Strategic Communications

I was watching CBS Face the Nation this morning and veteran newsman Bob Schieffer who kept using the phrase, “flip-flop,” to describe a politician who seems to change his mind.  Schieffer should know better than to repeatedly pick up on such simple-minded politicking jargon.  Heck, everyone changes his or her mind.

The origins of the current usage of the phrase came out of the 2004 presidential race when it was hung on John Kerry, and he fell for the ruse. The media picked it up and has run with it ever since, certainly in a “copy-cat” style.

My point is that today’s media gets caught up in these astonishingly stupid catch-phrases and jargon, which are designed to manipulate and distract them from real issues … and the media falls for it, again and again, as if they have a microphone but not a brain.  But, then, many in the media today are more focused on their own fame and fortune than ferreting out news, and that includes being cozy with power brokers at the detriment of objectivity.

I highly recommend reading today’s column by John Rich of The New York Times.  If the media and many of the rest of us cannot focus on real issues, then let’s elect Wall-E president.

A business acquaintance was telling me that he hoped his company might emulate the style of Dell Computer’s corporate blog. Not wanting to throw cold water on his hopes, I kept silent. But Dell’s blog is not my concept of a contemporary transparent and open interface with customers. Rather, it is more focused on product promotion, chockful of predictable corporate hype and jargon. Example - “Providing Mission Critical Assistance to ProSupport Customers …” That’s self-aggrandizing ad copy, and simply not believable or credible.

Here’s a clue that Dell’s blog is not engendering great support - the miniscule number of comments. Corporate blogs that are successful focus on creating a transparent, interactive online environment. Dell, on the other hand, appears to be using its blog as another advertising platform to push corporate sales fluff.

Here are eight tips to successful corporate blogs:

1. Ask “why” - Why do you want to have a corporate blog? What’s the real purpose, the objective? If it’s to sell, advertise or overtly promote, go buy an ad. The objective of a CEO or corporate blog should be to engage customers/clients in an online discussion, no-holds-barred. If a company has a damaged brand image or reputation, a corporate blog is a good way to give unhappy customers a voice and hopefully win new friends.
2. Post often - get to the point - be brief - invite comments. No one will bother to read long-winded corporate jabber. Make it clear that you want to hear what people really think, especially if they don’t agree.
3. Develop a thick skin. If a corporate blog is genuinely successful, it needs to be a forum for anyone to express any opinion about the company, profanity excluded. Continued
   Tags: corporate blogs, Dell, Outpost Worldwide

A acquaintance writes on Facebook today, “Dear Bill Gates and Steve Ballmer: Vista sucks! Vista is slow on my fast Lenovo x61 with 4GB RAM! [expletive deleted] Driving me to Mac!?”

The opinion he expresses is but the latest in a chorus of complaints and news headlines about the significant shortcomings of Windows Vista, the latest and more seriously flawed operating system from Microsoft.  Windows - regardless of version - is simply an outdated computer operating system, notorious for decades for instability, crashes, lockups, viruses and other time and money consuming technological ailments.

Why, then, do organizations continue to invest in Windows and computers that run only Windows?  I know of a cash-strapped organization that recently made another sizable investment in new Dell computers with Microsoft Windows even though the organization has spent a fortune on simply keeping them running.  As someone with many years experience of suffering with the problematic Windows in work environments, I can say that there is no excuse for any organization to continue wasting money and wasting productivity on Windows, other than to perpetuate internal bureaucracies.  I think the reason they suffer Windows is job security for the IT people.  There is no other intelligent reason … and that reason is certainly not intelligent. 

There is an alternative that works - Apple Mac.  Macs are stable, issues-free computers that work for you as opposed to causing aggravation.  Macs run most of the computer programs as Windows, including Microsoft Office and many others.

This coming week is going to be a big one for Apple - the new G3 iPhone will be announced plus new sales promotion deals through ATT that will make the iPhone more affordable; an updated operating system for current iPhone users;  and, details on Apple’s new OS X operating system, code-named “Snow Leopard,” that should be available in January 2009.  

And, guess what?!! Apple will again make terrific headlines because the company has earned respect, and a reputation for products that work, trouble-free! 

In today’s world of intense message chaos, blogs have provided an effective online channel for expression of voice and words. But, what are the rules, best practices and ethical boundaries in the vast blogosphere?

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders has made available online and for free download its “Handbook for bloggers and cyber-dissidents.” It is the most credible standard for basic ethical and journalistic conduct in the world of blogging, in my opinion.

Over years of consulting on strategic marketing communications issues, I have observed that one of the core reasons that organizations, business and governments suffer financial and other hardships and sometimes fail is because of self-inflicted damage. Losing market share or shareholder value or any other benchmark of success, especially revenue, is rarely as a result of a competitor taking it away but rather an organization giving it away through unwise decisions and policies. There is the case today than the mainstream news business. A couple of examples that forecast the future, I believe, for specific news organizations:

1. The Washington Post online.  If this online news organization ever had a strategic compass to chart a place in the competitive online world it was lost long ago or most likely never existed.  Today, The Washington Post online does not reflect its core market and community of the nation’s capital, and its audience numbers show the decline, as measured by Alexa.com. The newspaper’s site design has not changed much in the last six years.  Even the online news site of WTOP, a local radio station in the Washington, D.C. area, has more online audience than the Post.
2. MSNBC.  This cable news operation (when it is not airing infomercials for cleaning supplies and exercise gadgets) once was outstanding, particularly in its coverage of Katrina and the hurricane’s damage in 2005.  But that was then.  Today, MSNBC shows nine year old video of TV entertainment reporter Bill O’Reilly going obscene on camera and ignores covering world news, such as the earthquake in China or cyclone disaster in Burma.  For MSNBC, it’s all about talking about how great their own campaign coverage has been … at a time when many viewers just want the news.
3. CBS 60 Minutes.  Once the premier television news program, 60 Minutes is relegated - due to budget cutbacks - mostly to doing interviews with personality authors about their news books.

Washington, D.C., is conference city. Each day, there are countless conferences and forums held in the city. Seven days a week, year-around. People fly in, attend conferences and fly out. We don’t hear about most, even though many conference organizers hope the spotlight of media attention will shine brightly on their event, if only for a moment. Usually, it doesn’t, and everyone moves on, back to their own lives.

I was attending one such conference recently, a really terrific series of sessions on issues that could make a difference in the world. It doesn’t matter to identify the organization because you didn’t hear about it.

An organizer proudly told participants that their team of PR people would be sending out a press release to generate media coverage. The PR people probably did write up a release, use some useless blast email press contact service and the release is now sitting in spam filters at newsrooms around the country. Works that way, and it is too bad because many such conferences could make news … and make a difference.

In today’s world, press releases don’t generate news, and they certainly don’t make a difference. Sorry.

Here are some ideas for an alternative approach –

1. Make use of photos. Ask the photographer who covers your event to shoot several “news-style” photos. Quickly prepare a two-sentence caption and get those photos to the media where you hope to be seen. The media — mainstream and online — loves photos.
2. Streaming video. If you videotape an important speech, make excerpts available on your Web site.
3. Podcasts. Again, take recorded excerpts and make them available online with a short synopsis of the event.
4. Alert the media. Even if contacting the media is an after-thought, some journalists may be attracted to your story when they see photos and/or video.

Good luck.

My column today in the Daily Dog online newsletter, the leading PR industry site:

Here’s a reality I learned long ago as a correspondent at CBS News: Perception can be the highest form of reality.

The media has always managed to create stories out of perceptions that sometimes carry enough substance to become reality. We make personal decisions based on how we perceive something or someone. And no two perceptions are exactly alike. We can be poles apart in our perception of something, and both be “right,” because our perceptions define our reality.

You and I see a cloud. It reminds you of Elvis holding a microphone; to me, it looks like a sailboat in the sky. Still, someone else might see a storm approaching. All different perceptions, all correct up to a point and certainly our own truths.

Today, the public relations industry is abuzz with questions about recession—will a recession hit the U.S. economy? Are we in a recession already? How would a recession impact the PR industry? How can we protect our PR agencies and businesses from a recession?

[Click here to read the full column online ...]