Self Deception Shouldn’t Be Part of Your PR DNA

Last weekend Guardian columnist Simon Hoggart  made a comment about  the Jeremy Hunt affair. He noted how the emails from Frederic Michel to his boss  James Murdoch exhibited that tendency of PR people to self-deceive and exaggerate to impress. Notwithstanding Michel being a public affairs rather than a PR man, what Hoggart had to say struck home and I could hear little echoes of myself and others in some of those lines.

But I also think he misses the point about how PR people communicate with clients and over stresses any tendency to self deception. In reality, my job hinges on managing expectations  down rather than up -  dampening down rather than throwing another coal on the raging hot fire of client excitement. We operate in a field where results come slowly and need to be built up over time and we are seeking to influence people – journalists, experts, consumers – with strong opinions and wills.  Their judgements and percepions do not change overnight nor with massive swings.  So I find little value in exaggerating what’s happening when there are so many variables in play and we are playing a longer strategic game of communication.

So the client conversation needs to be more nuanced and cannot really afford to overstate the results and outcome of a campaign or project. The keyis to set the most realistic targets possible and work to over-achieve these but not share that fact until it is fact rather than speculation. Or at least that’s the (my)  theory.

LinkedIn Turns into Research Tool

Having been a LinkedIn user for many years – though not as long as some colleagues I know – I have a real respect for how the service works.

But its power to offer insights into how the economy – let alone the careers market – is performing caught me by surprise when I read the Media Guardian today. This story linked back to the original LinkedIn Blog page which is full of fascinating details all gleaned from how enthusiastic LinkedIn users are to share details of their career histories.

It’ll be interesting to see how LinkedIn’s analysis of the US economy is used in the forthcoming US Presidential elections and how much social media data like this  is jumped upon by our own politicians and media at the next UK General Election in 2015.

BMW Gets Bitten by a PR Cold Snap

Literally chilling in this wintry weather brought my attention to a story about a PR campaign gone awry that’s also an object lesson in the unintended consequences of creative PR ideas.

It seems that those crazy German (meteorologists)let the general public and companies name high and low pressure weather fronts with male or female names respectively. Notwithstanding the sexism of associating a lesser band of cloud with a woman, it turns out that a marketing agency working for BMW has been booking the names of several weather fronts to support a new marketing campaign for the Mini. Problem is that these are the same weather fronts that have brought near artic weather conditions to Germany and the rest of continental Europe and led to a rising number of deaths.  So there’s been quite a bit of backtracking and apologies made.

PR people are always been urged to be more creative and suggest concepts that cut through the blizzard (pun intended) of information and ideas. But, as this example illustrates, to spend even more time on really kicking the tyres of a big bright idea and consider all of the angles that might make it fly or crash horribly and back fire. Whether you can enough foresight to see an unitended outsomce or not, at the very least be prepared for something to go off key and have a Plan B in your back pocket.

Are Digital Magazines Taking Off?

Good magazines are being closed down a rapid rate. Many are going to pure online versions or ending entirely like the venerable Police Review.

But some are exploring the digital magazine option and leveraging the iPad zeitgeist.  So far there’s been little reader research published on how these digital magazines are faring. Until now.

An article in Ars Technica reports on a study by the US Association of Magazine Media into the reading habits of 1000 digital magazine readers. A healthy number of these claim that they read more magazine content in the digital format than they did with the physical format. Whether this is simply to do with the novelty of it all isn’t questioned but the survey does point out some areas for improvement that highlight the current shortcomings of the digital magazine movement.

For example, respondents reveal that they would like to be able to make purchases from the display ads featured in the digital magazine. Why this hasn’t before is odd except when you consider how much digital magazines seem to be straightforward flatform PDF copies rather than an actual new form of media.

Nonetheless, this research suggests that the digital magazine format has a greater potential than is currently being exploited and the popularity of iPad and perhaps the new Kindle Fire will fuel new developments.

Is the Blackberry Squashed? Maybe Not (Yet)

I’m not a user but I have been shocked by how badly Blackberry’s reputation has been damaged by recent mistakes (the outage, censorship issues in Middle East) and the consumerization of IT that’s seen the brand overwhelmed by Apple (though not helped by how badly the Playbook’s been received) 

Growth has slowed down to a point where people predict a case of the Nokias or worse, the Palms. 

So, this articlewas a good reality check especially for those who predict Apple is the de facto for mobilising enterprises on a grander scale than previously seen.

Ansd my personal barometer of what my fellow commuters on the 7.12 from Dover  use suggests the battle isn’t lost just yet. Yes, they stroke their Apple devices but – as the City draws closer the Blackberrys come out en masse  for the essential emailing …

So perhaps don’t right them off yet but shouldn’t their PR machine go back to the basics of communicatinf the Blackberry as the best possible  mobile business machine?