So what do we do about this problem?

What do we do when our clients go crazy about a negative Blog post, but dismiss a positive one we’ve worked hard to secure because, after all, it is just a Blog?

What do we do when a Blog gets the facts wrong but doesn’t feel a professional obligation to correct them because, after all, it is just a Blog?

And finally, what do we do when a Blog posts something that then is one of the top ten results in a Google search, thereby potentially hurting the subject of the post?

The answer: We do nothing … and everything.

We do nothing means that this is a new media format and we have to deal with the fact that it plays by different rules (or no rules).  And when there are no rules, there is really nothing you can do to turn things in your favor consistently.

But we also must do everything.  We must do everything in our power to run our businesses and organizations properly and with super-high standards.

That means we must make sure our products work and our customers are served well.  It means we must run our organizations cleanly, and in a way that will not call into question the money we are spending on operating those organizations.

That means that the Israeli catch-phrase of “Yihiyeh B’seder” (”it will be alright”) must go out the window, because Blogs are making sure that it won’t be alright.

And, by all means, we all must understand that honesty, integrity and truth must now rule.  Because if there is one rule by which the Bloggers play, it is that lying will not be tolerated.

This is the world we live in.  In most ways, it is much more complex than the early days of my career, when there was no Internet, e-mail, email, cell phone nor Windows.

But in one very important way, our world is much simpler:

Take one bad step, and it costs you dearly in the blogosphere.  Do the right thing, and, well, our Blogger friends might still slam you … but at least you will be able to look in the mirror.

And if I can sum up the blogosphere simply, it would be just that.  It’s a mirror. For the world.  For industry.  And for each of us to gaze at and ask: Do we like what we see?

 When they came upon the scene, since I was still relatively young, I was able to quite easily roll with it.  Heck, my biggest client was Verizon Wireless, so I was right in the middle of the action. 

 Over the years, there have been other developments, like cable news and specialty stations becoming legitimate outlets for my clients’ news.  And then, of course, the Internet took over, and has now become the primary source of news for many of the world’s top decision-makers.

 And there are the more recent developments you all know about.  My firm, Ruder Finn Israel, has gotten involved in the social media phenomenon, creating and maintaining Facebook pages and Twitter accounts for our clients.

 So here we are, many years later, and yes, I’m still rolling with it.

 And then, there are the Blogs.  Now, let me begin by saying that I love Blogs.  My brother has a fantastic one.  The concept of creating a public venue for one to give his/her views on a particular topic or the world at-large is not only exciting, it’s the logical next step for communications.  And there have been some great ones.  For example, Bill Simmons is now a well-paid, well-respected columnist for ESPN.com because his “Boston Sports Guy” Blog was so successful years ago. 

 But I have a problem with the Blogs. And that problem is one I can’t figure out how to solve.  Here’s the conundrum …

 Blogs today are as highly respected as media.  In fact, certain Blogs are considered media themselves, such as Huffington Post and TechCrunch.  Public relations folks spend a lot of time crafting communiqués that will impact these Blogs, they way they would back in the day to elicit the attention of a Today Show producer.

 And that would be fine … if those Blogs played by the rules by which the media play.

 But they don’t.

 They don’t, because they don’t have to.  After all, they are just Blogs.

 I’ll give you an example: 

We had a client that was recently ripped to shreds - including insults and factually incorrect information - by a high-profile blog’s “guest Blogger.”  We then contacted that blog with an op-ed submission that refuted those insults and lies, and took the story further by offering a different view of the situation.  The blog’s response: “We’re going to pass on this.”

Well, isn’t that nice?  The Blog bills itself as a “newspaper,” but doesn’t have to live up to the standards of mainstream media because, after all, it is just a Blog.

Okay, so that’s the situation.  And it’s not going to change.  So the question I’d like to answer is this: What do we do about it?

In my next post, I’ll be answering that question …

The event was nice, and well-attended, but there was one question several of the attendees asked me that struck a chord. “Can you tell me about the hours, if I want to go into PR?”

Interesting.

I’ve never really thought about PR as a round-the-clock career, but when I stepped back in my mind, reflecting on this question, I realized that in fact it is. But the reason it is has nothing to do with PR specifically. It’s all about how fast technology has changed.

So after realizing this, I said to this young person, “Let me ask you - What’s the last thing you do before going to sleep at night? You turn off your computer, right?”

“Of course,” was the response.

Well, in PR, we do the same thing, except that phenomenon has so much relevance to our business. Because for me, the last thing I do is check to see if any client, or any reporter, or any colleague has sent me an email since I last checked. And if they have, well, part of being a PR service provider is going the extra mile, so whether it’s 10:30 p.m. or 11:45 p.m. or 1:15 a.m., I respond.

The point is that PR has become a 24-hour business. But you know what? So has life …

Let’s take a look at how Israel did in its recent campaign in Gaza, using two examples, one from the beginning and one from the end of the campaign.

First, the war, according to Israel’s prime minister, Ehud Olmert, was not against the Palestinians, nor against the residents of Gaza. It was only against Hamas. The first public communication he offered to a television audience explained the rationale for fighting and an out-and-out apology to the people of Gaza. What this means is that from the very first communication, Israel had decided to play a defensive role about the impact of the war on civilians. Now, keep in mind that this was a defensive war for Israel, after having been shelled for years in the areas surrounding Gaza by thousands of rockets. But that didn’t matter to the world media, which, frankly, simply followed the lead of Israel’s communications effort by pointing out how wrong the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) were for hurting anyone but Hamas terrorists in the battles.

The important lesson is the impact of communications in a war situation.

Now, let’s take a look at the end of the war. Israel had decided to impose a unilateral ceasefire, and prime ministerial candidate Binyamin Netanyahu announced his view that the job had not been completed. He said, "I believe that in the face of Hamas’s terror and its Iranian backing, we must show no weakness and we must show a resolute, iron fist, until the enemy is vanquished."

What I found fascinating was the response of Public Security Minister Avi Dichter (Kadima), who said, "Everyone knows the IDF won. Only Netanyahu thinks we did not win."

Now, wait a second. And here’s the power of communication. Did Netanyahu say that the IDF had lost? At the same time, was Dichter lying when he said Netanyahu thought Israel did not win?

Communications surrounding a war are meaningful. And whether it’s Nasser saying Egypt was winning the Six-Day War, FDR’s D-Day prayer in 1944 or Ehud Olmert apologizing for a defensive war in 2009, we all must understand the impact of war, not only of the weapons, but of the words as well.

There is an accepted principle in the communications business, when it comes to conferences and seminars. The principle is that when one has the opportunity to speak at a conference, under no circumstances is that person to spend time promoting him/herself or his/her company. The person was selected to speak because the expectation was that s/he would have valuable information to pass along to the attendees, who have paid serious money for the privilege to listen to such speakers.

Of course, there is always marketing/PR value to such engagements. For example, any PowerPoint presentation can have the speaker’s company branding on it. The speaker can give examples of the right way to do things and mention that "this is something that happened at my company," etc.

But go much beyond that, and the speaker is likely to be facing an empty room by the end, or worse …

Well, this week I had the privilege of speaking at the first annual "MarcShoret" marketing conference in Jerusalem. My topic was "The Marketing Marriage - Company and Agency Working Together." I think it was well-received, but that’s not the point of this post.

I attended the other sessions as well, and one of them was given in such a self-promotional manner that I felt compelled to leave after about 20 minutes. It was truly a disgrace - as opposed to the rest of the conference, which was quite good.

Who the speaker was and what the topic was is not of importance. What is important is that, as I sat there listening to this running self-advertisement, I thought to myself, "Wow, the only way for a speaker to engage in something like this is for that person to absolutely not care about his/her audience."

Which is interesting, because the whole marketing industry is based on caring about your audience. So why would anyone in this business ever want to work with such a presenter?

If we were right now a week into the secular calendar, we’d still be making our way through the annual "Year in Review" issues of magazines, features in papers and programs on television. There’s nothing quite like time that gives journalists the license to forget "news" for a bit and focus, instead, on perspective. And so they do.

But PR doesn’t work that way. Oh, sure, our trade magazines also do their annual highlight issues, and we all read them. But our industry is all about today - and tomorrow.

I’ll give you an example: I had a wonderful relationship with a particular reporter from the NY Times some years ago. He loved the stories I pitched him and he usually wrote long, deep articles about my clients. Of course, I only pitched him the good stuff. After all, that’s how wonderful PR person-reporter relationships grow.

Anyway, it happened one time that he thought I had given an exclusive to his competitor, The Wall Street Journal. He called me in a rage, doing his best impression of George Carlin’s "The Seven Words You Can Never Say On TV" routine. And that, as they say, was that.

He never took a call from me again. The fact is that I hadn’t been the one to give the story to his competitor. The M&A agency had done the deed. But it didn’t matter to him.

And that’s what I mean when I say that PR doesn’t work that way. Had you looked at the previous 12 months of my relationship with that reporter, it was a heck of a year for me. But that one tirade-inclusive day destroyed the whole thing.

So it’s nice to look at the magazine features, but it truly does not matter at all. What matters is where we are and where we are going, with the media, with our clients, with our colleagues, and even with our own approaches to our careers.

So congratulations on all our industry has achieved, but more importantly, here’s to a wonderful Jewish New Year, filled with positive growth for all of us!

I’m writing this blog post with the hope that some of our client prospects will say "no" to our services.

Now, why would the managing director of an Israel-based PR firm wish such a thing upon his organization?

You know, it brings me back to a time - long ago - when I would have such conversations with my mother. They would go something like this:

"Mom, can I go to the St. Joe’s game Thursday night?"

"But Glenn," she would say, "Friday is a school day. You will have homework Thursday night."

"But they play Villanova that night. It’s the biggest game of the year, and Mike (my best friend growing up) has tickets!"

"I’ll speak with Howard (my stepfather) and we’ll let you know later."

"But I need an answer now or Mike will find someone else to take!"

"Glenn, if you need an answer now, the answer is no."

And with that, she had made herself clear. She would give me an answer, but it would happen on her terms, not mine.

Now, more than 20 years later, I find myself in roughly the same position with some of our client prospects. Except now, there’s a major difference …

Israeli companies and organizations that hesitate about their approach to PR and marketing only hurt themselves.

They are trying desperately to compete and to make themselves known in the US and global marketplaces, yet they sometimes operate in a way that demonstrates they are not confident in how they should proceed.

I’ll give you an example: We are currently in talks with an Israeli healthcare company about helping them with investor relations (out of our US offices), local Israeli PR and international business media relations. We have provided them with everything they have asked for, and we have taken a tremendous amount of time to meet with them in their offices. And we have been dancing this dance for a year. They would be silly to not move ahead with us, because we have made it clear that we will bend over backwards to provide them with excellent service.

And yet they have hesitated … for a year. Now, this doesn’t mean that they have to choose us. The point is that for more than a year they’ve chosen no one. This means that theoretically, their IR/PR/marketing has gone nowhere in a year. This indecision only hurts them.

Another example:

There is a company that has decided to hire an agency. They have a major event coming up in one month, and made it clear to us during our initial meeting that they needed to make a decision by August 1. It is now August 13. The event is coming up and we’ve made it clear to them that they will lose significant media opportunities at the event if they don’t begin reaching out to the industry media now. And yet they still have not made a decision. This of course bothers us, because we’d love to have them as a client.

But it also hurts them.

I guess what I’m saying is that, for the good of the Israel PR/marketing industry, I’d love to have all these clients say yes to Ruder Finn, but I’d also be perfectly happy if a few of these prospects were to say no to us … and say yes to someone.

For Ruder Finn Israel, we’d rather hear "no" than hear nothing. For these companies, saying nothing to us means they are also saying nothing to the market.

And in the process of saying nothing, they lose the most.

There’s something special about the summertime. Always has been.

When I was a kid, summertime was all about baseball. The concept of baseball games every night coupled with no school was almost too good to be true.

Then, as a teenager, summer was all about basketball camp.

Of course, there were the college years, during which summertime meant internships, and, in fact, summertime has meant internships for me ever since, just from a different perspective as the years have gone by. 15 years ago, I was the intern. Now, I hire them.

But from the days when I was an intern myself until now, when I see interns coming and going all the time, one thing has remained constant:

The expectations an employer should have of an intern.

What are those expectations? Well, my father gave me the secret back in the summer of 1991, and I am still grateful to him for providing it to me. And ever since then, I have shared that secret with all interns I have employed, as I believe that secret is a major key to success in this industry.

The secret is comprised of four parts:

1. Work hard.
2. Bring boundless energy and enthusiasm to the table.
3. Be willing to do anything to help the company.
4. When you leave the office each day, think about at least one new thing you learned that day.

That’s it. It’s that simple. Why? Because no company with half a corporate-brain can expect anything beyond those traits from an intern. Not only that, but you will be amazed by how much you will grow if you stick to those characteristics. Let’s take a quick look at each of them to understand better what they mean …

Work hard - This means that whatever the task or activity you have been given, it is crucial to make sure that you put everything into it. That means that if you are writing a draft of a news release, you will read and reread what you have written 10 times to make sure it is as well-written as it can be. This will enable you to make a name for yourself as someone who does everything they can to get the job done at as high a level as possible.

Bring boundless energy and enthusiasm to the table - I don’t mean this in a Jim Carrey kind of way. It’s not about uncontrolled energy. It’s about communicating to those around you that you are so excited to be part of the company, part of the PR world, part of the business world, etc. But here’s the key - You will be amazed at how much you will stand out, just by demonstrating energy and enthusiasm for our craft. If someone gives you a task to do, thank them for it. Tell them you are excited to help. If you need work, go to your supervisor and ask if there’s anything you can do. The results will do great things for you.

Be willing to do anything to help the company - No one likes an intern who turns down a project. No matter what, say yes. Can you please make copies? Yes. Can you draft this news release? Yes. Can you find out the phone number for this reporter? Yes. Do this, and little by little the quality of assignment will increase. Know why? People love working with people who just want to help.

When you leave the office each day, think about at least one new thing you learned that day - Why is this one important? Well, how else are you going to be able to see the learning experiences when they are happening? When I did my first internship, my dad said to me after the first day, "What did you learn today?" And I told him. Then, he asked me every single day for the first few weeks, and everyday, I was able to tell him something. Pretty soon I went about my day looking for things to learn and sure enough, I never left that office without learning something every single day. But had I not been looking for something to learn, maybe I wouldn’t have learned as many things.

So that’s it. If you are an intern, focus on those four areas and you will have a wonderful internship experience. Not only that, but your employer will consider you one of the best interns s/he has ever hired. And if you are an employer, don’t expect too much from your interns, but DO expect them to work hard, energetically, with a hunger for learning and with a willingness to do anything to help your company.

As a former intern, I can tell you that it works.

I have long been of the opinion that Modern Art was trash.
It amused me no end that people would pay millions of dollars for a bunch of scribbles and paint splashes, scribbles that are usually found on a pristine white wall with a guilty looking crayon-wielding three year old standing beside them. I mean, do they think we’re all idiots? Is this a constant reenactment of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes’?

Apparently not. About 2 years ago I was dragged on a trip to the Tate Modern gallery in London, by a friend who was far less artistically challenged than me. We entered an exhibit called ‘Open Systems: Rethinking Art’ where many types of exhibits where shown, in all manner of mediums.

I stopped in confusion in front of a pair of red plastic boxes mounted on the wall. On each there was a single word, and when an internal light turned on, the word would light up. When one box was lit, the other was dark. One box had PING on it, and the other, you guessed it, PONG. As the boxes switched on and off alternatively, the viewer’s eyes flicked right and left, PING, PONG, PING, PONG, back and forth. And a slow smile formed on my face as I realized that the artist had cleverly re-created the movements of an audience watching a ping pong match (table tennis to all those who aren’t British), using 2 red boxes and some imagination. Was it art? Maybe. Was it clever? Without a doubt.

It hit me then, maybe that was it, maybe Modern Art was not about painting talent and masterpieces like the Mona Lisa, maybe Modern Art was about IDEAS.
Making you stop. Making you think. Making you remember the artist’s name.

This is what good PR should do as well. Every day you are inundated with information, and drowned by images and data. Only once in a while, you see something that makes you…

…stop. And look again.

This is our business, and we treat it like an art.

Those of us who grew up in the U.S. PR world are familiar with the important concept of connecting your client/product to current events or trends. For example, when we launched the Oscar Mayer fat-free hot dog back in January, 1995, we hopped onto the trend of formerly fattening foods making attempts to reinvent themselves as less unhealthy. That trend, by the way, is why, for example, Kentucky Fried Chicken changed its name to KFC - no one wants the word "fried" in its corporate name. It’s, well, not so good for business.

Anyway, when we were on the cusp of the Gregorian calendar’s change from 1999 to 2000, just about every single consumer-oriented company tried to connect their brand with "2000" in one way or another.

So here we are, and our State of Israel is about to celebrate her 60th birthday. And sure enough, every Tom, Dick and Harry of Israeli companies is doing its best to connect somehow to this national milestone that is the biggest since, well, the 50th, and will be the biggest until, I guess, the 70th.

I’m personally not a big fan of anniversaries, when it comes to news. I don’t think there’s much that can be done by a reporter to acknowledge an anniversary except to simply acknowledge it. Companies are always thinking about how to "Get PR out of" an anniversary, etc., but I just don’t see the news value there.

But there is one exception where I think it does make sense to try to connect what you have with an anniversary …

If your company or product or technology, etc. has been one of the significant milestones along the way for, let’s say, the State of Israel, then promote the heck out of it next week. Because you are part of what has enabled Israel to reach 60, in essence.

But if your product is not significant to Israel’s history (yet), then do your credibility a favor and resist the temptation to try to gain publicity. It could actually help your PR efforts in the long run.