Inside PR

Inside PR 2.87: We won’t delete your comments

Kristine — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 11:57:55 +0000

It’s been an interesting week around the web with lessons about good and not-so-good communications. Gini mentions the blog post she wrote about the Susan G. Komen Foundation and how its decision to unplug their funding from Planned Parenthood’s breast cancer screenings created a huge outpouring of support for Planned Parenthood and a reputation issue for Komen.

She talks about how poorly Komen handled communications around the issue including deleting comments from its Facebook page. She and a few people tried a test where they posted comments – from benign to negative – and took screen captures of their posts. The organization removed them all. She wonders why Komen didn’t consult with its communications advisors in advance to develop scenarios, messages and a crisis plan.

By now most of us have heard that based on the outcry, Komen reversed its decision.

We all agree deleting comments after the fact is one of the worst things organizations can do and they should decide at the outset whether or not they’ll accept comments and build trust via an open conversation.

Joe talks about Radio Royal York’s public video welcome to Blissdom organizers who were visiting Toronto. He hasn’t decided if it’s a mistake or a good way to engage with a customer and asks if anyone else had seen something similar. However, the situation is somewhat moot. At the time of writing, the video has been removed.

In case you missed it, our last topic is the upcoming Facebook IPO and the company’s disclosure that the majority of its revenue comes from ad dollars.

In fact, the big three social media players – Facebook, Twitter and Google+ – are all media companies of sorts and have finally figured out now they monetize their innovations – by selling us (and our data). There’s no doubt they’re great networks that extend the scope of our relationships, but we are still the product.

Martin wonders how they’ll deal with large policy issues like freedom of speech and feels governments should monitor the situation to ensure we keep the Internet open. Joe isn’t happy with that type of intervention – he’d rather see governments focus on education and standards.

Next week is Social Media Week in various cities around the world. Here’s where to get a full list of events. And if you’re in Toronto on February 17, Third Tuesday Toronto is hosting a breakfast event on open government featuring Tony Clement, M.P., President of the Treasury Board of Canada. It should be a lively discussion.

And that’s a wrap! We’ll talk to you next week.

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Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.86: Politics and Social Media

Gini Dietrich — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 22:45:33 +0000

Right now the United States are in the middle of GOP Presidential race and it’s an interesting time, to be sure.

That’s why our interview with Mary Barber is so timely.

Mary, if you don’t know, is the founder of The Barber Group, which is headquartered in Anchorage, Alaska. As a side note: Alaska is having its coldest and most snowy winter on record. While it’s scary for the residents, some of us (who love snow) are living vicariously through Mary’s Facebook updates.

Last year, Mary worked with a team of communication professionals to mobilize around a candidate.

But not just any candidate…a write-in candidate who won.

It was the first time a write-in candidate has won anywhere since 1954.

We won’t ruin the interview for you, but you’ll want to listen to see how they mobilized many people to get out the message, had a message of the day, and how they were each responsible for one platform and one audience.

She also discusses how they integrated online conversations with tried and true offline tactics, such as walking a district.

Don’t miss the announcement of Jay Baer and me keynoting Counselor’s Academy this year. We discuss the topic during the podcast. What we didn’t discuss is Jay will provide the expertise and I’ll provide the color commentary. And you’ll receive a copy of Marketing in the Round!

If you run a PR firm, get to New Orleans in May!

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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.85: The Pluses of Google

Kristine — Wed, 25 Jan 2012 18:37:54 +0000

Search is changing.

This week was a big week for social media, especially Google. Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman start the episode with talking about Google’s new search algorithm. Google has changed in search algorithm to make it personalized to the person logged on. Twitter and Facebook are not too happy about this change and believe that Google is not giving an accurate search result. The gang talks about how consumers are being affect and how we are stuck in the middle of a feud between two big corporations.

The pull between personalization and standardization increases with this new search algorithm, pushing standardization further and further outside of the picture. We will no longer all get the same search results. The team talks about what this means for consumers and communicators.

This issue also invokes change for communicators and marketers and how we promote our company’s online, the key words we use and how we publish content.

What do you think? Will Google continue to be the number one choice for search?

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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.84: Are your measurement goals quantifiable and time-bound?

Kristine — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 19:41:57 +0000

This week, we feature another interview from the PRSA International Conference. We talk to our good friend Shonali Burke, communications strategist and author of the Waxing Unlyrical blog, about PR and social media measurement, a subject all PR people should pay attention to because it demonstrates the value of our work and whether or not we’ve achieved our goals.

Shonali calls out three problems in the way we approach measurement:

The concept of measurable objectives has been lost – our objectives must be quantifiable and time-bound.
Buzz is not a goal – because people don’t know what they’re trying to achieve, they’re not approaching communications strategically.
People overcomplicate. Don’t focus on the tools but on what you’re trying to track and how.

Shonali mentions the Blue Key campaign, which asks Americans to donate $5 to raise awareness and support for refugee issues and how they track the program using custom URLs, Google Analytics and other tools to identify emerging trends.

She’s tired of PR professionals saying they’re not good at numbers and advises us to, ‘stop getting freaked out by math!’

Gini mentions that it’s not impressions or ad equivalencies that are important, but how we deliver the kinds of results that mean something to a client’s business. Joe adds that being in PR, we’re dealing with digital data all the time and need to get good at that. Martin suggests that as professional communicators we are all in business and, as such, should learn and understand the fundamentals of business.

Are you measuring your programs effectively and in a way that demonstrates real value to your clients or organizations? Do you have any thoughts or cases to add? We’d love to hear from you.

And thanks Shonali.

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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.83: Excited About 2012!

Gini Dietrich — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 14:09:04 +0000

Happy New Year!

We hope you had great holidays spent with family and friends.

After a short break, we’re back and ready to rock a new year.

And speaking of a new year, we discuss what we’re looking forward to in the first half of this year.

Martin Waxman is attending SxSW and speaking at Podcamp. Joe Thornley is co-hosting (with Shel Holtz) an online social media workshop for IABC and its members. And I have a crazy speaking schedule, beginning at the end of April, that coincides with the publication of Marketing In the Round, the book I’m co-authoring with Geoff Livingston.

We’re all bullish on what 2012 has in store and we’d love to hear what you’re looking forward to in the first half of the year.

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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.82: Social media resolutions

Kristine — Fri, 23 Dec 2011 20:43:25 +0000

This is the last show of 2011 for Inside PR. It has been another great year with Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley and Gini Dietrich.

The group has recorded 82 episodes. However, Inside PR has been around for over five years with other hosts such as Terry Fallis.

This week Martin, Gini and Martin talk about their social media resolution.

Joe’s resolution is to be present, publish more often, and try to increase comments and engagement online. He will start by posting on Google+ and if there is more substance he will do a blog post and make people aware of his ideas on Twitter. To measure success, Joe will measure the amount of engagement he experiences on all his social platforms. He is looking for people to come back more than just once.

Martin’s resolution is to make the right choices. He has a hunger for a lot of things, but he can’t do all of it, and needs to focus. To measure success, Martin will measure engagement, meaningful interactions and meeting more great people.

Gini’s resolution is to take all that she has learned from her clients, all the digital tools and implement them for Arment Dietrich to drive sales. Gini will determine success by measuring good ol’ profit margins.

We’d love to hear from you. Send us your social media resolutions.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.81: On Google, Twitter and Marketing in the Round

Kristine — Thu, 15 Dec 2011 14:31:58 +0000

First:
Listener comments responding to our discussion on ‘mean girls in PR’… Thanks to Jessica Suter from The Change PR, Lizanor Barrera and our own producer, Kristine Simpson, who submitted an audio comment (and graciously edited it in). The consensus from everyone is there are a lot of good, honest and ethical women and men working in the profession (and yes, there are a few stinkers, too…).

Next:
We officially announce Gini’s new book, Marketing in the Round, co-authored with Geoff Livingston. The publication date is May 2012, but it’s available to pre-order on Amazon and other sites (just in time for the holidays). It will be launched in Canada at Third Tuesday (Toronto, Ottawa, Calgary and Vancouver). Congratulations, Gini!

Then:
We move on to talk about some recent changes to Twitter and Google.

Joe sees the new features/updates as an example of how innovation is still occurring rapidly in social media; Twitter is looking more and more like a user friendly service. Martin admits he still likes the Twitter.com platform because he feels at home there.

Joe is disappointed by the changes to Tweetdeck, because it has fewer features and will now carry only Twitter and none of his other social feeds. He’s going to revisit Hootsuite.

Gini mentions Market Me Suite as another alternative.

Martin says he’s been a Hootsuite user for a while and likes the functionality. He wishes they would let users customize column width in order to see more streams at a glance.

Google introduced Currents, a magazine reader (not yet available in Canada) and is integrating Gmail with the Google+ platform.

Joe likes the quality of the interaction on Google+. He says you can describe Google+ as a place you go for ideas, Facebook, as a place to interact with friends and Twitter where you find out what’s going on. Within that model there’s lots of room for each platform to survive and thrive.

But what about LinkedIn? Martin believes many LinkedIn features could be integrated into Google+ to make it a good business networking and information resource.

Joe feels too many people on LinkedIn are promoting themselves as they look for jobs; what’s missing is the culture of generosity.

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We’d love to hear from you.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.80: Relevance Drives Influence

Gini Dietrich — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 18:04:52 +0000

We had so much fun at the PRSA International Conference in Orlando because we got to talk to so many smart people.

This week we have another smart person to share with you: Pierre-Loic Assayag, the founder and CEO of Traackr.

Martin Waxman had a chance to chat with him in the Traackr booth about what they’re doing, how relevance drives influence, and what types of analytics are now offered through the tool.

During the conversation, Martin asked Pierre-Loic what three pieces of advice he had to offer to PR professionals.

He said:

1. Be open-minded. The new media list looks a little like the old media list, but it’s not. Be open to the new influencers you aren’t used to seeing and welcome surprises.
2. Nothing replaces hard work. This is one we really like because he talks about how what they do makes the repetitive process easier, but they’re not replacing good PR.
3. There is no silver bullet. As easy as it is to want to rely on some of these tools to automate our jobs, there is no silver bullet to online influence. In order to engage people in a meaningful way, you have to rely on good old relationship-building skills.

He also talks for a few minutes about the alpha list they just launched, which is a way to give control to influencers so they can define their own lists.

At the end of the episode, Martin, Joe Thornley, and I discuss a blog post that is making the rounds right now, “Are Women In PR Just Grown-Up Mean Girls?”

I thought it would be interesting to get the opinion from my male counterparts, but Joe was too chicken to say anything beyond, “No! That’s not true!”

The point we all agreed on, though, is our industry is so focused on media relations, which is just a tool and not everything that we do, that it’s hard to escape that notion.

Enjoy the show!

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We’d love to hear from you.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.79: Defining PR & Divining Google+

thornley — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 20:09:09 +0000

Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley talk about the PRSA’s initiative to develop a new definition of public relations on this week’s Inside PR.

The PRSA’s current definition: “Public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other.” The public is invited to suggest the elements of a new definition using a ” fill in the blanks” form on the PRSA Website.

Joe isn’t sure that the PRSA’s “fill in the blanks” crowd-sourcing approach will yield the type of definition that truly reflects the enhanced role of PR in the era of social media.

Gini Dietrich suggests that whatever definition is adopted, it will only be useful if it can be readily understood by the general public. And she believes that right now most people believe that PR amounts to little more than media relations.

Martin argues that the public relations profession should define itself through the lense applied by Jeff Jarvis when he asserts that “In a world of publicness which allows us to connect to each other, to information to actions and to transactions, links, i.e. linking up, help us organize new societies and redefine our publics.”

Also in this week’s podcast, we continue to experiment with Google+. Gini Dietrich has set up the Spin Sucks page on Google+. Take a look at it and let her know what you think of it.

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We’d love to hear from you.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.78: The plusses of Google+

Kristine — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 17:31:38 +0000

We recorded Inside PR 2.76 on the day Google+ opened its pages to businesses and watched as companies developed their G+ presence in real time.

Now it’s a couple of weeks later, and we thought we’d take a closer look. Gini kicks it off by referencing her blog post on the topic. She calls out Google’s transparency in admitting they helped several companies build their brand pages in advance of the launch. However, she’s noticed some of those organizations haven’t grown their followings or done much posting.

She goes on to say while the social media bubble may have wanted G+ to be a Facebook slayer, that’s not likely Google’s intent. She believes it’s to give us a social reason for using Google and that will provide them with more data.

Martin likes the interface, that you can share directly from Google Reader and that Google docs, calendar and Gmail are all there. He wonders if there’s more of a business application to the platform because G+ is so open and when you’re with friends you want to be in a less public environment – a private room with the doors closed, like FB.

Joe calls out the ability to organize circles by interest. And in his circles for journalists, marketers, web design and PR, people continue to publish interesting discussions. Joe uses the platform to follow posts on an industry by industry basis.

Martin suggests it could be a mini-blogging platform without the constraint of 140 characters; a place for companies to start a larger discussion.

Some recent updates: G+ can be managed by third-party apps like Hootsuite. Right now, there’s only one administrator allowed for business pages – that’s going to change in the new year, but currently it’s a drawback.

And finally, we want to wish all our American friends and listeners a Happy Thanksgiving!

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We’d love to hear from you.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.77: Jay Baer Talks Corporate Culture

Gini Dietrich — Thu, 17 Nov 2011 15:23:08 +0000

This week, Jay Baer, of Convince and Convert and The Now Revolution fame, is our guest.

We interviewed him at the PRSA International Conference in Orlando last month and thought now was a great time to run it.

It’s 2012 planning time so we discuss with him the things people ought to remember when using the social tools, trends to watch, and what to consider for next year.

A few things you want to pay particular attention to while you listen:

- His keynote topic at the conference was the goal of corporate culture in speed, authenticity, and response, not about social media.
- He talks about how social media success isn’t about the tools and technology. It’s about corporate culture and being social instead of doing social.
- He wants you to remember that the tools always change. If you focus on the tools, when they die, go public, or get bought out, you’re going to be left with the smoking wreckage of a plan not focused on strategy.
- He says the goal is not to be good at social media. The goal is to be good at business, using social media.

We ask him what are the three things he wants you to take away and he outlines them for us.

We also discuss how, as consumers we have so much more information about at our fingertips, it’s important for companies to be sustainable, human, approachable, and engage to help us make our decisions.

Ending with what’s next for Jay Baer and the four words Martin takes away every time he hears Jay speak.

It’s been said multiple times during the podcast, but if you’ve never heard Jay speak, you’ll quickly understand why he’s one of the industry’s most sought-after experts.

He walks the walk, is highly engaging, and is really, really smart.

Enjoy!

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We’d love to hear from you.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.76: The world of Global PR

Kristine — Tue, 15 Nov 2011 17:32:43 +0000

This week Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman talk about the new Plus in Google+, Google+ Pages for businesses. The team watches this breaking news as it unfolds. Gini checks out the Muppets page, Martin checks out the Pepsi page, and Joe checks out the Toyota page. The team looks forward to following the world Google+ pages and how it will develop.

But first, Joe starts off by sharing with everyone his adventures over in sunny, snowing Whistler, BC at the IABC’s Western Canada Regional Conference. Joe was very lucky because he actually won his pass to the conference, and he thanks the folks at IABC Toronto for that.

Then, Joe introduces an interviews from the Public Relations Society of America Conference with Dan Tisch, incoming chair of the Global Alliance. The Global Alliance is the confederation of the world’s major PR and communication management associations and institutions, representing 160,000 practitioners and educators around the world. The Global Alliance’s mission is to unify the public relations profession, raise professional standards all over the world, share knowledge for the benefit of its members and be the global voice for public relations in the public interest.

The Global Alliance is something Martin, Gini and Joe think will become very important very soon, so, make sure to check it out and listen to the full interview with Dan Tisch.

We would love to hear your opinion on the Global Alliance, or if you have any comments, insights or opinions on Google+ Pages. Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 275: Counselors Academy – The place for PR execs

thornley — Mon, 07 Nov 2011 16:17:53 +0000

This week on Inside PR, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley interview Abbie Fink about the PRSA Counselors Academy Conference and what makes it special.

If you run a PR agency, you know that it can be hard to find expert advice that relates directly to our business. One conference fills this gap. The PRSA Counselors Academy Conference brings together owners and managers of public realtions agencies across North America for two days of sessions focusing on the business of PR.

Abbie says the Counselors Academy conference is about “being a better owner, a better manager, discovering new ways to do business development and revenue streams … the management side of running a public relations practice.” The magic of this gathering, according to Abbie, is that business owners come together and share their experiences and knowledge freely with one another on business issues. How do they set billable hours? How do they determine when to bring on another employee? How do they deal with problematic clients? Under what circumstances would they fire a client?

At Counselors Academy, business leaders set aside their status as competitors in order to advance the collective whole, the public relations consulting industry. Says Abbie, “If I can help another PR agency owner look at or do something in a different way and they become better at what they do, that’s good for our industry as a whole.”

The next Counselors Academy Conference will take place May 6 to 8, 2012 in New Orleans. And Inside PR’s Martin Waxman is co-chairing this year’s conference with Dana Hughens. You can be sure that I’ll be there along with the senior leaders of my company.

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Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.74: On the road with On the Record Online

Kristine — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 17:38:05 +0000

We’re on the trade show of PRSA International Conference in Orlando talking with Eric Schwartzman – on a special joint episode with On the Record Online and Inside PR.

Like us, Eric also records his podcasts over Skype but prefers face to face interviews when he can. And he’s a veteran, who started in April 2005, just after For Immediate Release and around the same time Terry Fallis and David Jones began Inside PR.

Gini, Joe, Eric and I discuss the state of podcasting and Eric talks about his approach:

- He’s feature-oriented, as opposed to news focused, so his shows have a longer shelf-life.
- He continues podcasting because he likes to learn and finds when there’s a mic and recorder, he gets the best answers from experts.
- He sees which shows people love based on the stats, but doesn’t chase the audience; he does what interests him.
- He spends a good deal of time – about eight hours per episode – preparing, conducting interviews, editing and producing, writing and publishing show notes and publishing. It is a time commitment, but he gets nearly 1,000,000 downloads a year.

The discussion ends when a band starts up in the booth behind us.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.73: Live from the PRSA Conference

Gini Dietrich — Thu, 20 Oct 2011 17:59:34 +0000

Coming to you, live, from the PRSA International Conference…and we’re all in Orlando together.

It’s a far better experience to record in person than with Google Hangouts and our Zoom recorders. Body language is easier to read, even though we use video, and we can play off one another better.

We hope you agree!

Soledad O’Brien was the conference opening keynote where she talked about diversity and media relations.

She, as she says, is a “mixed race person.” Her dad is Irish and Australian and her mother is black and Cuban. During her keynote she describes systemic racism and how far we’ve come, but that we still have a long way to go.

Her parents were at Johns Hopkins and living in Baltimore as an engaged couple. They couldn’t get married in Baltimore because, in 1958, it was illegal. So they got married in DC and lived illegally in Baltimore as an interracial couple.

You may be wondering what this has to do with the communication industry.

The PRSA conferences have always had programming that drives toward a greater purpose. Our job is about serving more than the master; it’s our job to not accept things as they are, but to communicate views in order to move things forward.

The keynote Soledad set the right tone for the conference and for any kind of organization…that is: communications should serve as a higher purpose.

She also talked about storytelling being the foundation of everything. She said, as PR professionals, we have to tell her stories and then trust her to take our stories and create something useful for her audiences.

It really bothers her when she is pitched by people who haven’t bothered to watch what she does. She says it’s offensive to receive those kinds of pitches and this is something the three of us discuss at length during the podcast.

Also some news for Joe and Martin at the end…so don’t tune out early!

Coming soon: Interviews from old friends and new, including Pierre-Loic Assyag, Dan Tisch, Shonali Burke, Abbie Fink, Jay Baer, Mary Barber, John Devaney, Eric Schwartzman, and more!

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Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.72: Stay Hungry, Stay Foolish

Kristine — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 16:20:26 +0000

Martin Waxman, Joseph Thornley and Gini Dietrich start off by remembering the great figure and true visionary, Steve Jobs.

Joe encourages everyone to watch the infamous and powerful Steve Jobs commence speech done at Stanford University in 2005. Jobs end his speech with the words “stay hungry, stay foolish.” Words that inspire us all.

Martin reminds listeners that the Inside PR team will be at the PRSA Conference in Orlando, Florida from October 15 to 18^th. He also invites listeners to check out his conversation with with conference co-chair, Bonnie Upright, APR, and PRSA chair and CEO, Rosanna Fiske, APR, about what to expect. Check out the special Inside PR episode here. Gini also remind anyone who is planning on attending the conference to RSVP for the Inside PR Tweet Up on Monday night where your first drink is on the Inside PR team.

Then the team jumps in to a discussion sparked by a comment by David:

Hey guys,

I’m currently a first year public relations student at Algonquin College. I’ve been listening in on your podcasts for a while now and the amount of information that flies around can sometimes be staggering.

The program has been great. It’s exhilarating to be involved in something with people who are as passionate as I am about PR.

But onto my question: Does a college diploma suffice as post-secondary background for jobs in this field? Most successful PR people I’ve spoken to have backgrounds in communications and university degrees. It worries me that my graduation from this program will not be enough.

I would greatly appreciate it if you could speak about this on your next show.

So Joe asks: what kind of education do we see coming through the door of the successful candidates we hire or we see others hire these days.

Martin believes any education is fine, but one should supplement that education with communications work. It is important to have a general background and understanding of communications and PR.

Gini says she doesn’t necessarily look at what the degree is in, just as long as there is a degree. She really pays attention to the internships a student has had before they graduated. She also mentions Arment Dietrich will not hire someone without that person completing and internship with them.

Joe echoes Gini’s point and talks about the importance of internships and encourages students to find a program with a co-op option. Joe mentions that an internship can be a ticket to a job offer.

However, all agree that networking and building a network using social media tools are very important

They finish off the episode with a discussion on a blog posts Gini posted social media tools for listening.

Gini talks about:

1. Twendz: reputation management tool
2. Technorati and Google Blog Search: blog tracking tools to find out who is talking about your services, your brand, your competition, etc.
3. Delicious and Diigo: social bookmarking tools
4. Twitter Search: search Twitter exclusively for your company key words and see what people are saying
5. Website grader and Blog grader: get a basic understanding of where your web property stands
6. Compete: compare your traffic to your competitions traffic.
7. Web analytics: Gini says everyone should be looking at their web analytics.

Joe compares paid tools versus free tools. Sometimes the paid tools don’t always catch everything, and it is sometimes a good thing to step back and see what other free tools can pick up. It may surprise you.

Martin adds to the list, blogrolls, see who the influential people are following. It can be a great way to expand your network.

Gini ends the show with a shout out to the guys over at Quiet News Day, Scott Douglas and Shaun Milne for mentioning Inside PR. Thanks guys!

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Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR special edition: spotlight on the PRSA International Conference

Martin — Sat, 08 Oct 2011 22:04:27 +0000

The PRSA International Conference, the largest PR gathering in the world, takes place in Orlando, Florida, October 15 to 18, 2011. Inside PR is happy to be one of the event sponsors and we had a chance to chat with conference co-chair, Bonnie Upright, APR, and PRSA chair and CEO, Rosanna Fiske, APR, about what to expect.

The event offers a combination of learning, networking, fun and a wonderful opportunity to connect with peers, colleagues, clients, and potential employers.

This year’s theme, ‘Imagine. Create. Inspire.’, speaks to how the profession – and the way we do our jobs – is evolving.

‘We’re no longer simply purveyors of news releases, we’ve become storytellers.’

There are five programming tracks – Strategies, Tools and Techniques, Specialization, ROI, Leadership and Management – that feature sessions on digital/social media, traditional PR, crisis communications and professional development/accreditation.

Keynotes include: CNN correspondent Soledad O’Brien speaking about diversity, Disney imaginer Joe Rohde, whose talk is entitled ‘Theme is a Noun’ and Chris Brogan discussing online communities and how to engage them for your business.

Ultimately, the conference is about people, reconnecting, connecting and engaging with a global network of peers who understand your craft, the profession, your challenges and how the world of communications is transforming.

You can follow the Twitter stream at #PRSAIcon.

And if you haven’t registered and are interested in attending, you can get $100 off the registration by completing this form and entering the code SAVE100.

Join us for a Tweetup

Inside PR is hosting a poolside Tweetup on Monday, Oct 17. Here’s the e-vite with details. Hope to see you there.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 271: Complimenting Your Competition

Gini Dietrich — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 15:20:49 +0000

Last week we had a really good comment from Yasin Akgun.

He asked:

Hi guys. I was wondering whether you could answer my question in your next show:

I’m managing the Twitter presence for a B2B company and was wondering whether I am being naive in thinking that Tweets praising or being positive about other brands’ products is OK and good BR (business relations) as well as PR. For example “just seen the Incentive range from Rival Company, stunning stuff!”

I hope the question isn’t one of these where I go back and think “wow how naive was I”. I just believe in fostering good relations with other organisations regardless of the stereotypical negative business attitude of “us and them, theyre our rivals”.

So Martin Waxman begins the discussion by asking, ”Should you be tweeting positively about your competition?”

The discussion is lively as we don’t all agree.

Joe Thornley has a point about the early days of social media and how we all shared freely…until we realized we could make money from teaching companies how to incorporate the social tools into their larger marketing programs.

He goes on to say the business world doesn’t see competitors as friendly and, when you give away too much information, they consider you naive. He said he’d rather be silent than compliment or diss them.

Gini Dietrich disagrees and says, while social has allowed her to gain credibility and thought leadership in order for Arment Dietrich to compete with the global PR firms, it was Counselor’s Academy that made her realize there are benefits in working with your competition, instead of against it.

And Martin balances the two by discussing the difference between friendly and cutthroat competition.

He also suggests that complimenting your competition online is really a business decision your company leaders need to make and not something you can do without discussing with them first.

We also touch on the Ragu “crisis,” which was created by some spam tweets and a few upset daddy bloggers. And we discuss the features and benefits of the new Delicious.

We also learned some very sad news. Barbara Nixon, a friend to all three of us, and long-time Inside PR listener, learned last week that her 22 year old son, Kyle, passed away unexpectedly. Our hearts go out to her and her family right now.

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Reminder: Inside PR will be recording live from the PRSA International Conference in Orlando on October 16 and 17. We’ll also be interviewing speakers and participants. So, if you’re planning to be there, let us know and we will grab a sound bite with you.

And, RSVP for the TweetUp on Monday, Oct. 18. The first drink is on us!

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Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 270: We talk about Intranets and the changes to Facebook

thornley — Thu, 29 Sep 2011 20:30:43 +0000

In this week’s Inside PR, Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and Joseph Thornley talk about Intranets and the recent changes to Facebook.

Joe’s company’s Intranet is built around a Wiki to host content, Present.ly to support publishing and linking to content and Windows Live Messenger to enable one to one video calls. He encourages people to use these three tools to divert content from emails (we all suffer from inbox glut) and to channel communications from broad publishing through to one to one communications via video.

Martin points out that we have so many “places to go,” so many channels of communication, that managing these different channels can become a challenge unto itself.

And then there’s Facebook. We received a comment from Liza Butcher, who suggested that, “With the changes made this past week, I believe facebook it is trying to be too many things in one space, and ostracizing generations of people that may not be as tech savvy as others. … Facebook was a place for everyone, and now it is becoming too technical for the masses.”

Gini and Martin talk about their impressions of the most recent Facebook changes. Gini points out that it will be important to decide what you want to include in your timeline. Sharing everything won’t be for everyone. And it’s important to be aware of what the timeline automatically shares so that you can filter out the info you wouldn’t want to see there. Martin suggests that we all should become familiar with the “view activity” panel that will enable us to remove content from our timeline. Other neat features: the cover photo we can add to our Facebook profile and the ability to add “milestones” to fill in our timeline.

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Inside PR 2.69: TV or not TV…that is the question

Kristine — Thu, 22 Sep 2011 15:01:35 +0000

Gini, Joe and Martin start off by announcing they’ll be attending the PRSA International Conference in Orlando, Florida, October 15 to 18 as ‘roving reporters’ roaming the halls and recording episodes of Inside PR. If you have any suggestions for topics or would like to do an interview, please let us know.

Inside PR is also sponsoring a tweetup at the conference on Monday, October 17 – details to follow. We hope to see you there.

Joe then talks about a post on the Niemen Journalism Lab blog, ‘A Vast Wasteland Revisited’, to mark the 50^th anniversary of FCC Chair Newton Minnow’s speech about television’s potential for greatness… or garbage (i.e. the wasteland).

He feels the ideas resonate more than ever today with social media and especially Facebook, which can be seen as another ‘vast wasteland’.

Martin segues into some of the changes Facebook has made recently including the ability to subscribe to feeds from people you’re not friends with and its new lists function. Gini thinks the change is an interesting play on privacy and if you just want to communicate with friends, you should turn off the subscription option. Gini uses Facebook for business publicly and is more private about her personal profile.

Joe thinks this could be the week Facebook lost it by overcomplicating things and introducing too many features. He believes Twitter is a great news feed; Google+ is the place to have conversations with smart people and blogs are where you go to read and comment on long-form ideas.

Martin mentions the fact that you now have lists on the left side between groups and pages and the defaults aren’t working well for him. For example, the college default is a random group of friends who happened to go to the same university he did at some point and doesn’t have any cohesiveness beyond place.

For our second topic, Gini talks about Netflix CEO Reed Hastings saying how the company ‘messed up’ the way it handled the price increase. She believes he shows some humility because, while Netflix had moved away from listening to its customers and made the decision in a boardroom, a customer uproar caused them to admit they were wrong.

Gini goes on to say it’s clear Netflix wants to shed its DVD service and move to streaming, but from a communication perspective, they should have had better counsel. Joe discloses that one of his clients works in a similar space – but as an outside observer, he’s impressed when any company is honest with its customers. It will be interesting to see if their actions are enough for people to give them another chance.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.68: The Evolution of Journalism

Kristine — Thu, 15 Sep 2011 19:32:56 +0000

This week on Inside PR, Joe Thornley, Martin Waxman, and I discuss how two interesting studies – Twitter active users and bit.ly link active length of time – intersect with the departure of Michael Arrington from TechCrunch and the evolution of journalism.

The interesting thing to note is that Twitter shows they have 100 million active users. But, as Fred Wilson points out, there are 400 million monthly unique visitors on Twitter.

Four hundred million monthly uniques.

This statistic, alone, demonstrates the value of Twitter as a newsfeed and we discuss the implications of this on both the fourth and fifth estates.

Then to add a layer, Michael Arrington, who infamously has said he doesn’t care if he’s right, he just wants to be first, was publicly fired from TechCrunch because of ethical concerns around his newly created CrunchFund.

We discuss what this means both for social media and journalism, as we know it.

And to add one more layer, Matthew Ingram blogs that it’s not just nice for media to be social, it’s imperative. He says journalists have become complacent and stopped engaging, assuming their readers will come to them.

In response to Ingram, Dave Weiner argues that journalism is becoming obsolete because it was a response to publishing and it was, but now we can all be distributors. And Ingram responds with saying that it’s not becoming obsolete, but rather, evolving rapidly.

The point of all this back and forth is that, as communications professionals, we need to understand there are profound implications to the way we’re getting our news, how content is being created, and what is being published and distributed.

We discuss how journalism (the fourth estate) is about providing context and expertise and citizen journalists (the fifth estate, or citizen witnesses, as Joe calls them) provide quick information without that context.

And these wonderful discussions are all wrapped up with some exciting news that you’ll want to hang around to hear!

You’ll find the links bookmarked on Diigo as IPR268.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.67: Summer’s over and IPR is back

thornley — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 22:00:52 +0000

We’re back. Ready for another year of Inside PR. And we hope you’ll be joining us again for a discussion of communication, technology, community and the impact they are having on us.

We start off today’s podcast with a discussion of corporate social responsibility – an issue Liza Butcher raised in a comment last week. Gini talks about the preference people have to work with a company that gives back. Joe cites Guy Kawasaki’s suggestion in Enchantment that you “should be a mensch.” Among other things, this means that you should “help someone who can be of absolutely no use to you.” Martin underlines this point with an example of a company that risked appearing self serving and self congratulatory in acting upon their social responsibility.

We also talk about the We the People site that is being launched by the White House. Joe compares it to the British Prime Minister’s Number10 Website, which also has a petition function as well as links to policy consultations. Gini argues that the site falls short of its potential by making the culmination of the process a response from policy makers in the White House. Martin wonders about the requirement for 5,000 expressions of support as the threshold at which petitions will receive a reply. Is it an arbitrary number? Or is there some rationale for this?

Finally, we talk about the recent news that monitoring service VMS shut its doors recently. Katie Paine published a thoughtful post on why the service failed. One of her arguments is that some longstanding suppliers are focused on giving their customers what they feel comfortable with. Newer entrants like Radian6 and Sysomos are innovating to provide the marketplace with new insights. Services that don’t match them will fall by the wayside.

Do you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pron Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

One more week…IPR 2.67 available September 7

Martin — Tue, 30 Aug 2011 18:12:38 +0000

What can we say? We’re having so much fun on our Inside PR holiday that we’re extending it by one week – till after Labour Day. We’ll be back with episode 2.67 on Wednesday, September 7, 2011. Looking forward to reconnecting then!

In the meantime, if you have an idea for a topic or question you’d like us to discuss, please send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

Produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR: Gone fishing…

Martin — Wed, 17 Aug 2011 01:50:34 +0000

Well, not literally. But Gini, Joe and I are taking a short summer hiatus on August 17 and 24. We’re planning to enjoy the weather we talk about so much at the beginning of each show.

We’re back on August 31 – fresh from our podcast vacation and ready for the fall.

So…enjoy your time away to catch up on reading, socializing, movie watching, writing, gardening, tennis, swimming, lying on the beach, dining…or maybe even on an old podcast or two.

See you in a couple of weeks!

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

Produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.66: The real podcaster

Kristine — Fri, 12 Aug 2011 18:07:51 +0000

For those of you who don’t know, Inside PR is not just the voices you hear every week, but there is a hard working producer behind the scenes.

Every week, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joe Thornley drop their files off in Dropbox and patiently wait as an episode magically appears before them. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, the Inside PR producer, Kristine Simpson, works her own magic and produces the show.

This week, Gini, Martin, Joe and Kristine “hung-out” on Goggle+ to talk about the behind the scenes of the Inside PR podcast and Kristine gives tips on how to produce your own podcast.

Here is Kristine’s 5 step guide to creating your own podcast:

1. Upload and edit

First you need your voice files – the file that includes your recording. If you are multiple people, use separate microphones to create separate files. This makes it easier to edit out background noise. Upload all files in to an audio editing software, I use Audacity.
Then edit the content. Take out bloopers, add in intro and outro music, take out background noise, and remove barking sounds from Gini’s dog.

2. Export and level

Now time to export the file. Export it as a WAV. file so you can drop the file in Levelator. Levalator automatically makes all voices the same volume. When you record with two or more microphones, someone is always louder than the other. And some people just naturally have a louder voice. Levalator ensures everyone speaks at the same volume.

3. Export the MP3

Although a WAV. file is a popular audio file, convert your file to a MP3. It is very easy to do with Audacity and it shrinks the file to be more manageable and it makes it easier to download. MP3 files are also more popular and can play in various audio and video players.

4. Upload to Libsyn.com

If you make your podcast available through iTunes, your podcast can easily be made available to your followers. Followers can also subscribe and receive new podcasts instantly to their iTunes library.

Once you have created an iTunes account for your podcast, you simply need to upload your finished MP3 on to Liberated Syndication (or Libsyn). Libsyn then makes the podcast available on iTunes. Libsyn also provides you with links (embedded and direct), which you can use to share through social media (i.e. a blog post).

5. Share

There are many ways to share your podcast. Inside PR writes a blog post every week to accompany the podcast. Each week a different host writes the show notes and I push it live on the blog.

The Inside PR blog is a WordPress blog, which makes it easy to add plugins that allow followers to listen to the podcast directly on the blog post.

Follow those five steps and with a flick of the wrist, magic! The podcast is created.

Listen to this week’s episode of Inside PR to hear more about producing a podcast. Kristine also talks about the intricacies of being a producer – i.e. She can tell Gini, Martin and Joe apart, just by looking at their vocal waves.

If you want to connect with Kristine or ask her more questions about producing a podcast, you can find her on Twitter, or catch her blogging at Running a PR life.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.65: To leave or not to leave…that is the question

Kristine — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 12:59:18 +0000

We start this week with a question from a listener, LaBrandon Dates: How do you know when it’s time to search for a new job and can a person stay positive in a company with a negative or non team-oriented culture?

Thanks LaBrandon – great question! We’re going to answer from the perspective of employers and employees.

Joe Thornley left a company after 11 years when he realized the people he’d come to work with – the ones who shared his values – had all gone. The company had been acquired, the culture changed and he was no longer happy. If you’re not happy, he says, you shouldn’t spend 20 seconds at a place because life is too short.

Gini Dietrich left Fleishman because she wanted a change from the city where she was based, though she liked the people and the firm. At another agency, she had philosophical differences with colleagues and left because she realized there was no common ground.

Martin Waxman was at a Canadian firm that was acquired by a multinational. And because some of the senior leadership couldn’t accept the change, it felt like individuals were working for different entities rather than a single company and that hurt morale. He stayed about a year longer than he should have and says it’s important to ask yourself the tough questions early and then decide whether or not to leave.

Joe comments that talented people who are miserable make others miserable but they can always get a position at a place where they’d be happy. But before you start looking, be honest with your supervisor and share what you feel and why.

We don’t know anyone who was fired for admitting they weren’t happy in a job.

Gini introduces our second topic. She recently noticed that large companies are looking to smaller, more nimble, boutique firms when they’re conducting an agency search and wonders if this is a trend or possibly an economic shift.

Joe remarks that it’s the slowest recovery he can remember. People are being careful where they spend money and need to show results. On the other hand, he’s seen more businesses coming into Canada with consolidated budgets that are going with multinational AORs rather than a Canadian firm.

Martin says he’s been working more closely with U.S. agencies and adapting their initiatives. He feels PR budgets haven’t grown – a good client is one that comes back flat. Which leads to the question, how can we accomplish more with less?

Gini believes PR people should acquire more marketing skills. And unless we do that, our industry may become extinct…

What do you think? Can PR successfully adapt? We’d love to hear your thoughts.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.64: PR and the Murdoch Affair

Kristine — Tue, 26 Jul 2011 16:25:05 +0000

Jeff Jarvis unloaded a real roundhouse on PR and the News of the World affair and Rupert Murdoch’s appearance in front of Parliament.

The blog post discusses how coached Murdoch seemed during his appearance and how he completely missed transparency in his answers.

Joe Thornley, Martin Waxman, and Gini Dietrich set the stage for PR and the Murdoch affair and discuss who we, as PR professionals, are responsible to.

It’s an interesting topic, to begin with, because it seems impossible for people to disconnect how we (as a generalization) feel about a personality and the reality of what’s really going on. How the news media portrays a man and how we, as a society, condem him for something his employees he did.

But we all agree that, as leaders, it’s our jobs to take responsibility for the mistakes our employees make…even if we weren’t aware they were going on. The communication is something such as, “I don’t condone what my employees did. I take responsibility for their actions. And this is what I’m going to do about it.”

The conversation then turns to true PR, just like marketing, should be in the best interest of the customer. Not in the best interest of the company. Not in the best interest of the stakeholders. Not in the best interest of the employees. But in the best interest of the customer.

We all need to ask ourselves: Are we helping our clients spin a story (as you know, Spin Sucks) that makes them look better or are we helping them effectively communicate with their customers?

And the last point was one raised first by David Weinberger where he says:

If I were Edelman PR, I would probably agree to take on NewsCorp, but only if I were satisfied to a reasonable degree (yes, them’s fudge words) that NewsCorp was ready to tell the truth. (Clients do lie to their PR companies. The first time Edelman catches NewsCorp lying to them, Edelman should quite publicly drop them.)

From there we discuss how our jobs, as PR professionals, is to be there for the public interest and to tell the truth.

Joe raises the question of hubris of the super rich. He wonders, aloud, if they feel like they’re above the law and don’t have to be honest with anyone, including their agency.

All three of us hope that is the case with Rupert Murdoch. We hope the industry isn’t shady enough that our peers would suggest their client lie and blame his or her employees without taking any responsibility. But maybe we’re all really naive.

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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.63: A show about nothing

Kristine — Fri, 22 Jul 2011 15:14:01 +0000

This week on Inside PR, Joe, Gini and Martin decide to try something new.

First, Joe talks about the beautiful weather. As Joe mentions the blue skies and bright sun, Joe’s rebellious side emerges and he suggests the group should play… hookie!

As Gini and Martin gasp at the idea, Gini thinks: “I can watch the Tour.”

Martin, still hesitant, tries to bring Gini and Joe back to the show by suggesting topic ideas. But with nothing but Google+ and the same old news, Martin admits defeat.

And the Inside PR team skips out early to enjoy the beautiful weather.

So, take this opportunity to catch up on previous Inside PR shows, if you are new to Google+ check out the review of Google+. Grab a book and read under a tree, for book suggestions check out Inside PR’s summer reading list. Or take a trip to the past and listen to the very first Inside PR episode.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.62 Hanging Out on Google+

thornley — Fri, 15 Jul 2011 19:49:12 +0000

It’s two weeks since Google+ launched and the Inside PR hosts, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley, have been testing it for its strengths and weaknesses. This week we talk about our experience so far.

One of the things that has caught most people’s attention is Google Hangouts, the feature that lets Google+ users set up video conference calls with up to ten users. So we thought that we’d use this feature for our recording. Well, as you’ll hear in this episode, there’s a reason why Google+ is still in the “test” period. Not everything works the way that you’d like it to. We lose Gini part of the way through. But she rejoins us by the end. We also experienced the same problem that Shel Holtz noticed when he and Neville Hobson recorded a special episode of the FIR podcast using Google Hangouts with Camtasia studio. The video recording had several defects – frozen screens and video that lagged behind the audio. Hangouts is quite ready for this use. But we’re hoping that Google will keep improving this feature and we’ll keep testing it. Eventually, I’m sure we’ll be able to produce a video version of Inside PR to accompany the audio version.

Have you ever sat down with a long time partner and said, if we could do it over again, what would we do differently? So far, I think that Google+ is the Social Network that’s doing it over and is doing it right.

For me, Facebook started as a place that suggested we could have private conversations with friends and family. But as Facebook developed its business model, it broke the faith with us on that. Bit by bit, it pushed our information onto public feeds – and it wasn’t always up front about what it was doing and didn’t provide us with easy control over how we could control our information.

Martin has been focused on rebuilding his network on Google+. And he’s found that it feels like the early days of Twitter, before the celebrities invaded it and the network became obsessed with numbers of followers. Martin’s finding that he can connect with his real community of interest on Google+ and have much higher quality conversations than he’s experienced on the other networks.

So far, I’ve had an experience similar to Martin. I’ve found that I share the interests of most of the people who have followed me. And by using the Circles feature to sort people by topic, I can dip into different areas just as I would if I were choosing between sections of a newspaper. A great way to increase the signal to noise ratio.

Martin also finds that a strength of Google+ is the ease with which users can adjust their privacy settings – on a general basis and on a post by post basis. It’s intuitive and clear.

Gini also points out that the Circles approach is different from the asymmetrical following on Twitter and the symmetrical friending on Facebook. And this means that we’ll have to develop a different way of figuring out how to manage ourselves in a way that takes full advantage of the unique properties of Google+

So, that’s our Google+ discussion this week. It’s the biggest thing that’s happened in social media in the past couple years. We’ll continue to test it and share our experiences in future weeks.

And what about you? Are you using Google+? What do you think of it? It’s strengths? Its weaknesses?

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.61: Summertime…and the reading is easy

Martin — Wed, 06 Jul 2011 12:52:45 +0000

A few weeks ago on Inside PR 2.58, the summer movie releases gave us the idea to talk about films on PR. And thanks to a suggestion from Jody Koehler, we’re opening the page to PR (and business) books we’re currently reading and a few ‘classics’ we’d like to recommend.

Here’s our list:

Content Rules by Ann Handley and C.C. Chapman – a smart and insightful primer on curating or creating content.

Groundswell by Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff – the bible for any PR person moving into the digital world.

What Would Google Do by Jeff Jarvis – while it’s not PR/communications focused, it helps you think about your spheres of influence and how to connect with them.

Welcome to the Fifth Estate by Geoff Livingstone – a new book that offers a perspective on understanding and working with citizen journalists.

Outcome-Based Marketing by John D. Leavy – a book on measuring results and new rules for marketing online.

Funny Business by Jeff Silverman – the president of Yuk Yuk’s, Canada’s comedy club chain, looks at the business of showbiz and how all his ventures were successful because he built communities.

Here Comes Everybody by Clay Shirky – about the world we’re living in and the technological revolution we’re living through.

Excellence in Public Relations and Communication Management by James E. Grunig – for anyone preparing for their APR. Check out how relevant his two-way symmetrical communication model is to social media.

The Trusted Advisor and True Professionalism by David Maister – how to gain an understanding of business problems that need to be solved and become a trusted counsellor.

Amusing Ourselves to Death by Neil Postman – well worth reading for anyone who is creating content to get a sense of the trivial and the consequential.

Cognitive Surplus by Clay Shirky – takes off on the ideas he presented in Here Comes Everybody and examines the productivity capacity we all have – if we get off the couch.

Everything is Miscellaneous by David Weinberger – opens your eyes to what happens to information when it’s digitized and freed from physical constraints.

Army of Entrepreneurs by Jennifer Prosek – a great primer in how to set up a successful PR consulting business.

Hope that gives you a few ideas to read on the beach (or anywhere) this summer. Do you have any other suggestions? We’d love to hear from you. And we’ll be expecting your book reports in the fall – no extensions .

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.60: A blind man in a cave discovering fire for the first time

Kristine — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 14:34:34 +0000

This week we received lots of comments, and we just want to say thank you again for the wonderful comments. Keep them coming.

We want to especially thank Jody Koehler for sending out a tweet telling everyone to listen to Inside PR. We truly appreciate the support.

We also received a comment from Liza Butcher, a recent PR grad, who shares her thoughts on last week’s tips for interns show.

And we received a question from Kristina Dempsy who works for Sara Brady Public Relations in Florida. Christina wanted to know the background of the Inside PR podcast. So we take a walk down memory lane and share the story of Inside PR.

Joe, Gini and Martin then go on to talk about the new social network, Google+ Project.

Joe is excited about Google+. He has started to distance himself from Facebook, because he feels Facebook has become a platform he cannot trust. However, Joe worries that as we explore Google Plus we will all be blind men in a cave discovering fire for the first time.

With Google+ Circles, +Hangouts, +Huddles, +Mobile, +1, Gini, although she doesn’t say this often, is just overwhelmed.

Martin compares Google+ to Wave, complexity was the problem with Wave, and Wave eventually died out.

We will be following Google+ very closely to see if it catches on or not. If you have started using Google+ and have a comment, send it to us.

Gini had the opportunity to interview Steve Rubell and posted the interview on Spin Sucks and she shares some interesting parts of the interview with us.

Stay tuned to next week when we talk about some summer PR reading suggestions.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Post written by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.59: Interns and Restructuring

Gini Dietrich — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 19:12:56 +0000

One of our listeners, Yasin Akgun, asks,

As a final year marketing student about to embark on a summer internship I would be grateful if you could discuss what you guys think makes a good intern, examples of good students you’ve had and common mistakes that you’ve seen them make.

We thought this was a great question, and really well timed, as most of us are in the beginning of the summer intern season.

Because of that, we spend a few minutes talking about, from our perspectives, the qualities that make a great intern.

They include:

* Act as though you’re auditioning for a full-time job

* Take initiative and always go the extra mile

* Show that you have the ability to reach out and meet other people

* Show a thirst for work

* Ask questions

* Learn how to negotiate

* Learn the gentle art of persuasion

* Really begin to understand where you best fit

* Have a “let me figure that out” attitude

* Be creative

* Find a project that you can see from beginning to end

And, while we’re talking about interns and their roles within the PR industry, we saw some interesting news about a global agency changing the titles of their staff and restructuring to fit the changing times.

GolinHarris is moving from generalists to specialists to adapt to the way consumer behavior is changing…and changing quickly.

The New York Times broke the story a day before the announcement and details what the agency is doing.

From the article:

The four specialties are strategists, who analyze a client’s business; creators, people like writers, designers and producers who generate ideas and tell brand stories; connectors, people who reach target audiences through traditional and social media as well as other channels; and catalysts, account leaders overseeing relationships with clients.

Martin Waxman makes a great point: It seems like they’re borrowing from Malcolm Gladwell’s “The Tipping Point.”

But, in this case, their creators are his mavens, their catalysts are his salespeople, and their connectors are, well, his connectors.

This really is a sign of the times, but Joe Thornley wonders if GolinHarris simply is responding to the smaller, more nimble agencies that are already well down the road of adding specialists to their teams.

What do you think? What qualities make for a great intern? And what are your thoughts on the GolinHarris restructuring?

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Posted written by Gini Dietrich.

Inside PR 2.58: PR movies and wiping the slate clean

Kristine — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 20:38:37 +0000

Just before we recorded the show, I had lunch with Guy Skipworth, a friend, colleague and long-time listener. He had an in-person comment for us: that we should talk about PR more…

Thanks Guy, good point.

So… in the spirit of the comment and the fact that summer movies are being released, we thought we’d look at a few films that depict PR. And while most of them deal with stereotypes and preconceived notions, they shed light on why so many people have a negative perception about our profession.

Here’s the list:

Sweet Smell of Success – a brooding black and white drama about the darker side of PR with Tony Curtis as a sleazy press agent who will do anything to curry favour with a powerful columnist.
Days of Wine and Roses starring Jack Lemmon as a burnt out, former reporter and current alcoholic, whose job is less about messages and more about procuring women for corrupt businessmen. Billable hours anyone?
A more contemporary PR film is Wag the Dog, which features Robert DeNiro and Dustin Hoffman. The comedy revolves around a fabricated war that’s presented as a real event to take the heat off a president’s personal issue.
Other movies about PR include Thank You for Smoking and America’s Sweethearts.
Martin predicts the next big PR movie will be based on The Best Laid Plans by Terry Fallis.

What movies would you add? Please let us know.

In the second half of the podcast, we talk about Steve Rubel’s ‘scorched-earth’ approach to his blogs: he deleted all his content opting instead for a new online presence on Tumblr.

Gini starts by talking about the strong community she’s built at SpinSucks and why she wouldn’t want to leave it. She goes on to say that you can always recreate the content but not the community.

Joe advises everyone whose name is NOT Rubel – not to try this at home. He feels Steve can do it because of his leadership position in PR and social media.

Martin asks about the notion of creation and the implications of deleting what is, in essence, a public record.

Joe says the nature of community is that we don’t own what we’ve created once it’s public-it belongs to the community. However, he also commends Steve Rubel and other thought-leaders who experiment and try the extraordinary.

Steve Rubel – do you have anything to add? And, we’re interested to hear from all our listeners, too.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Posted written by Martin Waxman .

Inside PR 2.57: Google acquires PostRank. Are you happy? Sad?

Kristine — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 17:19:33 +0000

It was a busy week in social media: the roll-out of Google +1 and the Twitter Follow button. But even bigger news for people who have been measuring online engagement was the acquisition by Google of PostRank. Of course, we have views. And we share them with you.

We also close out our discussion of the big spring conference season with our perspective on Blog World Expo East and Mesh.

Enjoy.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.56: Key Learnings from Conference Season

Gini Dietrich — Wed, 01 Jun 2011 21:21:37 +0000

The spring conference season has ended so we’re all back in our offices, podcasting from our desks, and talking about what we’ve learned the past couple of months.

Before we get to that, though, a HUGE congratulations to Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. They just recorded their 600th episode. I did the math. If they recorded once a week, that would take 11 years to achieve. But they’ve cut that in half…six years; 600 episodes; twice weekly podcasts.

It’s no easy feat, either. They use Google Wave to begin brainstorming each session, adding commentary, links, and other information to enhance the story. They spend a lot of time bringing you relevant and valuable information. And that’s why it’s one of the most respected and highest listened to podcast in our industry.

If you’re not already subscribed, do it now by clicking here.

If you missed it, there was a really good comment from Keith Trivitt, associate director of public relations at PRSA, on the Burson-Marsteller/Facebook issue.

We talked for a couple of minutes about Keith’s response and the responsibility of all PR professionals, no matter their PRSA membership.

And on to the show!

A few things each of us learned throughout conference season:

The Toilet Paper Entrepreneur, Mike Michalowicz, talks about not calling yourself a PR firm, but to focus on what makes you special. That allows you to take yourself out of the rate discount discussion and get paid for your expertise.
Bret Werner talks about really understanding your niche, figure out which companies you really want to work with, and which clients you need to take to get you to those gold star companies in the next three to five years.
Jay Baer is a great speaker, who also knows how to speak in tweets, he said the goal is not to be good at social media, but to be good at business using social media.
Jay also said, if you suck, Twitter is not your problem.
Jen Prosek, author of Army of Entrepreneurs, has a great philosophy on training and onboarding new consultants.

One more thing: Barbara Nixon, we talk about the difference between Facebook groups and Facebook pages for you!

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.55: The value of Counselors Academy

Kristine — Wed, 25 May 2011 17:21:17 +0000

Gini, Joe and Martin are back at PRSA’s Counselors Academy Conference in Lake Las Vegas for the second of our two shows.

For those who may not be familiar with the conference, Martin tells us the annual conference is all about the business of PR and invites PR agency leaders across the globe to join the conversation.

Joe says if you run an agency, there are many great reasons to attend and then turns the mic over to some of our colleagues in attendance for their perspectives.

Lisa Gerber says she got into PR with no clue about the business and Counselors helped her raise the bar on her own performance.

Johna Burke finds value because it helps people evolve beyond tactics like managing accounts. This shift is what’s going to propel the profession forward.

Tom Garrity enjoys peer to peer conversation and gaining business insights.

Jean Walcher came first to learn, but this year wants to be reinvigorated by the open and intelligent conversations.

Joe mentions that 3-am feeling when you’re thinking about your agency, you can’t sleep and wonder what you’re going to do next. You may be facing one of those difficult situations where it’s tough to talk to the team. Counselors can be a remarkable source of advice. Meet other smart people who freely share their learnings.

Martin says that when he started at Counselors, there were a lot more multinational agencies but now the organization is geared to independents and entrepreneurs. He references first learning about social media from Giovanni Rodriguez at Counselors at a session both he and Joe attended. But they didn’t get to know each other until a year or so later when both realized how much of a seminal moment that was.

Gini talks about the networking and how you can have open conversations with your competitors and discuss issues like profitability and margins and other things PR folks don’t learn in school.

At this point, Jean poses a question: Do you reward employees for bringing in new business?

Gini says she’s tried many types of incentives. She recently hired someone by incenting them to create their own job; the person is responsible for developing proposals, closing the business and she has goals based on profitability.

Joe attended a CA session led by Rob Adler on motivating employees and says the same question came up. One agency gives 5 per cent of a new client’s fee revenue to the staff person that brought it in – for as long as they have the client.

Martin says it can be difficult to figure out the right kind of incentive, because if new business is being generated by the agency leadership and you’re not paying it out, the incentive becomes like an empty promise.

That brings us to an end for this show. Counselors Academy’s next conference is May 6 to 8, 2012 in New Orleans. Disclosure: Martin is conference chair. You may want to check out the website for an overview of the other programs they offer throughout the year.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.54: Live from Counselors Academy – talking about a PR imbroglio

Kristine — Wed, 18 May 2011 19:54:05 +0000

We’re on the road and face to face at Counselors Academy’s annual conference for PR leaders, where we’ll be doing the next two shows.

Joe leads off this week’s discussion with: the Burson-Marsteller / Facebook imbroglio.

Gini recaps her blog post and sets the scene. BM had been working with media and bloggers to create a whisper campaign against Google and its social media platform. The PR firm did not disclose the client. After much speculation, Facebook admitted they were behind the program. BM issued a statement saying the initiative contravened its policies but did not come out and apologize. PRSA was quoted in a story saying that since only 14 people in the agency are members, they’re the only ones who can be held responsible for the ethics breach.

The story reminds Martin of a classic ‘50s film, The Sweet Smell of Success, with Tony Curtis as a less than honest press agent who conducts a whisper campaign of his own.

Joe says this is a challenge any firm faces. The story affects all PR and communications employees as well as the image of PR as a whole. What he finds most disturbing about BM’s response, is that they use misdirection to colour the perception of who’s responsible for the information.

Tom Garrity discusses the issue of reporters who jump over to PR. He suggests this is a good reminder to re-analyse how we look at and respond to social media in the marketplace. He references a survey his firm conducted in New Mexico that ranks PR and journalist as the lowest trusted professions.

Johna Burke asks what this invokes for agency proprietors as we create partnerships with clients and knowingly or unknowingly get caught up in the 24/7 news cycle. What can we do internally to resolve and manage situations like this?

Joe responds that an ethics code is not good enough. Ethics should be job one, the core of an agency’s culture, how we treat ourselves and how we treat the outside world.

Martin tries to look at it from the other side: how a call from a high profile client could colour a firm’s perceptions of the assignment, and that it’s important to hold onto your ethics and beliefs and not get caught with stars in your eyes.

Gini wonders when your defences come up and you realize something like this is a lot like Watergate.

Lisa Gerber references the point at which a crisis is inflamed or diffused and how a minority can make the majority look bad. She thinks PRSA should come out with a stronger stand and not simply focus on its members.

Gini would like to see our profession held accountable like other industries. Martin talks about how an industry-wide code of ethics that all organizations could sign would help establish professional standards… then gets off his high horse.

And that’s where this week’s podcast ends. We’d love to hear your comments on our topic, or any questions you may have.

Please send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.53: A Reflection On the Year that Was

Kristine — Wed, 11 May 2011 13:36:28 +0000

It’s been a year with Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and Gini Dietrich hosting Inside PR and we’re looking forward to our contract negotiations. We’d all like 100 percent raises. Too much?

What a fun look back and, it seems, our Magic 8 Balls are working.

Some of the underlying things we’ve chatted about during the past year and highlight in today’s anniversary episode:

- Comments: Dead or not?
- Billable hours: What’s the solution?
- Privacy: Sony, Apple, and responsibility.
- Tracking and measurement: Sysomos, Radian6, Salesforce, and more.
- Trends: Video, search, location, mobile payments, social media policies, and the tablet.
- eBooks: Are they changing the way we’re reading?
- All three of us have had big transitions in the past year: Martin merged his agency to become energi PR, Joe created Corum Research, and I launched Spin Sucks Pro!

Next week we’re doing a live recording from Lake Las Vegas for Counselors Academy. If you’re going to be at the conference, be sure to come by and see us! You might even get a guest appearance on next week’s show!

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.52: The launch of Spin Sucks Pro

Kristine — Thu, 05 May 2011 19:49:32 +0000

It has been a busy week in the news – Prince William and Kate’s wedding, President Barack Obama announces the death of U.S. most wanted man Osama Bin Laden, and Canadians re-elect Stephen Harper as Prime Minister and give him a majority government. But none of this news is as exciting as the launch of Spin Sucks Pro.

So this week on Inside PR Gini’s wonderful voice guides Joe, Martin and our listeners through the ins and outs of Spin Sucks Pro.

As the tag line says, Spin Sucks Pro is professional development for PR and marketing pros. Spin Sucks Pro is an easy way to further your professional development while learning from the best PR and marketing minds.

The five categories of professional development fall under:

- Business

- Strategy

- Planning

- Content

- Social media

Right now you can get access to recommended resources, for example suggested blogs PR and marketing professionals should follow. Or check out the section where PR and marketing professionals are talking about issues in the public relations, marketing, social media and business worlds.

As Spin Sucks Pro grows you will eventually be able to measure and show off the work you have done on Spin Sucks Pro. For example, the leadership board, collecting badges, getting trophies and more.

Because Spin Sucks Pro is only in Beta, the registration package to have access to all the content is only $50/month.

Next week Inside PR celebrates their anniversary. So if you have an idea for a topic you would like us to discuss send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.51: Stepping up

Martin — Wed, 27 Apr 2011 15:48:58 +0000

This week we start with a listener comment – a tweet, really – from @autumnthompson who asks what a new person like her can do to further her career. In past episodes, we covered advice for students looking for their first job, but we haven’t discussed how to move ahead in your career. So thanks Autumn.

Joe starts by saying you’re never too young to stand out: be curious, listen, learn and talk about what you know and build your network. The people you meet at the beginning of your career are going to be with you throughout your work life. And always strive to do your best and be outstanding.

Gini adds that you should use social networks to get outside your four walls and find people to connect to inside and outside your agency and develop relationships.

Martin suggests you should begin those relationships early. Just because you’re connecting with a potential employer doesn’t mean you’re looking for a job. Martin also references an article by Susan Balcom Walton in the Spring edition of PRSA’s Strategist, entitled ‘Demonstrating value to boomer bosses: a memo to millenials’, that offers helpful advice on navigating the work force during the early part of one’s career (subscription required).

Martin asks Gini about her recent blog post on things organizations should consider when they’re entering the social arena. Gini says the post is based on a five-step process she and her team take clients through as they help develop a strategy. They begin by listening, then assess where a company’s customers and prospects are. This is followed by engagement, measurement and refinement.

Joe suggests including two more items at the front end. He encourages businesses to start by asking: is there a business case; and does social media make sense within the corporate objectives? And then they need to look at the questions around governance.

Martin says companies should establish a social media policy for staff from the beginning, making sure people know and understand the parameters. Joe thinks social media policies should go beyond responding and should include privacy, security, intellectual property, accessibility, liability, data jurisdiction and communications/languages policy. According to Gini, this really isn’t any different than an employee code of conduct for real-life events.

And that’s a wrap for this week. Next week, it’s the first anniversary for Gini, Joe and Martin. Any ideas on how we should celebrate?

Do you have comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, message us @inside_pr on Twitter, or connect with Gini Dietrich, Joe Thornley, and Martin Waxman on Twitter

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.50: Practice what you preach

Kristine — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 15:44:54 +0000

On this week’s Inside PR podcast, Joe, Gini and Martin talk about the importance of not just knowing about social media, but using it as well.

Just like you would never hire an agency or a public relations consultant who has never written a press release, it is hard to justify hiring the same agency or person who has never used any social media tools.

It is official. Social media is not a phase and it is not a new toy. Clients and companies around the world know that social media is something they need to use to communicate with their audience.

However, just knowing about social media and knowing its importance is not enough. As public relations professionals, we need to learn the inside and outs of social media tools.

For example, Gini Dietrich talks about updating the software and plugins behind her blog and receiving a fatal error. It was a mistake she is glad she went through, because now she knows the importance of backing up files and information. Not only is this new skill beneficial for her, but she can now advize clients on best practices, when and how often to back your blog information. This is a skill only someone who actively uses blog would have ever figured out.

In conclusion, just do it. Get a Twitter account, start a blog, use Facebook and LinkedIn, check in to Foursquare, etc. Welcome to public relations and welcome to the skills you will need to know to be successful in public relations.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.49: Die AVE, Die!

Kristine — Tue, 12 Apr 2011 23:43:51 +0000

Last week, PR Daily ran an OpEd about the difference between advertising and PR. The article begins with the differences: one is paid, one is earned. Yep. Totally agree. But then the article takes a time machine back 20 years.

PR takes the value of advertising and builds upon it based on enhanced impact. Editorial is third-party opinion, so the impact is considered three times that of a paid advertisement. For instance, if a half-page ad in the local newspaper costs $500, then a half-page worth of editorial in the same newspaper would be valued at $1,500.

This isn’t 1990. Publicity is not PR. Advertising equivalencies, or AVEs, were thought to be dead.

Thankfully, Ragan had the foresight to invite a seasoned veteran, Shonali Burke, to write a rebuttal, which was done with class and grace, but made a strong point. Even if clients (or your internal clients) are asking you to track AVEs, it’s your job to educate them they’re asking for the wrong “results”.

Joe Thornley also recommends familiarizing yourself with Katie Paine’s blog, where she provides all sorts of real ways to measure your PR and publicity efforts.

Die AVE, die!

In other news:

The PRSA section for agency leaders, Counselors Academy, has its annual conference in Lake Las Vegas next month. If you’re an agency leader or owner and aren’t already planning to be there, rethink your conference schedule and get there! And Inside PR will do a live recording among the slot machine sounds…or maybe Martin Waxman will bring his sound machine.
Joe attended Social 2011, the Radian6 user conference, where they announced a new analytics platform that will allow you to track data from other services, such as Klout. Read more about it on his blog.
Also struck by the composition of the group at the conference, Joe discusses his thoughts on the disappearance of personalities behind brands.
Martin is catching up on Mad Men and is watching the fourth season now. He has three things he learned from the 1960s ad agency: It takes guts, time is of the essence, and we are and always will be a service industry.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.48 – A big week for Salesforce and Radian6, Google +1 and April Fools!

thornley — Wed, 06 Apr 2011 20:52:21 +0000

Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and I are back for another episode of Inside PR.

This week, we talk about the implications of the Radian6 acquisition by Salesforce.com and the launch of Google +1.

Oh. And April Fools didn’t pass us by either. Gini gives a big shoutout to HootSuite ‘s Angry Owls prank and Martin is looking forward to connecting with Ernest Hemingway on LinkedIn. And along the way, Joe gets reorganized into a spare office – if one is available.

The big news this week was the announcement that Salesforce.com would pay $323 million to acquire social media analytics company Radian6. This is an interesting acquisition for the valuation, of course. But even more-so for what it may signal about the evolution of social media monitoring and analysis services. We take a close look at the implications of the Salesforce-Radian6 deal.

Finally, Gini kicks off our discussion of Google +1 with the question, “What does it feel like to be a me-too product when you used to be ruler of the world?” Fighting words?

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

And a BIG WELCOME to the new producer of Inside PR: Kristine Simpson. You’re a brave person Kristine.

UPDATE: I’ve written a longer post on ProPR.ca about the implications of the Radian6-Salesforce, Finally, a means of measuring the ROI of social media?

Inside PR 2.47 – We ask Facebook a question…

Kristine — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 22:20:52 +0000

This week, we record on Monday rather than Friday which gives us an extra two days to make the podcast even more timely…

Gini starts off by noting Twitter is planning to cut down on spam, and that includes those #FollowFriday or #FF tweets with long lists of @names and nothing else. She says people will have to look at new ways to approach #FF. She chooses to write a weekly blog post featuring reasons to follow someone, like this one for Shel Holtz.

She goes on to mention Facebook’s new questions app, which apparently everyone has but Martin. Joe asks a question on FB and within four minutes gets 11 responses. (Note: by responding to Joe’s FB Q, Martin’s feature is enabled). The way it works is you can pose a question, add answers folks can select, or let people provide their own answer. Gini feels it could be a good tool for market research and points out one change similar to a Quora feature: no one should be able to edit your question or answer. Currently, Facebook questions allows other users to edit the question and answers, this can result in your question longer representing your original point. Joe says he likes the social element of Quora and isn’t sure about the value of the FB experiment.

Martin recaps a recent post about what to look for – and what to avoid – when you’re choosing an agency. Joe mentions he feels the post points out that social media is in the broader context of overall effective communications, which is where it should be.

Joe announces that (sadly), our talented producer Yasmine Kashefi is leaving Thornley Fallis to go client-side. Yasmine has done a superb job on the show and we all want to thank her and wish her all the best! We’ll miss you and hope you’ll send us some comments and thoughts.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Kristine Simpson.

Inside PR 2.46 – Happy Birthday Twitter!

Gini Dietrich — Wed, 23 Mar 2011 16:51:05 +0000

It’s no surprise, if you spend any time on Twitter, that they celebrated their fifth birthday on Monday.

Yes, on March 21, 2006, co-founder Jack Dorsey sent his first tweet. And, according to Martin Waxman, they are “officially a toddler. They can walk and talk and are past their terrible twos.” It seems incredible that it’s only been five years, but also amazing that it has been that long.

A few interesting statistics:

It took three years, two months, and one day for Twitter to reach one billion tweets. Then it took one week to reach another billion.
There were 465 tweets per second when Michael Jackson died last June, but the current record is 6,939 tweets per second.
A year ago, the average number of tweets sent in a day were 50 million. Yet last month there were 140 million tweets per day and 177 million just last week.

But, on their fifth birthday, they’re changing their terms of service because they have to make some money. And, in the process, they’ve turned away the developer community who helped them get as large as they are.

Alexandra Samuel said it best in her Harvard Business Review blog.

So as Twitter locks the door, some geeks somewhere are coming up with a new idea that will fill the void. This infinitely more flexible and risk-embracing startup will explode onto the social media scene with the next thing, or maybe even the Next Big Thing. And then sometime in 2015, it, too, will trade in creative chaos for business sense.

And, perhaps what Dave Winer, the father of podcasting and RSS feeds, has in mind with his new Minimal Blogging Tool that allows us to keep our content on our own servers. It allows us to push that content wherever we need to to reach our audiences, but we own it so it can’t be affected when the social networks change their terms of service.

Additionally you’ll hear in this week’s podcast:

Springtime in Gov 2.0 in that Canada is finally joining Australia, the U.K., and the States in the social and the open movement;
Third Tuesday this month is the best (and misses) of SXSW;
The “Dear CEO” eBook has been published and can be found at Spin Sucks;
The New York Times is charging for content; and
Martin talks about what he’ll receive as immediate past president of CPRS, come June.

We’d love to get your thoughts on Twitter’s birthday or any of the other topics we discuss this week.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.45 – On the Internet, Sharing is Forever

thornley — Thu, 17 Mar 2011 20:02:21 +0000

Martin Waxman, Gini Dietrich and Joseph Thornley are all here for this week’s Inside PR. We talk about a couple things this week – community-driven events and online sharing.

Are unconferences and community-driven events dying out?

We look back one more time at our great experience at this year’s highly successful Podcamp Toronto. It takes a huge amount of effort to organize this type of event. And as professionally organized events have moved into the social media space, have they lessened our appetite and the pool of volunteers willing to organize unconferences? Do the professionally organized conferences cause us to have expectations of a conference that a community-based, volunteer driven conference can’t meet?

What’s happening in your community. Are there still vibrant unconferences or other community-driven events where you live? Are they becoming more frequent and more successful? Or rarer? Less well attended? We’d love to hear from you about this.

Sharing is Forever

We also talk about online sharing – or over-sharing. Martin starts the conversation by pointing to two sites that let you share your clickstream. Wow!

Would you want to share with others all the sites that you visit? Do you use the Web for work-related research? Is this an idea for a business that simply won’t work – at least if people appreciate the value of making conscious decisions about what we share.

Often, a choice to share is forgotten or poorly understood. We’ve already seen how Facebook’s frequent changes of their terms of service leads to people sharing information they hadn’t consciously realized they were sharing. Or think of Tumblr. How many people shared information on Tumblr, became bored with the platform and forgot that it is still spewing information about them. As Gini says, The Web doesn’t have a “Forget” button. Sharing is forever.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.44: PodCamp Toronto reunion show part 2

Martin — Wed, 09 Mar 2011 18:04:31 +0000

It’s time for part two of our PodCamp Toronto ‘reunited’ shows featuring IPR creators Terry Fallis and Dave Jones joining Gini, Joe and me.

Terry continues as host and looks back to April 2006 when IPR began and how he and Dave felt the need to act quickly in order to establish themselves among the many, many burgeoning Canadian PR podcasts. He observes that five years later the big PR podcasting wave has yet to hit.

Eden Spodek mentions recent CRTC research saying hobbyist podcasting is growing.

Martin contends MSM has done a great job podcasting their shows and wonders if that hasn’t had an effect on the number of people tuning into hobbyist podcasts.

Joe feels podcasts are fulfilling the expectations of people who are looking for niche content.

Gini believes we learn visually or by reading and not by listening and thinks that’s one of the reasons podcasting hasn’t exploded.

Joe talks about how businesses that experimented with audio podcasting quickly realized the power of putting that together with video.

Terry takes a straw poll of the crowd and asks how many people prefer audio or video podcasts. The audience is split 50/50. Terry talks about how much he likes audio and launches into a quasi-romantic story about the time he met Mitch Joel IRL… Enough said.

Martin asks Gini if she notices any difference between Canada and the US in social media?

Gini remarks that she’s impressed by PCTO’s ability to attract so many people and how well organized the free event is. She says she doesn’t think that there would be this many people attending in Chicago.

Martin wonders how you engage people in social media if you’re not a creator?

Joe thinks we’re all creators and need to have the passion to stick with it. The challenge is putting up with the work required to be creative.

Dave believes it’s about expectations and what keeps you motivated. He said that when he and Terry started IPR, they committed to do the show every week, aimed for consistency and quality and built an audience from there. It’s important to respect what your community wants and to do what’s right for you in your space.

Gini talks about community and uses an example of how her community came to her defense when another group criticized her en masse for her position in a blog post.

And that brings the second PodCamp Toronto show to a close…

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.43: Then meets now at PodCamp Toronto – the reunion show part 1

Martin — Wed, 02 Mar 2011 19:36:01 +0000

Get ready for some familiar voices as Terry Fallis and Dave Jones join Joe, Gini and me for Inside PR, recorded before a ‘live studio audience’ at PodCamp Toronto. #PCTO is Canada’s largest social media event, an unconference now in its fifth year. Terry, Dave and I recorded episodes there in 2009 and 2010 and thought we’d get the (almost) whole crew together again. It’s a fun way to connect and reconnect with our listeners IRL. And it’s always great to see and thank our talented and hard-working producer, Yasmine Kashefi!

This week, Terry plays ‘host’ after nearly a year’s hiatus and reminisces about our five-minute-before-the-show-planning. He mentions PodCamp Toronto’s 5^th anniversary and Joe notes PCTO has 1400 people registered. Eden Spodek, one of the event organizers talks about how in 2007, its first year, there were 300 early adopters and people thought it was about podcasting, but it’s always been focused on social media.

Joe believes the quality of speakers and discussion further demonstrates that Toronto is not only a Canadian business centre, but also a digital centre second to none with many great events and a smart and engaged community.

Martin comments that attendance at PCTO mirrors the adoption of social media and asks Dave about ROI and potato chips.

Dave observes SM should be realistic about what you can accomplish: in year one it’s very much about recruitment and engagement followed by entertainment, activation and reward; building community over time.

Joe talks about Kobo and wonders if clients are developing a longer-term sense of value for social media or if the pressure is on immediate sales.

Jodi Echakowitz makes a comment about about integration and uses an example of how her client, Sympatico, helped increase Kid’s Help Phone’s database by supporting a community.

Martin asks Gini how she transformed her firm from pure PR into a social media agency. Gini says she’s more of an integrated agency and talks about the need to educate clients on the fact that social media programs are a marathon. You have to built trust, credibility and relationships and that doesn’t happen overnight.

And that brings us to the end of part one of our #PCTO shows. We’d love to hear what you think and hope you tune in next week for part two.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.42: The Ten Commandments of Positivity

Gini Dietrich — Wed, 23 Feb 2011 20:00:16 +0000

David Jones (and so will you) will be very happy that Gini Dietrich got a new recorder. Now MUCH better sound for you!

A few newsworthy things we discuss: The ban on UberTwitter (which has now been lifted) and this image of the social media Bermuda Triangle that Petya Georgieva sent to us.

This week, Martin Waxman talks about his 10 commandments for public relations, which Joe Thornley notes we tend to forget. These are eternal truths and include:

Don’t lie
Don’t spam
Don’t overpromise
Don’t pretend something is what it isn’t
Be creative
Remember yours isn’t the only story out there
Know where you stand in the grand scheme of things
Do what you say
Smile
Say thank you

These commandments are ethical-based and are a great reminder that spin sucks and bad PR is bad PR. Smiling goes a long way, which Gini discovered when a University of Michigan study was released showing bad moods are as contagious as the common cold.

It’s so easy to spread your bad mood around through email and the social web and we talk about how, as leaders, we need to be very cognizant of how we behave not only affects the people in front of us, but also morale and culture that can have a last effect. When is online conversation appropriate and when is it better to get out of your office and actually talk to people?

Don’t forget we’re recording live at PodCamp in Toronto THIS Saturday! We hope to see you there.

Do you have comments? Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, or message us @inside_pr on Twitter. Or connect with Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and me on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

Inside PR 2.41 – Congratulations to Terry Fallis and a few ‘true’ confessions

Yasmine — Wed, 16 Feb 2011 17:59:55 +0000

Skype issues meant we broke from our usual Friday recording time and instead talked on Monday – which meant Gini and I could extend our birthday celebrations a few more days…

We start with listener comments, first from Megan Getter, a student in Barbara Nixon’s PR class, who contends Kenneth Cole’s mis-tweet is similar to the poor judgment in the Groupon ad on the Superbowl. Gini mentions Dino Dogan who wrote a blog post about how some brands seem to be setting out to create controversy when promoting their products. Another listener, Liz, responds to our discussion on the Internet shutdown in Egypt and likens open online access to the right of free speech. Finally, Victoria Procunier asks about LinkedIn product recommendations. Gini believes we should filter through what’s real in the same way we filter reviews on other sites.

Joe congratulates Terry Fallis, Inside PR and Thornley Fallis co-founder, on his first novel’s selection as the essential Canadian novel of the decade in the Canada Reads competition. It’s a literary and social media success story and a great case study or publishers. It’s also a terrific read!

Today’s main topic is a site called Americans Against Food Taxes, which bills itself as a “coalition of concerned citizens, responsible individuals, financially strapped families, small and large businesses in communities across the country – opposed to the government tax hikes on food and beverages, including soda, juice drinks, and flavoured milks”. Joe points out the site is sponsored by organizations that sell or manufacture sweetened drinks and wonders if this isn’t an example of astroturfing. We discuss the implications and ethics around these types of sites and their impact on PR. If any of you have further insight on the group, we’d love to hear from you.

This is the first week for a new feature where we talk about a recent post on our blogs. Gini discusses her take on the Groupon Superbowl ad and I mention being SAD – that is, having split-attention disorder.

A quick reminder that we’re doing a live recording of Inside PR at PodCamp Toronto, with special guests Terry Fallis and Dave Jones! It’s an interactive session, so please bring your questions and comments. Hope to see you there.

Let us know what you think!

Send us an email or an audio comment to insideprcomments@gmail.com, join the Inside PR Facebook group, leave us a comment here, or message us @inside_pr on Twitter. Or connect with Martin Waxman, Joe Thornley, and Gini Dietrich on Twitter.

Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.

This week’s episode was produced by Yasmine Kashefi.

(posted by MW.)