Is Communication a Core Function?

by Dan Ward

 

I’m normally a fan of Florida TaxWatch, which does impressive work explaining complex tax and revenue issues.

But I’m scratching my head a little over its most recent report on the $11.7 million spent annually by state agencies on communications and legislative affairs.  Florida TaxWatch identifies 126 communications staffers and 71 legislative affairs employees and outlines their salaries and benefits, but makes no value judgments and offers no recommendations.

By my calculations, those employees make up about one-tenth of 1 percent of Florida’s nearly 130,000 state employees (according to payroll information provided by the Department of Management Services).

Are there too many workers employed in these positions?  Too few?  Are they paid too much?  Too little?  By avoiding such judgments while stating that a focus on “the core functions of government is paramount,” it leaves the impression that perhaps Florida TaxWatch believes these positions are not “core functions.” 

TaxWatch CEO Dominic Calabro appears to make a value judgment when he states “there is no excuse for government waste at any level at any time.”

So, is communications a core function or is it a waste?  Admittedly, I’m biased.  But I tend to think that state agencies have a responsibility to communicate with the people they serve and the people who pay their bills.  And, yes, it actually takes a fair bit of training and experience to know how to communicate effectively. 

Is it a core function to get information out to the public in the event of a hurricane?  To keep parents informed about the workings of the Department of Education?  To share details about the actions of the Agency for Health Care Administration, the Agency for Workforce Innovation, the Department of Legal Affairs, or any of the other 30+ state agencies?

What do you think?

On Dinosaurs and Landlines

by Roger Pynn

 

On a recent visit to Chicago, my wife and I had a delightful day visiting the Windy City’s great museums.  I love The Field Museum and once again it didn’t let me down when we stepped into the incredible world of A T. Rex Named Sue.  But I was also monitoring things back at the office and when my iPhone couldn’t get a signal inside The Field, it struck me how similar technologies are to species.

We’ve become so dependent on the access and connectivity these handheld devices provide that our needs are outstripping their capability to deliver.  They are connected to networks whose limitations seemed so understandable just a few years ago, but as I think back just four years ago to a plan we wrote advising a client to build everything for 3G technology, I had to laugh.

I would no more tell a client today to “think 4G” than I would advise them to design Flash into a website … or worry about servicing folks who depend upon landlines.  There’s no real definition of it, but you’d better start thinking 5G if you don’t want to be caught behind the curve.

Our partner firm in Kansas City, Morningstar Communications, has a smart blog and Shanny Morgenstern’s post “Phone vs. Web … Does it Work for Them” reminded me of counsel we find ourselves having to repeat more and more today, and it is advice that isn’t likely to go the way of Sue:  whether you’re developing a website or a mobile app, ask first “why is that person visiting us?” and “how?”

Stressful, yes. MOST stressful? No.

by Dan Ward

 

CareerCast.com has released a ranking on America’s most stressful jobs, and my humble career choice shows up at No. 2 on the list, right behind “commercial airline pilots.”

This might be seen as heresy among my PR friends and colleagues, but my reaction to this report was, “What were these people smoking?”

Yes, my job is stressful.  I work long hours, answer emails and calls from clients at all hours and worry over the success of client programs.  But I don’t save lives for a living.  I don’t make arrests in drug-ridden neighborhoods.  I don’t parachute into the middle of a raging forest fire.  I don’t watch for IEDs with every step down a dusty road in a far-away country.

Sorry, folks, but I really have to scratch my head at a report that ranks PR Executive, Newscaster, Photojournalist and Ad Executive in the top 10 most stressful vocations. Even my uncle, the commercial airline pilot, might question the report, after telling me on many occasions how the most stressful part of his job is worrying over spilling his coffee in turbulent skies.

My biggest issue with the report, however, are the comments toCNBC from CareerCast.com Publisher, Tony Lee, who says that PR Executives are “completely at the mercy of their clients and buyers,” noting that success or failure depends on actions and decisions of clients.

What a cop out!  If you believe your success depends wholly on the actions of your clients, then perhaps I can understand your stress level.  I always thought that our success depends on how well we help our clients sleep at night, whether we are bringing them solutions rather than problems, whether we are constantly developing strategies that make us essential to THEIR success.  Sure, that’s stressful, but it’s also rewarding.

Label Fail

by Dan Ward

 

Please don’t judge me, but I’m a sucker for microwaveable Swedish Meatball lunches.

I normally follow the directions closely to make sure I don’t overcook this delicacy, but I’m glad I didn’t do so today.  Otherwise, I might have spent hours trying to find the “macaroni and cheese” I was supposed to stir before replacing the film cover.

It’s ironic that this label fail was made by a company calling itself “SmartOnes^®.” Good reminder for communications and marketing folks … the Smart Ones are those who check their work.

Seth Godin Equestrian?

by Roger Pynn

OK:  cheap headline.  But, I know you’ll read if I talk about Seth Godin because he’s perceived to be brilliant.  No question … his insight is making people think differently about a lot in our world of communications.  In this post he goes back to some advice as old as time.

His “four horsemen of media” is a great reminder that the more you embrace what he calls “tiny media” (that stuff we are all doing online to create buzz), the more you have to focus on substance in the first place.

Everyone it seems is engaged in searching for the best way to become talked about.  The social conversation is as much a part of the marketing mix today as any formal medium … but like successfully jumping into a game of Double Dutch, it takes planning.

If you want people to talk about you, your product or your service … make sure you’re worth talking about.

On The Bandwagon

by Dan Ward

We try to discuss serious issues here, but I’m as concerned as the next guy with page views and click-throughs.  So here goes … Casey Anthony, Casey Anthony, Casey Anthony!

I’m through shaking my head over the media’s fascination with CASEY ANTHONY (does shouting increase views?).  Maybe they’re on to something.

Sure, a case could be made that media should focus a little more attention on “serious” news.  But writers and producers need to eat too, people, and Casey Anthony puts bread on the table (do italics impact clicks?).

That must explain the rumor that the Orlando Sentinel has more credentials for the Casey Anthony trial than it did for the penultimate flight of the Space Shuttle.  It explains why “48 Hours Mystery” is acquitting Casey Anthony before a jury is even seated.  It’s why Nancy Grace is, well, Nancy Grace.

I guess the only thing left to say is #CaseyAnthony.

Death of the Flip … and Cheap Video Solutions

by Kerry Martin

The news of Cisco shutting down the Flip Camera came as a total shock to me.  While I don’t know anything about Cisco’s internal budgets or profits or whether the whole business model was imploding from the inside, it just seems like they’re exiting the market a little too early.

Yes, smartphones will eventually be the method for hand-held video recording, but I think they’re missing one motivation buyers have for a device like the Flip:  sharing.  By “sharing,” I don’t mean instantly uploading videos to YouTube or sharing them on the Web—which is the main selling point for smartphones—I mean sharing as in lending the video camera out to someone.

Would you hand over your iPhone to the intern to go shoot a video on location somewhere?  Would you consider putting your Droid in bubble wrap and shipping it across the state to capture a video interview of a client?  At Curley & Pynn, we rely on the Flip camera’s portability and inexpensive price tag to support video projects that we manage for a number of clients—like our project for the Florida High Tech Corridor Council that includes mailing a camera, mini tripod and interview questions to the Corridor’s Faces of Technology to film self-interviews.

The other reason why Flip cameras work so well for business (and for perfectionist PR professionals) is that it forces you to upload to a computer and edit your video.  Even with a smartphone’s ability to immediately upload to the Internet, I would always want to snip, clip, fade in, fade out and add music/photos/other video.  (And even though there’s an app for iMovie, I’m not going to edit a professional video on a three-inch screen.)  When you have the opportunity to make a video more engaging by including special effects through editing software, it’s a no-brainer.

So, until the smartphone becomes so ubiquitous that my dad can shoot and send and edit video, we’ll still use the Flip.  I guess it’s a good thing that we already have a stockpile of six cameras (although that going-out-of-business-fire-sale might have been nice too).

Correction x 2

by Dan Ward

Kudos to the Orlando Sentinel for doing something today that you rarely see … running a correction both on A-2 and on the Opinions page.

Turns out the Sentinel labeled the wrong Windermere council member a “chump” based on an incorrect news report, so the paper corrected both the news report and the “chump” label.

It’s a common (and fair) complaint that corrections are almost never as prominent as the erroneous news report.  While that remains the case with this story, the Sentinel should be commended for taking an extra step to mend the damage from its original report.

A Tale of Two Charts

by Dan Ward

The Pew Research Center has released a chart detailing how several top newspapers saw a decline in audience from 2009 to 2010.

Meanwhile, our own Orlando Sentinel ran a chart on the front page yesterday showing how many press credentials have been issued for the Casey Anthony trial (including 28 – yes, 28 – for the Sentinel).

Coincidence?