Digital Era II » PR

Policy and PR. Not the same thing.

Sofia — Wed, 10 Mar 2010 13:12:11 +0000

62/365 Spot the Difference Uploaded by AlicePalice on 7 Sep 08, 7.29PM GMT.

I’ve seen it in a lot of companies and I have sadly also seen it in a lot of government departments (albeit not in the UK).

Policy and Public Relations are not the same thing and I find it annoying when they are being misconstrued as being identical.

I can see how it can be confusing. Since Policy is increasingly using high levels of stakeholder engagement one might be forgiven for thinking that Policy professionals are now into Public Relations. They are not (trust me I am one of the former).

In Policy we would ask “How can we design a policy that will work optimally?” whereas in Public Relations we would ask “How can we communicate that our policy is the best?”

See, I would call that pretty fundamentally different.

Both functions are certainly valid (and valuable). However, by confusing the two you end up with either policies that don’t work or with policies that cannot be communicated.

How come this is so hard to grasp?

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PR fundamentally misunderstands WIRED

Sofia — Thu, 09 Apr 2009 09:51:26 +0000

I just can’t stop smiling every time I read a story in PR Week or any PR publication about anything tech, digital or having to do with social media. I really think there is a fundamental misunderstanding in the UK market about what all of those things mean and how engagement has already changed.

Here is one of my latest examples. PR Week (3 April issue, fine shoot me I just got around to reading it) has an article on the UK launch of WIRED. Read it if you can track it down and marvel at the constant press lines, analysis and repetition of how WIRED is going to be ‘more thank just a gadget magazine with women in bikinis’ (according to editor David Rowan). Good lord, who would ask him such a question and who would spin an article about WIRED by essentially comparing it with Stuff?

In one of the subsequent paragraphs an account executive at Say Communications says that WIRED will probably work as a barometer of trends and ‘positions our clients in a desirable peer group of cutting-edge technologists’ Unless they misquoted her that doesn’t even make sense, not to mention that it all sounds like PR fluff and gobbledegook.

To be fair, Bruce McLachlan (head of digital entertainment, Nelson Bostock) makes a very good point when asked about the viability of a tech magazine in the current market where tech news break online. He does stress that depth and quality is key (which I cannot fault on any level).

Yet the questions themselves annoy me no end. To suggest that WIRED is a tech magazine and to compare it with mere gadget or toys-boys magazine simply shows a tragic misunderstanding of the cult of WIRED. While other publications have been ridiculed online over the years and criticized no end WIRED remains trusted, respected and well – loved. Why? That’s the question PR Week should be asking, just in case PRs who pretend they know all about digital might learn something.

Read On:
Wired UK launches on magCulture
Lifting the lid on Wired UK by Simon Waldman on the Guardian

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Virgin Trains, wi-fi and customer comms. Too little-too late?

Sofia — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 19:15:47 +0000

I travel for work quite a bit and my favourite mode of transport is the train. The London stations are easily accessible, I don’t have to drive half – asleep and there is the ‘doing my bit for the environment’ argument as well. That doesn’t mean that I can afford to watch the countryside go by idly – even though sometimes I wish I could.

The fact is that travelling time is not dead time for me. I’m getting paid for it and I want to work. I’m not particularly expected to but I want to. Look at today’s example. I was travelling up to Stockport and I needed to be working on a policy briefing on yesterday’s Pre Budget Announcement (I’m talking UK people). Right next to me where two people from a big newspaper and magazines publisher that were working on a team presentation (OK, you caught me, I was eavesdropping). All three of us got extremely annoyed that wi-fi was not available. Not necessarily free wi-fi. We were quite willing to pay for it (or rather, our companies) even though we would still nag as National Express East Coast is offering free wi-fi already.

I came back home this evening and went on the Virgin Trains website. They actually have an ideas section where customers can submit comments and ideas for services. It looks very good – with little clouds representing each idea. You can sort by the most popular or the latest and you can add your own. Detail: You have to agree to quite lengthy terms and conditions before you do, even though you are not registering to the service. In fact you can’t register – there is no such option. Turned out that my idea for free wi-fi was already on there so I left a comment underneath it agreeing (a polite one, I promise).There are multiple FAILS here (can you spot them?).

Wanting to blog about this (and I believe in giving the company a fair chance) I called their Press Office and was pleasantly surprised. I said I was a blogger and they were very helpful. Apparently the wi-fi kit is being installed as we speak and the helpful gentleman took down my e-mail address and my phone number. He didn’t ask any intrusive questions, he didn’t make me feel as I didn’t have the right to enquire. That is a WIN. True to his word he called me back within 10 minutes (another WIN) to let me know that Wi-Fi will be available from March 2009, free for First Class customers and with “a small charge” to Standard Class customers.

So, good news all round? I doubt it.

Customer communications: Close but no cigar.
WIN: An ideas section that looks good and is easy to use.
FAIL: Who moderates? Ideas are replicated all over the place.
FAIL: To leave a simple comment I have to agree to Terms and Conditions. Quite lengthy. Every time. Every single time. I don’t think so.
ALL ABOARD THE FAIL TRAIN (MAJOR FAIL): Even though the company has answers to many submitted ideas, even though the company is actually doing something about them, nobody from the company says so on the ideas section. Nobody is there to say “yes, thank you” or “no, we’ve looked at it and can’t be done for so and so reason, here’s a link to a blog post where we explain ourselves” or “we are rolling it out as we speak”. The feeling you get is that it’s just customers talking to each other and that nobody listens. This is not necessarily accurate. But impressions count. (Update: Check out the delicious support forum where delicious team members respond to ideas)

Press Office: Good with room for improvement.
WIN: I talked to someone who was helpful and willing to speak to a blogger. He came back to me very quickly with the information I wanted.
GO FURTHER: Why not have a section for bloggers in the Virgin Media Room? Why not ask me if I’d like to receive the newsletter? Why not ask me if I want to be included in a list for future briefings?

Wi-Fi: The never ending story.
WIN: They are planning to do it.
FAIL: They have been planning to do it for quite some time (counting in years). Check out one or two news stories and you’ll see that things just keep going wrong. Note: the customer doesn’t care. It is assumed that since National Express East Coast can do it than so can other operators.
FAIL: Free for First Class and a a charge for Standard Class. I’d love to see the business plan for this one. Even if it brings revenue does it really benefit the brand – or does it speak volumes about the type/ class/ income of people Virgin Trains really wants to offer services to?

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Read On:
First Offence from And Another Thing… (MP Ian Harris using National Express wi-fi while on a Virgin train in Glasgow station)
Hurry up, the customer has a complaint by Carolyn Y. Johnson of the Boston Globe (how Comcast does it right)
Starbucks – MyStarbucks Idea from Web Strategy Blog
Your customer has evolved into a community. Have you joined it? from Jon in 60 seconds
Executive Video Interview: Why Dell continues to use Social Media from Web Strategy by Jeremiah. Bob Pearson, Vice President, Communities & Conversations at Dell says: “listening to a community is arguably more important than the actual number of units sold”

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Should Startups invest in PR?

Sofia — Mon, 24 Nov 2008 13:52:22 +0000

I am a woman of strong opinions. My “Yes” and my “No” are loud and clear for most things but here is a question that has two many shades of grey for me to give a straight answer.

PR Week reported on a BIGfrontier study which looked into Startups and Pr. Apparently,

Startup companies that engage in PR campaigns are 30% more successful in getting funding within one to three months than those that don’t (…) Forty-four percent of the respondents who used PR outreach received funding in the one-to-three-month time period versus 14% of those that did not. The survey also found that 78% of respondents who said PR helped in their funding efforts are planning to use some of their venture capital for additional PR.
(via)

Paul Graham also reckons that PR is worth it (thumbs up to Colin Ross for sending me there) – even though I don’t know if he would stand by that position during the current difficult financial climate:

Our startup spent its entire marketing budget on PR: at a time when we were assembling our own computers to save money, we were paying a PR firm $16,000 a month. And they were worth it. PR is the news equivalent of search engine optimization; instead of buying ads, which readers ignore, you get yourself inserted directly into the stories.
(via)

However I am still sceptical. Reporting such as PR Week’s above might be helping PR people feel a bit better or quote the numbers during their pitches but it’s not helping us understand exactly what we mean by PR in relation to Startups. What sort of Startups where successful? Which country? What sort of campaigns did the PR agencies run for them? I’m sorry but 30% doesn’t tell me anything until I get down to the nitty gritty.

It’s not that I am totally unconvinced. Having experience both in PR and in a Startup environment I truly think that Yes, Startups really do need PR. Even if I do have a series of “buts” to go with this.

But: What do I mean when I say PR?
I don’t mean advertising and I don’t mean PR agency juniors counting column inches. That’s not how it works anymore – I doubt it ever did. Startups don’t need an expensive campaign and they don’t need traditional advertising. They need networks and interest and word of mouth and early adopters. So when I say that startups need PR I mean PR that is engaging, that goes over and above the fluff, that builds connections, that helps the Startup people to represent their product/ service better.

But: Why does the Startup need PR?
If the Startup is still just looking for a reason then they don’t need PR. If you have a purpose very clear in your head then PR can help you get there in a targeted way.

But: Not necessarily from an agency
PR does not equate a PR agency. You can have a PR strategy and the Startup itself can run it. I know that time is of the essence but if money is tight and your purpose will be better served by keeping the function in-house it’s advisable to do it that way. The point is that in a Startup environment you are the specialist and the best person to represent the product. Have a team member do the PR work and get every member of the team ‘out – there’ to build relationships and introduce what you’re doing. They don’t have to be a “PR person”.

But: As long as you think PR in everything you do
PR is not a scary, shady beast. It is Public Relationswhich is what we all do every day when we say good morning, when we have a chat over coffee, when we gossip with friends. If you feel you don’t have the need for a full blown PR campaign then get out there and do it for yourself. You are the best advocate.

Jason Calacanis was a bit more polemic than me.

My philosophy of PR is summed up in six words: be amazing, be everywhere, be real.
You don’t need a PR firm, you don’t need an in-house PR person and you don’t need to spend ANY money to get amazing PR (…)
(via)

Sure, you don’t need any of that but I still think you need a plan. Working in a startup environment, we tend to live in a bubble. We live and breathe the product and there is always the danger that we loose focus on how to represent it. Having a PR strategy – even if it only puts down in writing the who we are and what we do issues – will help team members to represent the product better.

Read On:
Why dont technology startups leverage PR even if its more effective?by BuzzGain
Friendfeed conversation with Louis Gray
Friendfeed conversation with myself

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