages expressed as adjectives before a noun (the 2-year-old girl).

all right not alright

capitalization:
When in doubt, lowercase is probably your best bet. Avoid the tendency to overcapitalize!
Capitalize: proper nouns, proper names and formal titles (but only when immediately before a name).

city:
It’s only necessary to capitalize city when it’s part of an official city’s name (New York City).
Lowercase ALL ‘city of’ phrases. However, we typically capitalize ‘City of’ phrases when referring to the city’s government office as an organization.

Inc.:
When used, do not set off with commas (OrLANtech Inc. not OrLANtech, Inc.)

daylight saving time not daylight savings time (no plural ‘s’)

website not Web site (AP Style made the groundbreaking change to the lowercase, one-word option April 2010.)

Internet but intranet

ensure vs. insure (only use insure for references to insurance)

flier (an aviator or handbill) vs. flyer (Flyer is the proper name of some trains and buses.)

historic it was a historic event not an historic

it’s (contraction of it is or it has) vs. its (possessive form of the pronoun it)

media (when referring to mass communication) is plural (the news media are not is)

millions, billions (use figures except in casual uses)

9/11 Sept. 11 is preferred when describing the terrorist attacks in the U.S.

numerals:
There are many rules to learn when expressing a number, but the best rule of thumb is: Spell out whole numbers below 10, use figures for 10 and above.

on:
It’s not necessary to use ‘on’ before a date or day of the week when its absence would not lead to confusion, except at the beginning of a sentence.
(We plan to meet Tuesday. On July 3, the commission will meet to review the plan.)

over (use with spatial relationships) vs. more than (use when referring to numbers)
(The plane flew over the city. We have been in business more than 24 years.)

pique (to excite or arouse an emotion) vs. peak (the pointed top of something; a time of day, year, etc., when demand is greatest)

stationary (to stand still) vs. stationery (writing paper)

state names:
The following states should not be abbreviated in text or datelines: Alaska, Hawaii, Idaho, Iowa, Maine, Ohio, Texas and Utah.
Only use two-letter abbreviations (e.g., FL) with full addresses, including ZIP code.

T-shirt not t-shirt

plurals:
Figures: Add an s (1970s)
Single Letters: Use ’s (mind your p’s and q’s)

quotation mark punctuation:
The period and comma ALWAYS go within the quotation marks.
The dash, semicolon, question mark and exclamation point go within the quotation marks when they apply to the quoted matter only; they go outside when they apply to the whole sentence.

Careful what you ask for

by Roger Pynn

Consumers wanted affordable air fares … they wanted to be able to go anywhere at the drop of a hat at the price of going Greyhound. Air travel has gone to the dogs, all right with passengers finding they have to pay for everything except the seatbelt buckle once they take off.

Everything from pillows to peanuts now make the cash registers of the friendly skies ring, but you have to wonder what all that revenue is doing to the bottom line of reputation. When was the last time someone told you they enjoyed flying or raved about their favorite airline?

There’s no cocktail service on a Greyhound Bus and there’s a reason for it: people go there because they are looking for “cheap” transportation. If the temperature on an airplane gets uncomfortably cold due to conditions beyond your control (like the ability to reach up and turn off the air flow above you), should you have to pay $15 to rent a blanket as you do on Allegiant Airlines (the same blanket that’s been included in ticket prices as long as anyone can remember)? And, if you do … how long will you remain one of their raving fans, the kind my Partner Kim Taylor wrote about when she reminded us how these times demand customer focus more than ever?

Do the Right Thing

by Dan Ward

Since Nov. 10, 2008, The New York Times decided that a certain bit of news was not fit to print … the fact that one of its reporters, David Rohde, had been abducted by the Taliban.

While stating that Timesjournalists “cringed” about sitting on the story, Executive Editor Bill Keller said they decided to keep the abduction secret based on the judgment of experts who believed media exposure could have put Rohde in danger.

They did the right thing.

While certainly the abduction of a reporter for one of the world’s most famous newspapers has news value, there is a time when the value of human life should take precedence.  This was such a time.

The cynic in me must ask, however, whether the same decision would have been made if the abduction had involved a high-ranking military officer or a government official.  Would the Times afford them and their families the same courtesy, maintaining silence in order to ensure their safety?  Or did Rohde’s status as a reporter sway the Times’ decision?

I hope the same decision would have been made, and will be made in the future, regardless of job description.  As this story shows, secrecy is not always a bad thing.

Fool me once . . .

by Elizabeth Buccianti

While we hear so many accounts of backlash from PR and advertising campaigns where marketers didn’t do their homework, American Girl is a shining example of a company that experienced an onslaught of criticism from a product launch and completely retooled the process to deter similar repercussions with subsequent products. 

American Girl produces historical-based characters with an accompanying book series and doll and The New York Times recently reported on the painstaking efforts and years of research and development that went into creating the brand’s newest character Rebecca, the daughter of Russian-Jewish immigrants living in Manhattan in 1914.

In 1993 when American Girl released the character Addy, an African-American girl who was a slave at the start of the book series, critics unleashed a wave of attacks.  Learning from its mistakes, the company spent years creating Rebecca’s background drawing upon historical researchers, focus groups, and religious leaders. 

As a result, Rebecca received a stamp of approval from Abraham Foxman, director of the Anti-Defamation League, and as described by The New York Times, an individual that is “not easy to impress.”  In fact, the article reports that Mr. Foxman couldn’t find anything wrong with Rebecca’s appearance or her novels.  He goes on to say “It’s not offensive. It’s sensitive. How about that?”

I can’t say enough about the importance of taking time for due diligence before the start of a project.  At the core of every Curley & Pynn project you will find a solid foundation of research.  It’s one of the keystones to our firm’s unique strategy-driven approach to public relations and what allows us to develop programs with the greatest amount of impact for our clients.

Not So Well Said

by Roger Pynn

Now here’s a well-thought-out statement by an executive announcing a reduction in force:

 “Simply put, our staffing levels were bloated and hindered our ability to be an efficient and nimble team-oriented company,” said MySpace Chief Executive Owen Van Natta.

While it is true that MySpace has fallen well behind its social networking competitors, one has to wonder how employees felt when that statement drove headlines like this one from CNNMoney.com:

 NewsCorp’s social networking site slashes roughly 430 jobs, citing ‘bloated’ staffing levels and inefficiencies.

Blaming your workers for management mistakes is never a good idea.  If this story had contained even an ounce of compassion for those who had toiled so hard at the social networking collective these thoughts of News Corporation’s CEO of Digital Media Jonathan Miller might be a bit more reassuring to those who will remain down on the farm:

“MySpace grew too big considering the realities of today’s marketplace.  I believe this restructuring will help MySpace operate much more effectively both structurally and financially moving forward.”

Perhaps if they’d just stuck to the script in CEO Owen Van Natta’s memo to employees.  Alas, we’ll never knew who was telling the truth.