New Year's Hat Tip For PR Triumphs

There's no escaping the glare of ever-present shine of media, masses, and individuals waiting to pounce on the failures of others. As 2011 came to a close, another round-up of listings of public relations blunders made their yearly trek around the interwebs. (Some examples here, here, here, and here.)

This brief Twitter exchange between Shel Holz and Richard Becker got me thinking about the topic:

I keep seeing posts on PR blunders of 2011. Has anybody written about PR triumphs of 2011? Surely there have been some.
— Shel Holtz (@shelholtz) December 30, 2011

@shelholtz Many public relations triumphs go unseen, which is why they are triumphs. ;)
— Richard Becker (@RichBecker) December 30, 2011

@richbecker And yet the abundance of blunder-focused posts skews the public perception of PR, don't you think?
— Shel Holtz (@shelholtz) December 30, 2011

Indeed.

So let's take a moment to start 2012 with a hat tip to all of the public relations pros who got it right. Congratulations to all of you professionals who achieved strategic communication victories big and small. Great job on deepening those relationships within your communities. Thumbs up for releasing relevant stories and engaging a variety of communication channels.

PR triumphs happen on a regular basis throughout our industry because they represent business as usual for public relations. Often these wins go largely unnoticed.

And that's a good thing.

If an organization's leadership or clients expect business success and acumen from the PR team, then the credibility of our profession is buoyed. When things go wrong, learn from the mistakes (yours and others) and move on to what's next.

Who's with me?

Photo credit: ooberayhay via Flickr Creative Commons

Lesson from pub owner's Facebook rant

Image by Diorama Sky via Flickr

Ft. Worth pub owner, Carlo Galotto, isn't making running his new business easy on himself. Galotto operates Zio Carlo Magnolia Brew Pub which opened earlier this fall after some apparent setbacks. Unfortunately for Galotto, the setbacks continue this time at his own hands.

Apparently, the owner had imbibed heavily when he took to his pub's business Facebook page for a single-line rant: (via DFW.com)

On Monday afternoon, a controversy exploded online, when the recently opened Zio Carlo Magnolia Brew Pub posted what seemed like a bitter indictment of President Obama and his followers on its Facebook page: “I would prefer not have spoiled Obama kids around me.”

Although the specific author of the posting is not clear, a later comment from Zio Carlo in the same thread that reads “I was born in Italy” suggests it was written by Zio Carlo owner Carlo Galotto.

The post was subsequently removed, but this screen shot – taken by one angry patron who claimed he would never return to the place – illustrates the instantaneous blowback Zio Carlo received. The vast majority of the nearly hundred 100 comments were negative.

Oops.

Fortunately for Galotto, a local public relations pro, Beth Hutson of Hutson Creative Group in Ft. Worth, offered some pro bono damage control and reputation repair. Hutson assisted with the owner's apology and subsequent free pizza slice and happy hour on Saturday.

I hope this works for Carlo Galotto and his fledgling business. Was getting drunk and dropping f-bombs in the comments on his Facebook business page stupid? Absolutely. But accepting PR counsel and acquiescing to a decent mea culpa after the screw up is actually a pretty smart business move. Most likely this episode has caused enough of a stir in the area that folks will come out in support or even just out of curiosity. When they do, Zio Carlo's food and drinks needs to do the talking. The pizza and beer better live up to the hype. That's the best way for Galotto to get back on message.

Two Developing Wins for PR

Win No. 1
Last week, the PRSA wrapped up an early collaborative stage of a joint campaign to define the term public relations. I was curious as to the number of submissions for the definition and heard back from Keith Trivitt, PRSA's Associate Director of PR. He responded via Twitter, "927, my friend, for a combined 4,000 lines of data and approx. 16,000 submitted words. We're analyzing the data now."

These are fantastic numbers for the 12-day submission campaign but it's just the beginning. Up next is a process to create the three draft definitions from the PRSA Definition of Public Relations Task Force followed by another round of online responses through a 10-day vote for the top definition on the PRSA website.

Why this is a win: In addition to establishing a concise PR definition, the public relations industry benefits from the ongoing internal discussion about our roles as strategic communicators.

Win No. 2
Businessweek posted an article earlier with some great news for the PR industry, "Public Relations: Coming to a B-School Near You." This is from another solid example of advocacy and research from PRSA's Business Case for Public Relations:

"PRSA surveyed 204 American business leaders in the fall of 2011 to ascertain their thoughts on how well MBA candidates understand the strategic business value and tools of public relations. The survey also looked into the role public relations and reputation management play in modern business leadership and whether business leaders felt that MBA programs were effectively teaching these skills."

Why this is a win: Having business schools create MBA curricula with serious emphasis on reputation management and strategic communication crystallizes further external understanding and appreciation of and credibility for public relations by business leaders.

Leading and Influencing: Takeaways from @FortWorthPRSA October 2010

Image by pedrosimoes7 via FlickrFrom the good grief, was this post ever going to get written? files, I'm finally getting to the write-up from the October Ft. Worth PRSA luncheon presentation.

The luncheon was part of a morning and lunch time workshop entitled "Leadership: How to Get a Seat at the C-suite Table," led by Dan Novak from TCU's Tandy Center on Executive Leadership. Unfortunately, I was only able to attend the lunch portion. (Judging by the interactive discussion and topics from the morning, it was pretty solid.)

As for the lunch, the leadership-oriented session was to learn how to have an authentic voice and a strong organizational/business culture that stands strong in the face of disaster or attack.

The best takeaways on leading and influencing (according to my scribbled notes):

1. Be better at what you do.
2. Success: You need to want to be a part of it.
3. Client/Organization interaction via social media - You don't own your reputation.
4. We need to have a voice that matters.
5. Breakthrough organizations are more likely to anticipate and determine root causes of problems and not just reacting.
6. Social network analysis can make networks visible thus make it actionable.
7. The Org Chart is not the way organizations really function.
8. We need to have the awareness within the org to understand the person(s) with knowledge and skills right for specific times of communication need.
9. Successful organizations practice constant self-reflection and has a willingness to improve and learn.
10. If I can think differently, I may be able to add more value and diagnose problems.

That last point about problem diagnosis came with a fascinating diagram that I've attempted to recreate

The reason I thought this concept diagram was so compelling was because it illustrated how we often deal with the symptomatic issues (i.e. perceived break-downs in communication) and not ever go back to check the causes to adapt and change.

There were a few other gems worth noting:

1. "Closed" approach is no longer sustainable.
2. Information flows in and out...with or without you.
3. Establishing your voice.
4. Listen to your employees
   - They have a voice
   - They want to be heard to tell their story
   - They want action/results
5. Lead by collaborative influence across functional, social, demographic, and organizational boundaries [silos].

Leaders influence change through one of three ways: Power, Reason, or Re-education of beliefs, values, attitudes. As leaders in our organizations, PR people need to develop a different language and think in terms what truly matters to internal and external audiences. This will help our focus in being reputation defenders.

Everything you do [or not] sends a message. What gets your attention? Are you anticipating or reacting? As always, the comments are yours.

Remnants to revitalized PR; chatting with Brian Solis

Image via CrunchBaseEarlier this evening I had the opportunity to participate in a conference call conversation with Brian Solis along with a handful of other DFW bloggers. We were invited to ask some questions of Brian who will be the lunch keynote speaker at the Dallas PRSA Communications Summit this Friday, October 22. 

As a professional communicator, I was thrilled to have a chance to learn from such a respected thought leader of new media and prolific author.

Below are the topics our little cadre of questioners narrowed down along with summary responses from Brian Solis:

What are the key differences between PR 1.0 and 2.0, and how can someone educate themselves?
The depth of knowledge, experience, and passion for peer-to-peer need to be in the I-have-to-learn-category for professionals. It's beyond pitching and placing; it's about moving individuals. It means realizing that we need to connect with humans that shape markets. This dynamic understanding of digital influence is what he believes will bring PR back to life.

(I recently ran across a video Brian Solis did with Chris Beck and 26 Dot Two about branded content called  The great advertising disconnect. "The last mile") What are some things PR people need to focus on today to reach that "last mile" of engagement?
Brian smartly pointed us to his blog post, The Last Mile: The Socialization of Business along with his series The Hybrid Theory Manifesto: The Future of Marketing, Advertising, and Communications (Parts One, Two, and Three) to give us a framework on his vision. He has provided his call to action or at least attention the fact that there is a gap that isn't being filled by PR. Advertising firms are bringing PR into the fold because they recognize the necessity and wisdom reaching and activating the influential individuals. (As an aside, this portion of the call intrigued me the most and warrants further research.)

Can you tell us a little about the premise of your book, Engage? What is the importance in it for PR/social media folks?
Brian responded that basically where he is now in his professional life is entrenched in the realm of organizational restructuring. He said his new book, Engage, is written with the executive suite in mind. "There are so many champions, we need more leaders," said Solis. There's an important lesson for PR people here: we need to be leaders.

How do you measure the value of engagement and report that back to your brand?
In measurement and reporting, you must start with the end in mind. Every aspect of social media is not created equally, nor are friends, fans, communities, etc. When you know who you are talking to, you can segment the story. Ultimately, we measure engagement based on the predefined objectives we want to accomplish. (In other words it's the seeing, clicking, doing that tells us we're winning.)

Brian Solis left us with some additional thoughts as he noticed one of our bloggers was doing a bit of live-tweeting during the call. The real-time updates triggered some final words of wisdom from our call:

• Consumers have become empowered. 
• There are audiences within audiences. 
• The balance of power has shifted. 
• IF you can inspired others to follow and share, you are on the right track.

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If you are in the DFW area on Friday, October 22, consider joining the Dallas chapter of PRSA for their annual Communications Summit: "Engage. Educate. Elevate." In addition to Solis, they have another great line-up for PR pros.
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I look forward to reading what the other bloggers zeroed in on from the call. Be sure to check out posts from Alyssa Gardina, Elysa Rice, and Eddy Badrina. (Also, special thanks and hat tip to Kai Stansberry, Lauren Fernandez and Chad Sour for the invitation and getting this call organized.)