Unreal

by Roger Pynn

There is no such thing as reality television. On that, I think, most of us agree … unless you think that eating bugs in Somoa, singing your way to fame and fortune before a panel that always includes someone with a British accent, or sending your spouse off to live with another impossible family represents reality.

Now, however, this reality TV thing is getting way too close to home. O.J. Simpson’s goddaughter Kim Kardashian of “Keeping Up with the Kardashians” fame says she will produce a reality television series about public relations people.

If America understands public relations better after watching this, I’ll start watching “Big Brother.”

Much More Than Just Good Looks …

by Dionne Aiken

eBizMBA.com highlights the top 10 best Flash Web sites of 2009.  When you have a moment, check it out.  You’ll see some really neat sites!  But, there’s more to a good Web site than being really, really, really good looking.

The layout and presentation of information is key.  In general, information should be organized and presented, taking into account the users’ intuitive processes and actions.  In short, it is important to understand how and what users will access, and navigate on your site.

At Curley & Pynn, we ask four questions to help understand what drives a target audience:

• Who do you want to reach?
• What do they know about you?
• What do you want them to know?
• What do you want them to do?

The answers to these questions can also help shape how you present the information on your Web site.

For example, the home page is the point of entry where you must grab and keep users’ attention and further pull them into your Web site.  You don’t want to overload users with too much information, links and clutter.  Instead create “zones” or sections that group and highlight key items that you want to call to your audiences’ attention like news feeds, blog updates or maybe a new product or service, and then allow them the option to click to learn more.

Apple does a good job of this by highlighting key items on their home page such as product announcements and headlines, breaking them into zones and then allowing the user the choice to navigate to desired areas of the site to access additional information.

 

 

We see the same thing with the Dell home page:

This idea of grouping and gradually revealing information is best defined by the term Progressive Disclosure.  Progressive Disclosure is the separating of information into multiple layers and only presenting layers that are necessary or relevant.

By only presenting the necessary and relevant information first, you provide users with a quick snapshot of what they need to know and put them in the driver’s seat.

When it comes to Web site design, good looks will only get you so far.  Information presentation is what helps connect your audience to your message.

When the Edits Stop

by Kim Taylor

Today a colleague in the local PR community posed a question to the Twitterati:

“What’s your take on editing blog content? When employees write posts, should employers edit sentence structure, punctuation, etc?”

When we began blogging here more than a year ago, we faced similar questions. After all, successful blogs are typically conversational and aren’t written in robot-speak.

But, does that mean they can’t be grammatically correct? Does editing for Style affect tone? If a writer asks, “do ya know what I mean?” do we feel the need to edit the ‘ya’ to a ‘you’?

The fun and challenging part about Web 2.0, 3.0 or whatever point 0 we’ve reached, is that it’s a learning process for everyone. What works for GM’s FastLane blog might not work in another corporate environment.

If you’re just beginning to blog or still trying to find your voice, do what works for you or what best represents your organization. It’s the Internet, there are no rules.

Reporter or Columnist?

by Roger Pynn

What happens when reporters comment in a blog on stories they have written?

Have they stepped across the line and become columnists?

Can they go back?

When Orlando Sentinel Reporter Jim Stratton posted this did he cross the line and become a member of the paper’s opinion staff?

Stratton and colleague David Damron wrote a significant story about the work of myregion.org– a group of regional leaders dedicated to smart growth – then in his blog he makes very clear what his opinions are. Does that signal what motivated him as he wrote the story? Can people of differing opinions understandably now take issue?

As a matter of full disclosure, I am a member of that organization’s board of directors. I won’t take issue here with what Stratton and Damron wrote. But I will question the newspaper’s judgment in letting reporters blog. I think it is bad practice.

As a former reporter (in fact for the Orlando Sentinel) I was taught and told “never express your opinion.” Why has that changed?

Twitter Tattoos

by Roger Pynn

Listening to a presentation by frenetically-paced social media watcher Peter Shankman at the Florida Public Relations Association’s annual conference, reminded me of all the foolish things we tend to do when we’re young.

Don’t get me wrong. Shankman is interesting and I’m as interested as anyone in the evolution of social media … but I don’t have a tattoo. I don’t know whether Shankman has one either … but that’s not the point.

Like those cute little butterflies and other designs popular with young women, and the bicep barbed wire that seems to be the body art of choice for muscular guys, the things we are “saying” online will be around for a long, long time.

Shankman shared some of the statistics, but then in my inbox came this engaging Erik Qualman Socialnomics video on YouTube about the Social Media Revolution.

If those numbers don’t make you think twice, nothing will.

There’s a simple point to remember: there’s no way to take back what you tweet, and my guess is that finding a remedy to that may be just as tough as finding a way to get rid of last summer’s tattoo when you find out your dream job is with a company that prohibits visible body art.

Just as you should choose a tattoo design very carefully, best to choose wisely what you say in your favorite digital social neighborhood.

Visionaries

by Roger Pynn

Every once in a while, you just need something inspiring on your blog.  You know … go totally off script and talk about something that no one thinks has anything to do with your stated purpose.

So, while this story about blind baseball players may not seem to have anything to do with targeted communications, I’d suggest watching this story (http://online.wsj.com/article/SB125054739963438235.html#articleTabs%3Dvideo)

… then come back to read on.

How cool that people who need a cane to feel their way around, and may rely on a guide dog to help them across the street have the guts to stand up to a plate and wait for a beeping ball to head in their direction, listen for its signal until the absolute optimum moment and then take a swing.

And once they’ve connected with that ball, they take off in pursuit of their goal with what is either unbridled enthusiasm or reckless abandon … willing to give it their all to get the chance to score a run.

In fact, when I started to write this post I had no thought of tying it to what we do every day, but the farther along I got the more I realized the lesson these athletes have for people planning a communications program.  They do instinctively what so many of us have to force ourselves to do:  they listen.

Special Interests

by Dan Ward

It seems like whenever political debate heats up on any issue, the dreaded  “special interests ” rear their ugly heads.  The debate over health care reform is no different  … Republicans decry the special interests supporting a public option, while Democrats dismiss the special interests who oppose it.

It makes me question who is and isn’t a special interest on an issue this important.  Is your interest considered  “special ” only if you offer an opposing view?  Does that mean those who support your opinion consider you simply ordinary and unworthy of the  “special ” adjective?

The term “special interest ” is a crutch, used too often to demonize any person or group of people who disagree or companies or associations that espouse their organizational beliefs and spend money to do so.

We all have a special interest in something and as citizens of a free country, we have a right (some would say a responsibility) to make our opinions known.

We are a country with millions of different and often opposing interests.  That’s what makes us special.

Oh, So Much to Write About

by Roger Pynn

Big Brother the lifetime journalist made a point I’ll not forget when he said he used to tell researchers “I don’t want to know what people say they want to see in their newspaper because that restricts them to thinking of newspapers.  Instead, I want to know what they want to know.”

Then I saw Orlando Sentinel Technology Writer Etan Horowitz tweet about Bill Wyman’s SpliceToday.com article (http://www.splicetoday.com/politics-and-media/five-key-reasons-why-newspapers-are-failing) Five Key Reasons Why Newspapers Are Failing … and why they don’t get talked about.

Wyman takes darned near forever to tell you stuff you already knew.  It is history.  Nothing more … until he gets to the bitter end and offers up nine things he would do if put in charge of a chain of newspapers.

And there you will find out the real reason why newspapers are failing:  you shouldn’t put newspaper people in charge of papers.  I should know.  I was one.  But, I got out and learned how to run a business.

Despite what self-appointed cultural critic Wyman has to say, newspapers are far more than “shoppers” – those annoying freebies containing classified ads and awful excuses for display advertising.

Newspapers are advertising vehicles that made money because people wanted to know something … and rather than worrying about who else was supplying that information, they worked tirelessly to inform.

Unfortunately, as my brother obviously knew, readers’ perception of what made news was clearly shaped by their medium of choice.  As new media emerged, Troglodytes could no longer hide from pulp alternatives and it was only a matter of time until they realized that what they wanted to know was actually at TMZ.com (http://www.tmz.com/) where today’s EXCLUSIVE lead story is that according to Paula Abdul, “‘Idol’ Ain’t So Bad After All!”

Dillin Award

by Dan Ward

Early in my career, I had the pleasure of meeting Lt. Col. John W. Dillin, a public relations pioneer who founded the Florida Public Relations Association more than 50 years ago.  I was struck not just by his famous mischievousness, but also by his willingness to spend time with a young pro still trying to find his way.

Last week, I was reminded of that meeting while watching my friend, mentor and business partner, Roger Pynn, accept an award bearing Dillin’s name, the highest honor FPRA bestows.

The John W. Dillin Award recognizes outstanding contributions both to FPRA and to the practice of public relations, and on both counts Roger is well deserving of the honor.  His service to the association and to the profession has long been recognized in Central Florida, and I’m glad to see him gaining the recognition he deserves on a statewide level.

Upon accepting the award, Roger shared with the crowd his vision for the profession and commitment to ethics, stating “John Dillin was a visionary.  I am just a practitioner.  My vision is of a profession that stands for honor, candor and loyalty … one that guides its employers and clients to think strategically and – above all else – to do the right thing.”

By honoring Roger Pynn with the Dillin Award, FPRA certainly did the right thing.

Preference ≠ Performance

by Dionne Aiken

Designs that are preferred are not always the designs that help us achieve optimal performance results.

Take a look at your keyboard for example.  Most likely this keyboard has a QWERTY layout which was originally developed by Christopher Sholes in 1874 to assist with the fluidity and movement of the mechanical parts.  Almost all keyboards follow this layout to this day.  Christopher Sholes set the standard and as a result, people have been trained to type on this keyboard format for years.

Unbeknownst to many, there is another layout called the Dvorak Simplified Keyboard (DSK) that was specifically designed to maximize typing speed and efficiency.

It was developed in 1936 by August Dvorak, an educational psychologist and professor of education at the University of Washington and his brother-in-law William Dealey. This keyboard layout increased typing efficiency by 30 percent and assisted in some of the world records set for speed typing.  But despite the clear performance advantage of the Dvorak keyboard, the QWERTY keyboard is still the most widely used and preferred keyboard today.

When approaching design, it is important to acknowledge the difference between performance and preference, and select a design that will achieve the most optimal outcome.  Test designs to see if they are achieving desired performance objectives.  Seeing a design in context and observing audiences’ interactions will, often times reveal truths about a design’s performance that would otherwise remain overshadowed by preferences.

Be sensitive to preferential cues, but at the same time take a realistic look at performance outcomes because in the world of design, the preference IS performance.