Having the Courage (and the Smarts) to Just Say No

“Just walk away, Renee,
You won’t see me following you back home.
The empty sidewalks on my block are not the same,
You’re not to blame.”
– The Left Banke

Ummm, no...

We fired a prospect today.

Or, to put it more politely, we elected to adhere to our corporate and personal values, trust our instincts and cut our losses.

Either way you put it, we walked away from a potential client in the midst of a stunningly long economic slow-down that all of us are just plain tired of talking about.

Why? Because it made sense. And dollars and cents.

We had had two exceptionally good meetings with the management team of a start-up here in North Carolina. Over the course of those sessions and a bevy of phone calls and emails, we felt we’d built up quite a rapport with them. In fact, we left the last meeting pretty much being told “You guys get us completely, and we’re looking forward to working with you.” We were smiling.

Now, our radar had been going off every now and again during our meetings as the company has yet to build a working version of its product that they believe will revolutionize their industry. All they have now is a prototype, a couple of patent pendings, manufacturing partners and money from friends and family. But if the product works as they hope, it very well could revolutionize an industry that touches virtually every one of us at home, work and school.

“If the product works…”

In our 26-plus years in this business, we can’t count the number of folks who came to us convinced they were going to revolutionize the world with a “groundbreaking,” “cutting-edge,” “truly innovative” (as if anything can be “falsely innovative”) and “game-changing” idea. (Think dot-coms here whose business plans were written on the backs of napkins.) But that’s not the main reason we declined (politely) to ask these guys to the prom. The primary reason was understanding and respect – a lack of understanding of what public relations is and an apparent lack of respect for it.

Yeah, yeah, we know; no real news here. But the lesson is still an important one.

As they are bootstrapping the company at this point, there’s just not a lot of extra cash sitting around. We understand tight budgets. Who doesn’t? So they had asked if we would consider keeping our fees low in the beginning and taking equity in exchange for some of the dollars. In all our years, we had never agreed to trade fees for equity, but this time we decided to give it a try as the product is seriously cool and would be a blast to help launch (assuming it works, of course).

We wrote our proposal to cover the usual stuff you cover in a strategic communications program: branding, messaging and the development and execution of an integrated public relations program. The budget was modest. Like really modest. Like way below six figures to support a regional launch (followed then by a national launch) over the next nine months. Pretty standard fare for a PR proposal, right? And we included a suggested budget split of two-thirds in cash and one-third in equity. We submitted the draft proposal for review.

The next day, the marketing veep writes back:
(1) the president will never approve a budget like this;
(2) you really ought to consider revising your fee structure and stretch it out over a longer period, say two or three years;
(3) you can have “profits interest” not equity (meaning we’ll get paid if and when they are profitable); and
(4) by the way, we’ve been talking to another firm that does marketing and design and it looks like you’re proposing to do work that overlaps with them. We need you to do the PR, not branding and messaging.

Now we’ve never been hesitant to put our credentials up against anyone, and we rarely, if ever, have backed down from a pitch. But this felt different. This felt as if we were being asked to be only a media pitch shop (“Just get us some PR so everybody in the U.S. hears about us. You know, send out some news releases and get ’em placed in the trades.”). He was seeing that age-old delineation between public relations and marketing/advertising. “Those guys will handle all the branding, messaging and all the marketing because they know how to do; we just need you to get us ink. And that really shouldn’t cost all that much, should it? Because we don’t have that much money right now, and we’ll have to pay the other firm.”

Heck, the prospect even struck through the word “marketing” when we used it in the term, “marketing public relations.” Clearly, we’re not speaking the same language much less being on the same page.

Now we’re not saying there’s anything wrong with being media specialists. Quite frankly, I admire folks who slog away at that every day and achieve meaningful results for clients. Gosh knows, they earn their pay, and it’s not something I want to do full-time (heck, I’d be on top of a book depository with a .30-06 inside of three weeks).

But the main point here is that being a media shop is not what Forge Communications was founded to be, it’s not what we want to do and we know that’s not how we can best help build value for our clients. We know firms that do that well for much less money, and we’re happy as mollasks to recommend them.

We believe we contribute most when we are full and equal partners on the business leadership team. We bring the most to the table when we’re allowed – wait, that’s wrong – when we’re invited to offer counsel and service that’s based on decades of experience helping companies of all shapes and sizes solve challenges so they can move into the future with confidence. When strategic communication consultants are told to keep their opinions to themselves and just stay put in the traditional “media shop box” – especially when traditional media are dissolving in front of our eyes( and may well be the wrong channel to use in the first place) – both the consultants and the clients lose. And neither we nor clients like it when scarce financial resources are squandered.

In this case, we decided a win-win could best be reached if we just walked away. No blood, no foul.

This really needs no caption...

You gotta know when (and here’s the important part) and be willing to fold ’em for your business and the client’s business.

And you know what? It feels really, really good.

 

The Future of Social Media: Here, There & Everywhere

“Breathe, breathe in the air,
Don’t be afraid to care.”
– Pink Floyd 

Twitter: The Beta Version

“I believe that in the future, social media will be like air – it will be anywhere and everywhere we want and need it to be.” – Charlene Li, one of the most influential voices in technology, in The Washington Times.

Assuming we take this analogy at face(book) value, we seem to be evolving into a society – or, perhaps more accurately, species – that cannot live without social media. There is no doubt there will be cynics, curmudgeons and just plain cranky-ites among us will consider that assessment heresy, but the fact of the matter is this: we are a tribal species, we know we are a tribal species and we like being a tribal species. Anything that helps us strengthen our ties to fellow members of the tribe, be it smoke signals, secret handshakes, handwritten letters, telephones or Pinterest is going to survive. It will evolve, of course (witness the changes we’ve seen in the telephone over the past 100 years), but the fact is communications channels that help us connect will survive because they help US survive.

My advice to individuals and tribes of individuals (you know, like a Fortune 500 company, local dry cleaners or a marketing public relations firm..): take a deep breath and jump into the grown-up end of the pool for fun – and profit.

Top 10 Ways to Trash Your Reputation

"And the Oscar goes to..."

10.  Wait until the last minute: why prepare now if it may not happen at all?

9.     Ignore your employees or members: it’ll just distract them.

8.     Ignore the media: heck, they’ll just twist the truth anyway.

7.     Play by your rules:  why give a hoot about what anyone else wants?

6.     Never accept responsibility or apologize: my lawyer always knows best!

5.     Ignore emotions:  feelings are for wimps – Facts Rule!

4.     Cooperate only when you have to: keep your head down and your mouth shut.

3.     Provide only the bare minimum: why invite confusion with details?

2.     Dazzle ‘em with jargon: if a little is good, then a lot is even better!

2b.  All this social media crap is just a passing fad.

And the Number One way to trash your reputation is:

1.     Ignore it, and it’ll go away…

A Kiss to Define Public Relations

“A kiss is just a kiss, a sigh is just a sigh,
The fundamental things apply,
As time goes by.”
– Herman Hupfeld
 

Is a kiss really just a kiss?

Perhaps the most fundamental “must-do” for any profession is to define what it is and what it does. Sounds pretty simple, doesn’t it? Well, public relations has struggled with this for the better part of a century and still can’t agree on a common definition. Recently, the Public Relations Society of America invited its members and others to develop once again an updated definition of the business.

As part of my involvement as a presenter at the 2012 PRSA Western District Conference next week, I was asked to submit an answer for the same question, “What is PR?” Here’s my $0.02.

_______________________________________________________________

What is PR?

“So, what is it exactly that you do?”

How many times has each of us heard that after we’ve said “I work in public relations”? Far too many to count, I am sure. In fact, I actually gave up trying to answer that question from my parents. To their last days on this earth, I don’t think they ever quite understood my chosen career.

I know, I know. I should have followed my mother’s advice and become a doctor or a lawyer. I actually started college in pre-med before flaming out in a human anatomy course as a sophomore. Grade-wise, I did okay, but it was in that class I learned I would have to do an autopsy in medical school. An autopsy?? Uhhh, no. I just couldn’t stomach the thought of that. So when communication studies came along in my second year, I thought “Whoo-hoo! I’ve got it made!” Little did I know taking a scalpel to flesh quite possibly may have been the easier road. At the very least, my folks could have bragged about their son, the doctor, at dinner parties (“My son, the public relations consultant” never quite had the same ring…).

So what exactly is public relations?

After PRSA’s recent attempt to update the definition of PR for a world filled with the likes of Twitter, Vimeo and Pinterest (not to mention the Zuckernaut we call Facebook), the answer has become painfully obvious.

We don’t know.

Yep. That’s right. We haven’t a friggin’ clue. Thanks to a most excellent public relations program by PRSA that landed this initiative on the pages of The New York Times, most of Western civilization now knows our dirty little secret. We earn our living helping others tell their stories more effectively, but we suck at doing it for ourselves. And even if we could agree on a definition for PR, it’s likely we’d disagree on how to punctuate it. Our profession has so many components and such a wide diversity of practice areas, trying to define it is like “nailing Jell-O to a wall,” to quote my good friend, Mike Herman, APR, Fellow PRSA.

Was PRSA’s valiant effort a failure – a waste of time, energy and increasingly hard-to-get media coverage? My vote is no. While none of the three definitions the blue-ribbon committee offered up for a vote tripped my trigger (I have my own favorite – see below), I believe it was worth a shot. It was worth a shot because it got us thinking critically about what we do, where we fit and, most important, why we are here. Quite simply, we had to justify our existence.

This exercise proved something to me. The more I tried to find a “new-and-improved” definition of PR (“Now with extra stain-fighting power!”), the more I heard a voice that said, “KISS, Roger, KISS.” Some people define KISS as “Keep it short and sweet.” I learned it as “Keep it simple, stupid.”

So what’s a KISS definition of PR? Try this on for size: “We use communications to help people solve problems and do better at what they want to do.”

Admittedly, it doesn’t have the bells and whistles of a good old jargonized definition. And it doesn’t mention “engagement,” “conversation,” “community” or other such social media terms. But it does tell a story, and it does convey value. It shows we define our contribution in terms of whether we helped an individual or groups of individuals (organizations are people, too, right?). Moreover, it demonstrates we’re focused on an outcome that is both important and measurable. Did we help overcome a challenge so things turned out better? It’s also a great conversation starter. “You solve problems? Really? What kinds of problems? How do you do it? Can you give me some examples?” (Note to self: If you know how to solve problems, you will always have a job.)

Most important of all, though, it’s a definition that just about everyone – including clients, colleagues and even moms and dads – can understand.

Author’s note: As promised, here’s my favorite “official” definition of public relations courtesy of Drs. Larry Long and Vince Hazelton: “Public relations is a communication function of management through which organizations adapt to, alter or maintain their environment for the purpose of achieving organizational goals.”

 

He Said My Name’s a Teacher

“He said my name’s a teacher, that is what I call myself,
It’s an old expression, but I must insist it’s true.”
  – Ian Anderson (Jethro Tull) 

A man and his Apple

While reflecting on Steve Jobs’ recent passing, we remembered a post that appeared in “My The Forge Be With You” back in mid-2010. It commented on a report in Wired that Jobs often would personally answer emails sent to him by us regular Joe’s out here in Apple land. Our point was that Jobs understood that for our communication to be effective, it not only must be engaging, it must connect with people on a one-to-one basis. Apple’s brilliant advertising through the years achieved this as does the company’s Genius Bar model (however crazy that bar can be on the weekends and however many customers have reported problems – hey, nothing’s perfect). Taking time to answer customers one by one demonstrated this principle, as well.

While Jobs – like every one of us – had his faults (as the feeding frenzy over Walter Isaacson’s new biography shows), the fact is he led teams of people who literally changed the way we think, work and relate to technology. A recent story on “60 Minutes” reported how the iPad is helping severely autistic children discover a way out of their shell so they can interact successfully with the world around – including their parent and family members. And some people still think the iPad is just a toy?

In any event, Jobs transformed a company – twice – and helped lead it out of the ashes of failure to the pinnacle of global success through a combination of passion, drive, insight, intelligence, creativity and an ability to communicate with others that sets a bar for all modern leaders.

Rest in peace, Mr. Jobs. We hardly knew you.

Here’s a link to our original post: http://forgecommunications.com/blog/?p=32

Here Comes the Foot, Here Comes the Foot

“I was born with a plastic spoon in my mouth,
The north side of my town faced east, and the east was facing south.”
– Pete Townshend

"I kinda wish this picture weren't on the Web..."

Keith Trivitt’s “New Realities of Crisis Communications” from PRBreakfast Club is a terrific, terrific post about what crisis communications is looking like these daze as we kick off another year. Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s words were ill-advised, to say the least, and – as Trivitt rightly points out – condescending, out-of-touch and downright dumb.

Thing is, this type of misstep – an off-the-cuff remark that comes to symbolize an individual or organization (e.g., Tony Hayward and BP, as Trivitt writes) – is the by-product not just of the advance of social media where every phrase goes global instantly, but also of our increasing need to categorize events and issues in digestible chunks. Gosh darnit, it’s just easier to point to BP and say “Well, they’re an evil empire, and everything they do and everyone who works there is evil – just look at what their boss said.”

To be sure, generalizations can, in fact, be helpful sometimes to our species: “I see a tiger across the road. Last week a tiger mauled Freddie. I should stay away from that tiger.” But this survival skill, well-ingrained in our brain, does not serve us as well when we apply it to the way we live our lives today. It’s a thin line between generalizing and stereotyping, and both can be very destructive forces.

And yet, this instinct is precisely what crisis communication consultants need to be aware of and address head-on. Our clients and management teams must understand that this is how the vast majority of observers will respond in a crisis situation and do everything in their power to ensure they don’t inadvertently add fuel to the fire.

Having a crisis communication plan in place ahead of time is one key step. Regular spokesperson training and preparation is another. In the heat of the moment when the Flip cams, iPads and netbooks are on and reporting the story, it is critical that the spokesperson think before speaking and ask him/herself, “how could what I say be misinterpreted?”

The bottom line? If it looks like a foot and it smells like a foot, you really don’t need to find out if it tastes like a foot, too.

 

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“Praise, err, I mean BLAME the Lord”

“I was framed, framed, I was blamed oh, framed, framed, framed,
Well, I never knew nothin’ but I always get framed.”
– Richie Valens

“I PRAISE YOU 24/7!!!!!! AND THIS HOW YOU DO ME!!!!! YOU EXPECT ME TO LEARN FROM THIS??? HOW???!!! ILL NEVER FORGET THIS!! EVER!!! THX THO…”

Drop kick me, Jesus, through the goalposts of life.

So posted Steve Johnson, wideout receiver for the Buffalo Bills, on Twitter a few hours after a regular season loss to the Pittsburgh Steelers in which he dropped what would have been a game-winning pass. And to whom was this missive addressed? Yep, you guessed it: God. The Almighty Lord, the Ruler of the Universe, the One, the Creator, Yaweh, Adonai, Allah. Yep, that God.

Okay, perhaps Mr. Johnson was caught up in the emotion of the day. It certainly must be difficult to have one’s mistakes broadcast to millions of fans around the globe in full high-definition flat-screen color. That’s a heavy burden to be sure.

And yet . . . there’s something about this comment that bugs the hell out of us.

Beyond demonstrating an ego the size of Mount Rushmore that would invite someone to think that the Master of the Universe would reach down in Ralph Wilson Stadium in Orchard Park, New York, and purposefully knock a football out of one’s hands on a Sunday afternoon (wouldn’t God have something a little more important to deal with?), this statement reveals something far more troubling to us. For in laying responsibility at the feet of God, Mr. Johnson is essentially saying, “Hey, y’all, don’t blame me for dropping the ball. I didn’t have anything to do with it, really. You know I’m a helluva football player, and I don’t make mistakes. Not like this. You looking for someone to blame? Blame God. It was all His fault.”

This is just wrong. Wrong, wrong, wrong.

Accepting personal responsibility for human errors, whether intentional or not, is the currency of building and sustaining a positive reputation (read: brand) with others. We are taught as children not to lie, cheat, steal or blame someone else for our failings. Before anyone can begin to move forward after a mistake, some variation of the following words must be said: “I’m sorry. I screwed up. I didn’t mean to, but I did. Please remember I’m only human, and I’m not perfect. I promise to learn from this and figure out how I can do better in the future. And I will do my best to fix what went wrong.”

Why is this important? Well, for one thing it teaches our children how to navigate the rocky shoals of growing up and getting along with others. When young folks hear a comment like this, it pretty much tells them it’s okay to place blame on others’ shoulders. More to the point here, though, it’s important because accepting personal responsibility reminds us that we are infallible. It reminds us we are, in fact, prone to make errors. It teaches us to act with humility instead of  bravado, and confidence rather than arrogance. Most important, it can help us focus on the process of healthy self-improvement. All in all, it’s pretty simple: Face the facts; if you mess up, ‘fess up. Then look inside and figure out as best you can what went wrong so you won’t repeat the mistake.

Sounds pretty simple and straightforward, doesn’t it? Like something you would have heard from your parents, camp counselor, teacher, rabbi or minister. Mr. Johnson, it seems, is forever trapped in a “Family Circus” comic strip replete with “Not Me’s” and “I Dunno’s.”

 

"You can't pin this on me, copper!"

Most mature adults know and understand this. Okay, now substitute the word “organization” for “personal” and “Our company” for “I.” And add a few attorneys, large shareholders and corporate wonks to the mix, sprinkle in some reporters and then toss ‘em all in the middle of an organizational crisis. Suddenly, the rules have changed. Responsibility is too often viewed as something to be avoided at all costs.

Recovering from a crisis begins before it starts with the words, “We will not lie, cheat, steal or blame someone else for our failings. If we make a mistake, we will say, as quickly and honestly as possible: “We’re sorry. Our company screwed up. We didn’t mean to, but we did. Please remember we’re an organization of humans, and we are not perfect. We promise to learn from this and figure out how we can do better in the future. And we will do our best to fix what went wrong.”

Some companies have learned this the hard way. Others haven’t yet learned it or think the rules don’t apply to them (hint: that’s a mistake from which they’re likely to learn). As reputation designers, our task is to help our clients and superiors learn this lesson before they need to learn it under the gun. How? Well, all too often it’s by pointing out examples of others who didn’t learn it either before the feces hit the rotating wind machine.

As for Mr. Johnson? Well, judging by the reaction on the Web thus far, it’s pretty clear more people will remember him for this lily-livered, lame-brained excuse than for anything else he says or does this season. And as for next season and those to come? Well, let’s just all wish him the best of luck in explaining his comment to the fellow he blamed. Now THAT would be worth watching in HD.

 

It’s a Small World After All (that’s getting bigger every day)

“It’s a small world after all.”
– Walt Disney

So gosh darn cute...

Happened across this brief on the state of small public relations firms earlier today while perusing PRSA’s most excellent “Issues & Trends” daily e-newsletter. First off, we were delighted to see our good friend, colleague and Chair of the Counselor’s Academy of PRSA Ann Subervi and her firm, Utopia Communications, quoted in the story. Ann’s one of the best professionals on the scene today and is a tireless promoter of ethics in public relations practice and business. Way to go, Ann!

Closer to home, though, we’re sad to see that so many firms continue to struggle in this ridiculously tough economy in this ridiculously long recession that just friggin’ refuses to end (no matter what the economists say about the recession “ending” last year …). Too many good people and too many good firms are having to shut the doors on promising practices as clients continue – understandably, mind you – to curtail, postpone and cancel initiatives. The sheer number of inquiries, applications and requests for referrals we receive is a clear indicator that, while our industry is projected to grow in the years ahead, there is still a lot of pain being spread around right now in virtually every corner of the business.

The fact that large firms are cutting rates to compete for the smaller pieces of pie on the table is not surprising (nor will it be surprising when they raise ‘em right back up where they were next year). They have to generate income, as well, to be sure. What is surprising, though, is how and why clients believe they are getting some kind of a bargain in this deal. The days of the mighty mega-firm ruling the sea are drawing to a close as business comes to understand that the agility, flexibility, specialization and personal attention from seasoned consultants in smaller firms will help them fare much better than from the traditional “Welcome to the Big Top!” approach. Innovative thinking and truly personalized client attention are rarely nurtured in the layers upon layers of AEs, SAEs, VPs, SVPs, EVPs and the rest of the alphabet soup that comprises large firms. Open innovation is the watchword of the world today, and as futurist Alvin Toffler recently said, the organizations that serve as connectors will be the ones who succeed in the years ahead.

Further – and this is where it gets interesting for firms like Forge Communications – more and more of the best, brightest and most experienced consultants are finding the world of the smaller firm a very attractive work environment. Rather than just managing account teams and pushing paper (or pixels, as the case may be) up the administrative mountain, they find that working with a small group of senior professionals affords them the opportunity to get back to doing what got them into the business in the first place: working one-on-one with clients to solve real problems. In the last one week alone, we have been approached by no less than three senior vice presidents who want to talk with us about our experienced this past year in transitioning to this business model.

As we approach the firm’s first anniversary, we are thankful for the support we’ve gotten from friends, colleagues, family and, most especially, our clients with whom we wouldn’t be here. We feel blessed to have had a strong first year and are confident that 2011 will be a year of continued growth and success for the Forge team. More to the point, though, it will be a year of dedicated service to our clients because that’s where our business begins and ends.

So let’s here for the entrepreneurs out there for they are the ones who by virtue of their agility and ability to innovate on a dime will help move the profession successfully forward through this seismic wave of change.

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QR Codes Offer PR Pros New Options

 

Yes, it actually does make sense


 

“Tell me more, tell me more!”
– “Grease”

 

Thanks to a good friend of ours, Chuck Norman, APR, of SA Cherokee here in the Triangle, we saw this brief from PRSA’s Tactics publication. What a terrific idea that is as powerful as it is innovative. While a large portion of the public does not – and likely will not – use QR technology regularly (half probably don’t know what it is), this tool offers unique value to those who do understand how to use it. Clearly, a driving force here is the continued growth of smartphones (heck, let’s just call ‘em what they are: hand-held computers that just happen to make phone calls, too) that make QR as easy as, well, pushing a button.

And while this article focuses on the use of QR in media relations and marketing, we can envision applying this technology in a host of public relations areas, including employee communications, investor relations and crisis communications. The key here is that we’re able to point stakeholders to a treasure trove of information online through an exceptionally simple – and easy-to-use – interface.

We’ll certain be including this technology in our recommendations to our clients and hope more and more of them will see the benefits of being in the Early Adopter Club.

Tagged: QRpublic relationsPRmarketingSA CherokeePRSATacticscrisis communicationsmedia relationsemployee communications

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Right Action, Wrong Training

“I want to hold your hand,
I want to hold your hand.”
– John Lennon & Paul McCartney

A dangerous crime

As it’s likely blazed across the Twitterverse by now, it’s no news that two women sitting on a bench at Cameron Village Shopping Center in Raleigh were asked to leave immediately by a security guard. Their crime? Holding hands, exchanging a quick kiss and enjoying each other’s company.

While officials with York Properties (which owns and manages Cameron Village) were quick to offer the couple an apology, the fact of the matter is this never should have happened in the first place. Ignore for a moment that it’s 2010 and gays are granted full benefits by many major corporations and marriage licenses in some states, or that dozens serve as elected officials at the local, state and federal levels, or that Raleigh and the Research Triangle strives to welcome the world’s best and brightest minds, or that Raleigh is now one of the top 25 DMAs, or that one of the nation’s best universities (NCSU) is located not three miles away or that nearly a half dozen teenagers have tragically taken their lives in recent months simply because they were – or were suspected of being – gay.

The reason this should never have happened is that in 2010 is that sensitivity training – in this case, just plain common sense and common decency training – should have been in place before that security guard ever walked out the company door.

In these days of instantaneous celebrity for individuals and companies alike, this lack of prior planning is not only questionable – it’s inexcusable. Let’s hope other companies take note of this incident and take action to educate their employees. Fast.

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