PRBreakfastClub

As the role of communications and public relations professionals continues to evolve, PRBC bloggers Keith Trivitt and Danny Brown examine an offshoot of the profession, the community manager. Used by many websites, message boards and blogs to manage online engagement, relations and communications with key audiences, the role of a community manager is one cloaked with some confusion, particularly on the executive level.

We welcome your thoughts on the evolving role of community managers in the comments below.

Should community managers be forward-facing managers of a company’s online customer service, or should their roles evolve into more of a strategic position? In other words, are community managers anything more than glorified customer service reps? Read the rest of this entry »

I recently read a blog post from Dave Fleet that really put words to something that I had been pondering for a bit. The piece was entitled Are you creating social media scorched earth? It focused on companies that burn bridges with customers with one-off social media accounts.

There is no question that social media is the hotness for the 2010-2011 fiscal years for companies. Communications and customer service folks have been utilizing tools and building communities and brand awareness while driving revenue as a secondary benefit. The dollars brought in from people who are generally not seen as revenue drivers has given marketers a set of green blinders. You know the ones, where money clouds one’s thoughts, especially when the entry point into a medium is virtually free and is a direct outlet to customers. Read the rest of this entry »

Over the past year, we have talked a lot on PRBC about the changing role of a PR practitioner, how the profession is perceived by reporters, bloggers, executives and the public and some of the backlash the PR business has received due to a multitude of issues.

Through all of these changes, I’m still very optimistic that the profession is progressing along the right path; that we’re taking strides toward becoming more transparent, more focused on helping companies build their businesses (rather than building our own egos) and more in line with the goals of our clients and their key audiences and constituents.

My optimism is enhanced by recent anecdotal evidence noting how others, many of whom were once staunch opponents of the value of PR, view the strategic value of retaining PR counsel. Specifically, a post on blogger relations by Gizmodo UK editor Kat Hannaford, and another post by Jennifer Walzer of Backup My Info! leave me with the impression that our profession, as a whole, is beginning to learn from its mistakes. And while we certainly have many areas in need of improvement (media relations, agency turnover rates, mentorship, etc.), I feel we are beginning to see the hard work of many to reshape the public’s perception of the value of public relations taking hold. Read the rest of this entry »

Remember when you were a kid and had all these aspirations of success when you grew up? An astronaut, the president, a chef, a cashier, the sky was the limit. However, it really isn’t until the senior year of high school where reality sets in and you have to figure out what your path will be. Lucky for my generation and future generations we have something called “Reality Television” which can give us good insight to what we want to do. From Ice Truckers to Cake Boss, there are reality shows for almost every profession these days.

What was my calling? Powergirls. Remember that show? The show of a small PR Firm in NYC run by Lizzie Grubman? What a cool job they had. Planning events, hanging out with celebrities, always around pretty people…I would fit in so well. I was too short to be a model, so I decided to become a publicist and declared my major. Read the rest of this entry »

Measurement, measurement, measurement. It’s all we can talk about lately, right? With all the discussions about complex metrics and the ever elusive ROI, some of the more basic concepts of PR measurement have been drowned out.

Once you’ve come to terms with the idea that you absolutely must be measuring, where do you start? One of the first questions you should answer is whether you want to measure in real-time or whether you want to focus on measuring against a benchmark. Both satisfy rather different needs, but they could be paired to create a more robust measurement program as well. There is also some unavoidable overlap because, after all, measurement is measurement.

Real-time measurement

First of all, real-time is more aptly described as monitoring, though there can be some more quantitative aspects involved. The focus here is to gain an understanding of what is being said, where and about what right now. Read the rest of this entry »

On Aug. 6, HP announced that its Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President Mark Hurd was resigning from the company. The announcement followed an investigation conducted by HP’s internal and external legal counsel into a sexual harassment claim lodged against Hurd and HP by a former HP contractor.

While the investigation determined that Hurd did not violate HP’s sexual harassment policy, it nevertheless uncovered a related offense, which ultimately prompted his dismissal. Hurd, according to HP, breached the company’s Standards of Business Conduct by making inappropriate payments to the contractor and charging personal expenses to his corporate expense account. Read the rest of this entry »

Recently, we featured part one of our two-part interview with Arthur Yann, APR, vice president of public relations for the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). This week, we wrap up the interview with Arthur’s thoughts on why PR has gotten a bit of a bad reputation in recent years, the Society’s Business Case for Public Relations initiative and other topics.

Keith Trivitt: We addressed one of my biggest beefs with the PR business, the bashing the industry often takes from outsiders, in a recent PRBreakfastClub post. You weighed in with some great insight in the comments. Can you give us a bit more color into that? What’s PRSA’s stance on why PR has gotten a bit of a bad reputation in recent years, and how can the organization help professionals overcome this?

Arthur Yann: I can think of several reasons why the industry does not enjoy the reputation it deserves.

It starts with Read the rest of this entry »

Sitting in a Barnes & Noble recently, I came across a fascinating article in Harvard Business Review analyzing social Web use around the world from a societal and cultural perspective. While the broad overview analysis offered was mostly typical of many recent “state of social media” reporters we have seen recently, what truly caught my attention was the implication this analysis has from a PR and marketing perspective: Read the rest of this entry »

Ahhh, summer. What a calm, relaxing time of year. Time to bask in the glory of the previous months’ triumphs, while relaxing our minds and bodies for the grueling months ahead. And in the media world, it’s the one time of year when things are decently slow.

Which means if you’re a bit hyperactive like me, summer is when you spend most of your time worrying; wondering what might be next around the corner. But, that’s OK, for you have resolved to use this summer as a time to get ahead of your competition and make the fall and winter truly your time to shine (pardon the pun) with great messaging and outreach to key reporters and bloggers you’ve been aiming to reach all year. Read the rest of this entry »

The Worldcom Public Relations Group, the world’s largest global PR partnership, finds the global PR business on track and ready to face exciting challenges from new frontiers the world over, notwithstanding the recent monumental economic challenges which had clients and budgets across most industries racked by financial woes.

Since December there’s been a general euphoria among Worldcom partners, about where the industry is going, according to a survey which reported a general uptick in new clients and new engagements. Read the rest of this entry »