Strategic Guy

Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) partner and managing director Chris Parente penned this exceptional article in CommPR.biz that addresses a number of high impact and relevant trends that have influenced how business-to-business and public sector oriented companies communicate with external audiences.

-The shift in influence from traditional sources of credibility (i.e. business magazines, trade journals, analyst firms, etc.) to the community and conversations that define social networks.

-How this shift has accelerated the stress placed on the business models of traditional publishers, producing a vicious cycle towards increasing irrelevance.

-And, as a result, the rapid rise of corporate publishing and content marketing, and its alignment with measurable business outcomes.

Stop Pillorying PR:  Let’s Call Out Crappy Reporting for a Change

Every competent communicator has been the victim of a poorly done story on a client. Notice I’m not saying a negative story, which is always a possibility and if the facts are accurate you just deal with it. I’m talking about a poorly done story—quotes mangled, single sourced, pieces in which the reporter and editor just didn’t do their homework.

When this happens, the PR person usually just suffers in silence. They don’t feel they can publicly complain, for fear of burning a bridge they will need later with the publication in question. So they mutter into their beer(s), kvetch to family and maybe moan about what a tough job PR is. Basically do everything except call the reporter out.

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UPDATE:  ADDED MONDAY, JUNE 25 AT 11 AM

A former journalist who is now seeking a job in public relations takes on my partner Chris Parente in this misguided response to the op-ed about sloppy reporting.

Please be sure to read Chris’ comment.

Another Aggrieved PR Person: In the Name of the Late Rodney King – Can’t We All Get Along

Power statements are high impact and memorable, and – at their core – simple in their brilliance.

In the past two days, I have come across two wonderful examples of concise statements that have redefined how I view an important aspect of my professional world.

Let’s start with a 19-year-old whose accomplishments at the highest level of professional baseball are stunning.  From the intensity Bryce Harper displays on the field to the maturity he demonstrates as a teammate, Harper is one of the reasons why the Washington Nationals lead their division and sport the second best record in the league.

Yet, it was this brilliantly candid and dismissive remark to an irrelevant question from journalist that captures Harper’s leadership attributes and star quality.

During the past 20 years, I have prepared hundreds of executives for media interviews, analyst briefings and presentations.  As part of this process, the issue of how to manage a response to an undesirable question is often tops on the agenda.

Never once did I come up with something as compelling as “That’s a clown question, bro.”

While Harper’s sound bite was a nod to my public relations past, SAP chief marketing officer Jonathan Becher’s insight into the alignment of marketing with measurable sales outcomes is very much relevant to my world today.

Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) has transitioned its business during the past five years to focus on the development of socially oriented sales enablement programs for business lines of global brands and fast-growth, mid-market companies.  Check out Engage Today, Federal Unified Communications and Decisiv Connect  as they are wonderful examples of social media for sales campaigns.

Many corporate marketing and communications teams view social media primarily as a channel to enhance brand awareness and reputation.  As such, I’m often challenged with how to articulate what’s truly possible with social media in an articulate manner.

Which brings me to SAP’s Becher and his power statement about social media for sales enablement at a recent conference sponsored by SiriusDecisions.

“Focus on people prospects, not company prospects.  Big glass buildings don’t buy software; people do.”

A truly brilliant statement because it is clear, concise and compelling.

A grim future for newspapers.

After 17 years as a journalist at one of the most respected, award winning daily newspapers in the country it was time for him to take the buy-out.  This was the fourth offer in 36 months and management made it clear the next set of editorial staff cuts won’t be optional.

So…he accepted a year’s worth of pay and was gone in two weeks, replaced by a writer 18 months fresh out of journalism school.

I sat down with this long-time contact for an hour last month as he wanted my insight into career opportunities in corporate communications, public relations and social media.  His preference, of course, would be to remain a journalist.  That’s no longer an option for most.

About the same time his former employer began to cull its editorial ranks, I penned a blog post about the sustained shift in influence from traditional sources of information and credibility to the conversations that define social networks and online communities.  I followed that up with an “Open Letter to the Unemployed Journalist,” a post that generated a rather passionate reader response.

This decline of advertising-supported media as a viable business model continues to accelerate.  It consumed trade publishers and has now set its fangs into more mainstream, news editorial operations.

Consider the announcement last month that The Times-Picayune in New Orleans was scaling back its print edition from daily to three times a week.  Within hours, The Birmingham News, The Press-Register of Mobile and The Huntsville Times followed suit.

Market shifts create opportunity for forward-thinking companies.  There’s an information void and by embracing a role akin to a quality trade publisher a company can absolutely garner audience, build credibility and, when appropriate, cultivate sales leads.

This demands a commitment to producing insightful, thought leadership and best practices content, rather than the marketing-speak and PR junk that most organizations sludge out through their corporate blogs.

Examples of exceptional corporate publishing programs:

Pitney Bowes Software – Engage Today

Kapersky Labs – ThreatPost

Polycom – Federal Unified Communications

Full disclosure:  my firm – Strategic Communications Group – developed Engage Today and Federal Unified Communications.