Catching Flack

Here’s a quick report on the poll we did a couple of weeks ago on possible PR budget cutbacks in 2009.

We didn’t get a robust response, but the trend was unmistakable:

• 73% of agency respondents said they had heard about client-side PR budget cutbacks
• 53% of client-side respondents said they were cutting their budget going into 2009; 32% said no, they weren’t, and 16% said they hadn’t decided yet.

As a contractor myself, I’m cheered by the fact that about 1/3 of internal budgets aren’t dropping going into 2009. That’s at least a glimmer of hope. And I think as an industry indicator, it could mean that industrywide budget cutbacks may not be as severe as some are predicting.

I was thinking about post-Thanksgiving leftovers and realized I had some leftovers in my files to share with the Catching Flack readership. To wit:

• PR Fuel: Free tips and advice from eReleases.com
• Free PR tips and articles from eZine Articles
• PRArticle Library: A trove of articles on a variety of PR topics
• Library of PR Articles from AllBusiness.com
• Steven R. Van Hook’s All About Public Relations

Enjoy!

The phone rings. It’s the boss and there’s a crisis. Now’s your chance to shine — or be permanently relegated to the scrap heap. What should you do?

Here’s what:

• Be prepared to give solid advice on the spot. “I’ll get back to you” is the kiss of death.
• Give the boss options, not just your preferred idea. Bosses like to have options and make decisions. They don’t like being told what to do.
• Tell the boss things they don’t already know. Duh!
• Be prepared to outline next steps.

Tips courtesy of Jim Lukaszewski, the crisis guru. He’s got a new book out called, “Why Should the Boss Listen to You? The Seven Disciplines of the Trusted Advisor.”

Do you use too many words when you write? Who doesn’t?

If so, perhaps you should heed the timeless words of William Strunk Jr., author of the #1 book about writing, The Elements of Style:

Omit needless words: Vigorous writing is concise. A sentence should contain no unnecessary words, a paragraph no unnecessary sentences, for the same reason that a drawing should have no unnecessary lines and a machine no unnecessary parts. This requires not that the writer make all his sentences short, or that he avoid all detail and treat his subjects only in outline, but that every word tell.

But how to get yourself to use fewer words?

Joan Stewart, The Publicity Hound, has a simple technique: pay yourself.

Stewart suggests that you tell yourself you will give yourself $1 for every word you omit from your press release, blog post, pitch, or any other important written communication. “I’ve had people ‘pay’ themselves $60 or $70,” Stewart says.

Give it a try!

Jamie Woolf wasn’t trying to cash in on the Obama presidency when she started writing an advice book a couple of years ago for mothers called Mom-in-Chief. She was just trying to write a book that showed women how to translate their business skills to the home and family, and she came up with the catchy title.

But all bets are off now, because a certain First Lady-in-waiting has coincidentally latched on to the phrase “mom-in-chief” to describe the role she envisions for herself in the White House.

Woolf’s book is in production and won’t be out until (coincidentally) next February, but she’s already ramping up her PR efforts. She’s putting out press releases and doing interviews on subjects such as “How to Raise Politically Engaged Children.”

And she’s trying hard to get the book into the hands of the most famous Mom-in-Chief, Michelle Obama. She has a friend on the transition team and has handed him an advance copy of the book and a note to Michelle.

Here’s a question for you: if you were Woolf, what else would you do to promote your book and your good fortune at picking such a hot topic?

The rush of journalists out of the media and into PR continues. Yesterday came word that the managing editor of the San Jose Mercury News had left the paper to become a PR guy and open the Silicon Valley office of Sitrick & Co. Now, Dan Abrams, late of MSNBC (his show was booted to make room for Rachel Maddow) has opened Abrams Research, which claims it will “connect business leaders with top media professionals around the world.”

Abrams doesn’t plan to do it the old-fashioned way, through what we PR people call “media relations.” No, his business plan seemingly calls for his company to pay working journalists and others to “offer insights, data and personnel never before available to businesses.” (We’ll see how that goes down with their bosses)

I’d say Abrams already has one PR skill down: spin.

I’m sure with his high profile, Abrams will snag a few clients. But then he’s going to find out how the PR business really works, and he might be in for a bit of shock.

You see, if journalists really had the ability to advise businesses on mission-critical communications and strategic issues, they wouldn’t be journalists. They would be high level strategists. (Take David Axelrod, former political reporter and Obama’s chief strategist, as a prime example.)

Journalists are, for the most part, dreamy storytellers, many with an inflated view of their importance and the uniqueness of their opinions and views.

But once they get out into the for-profit business world, in my experience, they quickly realize that PR isn’t nearly as easy as they think.

Here’s an example from Abrams’ site of the value-add he imagines he will provide:

A video game distributor is seeking an assessment of how blogs in a particular market will react to its new product.
Abrams Research can reach out to the most influential industry bloggers and present an overview of their opinions on a particular marketing message.

Good luck selling that exclusive service, Dan.

PS — Abrams is hedging his bets, too. He’ll keep his job as MSNBC’s legal analyst.

Unwittingly, the CEOs of the Big Three automakers gave lawmakers all the PR ammunition they needed to fight back against the auto industry bailout when all three arrived in Washington to beg for money in private jets.

That’s right. Three. Private. Jets.

If that act of arrogance doesn’t tell you all you need to know about the fundamental problems of our Big Three automakers, nothing does. Their organizations are bloated and inefficient from top to bottom, and they’ve been making cars America (and the world) doesn’t want to buy for years. So rather than tightening their own belts and truly economizing, they continued their high-living ways and showed up in Washington in airborne limousines.

Their spinmeisters were left to point out that at that level of Corporate America, such travel arrangements are de rigueur. Sure they are. For CEOs whose companies are solvent.

Memo to the next CEO to grovel for a government bailout: fly commercial!

God bless social media. Last week, there was no such thing as a “Motrin Mom.” This week, it’s an interest group.

The story: McNeil Consumer Health Care, makers of Motrin (otherwise known generically as ibuprofen), posted a 50-second seemingly tone-deaf “ad” on their site offering Motrin as a remedy for mothers of young children whose backs ached from carrying the kids in front-packs and such.

Shazam!

As fast as you can say i-bu-pro-fen, the video spread around the Net, mainly by outraged mothers who were offended by the implications of the ad (you can judge for yourself here). They congregated around Twitter, in particular, to share their outrage. By Sunday night, McNeil had pulled the ad and apologized, though of course, the ad itself lives on on YouTube and elsewhere, as does this newly formed interest group.

So, the scorecard:

• Score one for activist online moms who were probably rightly offended by the tone deaf ad.
• Score one for the power of social media to give the aggrieved a place to vent and organize.
• Score one for Motrin as well. An expensive brand in a crowded field dominated by Advil and generics, they’ve now gotten free publicity in the Associated Press, the New York Times, and scores of other media. Can’t be bad for business, though some Motrin moms might disagree.

You may have noticed that I get PR news and insights for you from a lot of different places around the web. How do I find these valuable nuggets, you might ask?

I like to think of it as “walking my beat.” Here’s my basic routine:

1. Read PRSA’s daily email, Issues and Trends. I believe this is available to PRSA members only.
2. Scan Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog. Free sign-up here.
3. Scroll through Poynter’s Romenesko media news email. Sign up here.
4. Read Ragan’s daily PR email. Sign up here.

I’ve also set up a Google Reader RSS feed of 63  PR and media blogs, which I scan here at Google Reader. It’s obviously too long a list to copy into this blog post, but some of the better ones are listed in my blog roll in the right-hand column.

Don’t know how to use Google Reader to follow your favorite blogs? That’s a pity. It’s pretty simple. And it’s a great way to keep track of lots of news and opinions, because all you have to do is scan headlines and then click on them if they interest you.

If you’re looking for your free PR advice in video or audio form (as opposed to text), here are two of the best you should check out:

Doug Simon’s DS Simon Vlog Views:

Doug is a veteran New York video producer who has made the move into online video and decided to show off his talents by posting interviews with top PR industry leaders. Recent interviewees include Peter Shankman of HARO, Ken Makovsky, Richard Laermer of Bad Pitch Blog, and Sam Singer.

Eric Schwartzman’s On the Record, Online:

Eric is a machine, cranking out detailed podcasts and giving trainings about online PR at a furious pace. You get the benefit of it, as he posts his On the Record, Online podcast here. Recent interviewees include Dave Armon of PR Newswire, Craig Newmark of Craigslist, Keith O’Brien of PR Week, and David Carr of the New York Times.