Does a Prostitute Belong at Your Honeymoon?

Here's a real winner: a man was arrested on his honeymoon for soliciting a prostitute. I can understand why that Chicago Sun-Times story, "Suburban man arrested for soliciting prostitute on his honeymoon," by Jon Seidel and Stefano Esposito, has become so popular. On what was supposed to be a very special day, his wife noticed he'd gone missing, and lo and behold, she found out that he'd responded to an ad on a website that was posted by an undercover detective. I think it's safe to say that this marriage isn't going to be so great, and it's not the only example of a failed partnership.

There are partnerships in business that don't always go well, and a good relationship is especially important when doing publicity. Whether a company has merged with another, has acquired new clients, or simply wants to publicize new hires, everyone has to be on the same page. Not only does the message have to be clear and consistent, but anyone communicating with the press and public should have the same tone, facts, goals, and style. After all, the company might end up getting the kind of publicity the newly married couple got, and no one would want that. 

 

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Attorneys Make Terrible Horror Movie Directors

Attorneys know that they have to be careful about what they put online, and they usually use social media sparingly, if at all. I've noticed that attorneys limit their social media activity to LinkedIn because they think it's the safest. However, everyone has to be careful, no matter how professional a website might seem.

One attorney paid a heavy price for his online activity, which was deserved, but it also affected a couple of women's reputation. According to Martha Neil's article,"Sending female intern’s horror-film clip to local law firms get sex-partner suspended for 3 years" in the ABA Journal, a partner of a law firm wanted to punish an intern that didn't respond to his advances, so he had a paralegal send out a clip from a horror film that showed the intern nude. Actually, it wasn't really her, but he said it was. 

Even though her name isn't in the article, it was a total embarrassment for her because many attorneys saw the clip. Plus, the paralegal looked bad because she was the one who sent out the email to other law firms. Luckily, the partner ended up getting suspended, but he created a mess that will probably take a while to clean up. 

It's a great lesson for attorneys to be careful about what they post or send out online, even if they think it's a practical joke. It's safe to say that if you have any doubts about posting a photo, quote, or link, don't post it at all. Like our mothers often told us, "If you don't have something nice to say, don't say anything at all." Attorneys have to be careful in court, but in the court of public opinion, they have to be especially careful, because they are held to high standards in communications. 

Posting online is like speaking: people are usually advised to think before they speak in case they say something they regret. When you're online, it's even more important to think before you post because whatever you put out there will last a very long time.

When is Being Red and Fat a Sign of Good Health?

Christmas is around the corner, and as usual, we've been inundated with Santa Claus. Actually, I've seen Santa Claus around since I was a kid, so he's been with me pretty much my whole life. When I think of Santa, a fat, round, red guy comes to mind, and not a spokesperson for healthy living. 

Yet AARP created an interesting twist with Santa by making a list of why he's actually healthy in "Claus and Effect". Have you ever thought of Santa as being the picture of health? I sure haven't, but AARP has come up with some ways we can be inspired by him so that we can be healthy too. The tips include generosity ("hand out toys"), sitting less ("climbing chimneys"), and having a pet ("get a reindeer"). 

It just goes to show that everything old can become new again if we learn to repackage something. So as you run around stressed out and enjoying treats, think of Santa. If he can be considered healthy, then we can too. And it's also a good time to think about how you can reinvent your media message to be fresh and ready for the new year.

 

Merry Christmas!

 

 

Can a Press Release Become the News?

Cashing in on press releases that generate
negative publicity is simply goofy.

I saw an article in the Chicago Sun-Times, "State Sen. Sandoval’s $68,400 side gig: translating news releases," by Dan Mihalopoulos, Steve Warmbir, and Dave McKinney about how a politician is making a great living by being a consultant for the Town of Cicero, where he was also elected to serve. What caught my attention was not just what State Senator Martin Sandoval is doing to profit from his skills, but that there’s so much news surrounding press releases. That’s because with the speed of communication nowadays, press releases aren’t as important as they used to be.

It used to be that a press release was the only way to connect to the media, but now there are other avenues, such as Twitter, LinkedIn, and Facebook, which make us not have to rely on just press releases. I still think they’re useful and allow us to summarize client news. Plus they’re a good way to send out information that might be picked up by news websites. But spending thousands of dollars on them? That’s not smart at all.

If you hire someone to translate a press release and distribute it through a service such as PR Web, it should only cost around $300. But according to the article, the Town of Cicero is paying him $4,200 a month to be a consultant, in addition to the $1,500 a month he gets from the village of Melrose Park. That’s a lot of money to spend for press releases, especially when the media has changed, and they don’t pay as much attention to press releases anymore.

Sen. Sandoval has taken advantage of people’s lack of media savvy, and look what it’s gotten him: negative press coverage.

Facebook - A Hairy Liability for Lawyers Working with the Media?

I read some good advice on the Slaw blog about a partner of a law firm who was "friends" with a reporter on Facebook. The reporter wanted a good picture of the attorney, and dug through Facebook to find one. Luckily, the photo wasn't embarrassing, but can you imagine if it were? Not only would that be a public relations disaster, it could affect the firm and the attorney's own professional life.  

So let this be a lesson to be careful about what you do on Facebook, and who you friend there, because you never know how much people will do with what you post or where you're tagged.

If you're wondering if there's anything embarrassing about you on Facebook, do a search on Foupas, which is a Facebook search engine. Just do a search for your name, and try using quotes around it to see if you get different results. Some people forget what they've posted on Facebook, or didn't pay attention when a photo was taken, and voila...they end up in a photo they wish had never existed. 

If you feel like you've gone too far and done too much on Facebook that is making you feel uncomfortable, you can try deactiving your Facebook account to reassess your activities. Some people end up deleting their account and starting over, so that any tags or posts they're in are gone, and they can start fresh.

Whenever I think about posting anything on Facebook, I ask myself how it will affect my reputation, and even now, I feel like I'm pretty careful about what I post. But some people let their guards down and end up doing things that they don't want other people to see...such as posting photos on a network of reporters who might end up using an embarrassing picture of them! So you really have to be careful out there.

Learn from the Pig

When I was growing up, "pig" meant the source of bacon, sausage, a good ham for the holidays, and even a derogatory name for the police during protests. Who knew "pig" would end up meaning big profits?

People find lots of different uses for pigs, and even Business Week has taken notice of the the pork rind battle going on for dominant market share. It sounds silly that those companies are taking pork rinds so seriously because to some people, that part of the pig doesn't seem as important as the meat, but they're obviously making good money from that business because a lot of people like to eat the skins of pigs. 

When put that way, it doesn't sound appetizing, but anything we do can sound different as long as we present it in a way that people will take interest. 

Which brings me to our own publicity efforts. Like the pig industry, we can get a lot of different uses with our own content. For instance, if you write an article for a trade publication, it can also go on your blog, become a pitch for the media, be the basis of a video, and can even become an outline for a speech at a professional association. There are many ways you can use your content; just figure out which part of it people are interested in, and modify it to appeal to them the most. And it's important to remember that in addition to creating appealing content, you should offer information that can benefit people so that you're not just tooting your own horn. That way, you'll profit in various ways.

Saturday Night Live is Still Dead

As you know, "laughs" is a part of my blog's title, so it's obvious that I love comedy. I've been a clown, have done stand up, and have also taken Second City classes (which have helped my speaking engagements, too). I'm always looking to have a laugh after a long workweek, and I used to watch Saturday Night Live often. But not anymore.

A lot of people watch it, and lots of people have tuned in to that show for years, so SNL must be doing something right...right? Wrong. It's just not funny anymore, which is too bad because they're on a big network with a long history. But SNL has lost its heart and the essence of what made it funny.

So what's funny, you ask? I like Newsbusters. Sure, they're mostly a news site that has a lot of facts and figures, but they know how to make news funny, not stuffy or stale. Which is what SNL is: stuffy, stale, and dead. That show should learn from their older episodes to find out what funny and fresh look like.

Below is the latest Newsbusters video. It just goes to show that online video is 10 times funnier than what we can find on TV.

When You Mess Up, Fess Up

By now, everyone knows the big news about New York congressman Anthony Weiner: he did, indeed, send out lewd pictures, and finally admitted what he had done after a week of denials.

What took him so long?

It was probably fear of what people thought, including his wife, who is pregnant. Even though it’s an embarrassing situation and could cost him his job, he should have fessed up right away. Think about how he felt all those days and nights. The media kept asking the questions, and he kept lying and making excuses, and even showed his anger towards them.

Big mistake.

It made him look a lot worse. Now he not only looks like a pervert and cheat, but the media, the public, and his constituents, who have voted for him several times, think he’s a liar.

Liar, liar, pants on fire…or pants off, in his case. He ruined his reputation, whereas he could have just admitted it right away, said he’d work it out with his wife, get help, take some time off, and do whatever he had to do to make things right for himself and in the public eye.

Now the public has turned against him and think he’s a loser. It’s too bad for him, but a lesson for us: when we mess up, we have to fess up to prevent any more disasters to our reputation. It also lessons the pain.

Give PR Professionals some RESPECT

One of my favorite public relations professionals is Joan Stewart, who has a business called The Publicity Hound that helps other public relations professionals do better work. Her blog has this post: How to work with a PR firm: 15 do’s and 8 don’ts, and I'd like to add look at a few of the "don'ts" more closely:

Don't demand that the publicist write and send a press release about something she knows is not newsworthy

A few years back, I was working as the local public relations representative for one of the major national mobile phone services headquartered on the East Coast (not to date myself, but this was when combining a cellphone with a PDA was news). One of my jobs was to take corporate's press releases, edit them to make them relevant for the local market and send them out to the Chicago area media. Many times, the "news" had to do with personnel changes that would mean nothing to someone in the Midwest. Yet, I had to edit the releases, and get them to people who covered the consumer technology news. It was painful and a waste of time. I could have focused my efforts on more productive and relevant outreach.

  Don't go behind the publicist’s back and send letters, gifts or anything else to media contacts

Wow, does this make me crazy. Many of my clients are very successful professionals. And I know they became successful by making friends and influencing other business professionals. However, some of them think that influence can be used to get a reporter to write something more favorable or give them more space in an article. Part of the value of earned media is that the "media" contacts decide how you "earn" space in what they report. Think of it like bribing a police officer to not give you a ticket, though it might succeed in the short-term, it might get you in deep trouble.

Don’t expect the PR firm to do it all

Amen to that. Public relations professionals help shape and carry the message to the right people. I like to think of it as getting news from the President of the United States verses his press people. The media is more likely to run footage of the President making a major announcement than the press secretary. That holds true for any professional that wants to be seen as the corporate representative. The PR person can set the stage, yet the client needs to step into the spotlight.

Joan has a wealth of information at her blog. Check it out.

Social Networking for Lawyers: Legal Marketing Tool or Faster Way to Chase an Ambulance?

A few weeks back, the Wall Street Journal ran an article titled: Using Social Networking as Legal Tool. It features lessons and case studies from law firms that represent plaintiffs in personal injury and disasters (think Life of a Trial Lawyer: Boots down for BP Oil Spill Lawyer). A New York-based firm set up the website http://www.bigspills.com/ to capture clients from the BP disaster. Interestingly, as of this post, there were only four comments online for the Wall Street Journal article. (I'll leave my readers to interpret the lack of interaction on a social media article in one of the world's largest newspapers.)

The article has several lessons that can apply to almost any area of law:

• Speed matters and it can be relative for marketing purposes: There's no question when there's an accident that impacts many people, lawyers are trying to capture those cases. However, even lawyers that work in areas like real estate and intellectual property can be on the lookout for new laws and regulations that can be a disaster for the clients they serve and proactively market their expertise to those markets.
• Thought leadership wins, selling loses: The smartest legal marketers know that when a law firm wants to attract new clients, posting thought leadership white papers on their website and writing articles for business publications their clients and prospects read, always wins the long-term marketing war against competitors. The law firm that simply puts out more sales and marketing copy at their websites on a particular issue, particularly for business to business legal matters, will lose.
• Relevant Communication Channels Do Matter: If a law firms managing partner or marketing director thinks selling the firm is all about having a website that looks like a printed brochure and the only interactivity comes from drinking at national trade shows, they're wrong. A law firm needs to master all the best channels of communication in order to demonstrate to clients and even law school graduates that they are progressive in matters of the law and communications.

With the battle of the billable hour and the fierce competition for getting legal work for a variety of practices, all lawyers should look at Sololove Law LLC. This firm spends $12 million annually on digital outreach. While I'm not saying it takes $12 million to get in the game, what I am saying is that a concentrated effort with a solid investment is required for all law firms to succeed and thrive in this marketplace.

God Bless the Atheists

It's great being in a big city where you get a mix of religious activists and anti-religion advocates. A few weeks back, the Chicago Tribune ran a story with the headline: Atheists ads get OK in Chicago which reported on the Indiana Atheists Bus Campaign that was blowing into the Windy City.

This group has some playful messages like "In the beginning, man created God" and "You can be good without God." I've even seen messages encouraging people to honor God's day of rest by sleeping in on Sundays.  And when you look at the atheist organization's website you'll see plenty of media coverage on their campaigns, including one in Time Magazine from May 28, 2009.

It's interesting to note that at least with these messages, the value of their messages is playing against whose name? God's. Without God, these atheists messages would not exist. Reminds me of the story where scientists told God they had found a way to take dirt and create life. God said that He'd like to see that, but the scientists would need to first create their own dirt.

This is a battle that's sure to continue to get media attention, bu the irony of it reminds me when the psychic network went bankrupt a few years back. I guess they were unable to predict winning lottery tickets to help finance their operation.

By the way, the atheists' website is asking for donations. As a legitimate non-profit, they have every right to collection tax-deductible contributions. Actually, I think God can help them with their request to raise donations. See what He says about bringing in tithes and offerings in Malachi 3 verse 8. The atheists seem to be relying on Him for everything else.

Drunk on Twitter

Some time ago back in my wild youth, I found myself getting drunk three nights a week. What was the cause? Too much alcohol. A pretty simple cause and effect equation. Good news. I don't drink anymore (and if you want to know the story of how that happened, drop me a line at tc@tcpr.net. Bad news, I'm finding some alcoholics on Twitter.

Recently, I've been looking at http://twitaholic.com/. It's amazing what it tells you about Twitter accounts and their followers. For example, as of this post, Lady Gaga has more followers than President Obama. Ellen DeGeneres is more popular than Oprah Winfrey. CNN is not even in the top 10 anymore after the well-publicized challenge that Ashton Kutcher against the news network.

I connected with someone who has one of the top 1,000 Twitter accounts in the world (based on followers). This person was asking me for public relations help. and was frustrated that this top Twitter account was not helping their business development efforts. While I'd love to help this person, I'm beginning to see a trend  with people involved in Twitter that somewhat resembles drunken behavior: Followers/following for the sake of followers/following.

I do understand the value of Twitter, especially for consumer products and services that want to get the word out about a special or limited time offer, but for the business-to-business community I see people getting "drunk" with following and being followed for no strategic reason. The fact is that unless you are giving away something free to consumers, it's often a poor tactic for finding new business.

Look, I've read the blog posts of social media experts and I respect the value of Twitter for business to business client development. However, quality will always trump quantity. Why? Because relationships mean connections, not just some clever 140 character posts. How often does the average business have the type of breaking news like a plane going down in the Hudson River to justify their followers attention?

The laugh for me is that so many people are getting "drunk" on Twitter because they feel they have to join in. However, few people have more than a couple hundred contacts that they can stay in touch with in any meaningful way. Why do they need to keep signing up for platforms beyond Facebook or even a simple email group?

While I see the value of instant communications channels, I see much more of the garbage of businesses jumping on Twitter's bus with a DUI driver.

Interns BTI (Before the Internet)

Our agency just had its fourth intern finish her program with TC Public Relations. Jessica's leaving was bittersweet. Bitter because our interns do very important work that helps the account executives get the job done and sweet because we celebrated her time here with an ice cream cake.

I remember my first internship. I was finishing a degree in audio-visual communications (read slide shows, not PowerPoint, and 3/4 inch video decks, not Flip cameras) with an internship at the local ABC television station in Rochester, New York. One of my jobs as a production assistant was to carry around a video deck that must have weighed about 35 pounds (or about 50% more the current weight of my 16 month old daughter). Part of that job was to guide the camera person when walking backwards for walking interviews. Often I had to make sure the camera person did no step into a pile of dog poop. These dog poop avoiding skills have helped throughout my career.

So what does this have to do with public relations interns of the 21st Century? While the sugar buzz from the ice cream cake is still with me, let me share the connections:

• Interns still need to do heavy lifting: While our interns may only know Flip and Web cameras, they need to wade through tons and tons of social media opportunities (think YouTube as the second largest online search outlet) for our clients to find just the right connection points between our clients and their future customers.


• Interns still need to follow (and lead) the people who have the experience: I've been in public relations for more than 20 years, so I know that when I take the time to mentor the interns, I can give them valuable insights into the business world that transcends technology and share life experiences that they can take to their next job. In exchange, the interns that grew up in a digital world can lead me and help me learn what it's like to have a life that is more centered on social media than the society pages of a print newspaper.


• Interns Still Need to Dodge the Poop: Yes, I know the public relations industry is changing rapidly, and yes, I know that much of the economy is still on life support, but so what? One of the last things I shared with the intern before she left was the quote "These are the best of times, these are the worst of times." And despite the media's year-long obsession with the 10% unemployment rate, 90% of people ARE working! So I want good interns (we've always had the best thanks to our internship coordinator) to know that when they do a good job at TC Public Relations they should be able to pursue the 90% opportunity not the 10% of poop.

While I am still learning what public relations 2.0 or 5.0 should look like for our agency, the value of interns that meet the demands of the times are priceless. Now, let's see if any ice cream cake is left to fuel me through another blog post.

True or False: Corporate Counsel is to Social Media Like Oil is to Water

I've been searching for something related to public relations that will transcend time and technology and I've FINALLY FOUND IT: lawyers' opinions. Over the years, there has been a polite conflict between corporate public relations professionals and corporate lawyers.

These two friendly adversaries debate whether t0 stay quiet verses almost absolute transparency, which the public craves. The PR people want let the truth be known, the lawyers don't want to get sued.

I came across an article at Ragan.com titled: "Can Legal, communicators reach accord on social media?" An attorney at Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler, & Hagen listed five things lawyers look for in social media:

1. Use properly attributed content (our PR agency works for a personal injury attorney and on THREE occasions we found other law firms stealing this attorney's online content, including copying every word from his blog postings).

2. Avoid unfair or deceptive trade practices (At TC Public Relations, we've had to tell one legal client that words like "best," "expert" and bragging about successes could get you successfully busted by the state agencies that regulate attorney marketing. It might also get your Wikipedia listing shut down).

3. Remember the FTC guidelines (basically, if you give something free to a blogger and they review it, they need to disclose it. As a practical matter, if I'm working with an experienced blogger, I'm NEVER going to tell them about ethical guidelines they should already know about. It's my job to pursue ethical bloggers for our clients).

4. Will you allow feedback, comments or trackbacks? (I believe if you're blogging you MUST keep the comment option ON. That's like inviting someone to a party and telling them to have a good time but keep their mouth shut).

5. Have a crisis communications plan in mind (You might recall the YouTube video of the Domino's Pizza employees spitting in the food and shoving cheese up their nose before putting it on a sandwich. While the legal department can look into filing a suit, there is really very little the law can do to prepare for this, except make social media guidelines clear in the employee manual and hope for the best).

So for those of you who are wondering where's the PR Laugh is, it's two sources (Ragan.com and Dickinson, Mackaman, Tyler, & Hagen) cited in this article. Neither had readily available links for me to connect this post with. Hey, I gave them credit, so I'm trying to follow the rules. Now I hope they reach out to me and give me the links.

Demand Your Media ...NOW!!!

I recently heard the term "entrepreneurial journalism," which is the concept that online writers and reporters get paid based on the number of clicks on their stories. When I was a kid, I remember television and radio shows asking audiences to send in cards and letters for contests and audience feedback. I supposed that if Bozo the Clown got more mail than Chuckles, Bozo got a raise and Chuckles got the boot.

Now has come along a more formalized version of entrepreneurial journalism known as Demand Media. They measure on-line traffic and select keywords that become story ideas that an army of freelance writers and editors transform into articles and then post online. The big idea is that the content is "guaranteed" to appeal to readers because of online research. The total cost for the content from a network of freelance writers and editors is less than $20 per article. That's an amazing business model compared to the day when someone got about $1/word for an original article. Just a 200 word article using the old model would yield a writer's fee of $200 or 10 times more than Demand Media's model. No wonder journalists are dropping like flies.

So once again, Google wins. At 4:35 pm Central on Monday, April 5, these are their most popular news stories:

- A Revealing and Guarded Tiger Woods

- Jesse James Leaves Rehab

- Apple to Reveal iPhone 4.0

Let me run this through Tom Ciesielka's algorithm to come up with a headline:

Tiger Woods Reveals Through His 4.0 iPhone that Jesse James is Free and Will Be Stalking Sandra Bullock.

There you have it. The top story at 4:35 pm Central on Monday, April 5, 2010, no charge

A History of PR Laughs

With health care reform in shambles, the leader of Iran denying 911 ever happened, and Lady Gaga not in the news in the last five minutes, I decided I needed someone else to give me a chuckle for my blog.

So here are a few funny quotes related to PR:

“Some are born great, some achieve greatness, and some hire public relations officers.”
Daniel J. Boorstin

I think that Jesus had the best team of public relations officers ever assembled (12 disciples were at the core). While He walked the earth for 33 years, somehow his WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing) has gone strong for about 2,000 years. He still makes headlines. When I did a Google news search for "Jesus" this was the top listing. So if Jesus "hired" some people to help with His public relations, then maybe we all need someone to be our own advocate.

“All the president is, is a glorified public relations man who spends his time flattering, kissing, and kicking people to get them to do what they are supposed to do anyway.”
Harry S Truman

Regardless of your political persuasion, you have to admit the Obama campaign got this right. His communications team had him "loving on" people in a way that made him the "hero" they needed in the midst of wars and a financial meltdown. Now that Obama is in his second year as president, the honeymoon is over, and has the same uphill battle that all presidents have faced. In recent news, the president now is in the "kicking" phase of his public relations campaign. He kicked out his social secretary for "crasher gate" and is "kicking" his fellow Democrats to push through health care reform.

“Public-relations specialists make flower arrangements of the facts, placing them so that the wilted and less attractive petals are hidden by sturdy blooms.”
Alan Harrington

The word "relation" is a pretty big part of the words "public relations," and how the public relates to your image can determine your future and your success. Thanks to social networks and online media, your greatness and your garbage are easily exposed. So now more than ever should everyone be interested in "arranging their flowers." I'd suggest petunias.

Why So Many Lawyers are Failures

Around the holidays, I had a great conversation with Kevin O'Keefe who is best known as the brains behind lexblog. When he saw that I quoted him in a previous blog, he reached out to me and we pursued setting up a phone conversation. We did everything right.

My blog linked to his website, he watched for his name being used, he reached out to me, I was honored to have someone with his expertise contact me, and the love goes on. The point is, we did everything right in connecting with other people. Yes, it started out as a social media/social networking/citizen journalism exchange (or whatever you want to call it). However, we connected and learned about each others expertise and experience in a way that means I will never forget him. Too bad that so many lawyers don't get public relations.

I just noticed an article at the American Bar Association titled "Why Law Firm Public Relations Fails." Wow, what a great find for me. (Disclaimer, the author is not on the ABA staff, but it was written by a former journalist turned public relations professional). The article references the book "The Expert's Edge," which spells out how consistently presenting specific and targeted expertise in various formats (e. speaking, writing articles) will increase your public relations success and get more calls from the media.

Here's the PR laugh for me. Lawyers are very smart people. They know the power of precise words and how those words can land you in court or prevent you from unnecessary litigation. They also know that it takes time and often teamwork to get those words right. Yet, too many lawyers think that a press release, one speaking event a year, or contributing a generic article on their area of law will make a difference. However, when they decide to follow a strategic public relations plan consistently or find a trusted advisor inside/outside the law firm, then they can expert to garner the media attention that shows their smarts.

By the way, check out the video below. Do you think this is genuine public relations for this lawyer interviewed or a pay for placement?

Ogilvy PR: The Bigger they are the harder their blogs fall

Is "David" (TC Public Relations) going to slay Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide ("Goliath")? It really doesn't matter. We are two different types of public relations agencies that cater to different clients. However, today when I went to Ogilvy's blog 360 Digital Influence, it had not been updated since December 9, 2009, almost one month since the post you are reading. As I was typing this Ragan Communication came out with the article "Do Communication Group Leaders Walk the Walk on Social Media?"

In fairness, they could look at my blog and draw an accurate conclusion that I only blog a few times a month. Why? Because the purpose of my blog is to force me to stay engaged in the media and let clients and prospects know that we have experience in blogging. One of our account executives did Twitter training for a customer and completely turned it around from a dead media to a proactive one for this business. So, while we do it for our clients with great success, I see my blog as a personal exercise in the media that helps me sell our services. While LinkedIn is the network I am most actively engaged in, if someone asks me about Twitter Grader or Twellow, I can share some practical information on what those are about.

However, the PR laugh that Ogilvy does not want to get is when they set themselves up with a blog title that includes the words "Digital Influence" as it becomes as stale as month-old bread.

The public relations industry will always be about reputation management. So when our industry engages in new media, we too need to guard our reputations and encourage our clients to understand if you get into social media to win, you need to play the game.

On a related note, I came across this YouTube media interview about Tiger Woods reputation management after it was damaged last month.

One thing it teaches me is that TC Public Relations reputation needs to be protected whether we are engaged in traditional or new media. I learned a lesson from Ogilvy, I too need to let outsiders see more of what I do and in the most positive light online.

Social Media Snakes for Lawyers

Disclaimer, putting the words "snakes" and "lawyers" in the same line was not meant to degrade lawyers (ha, ha). Since I've worked on public relations campaigns for lawyer for years, I would not want to bite the hand the feeds me. However, the problem is that over those years, I've seen lawyers jump on the marketing bandwagon in a big way. So much so, that they'll try almost anything from buying overpriced website design services to hiring people to ghost write their blogs.

There's a LinkedIn group called Legal Blogging that has a discussion going about a BusinessWeek article titled Beware Social Media Snake Oil. The dialogue was started by a thought leader in this area, Kevin O'Keefe.

As a matter of disclosure, our agency helps our clients through the social media maze. However, we do disclose that while we can measure results, measuring the primary result with ROI in dollars is difficult. That's because too often our clients don't track all their business leads that come as a direct or indirect result from public relations or a social media campaign.

For fun, I went to YouTube and searched for videos on "social media for lawyers." At the top of this was this:



Talk about irony, this "expert" video is a talking head that gives nothing more that few tips. And it does not make clear the ROI. This video reminds me of what I see being sold to lawyers: social media utopia for business development.

The PR laugh for me is that lawyers, highly skilled and skeptical professionals, sometimes fall for these "snake oil" sales pitches. Why? Not because they are not intelligent, but because in recent years their business has been down like other professional services company and they are desperate and feel that social media is the sure shot short cut cure.

Law Firm Taglines: Tasteful and Tacky

Any legal marketing professional will tell you how they feel the home page artwork for many law firms makes them cringe. That's because so many use almost identical stock photos of court houses or scales of justice. (What justice, I was not able to participate in the Cash for Clunkers program with my 2003 Toyota Corolla, nothing just about that, anyway...)

Recently, Law.com has a story called "101 Damn Fine and Not-So-Fine Law Firm Taglines." And they did a great job of summarizing the original posting from Stem Legal. The post speaks for itself, however, here's an excerpt:

Five Law.com likes:

Shepard Mullin: Our Mission is Your Success
Arnall Golden Gregory: Not If, But How
Ervin Cohen & Jessup: It’s Not a Common Practice.
Lawrence Graham: Lawyers. Just Different.
Womble Carlyle: Innovators at Law

A couple not easily forgotten:

Foster Townsend Graham: Damn Fine Litigators.
Harris Beach: Lawyers you’ll swear by. Not at.
Harrison Pensa: In any case.

Some the writer felt were possibly made up by a four-year-old:

Dickinson Wright: Great Lawyers. Great Law Firm.
Mischon: Not just any law firm.
Here, your choice clearly boils down to Leadership versus Experience:
Alston & Bird: Leadership. Creativity. Results.
Crowell & Moring: Experience. Creativity. Results.
Harry Potter Wisdom Division
Locke Lord: Practical wisdom, trusted advice

Where's the PR laugh here? Well, it depends. It's only been in recent years that law firms have taken more marketing seriously. So while I would love to poke fun at self-serving tag lines like

"Great Lawyers, Great Law Firm." I can't. (Actually, based on marketing guidelines by individual states on how you can describe your firm, that tag line might be illegal, but that's another post).

What I can chuckle about is how so many lawyers think they are marketers. While some are great self-promoters, some of those same lawyers need to rethink how their marketing efforts make them look sophisticated or silly.