Some tidbits from PRSA ‘09

I’m in San Diego at the Public Relations Society of America national conference and I attended a session today that I was tweeting from a lot, which tells me there were plenty of good tidbits. I’m going to share the tweeted items and some of my own thoughts with you in this post.

First, however, a tip of the hat to Mike McDougal, vice president of corporate communications and public affairs at Bausch & Lomb. He did a great job packing a lot of information into the session despite being let down by the convention’s lackluster audio/visual capabilities.

So, here are the tidbits and thoughts, in no particular order of importance:

• “A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” That’s a quote attributed to Winston Churchill. If that’s how he felt about things back in his era, imagine what he would think of the world we live in today! The session Mike was speaking at was advertised as “how to deal with the 24-second news cycle.” It was a fitting description.

• Through video examples of news broadcasts, Mike proved his statement that “we’re living in a world where ‘unconfirmed’ is the new norm.” That should scare journalists and PR professionals alike. But it also should scare the public. We must find a way to get the news media back to where it values facts above opinion and accuracy over expediency.

• As a matter of being prepared for trouble, Mike suggested that companies should consider using a truth squad with the media to defend themselves against stories that weren’t fact-checked, but also to poke holes in your competitor’s statements. I like the idea; I’m just not sure many reporters won’t just give you the brush-off because you are the competitor. Mike claims it worked when he was at Kodak and they took on some claims Hewlett-Packard was making, so I’ll defer to him on this one.

• Mike also offered a bit of commentary during his session and one item in particular caught my attention. He said, “More and more, the media isn’t reporting news, it’s making it.” Maybe that stuck out to me more than other comments because we had just come from the convention’s opening general session where we heard from Arianna Huffington. She noted that in order for a story to be picked up by the media anymore, it has to have “drama.” Are we letting the media focus too much on the dramatic? Why can’t solid information still be considered newsworthy? Why the drama, drama, drama? I was watching the news this morning in my hotel room and caught a piece on CNN where they were conducting interviews about an interview FOX News did recently with Rush Limbaugh. So, essentially, CNN was doing an interview about another network doing an interview. What was the point? From what I could tell, it was to show the world that CNN is more newsworthy than FOX – but if that’s how they are going to try to prove it, then they’ve already failed.

• As I mentioned earlier, part of Mike’s session was talking about the “24-second news cycle.” To deal with that, Mike suggested having some evergreen news ready to push out online as a way to either push your unflattering news out of the way or to push your competition’s good news aside and get your news into the cycle as well. It’s not a bad strategy to consider, but I’m wondering if it’s really getting you in and out of a news cycle or just impacting organic search. Even affecting searches has merit, but I think that’s different from news distribution.

• At Bausch & Lomb, they “deputize employees” to have help monitoring the news and reviewing what it means to the company and its customers. That’s an awesome idea. To keep up with today’s crazy glut of nonstop information, it would be incredibly helpful for communications departments to have the eyes and ears of every employee working with them.

• Finally, a note about something I’ve been saying for some time now and it’s good to hear others say it, too. Mike noted that despite all the technology and all the changes, “the basics still apply.” That’s a great point and I wish more people lusting after social media would remember it. I don’t care what kind of slick new delivery system we have for sharing news – the bottom line is that public relations, media relations, government relations, employee relations, etc. all rely on one main ingredient: relationships. Having great relationships that you can tap into and that others can tap into your expertise through are invaluable when it comes to communicating effectively and efficiently.

If you want to follow along with what I and the thousands of other people at this conference are talking about, get on Twitter and follow the hashtag #prsa09.

Mid-Michigan Battle Decks ‘09

Location and updated time announced!

Battle Decks will take place at 8:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 17 in the auditorium (Room 147) at the Communication Arts & Sciences Building on the campus of Michigan State University. There’s free parking in the parking ramp near the building.

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There’s a national contest called PowerPoint Karaoke (sometimes referred to as Battle Decks) and it’s coming to East Lansing on Tuesday, Nov. 17 at 7 p.m.

The idea behind Battle Decks is that you get up in front of a group to do a PowerPoint presentation that lasts about 5 minutes — with the kicker being that you have no idea what is in the deck you are presenting. Some of the slides may be serious quotes, another could be an Excel spreadsheet graph, some could be silly pictures.

Contestants will be judged by a panel with the winner earning a very cool prize provided by Imation. We also will be filming the presentations and uploading them to YouTube for the national competition, which includes thousands of dollars in prizes and cash for winners.

If you’re in mid-Michigan or are willing to travel here, let me know so I can secure a spot for you.

Actually, if you’re anywhere nearby, I challenge you to participate. Do you have what it takes to be quick on your feet? This event is co-hosted by the Public Relations Student Society of America chapter at MSU and I want us to show these students how it’s done!

For more info, you can contact me via email at ari.adler(at)yahoo.com or on Twitter.

To err is human, shouldn’t correcting be, too?

“To err is human.” I’m not sure where that saying came from; it’s just one of those that’s been around forever. People make mistakes and when they do, those mistakes need to be corrected. Unfortunately, there seems to be a sentiment out there that pointing out a mistake to bloggers is somehow taboo.

Whether it’s a simple typo in a word or a factual error, why aren’t we, as consumers of the blogs, pointing mistakes out more frequently? If I see an error on someone’s post, I will try to send them a quick, private note to tell them about it. I admit, if it’s simply a misspelled word and I catch it while reading it on my phone, I might not reach out to them if I don’t already have their email address. That’s because navigating blogs on my phone is more cumbersome and I may not have the time to track down contact info on their page. If it’s a factual error, however, I will take the time to get their info and if I see a typo while on the computer then I also will make contact. Having thought about this more now, I can see where even posting a quick comment on the page will help them see their error. I’d have no problem with them fixing the error and then deleting my comment.

I started wondering about this issue yesterday when there were two errors in my blog post about Planet Google that I wrote for Digital Pivot. The post was just a fun romp through all things Google so it’s not like I was writing a treatise on Middle Eastern peace talks. But, as is often the case, I was writing the post early in the morning, pre-coffee, and in a bit of a hurry before work.

In my quest to finish the post, I was quickly changing my lead to make it more concise and, in doing so, changed the way I was referencing the planet Earth. Instead of something about it being the third of nine planets, I ended up simply referring to it as “the third planet.” At least that’s what I thought. In reality, I ended up typing “the ninth planet.” I also misspelled “course” by typing “of coure,” a typo I fixed later in the day while reading a comment someone had posted and the missing s caught my eye. But the ninth planet reference remained until quite late in the day, when my wife sent me a note via Google chat asking, “Since when is Earth the ninth planet?”

I was horrified and immediately went to the post and corrected my error. I then checked and found out the post had more than 80 views — which means several dozen people had read the post and not told me that the Earth isn’t the ninth planet.

I posted a question on Twitter afterward, asking, “If you catch an error on someone’s blog post, do you try to reach them to point it out? If not, why not?”

Here are some responses:

“If I catch it, and it’s a heinous one I do. If it’s a minor typo, it would depend. I don’t want them to look silly, so I contact.” ~ @jlknott

“Depends on the kind of error (glaring factual error vs. minor grammatical error) and/or how well I know the blogger.” ~ @LindsayMAllen

“I would, they’re putting themselves out there and a mistake makes them look bad. Let them know so they know.” ~ @akg1124

Should it matter how well we know a blogger? Should it matter if it’s a major factual error or just a simple typo? I would hope bloggers would be receptive to people pointing out corrections for them so, as @jlknott said, they won’t “look silly.” But it’s also a matter of pride. I would hope bloggers want to have credibility. I know I do. I know that, as @akg1124 said, I don’t want to “look bad.” And I know that if you see an error in one of my blogs — no matter how small — I want you to tell me.

After all, to err is human, shouldn’t correcting be, too?

FTC-ruling story at Ragan.com

This is a piece I wrote for Ragan Communications:

Published: 10/12/2009 Bloggers, relax—FTC rules aren’t revolutionary By Ari B. Adler They’re simple disclosures and easy protocols you should have been following in the first place “The FTC is coming! The FTC is coming!” Like some kind of modern-day Paul Revere, bloggers have been preparing their lanterns. They are ready to hang one if by e-mail and two if by snail-mail if they are hit with the highly touted $11,000 fine for failing to disclose compensation for a post about a product. Enough already—this is nothing worthy of a revolution. The Federal Trade Commission ruling doesn’t appear to be all about levying massive fines, trying to make mommy bloggers choose between some cool free products for the home or their kids’ college education. The basics behind the new guidelines are as follows: Endorsers and advertisers can now be held liable for false claims; Endorsers and advertisers must disclose material connections with their sponsor; Bloggers are now considered endorsers if they receive compensation, including free products; Firms that engage bloggers with any form of payment in order to receive endorsement of a product must disclose that relationship. Celebrity endorsers must now disclose advertising relationships; The “results not typical” or “results may vary” caveat is no longer a defense for advertisers when their product doesn’t work the way they said it would; and Sponsorship for research cited in advertisements or endorsements must be disclosed. As a former journalist and one who still believes in the journalistic code of ethics, I’ve been frustrated for some time now how bloggers are posting their opinions with a smattering of facts and expecting the world to take it as gospel. When I write blog posts, I think it’s clear they are my opinion. They are based on facts but also are influenced by my personal opinion, and I don’t hold back when commenting on the facts I’ve uncovered. It’s been liberating, actually, to be able to write about things and offer some analysis and a few snarky comments. It’s something I was unable to do as a journalist, because back then it really was just about the facts. I learned the hard way that no matter how well intentioned you are as a writer, if you are given special treatment, provided a product or compensated in any way, it will influence how your story is written. When I was a young editor at a weekly newspaper, a trip to Mackinac Island, Mich., to check out a refurbished hotel came across my desk. I figured it couldn’t hurt to take a trip north as I hadn’t been there in a while, and I was determined to give a fair and accurate review of the facility. I took the free trip, spent a couple of days gathering notes and came home to write what I thought was a great travel piece. It was factual. It was fair. It was positive about some things and critical of others. I was very pleased with myself for having pulled off a junket and still managing to write an ethically acceptable news story. Then the story was printed, and I got a visit from our publisher. His first words were, “I hope we got something for that Mackinac Island story.” I explained that we weren’t a pay-to-play publication so, of course, there was no advertising connected to it, but that I did get a couple of days on the island for my efforts. “Ah, OK, he said—well as long as someone got compensated in some way for that promotional piece.” See, it’s not that the FTC or the buying public don’t want journalists or bloggers to get free stuff. It’s not that people don’t trust your ethics. It’s that they understand that no matter how objective you think you can be, there is no doubt you are going to be influenced by compensation in any form when you sit down to write about your experience. In the textbook “Mixed Media,” by Thomas Bivins, it’s noted: “The subjective view of reality is relative to the observer. …We must remember that, as human beings, we still tend to view the objective world through a subjective lens. The trick to being objective is to recognize this inclination and understand that there will be different accounts of reality that must then be judged as either adequate or inadequate based on facts and reason, not on personal perspective.” How are we, as readers, expected to be able to judge adequately what your perception of reality is if we don’t know all the facts about how you may have been influenced in your writing? If you receive a free product in order to review it—take advantage of the opportunity. But be forthright enough to admit that it may influence your opinion. After all, your hard-earned money isn’t on the line if the product works like a charm or not quite like you expected. If your readers are going to spend their money based on your review, you owe it to them to be as transparent as possible on how you arrived at your opinion. In the end, the FTC rules boil down to being upfront about what you are doing, why you are doing it and whom you are doing it for—whether you’re a journalist, an advertiser, a public relations professional or a blogger. In a memo to members of the Public Relations Society of America, PRSA Chairman & CEO Michael Cherenson wrote: “From an ethics perspective, the new guidelines parallel key transparency principles in the PRSA Code of Ethics, as well as Professional Standards Advisory PS-9 condemning ‘pay for play’ practices. However, for practitioners, the guidelines go beyond ethics to recommended practice to avoid legal liability. While the ethics are clear, the triggers and nature of adequate disclosure are not fixed. As I recommended in a recent PRSAY post, thorough understanding and self-regulation can help public relations professionals avoid legal repercussions.” In short: Do the right thing and do it where everyone can see it, and you’ll avoid any trouble. Now there’s a revolutionary concept.

We the knowing, led by the unwilling…the copy

I don’t usually do this, but I’ve decided to copy a post I wrote for Digital Pivot over here to 5Ws because the issue is important and I want to share it with as many audiences as possible. Please consider joining the fight!  ~ aba

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Fear-mongering IT specialists and clueless executives just don’t get it. When it comes to social media, sticking your head in the sand just makes it easier for people to kick you in the ass.

There’s an old quote attributed to an anonymous author that goes, “We the unwilling, led by the unknowing are doing the impossible, for the ungrateful. We have done so much, for so long, with so little, we are now qualified to do anything with nothing.” It’s time to update the quote.

Every day, you hear people complaining about companies doing their best to shut off their employees from the electronic world that is growing by leaps and bounds around them. It is these companies that will be left behind, wandering around, scratching their heads, wondering how their competitors got so far ahead of them.

Shel Holtz has started a tremendous web site dedicated to bringing an end to this nonsense. The description at StopBlocking.org says it best:

Companies everywhere are blocking employee access to the Net, fueled by questionable research and irresponsible pronouncements of self-serving individuals and organizations. This site is designed to serve as an information resource for those who believe the benefits of providing access far outweigh the risks.

It appears to be an incredibly useful resource and I encourage you to check it out and get involved. Of course, even though it’s designed to help you help your employer, you may have to access it at home since I know the site is now being blocked at some companies!

In honor of such a farcical management tactic as blocking access to the Internet and all its power, I give you my updated version of that famous anonymous quote:

“We the knowing, led by the unwilling are not doing what’s possible, for they are ungrateful. We have done so much work, for so long a workday, with so little support, we are now more qualified to do anything online but are doing nothing because we are blocked.” ~ Ari B. Adler

The Honorable Congressman Spammer — the story continues

Here’s the latest update to the discussion regarding blog comment spam, as posted over at Digital Pivot:

As you’ll recall from Chapter 2, I reached out to the staff member of the congressman who I felt was leaving blog spam by posting comments unrelated to the blog but fishing for supporters. I offered to enter into a discussion about the merits or detriment of taking such a tack and wondered whether the response had been positive or negative.

I’m going to let the staffer’s response speak for itself, but I’d also like to get a discussion started on whether blog comments need to be kept strictly to the topic at hand or if that section should be used for outreach. I think it’s pretty clear how I feel about it — that blog comments should be related to the blog post and not just some random method to conduct outreach. After all, bloggers generally offer at least one way to reach them other than posting a comment.

I have calmed down enough that I’m going to honor the staffer’s request not to identify which congressman this is involving because it’s not about calling someone out anymore — it’s about using it as a learning tool for all of us. In addition, I think the staffer is sincere in his desire to learn from this, too. Here’s the response I received:

Thanks for replying to my (spam) blog post.   It is good to get feedback on what methods we are using to reach out to new media and hear what annoys or pleases people.  I had no idea this was an issue with bloggers so it’s good you pointed this out.  I figured the only way to actually contact bloggers such as yourself is through the comments section as most (smartly) do not post their e-mail addresses on their blogs and so ways of connecting are limited.  That being said, no one wants to receive spam, either through e-mail or blog comments.  We get plenty of that from MUCH less reputable sources on our YouTube pages, as an example, and must constantly be checking the comments sections for such spam. I did not mean to provoke outrage by any means.  This is virtually the only method to reach out to new media right now.  As for your question as to whether or not I receive positive responses, yours is the first which could be termed negative.  Either the posts are ignored or the bloggers do e-mail me back asking to be sent regular updates and videos from our office, and many do post these as well!  It is not all in vain that I use this method, though your e-mail is of course making me rethink this.

So, what do you think? Should they rethink their method of outreach or should I just learn to relax and be happy that anyone posts any kind of comment on my blogs? 

The new home of 5Ws

5Ws is new to the WordPress neighborhood, having moved here from www.aribadler.blogspot.com

Due to time constraints, I imported all of the blog posts from Blogspot but did not import photos, etc.

Thanks for reading!

I’ve turned pro

OK, so it’s a bit of a stretch to say I’ve turned pro — but what do you expect from a blog entry being written while watching Monday Night Football?

Here’s the scoop: there’s a new blog site from Offset Media that is currently offering six different blogs with a different focus for six different audiences. Offset Media is a project from parent company Talent Zoo, the self-proclaimed “No. 1 site for ad, marketing and media professionals.”

If you get a chance, check out the various blogs, which include:

• 12 Point Type (for graphic designers)
• Beneath the Brand (for marketers)
• Beyond Madison Avenue (for advertising folks)
• Digital Pivot (about new media — the one I’m writing for)
• Flack Me (for public relations pros)
• SEO Shootout (focused on making organic search work for you)

Keeping up with the Digital Pivot posts means I’ll probably be posting to this blog less frequently. Of course, I’ll probably say that and then end up posting here anyway as I find things to write about that don’t quite fit the Digital Pivot brand.

I guess we’ll see what happens. That’s a motto that kind of describes my life lately, so it seems appropriate.

My first entry for Digital Pivot is now posted, so have a look. I ran onto the field during my first pro game by talking about the mishandling of the Joe the Plumber situation by McCain’s campaign. As I ask in that post, how can you hook your wagon to a shooting star before you’ve Googled it’s trajectory?

"Too fat" guy being executed

CINCINNATI (AP) — A double murderer who says he’s too fat to be executed humanely has passed a pre-execution exam and is cleared to receive a lethal injection today.

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I blogged about this issue in September, so I thought I should post this news update.

The good news for the victims’ families is that the Ohio Board of Parole and Gov. Ted Strickland have refused pleas for clemency.

The bad news is we still have this stupid philosophy in this country that people facing execution are entitled to their favorite meal just prior to paying the ultimate price. According to the Associated Press: “Cooey dined Monday evening on the special meal he ordered, including T-bone steak with A-1 sauce, onion rings, french fries, four eggs over easy, toast with butter, hash browns, a pint of rocky road ice cream, a Mountain Dew soft drink and bear claw pastries.”

That’s a nice message to send, isn’t it?

My heart goes out to the victims’ families. At least now, you’ll hopefully have a bit more peace by not having to hear about this guy anymore.

Can your hobby survive as a job?

“Never make your hobby your job because then it becomes a chore.”

I’ve heard that phrase a number of times over the years and I’ve always wondered if it’s true. It’s one of those things that people tend to just take at face value because they sound right and seem to make sense.

If you take up a hobby, it’s probably doing something you like to do just for fun and it was never intended as a way to make money. Heck, it was probably a way for you to escape the daily grind of the thing you do to make money in the first place.

I don’t know if blogging is really a hobby or a way to keep something that I like to do fresh. You see, I have always enjoyed writing. I don’t know when it started, but from elementary school on I knew I’d be a writer — a journalist to be exact. I held on to that childhood dream right through to my bachelor’s degree in journalism from Michigan State University.

I wrote as a journalist for several years, then I was an editor but made a point of writing a weekly column to keep my creative juices flowing. I’ve spent a lot of years since then on the public relations side of the industry and coming up with clever ways to say things is fun. Sure, there are days when I’m doing the mundane and it’s a bit routine, but that’s OK. Hanging on and writing a clever headline or suggesting a witty quote for someone is worth the wait.

Then, a few months ago, after watching others blog for quite some time, I decided to start this regular testament to the fact that I have something to say and people might want to hear it. I’m not naive enough to think people are subscribing or regularly checking this blog to see what I’ve had to say lately. There are millions of choices out there of things to read on the Internet and I’m surely not very high on most reading lists.

But it doesn’t matter. Writing this blog has been an outlet for me. It’s helped me stay focused on the communications industry — journalism, media relations, new media, social media — and that’s made me a better employee and a better teacher. Still, it’s really been all about me and what I wanted to write about.

Now, I have a chance at blogging for a paycheck. Oh, certainly not enough of a paycheck to quit my day job; not that I would want to. But it’s a bit of extra money anyway. I can’t help but think that if I’m going to write these blogs, maybe I should get paid for them. But, alas, that means this blog isn’t a hobby anymore — it’s a job. And that means it doesn’t matter if I “just don’t feel like writing today,” I still will have to do it.

Will that impact the quality of my work? Will that bring an end to blogging as a hobby? Will it take the fun out of it?

What do you think? Can your hobby survive as a job? Or, over time, will I find that I need a new hobby to help me escape from the chore that used to be a fun escape?