I am not a journalist. I am an entrepreneur who blogs. I blog on ReadWriteWeb because I don't like talking to myself and there are some great conversations here. Being part of RWW means I get to be on the receiving end of PR processes such as news releases and embargoes, which to me is strange. I have spent way more time on the other side of the street, hiring PR firms when I have the budget and doing it myself when I don't. This new perspective has lead me to some advice for companies about dealing with the press.
I was going to say that Internet changes the rules for PR as it does for everybody else. But then I remembered one of the best startup books ever, Up the Organization by Robert Townsend. It was written in 1970, and I read it in 1980 when I was first starting in business.
Townsend was CEO of Avis, an auto rental company, who took on the much bigger Hertz with the "We try harder" proposition, a classic story for scrappy number two players beating up on the gorilla. The book is full of timeless wisdom, but the relevant bit here is the way he allowed all his managers to speak to the press without any prepared script. His simple point was, if you were a journalist, who would you want to talk to when a big story breaks? Hertz's PR department or the guys actually running the business at Avis? That's right. Back in 1970, this guy was saying, "loosen up, forget about command and control, let front line managers make the call."
He was radical on other fronts. His book was organized alphabetically, for example. Under P for Personnel Department his pithy advice (I am going from memory here) was, "fire them, people manage people." But that's another story.
His advice on PR is even more critical today. The Internet makes command and control models pretty obsolete. Sure, some data has to be controlled. The financial results for a public company need to be issued in a certain way to comply with SEC regulations. But that's about it. Whether you use a newswire service or your blog, the key is lighten up on the process and get into the flow. That flow may be a blog, or Twitter, or Facebook or any of the above and more. The general point is simply about availability and transparency.
If you really have a great story to tell, that will get even the most jaded journalist interested.
Public relations needs to evolve from gatekeeper and process manager to coach, helping the front line managers work effectively with media and the market. That assumes that their clients are enlightened enough to give them that mandate.
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Hmmm.... I dunno about that. The old adage in the hotel industry is that you can spend $600M on a brand new hotel, if the front desk person is just going through a big break-up and has a pouty face and snappy demeanor, your big investment is for the butt. You may have a great new service on offer, but if the journalist is talking to just anyone, I hope that employee is having a good day.
Posted by: Iron Flatline | May 23, 2008 12:59 AM
Best. blog. pic. ever.
Posted by: Richard MacManus
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May 23, 2008 1:08 AM
# 1. People who run customer service operations such as hotels will tell you that you get pouty, surly, dumb behavior if you DON'T empower your front line workers. Hire the best, train them well, pay them well and expect nothing but the best, empower them to make decisions and fire those who don't deliver. Its not magic, but nothing else works. In todays world, lousy service will be blogged, twittered and rated by customers...and then press pick up on that story. The idea of PR hiding reality is gone, baby gone.
Posted by: bernard lunn | May 23, 2008 1:32 AM
PR is good in somethings but it tends to be very tiring in some other cases. The best way to get something out there is exactly what the article says. Why do I need a PR company if I can contact, lets say, Bernard myself stating in a simple way my story. No matter the presentation Bernard will be the one that will evaluate if what I am saying worths publicity (and then again there are other factors as well that define the extent of publicity).
Posted by: George | May 23, 2008 1:49 AM
Amen. Consumers see through PR and advertising more and more and are tired of it. Plus with the Internet nothing can be hidden any more, so why bother trying.
"Customer service is the new marketing" - I cannot wait until it becomes commonplace.
Customers will get better service and companies will be more honest and approachable.
It's already started: http://www.ccpact.com/ yay!
Posted by: Peldi | May 23, 2008 1:52 AM
I read Townsend's book about the same time you did. Was actually working for Hertz at the time ;) Great ideas for non-conformists like me.
That whole CnC thing is hard for companies to give up. It's not just PR, it's the whole "corporate thing". They think that's how they got to wherever they are. It's us who got them where they are. Real people who would like to talk to real people instead of the "corporation".
Posted by: Jon | May 23, 2008 3:24 AM
Nice article, enjoyed reading it.
I totally agree.
Posted by: Wendy | May 23, 2008 4:06 AM
"he allowed all his managers to speak to the press without any prepared script."
What would get the press' attention about a car-rental company?
Posted by: op | May 23, 2008 7:08 AM
Your point about the "Internet making command and control models obsolete" is dead on. Coming from the public relations side, it’s an unfortunate truth that pummeling spokespeople into submission to stay with the key messages still rules the day.
With that said, I've been surprised at the resistance in companies to change with the times. We’ve been pushing our clients – albeit often kicking and screaming but emotion is good -- to have conversations but it's not easy.
I suppose people and not just the PR function have been conditioned with a mentality to control the message. Like any ingrained condition it will take time to change.
Posted by: Lou Hoffman | May 23, 2008 11:24 AM
#1: See comment #3. That response is what I was going to write. Right on.
Posted by: Mike Keliher | May 23, 2008 12:19 PM
Speaking as a PR professional, I really welcome this post and your comments. I think many PR professionals actually taint the very meaning of PR. Let's break it down: PR stands for 'Public Relations' ie managing relationships with different publics. It doesn't purely mean one-way communication through the press. PR at its very best is about open two-way communications across many platforms, engaging in conversations, listening to the responses.
Before going-it-alone I used to work for the University of Warwick. 'Academic Freedom' is always a problematic one for university PR departments - you never know quite what they're going to say! However, Warwick University took the step a few years back of setting up its own blog platform - Warwick Blogs - to give everyone a free and open voice. Experience shows that if anything this enhanced the University's brand (they even won awards for it). It showed them as being forward-thinking and welcoming of open debate and individual opinion expressed publicly. I'm amazed that given this experience there are still so many University PR departments out there putting a hold on their university following this example because they're afraid of what might get said! You're right, some PROs do need to lighten up a bit (but some of us have already done so!)
Posted by: Tracy Playle | May 24, 2008 2:53 AM