When Spin meets Sensationalism

The good folks at Business Insider seem to have become arbitrator between General Electric and the New York Times trying to get to the somewhat mythical 'truth'. Fortunately for us, they've gone above and beyond to try and extract the real story, ultimately concluding that both sides are full of crap.

This series of exchanges is an excellent example of a variety of do and don't with both PR and journalism.

In the red corner we have GE's PR machine who valiantly tried to explain how it's correct to say both "GE did not pay any federal taxes because it didn't owe any" and "GE paid federal taxes". In the blue corner we have NYT explaining that its assertion that "Its American tax bill? None." is also correct despite GE clearly paying US taxes such as payroll, state and local  taxes.

From a PR perspective, it's fascinating tale of how not to use Twitter for PR damage control, why it's important to take care with the technicalities when trying to spin your company's position and how it's necessary to have a clear and complete strategy when trying to debunk negative press.

From a media perspective, it's just as interesting that even an organisation as well respected as the NYT, who "believe in verification rather than assertion", can sometimes be seduced by sensationalism and the ramifications that can flow from this temptation.

It is well worth reading Business Insider's article and following all of the links to get the complete picture of why they are both 'full of crap'.

Salt and Shein Survey Suggests Social Media Shift for Movers and Shakers

Salt & Shein is the only Australian recruitment consultancy specialising solely in search and selection of corporate affairs and communication executives.

Every year, they conduct a survey to benchmark changes in the world of corporate communications. The most recent survey, conducted in December 2010, asked 461 communication professionals questions about their jobs and skills as well as their aspirations and fears.

While the bulk of the survey revolves around questions of employment and renumeration, (some of which may be quite depressing, especially if you're not in the Pharmaceutical Industry) there are a couple of interesting results about the attitudes towards social media.

Almost one in four (24.4%) said social media was most significant for corporate brand development, with internal communication ranked next at 18.1% and community relations ranked at 15.1%. Only 7.8% of respondents said social media was most significant for product marketing.

Over half (52.5%) said Online Communication has replaced the focus on "all traditional media" with Industry Journals (16.9%) and Newspapers (15.8%) the most significant segments to suffer from the surge of social media. Traditional broadcasters faired much better with focus away from Radio at only 8.1% and Television 6.7%.

There are also some eyebrow raising responses to questions on the GFC.

Over a quarter of those surveyed (27.2%) believe good corporate affairs is more valued than ever as a result of the GFC and 9.6% believe it's been positive for their business. Additionally, 82% claim their budget has stayed the same or risen since last financial year.

The full results can be found here. 

Have you got your dose of LinkedIn Today?

LinkedIn has recently launched a fantastic new tool called LinkedIn Today.

The concept is similar to paper.li, a service that grabs all of the Tweets from your Twitter account over a 24 hour period and presents them as a traditional broadsheet newspaper. LinkedIn Today goes one step further incorporating not only Twitter conversations but the most talked-about issues of the day on LinkedIn as well.

The first step to setting up your LinkedIn Today is to personalise it. While the list of topics is not yet complete, there's plenty of fodder for PRs and newshounds alike. It's a simple process of selecting the subjects and organisations you're interested in following and adding them to the list.

The key to LinkedIn Today is that the articles are listed because of the interest they have generated - they are there because real people have shared or tweeted them.

LinkedIn Today reaffirms LinkedIn's title as the No. 1 social media network for business.

Check it out at http://www.linkedin.com/today

Proactive PR - Capitalising on immediacy is not the same as putting out fires

Valeria Maltoni's blog post "The Money for PR is in Immediacy" is an excellent explanation of how to shift from defensive public relations to proactive community engagement.

Maltoni points to examples of real-world successes gained by actively responding to a situation, as opposed to riding out the storm.

Check it out: http://www.conversationagent.com/2011/03/the-money-for-pr-is-in-immediacy.html

How much does 'Free' really cost when it comes to Social Media?

As a provider of Online Newsrooms we from time to time hear "Why would I pay for this when I can achieve the same results with social media sites for free?"

Aside from the the fact free social media sites do not provide the ability to download broadcast quality video, few allow high res image downloads and none provide you with the technical and editorial support we offer, there's always a hidden cost to anything free.

Ike Pigott's article on Social Media Explorer is an insightful look at some of the pitfalls of social media campaigns. This article examines some of the myths surrounding social media and clarifies some of the things you sacrifice in order to get something for nothing.

Pigott points out that in order to achieve "free" you have to accept things such as;

• Potential Instability - when you are building your online presence on someone else’s platform, you run the risk of their associated traffic outages - there's no SLAs with free
• No support - unless of course you're willing to trawl through user forums and FAQs.
• Labour costs - effective social media campaigns require staff to control them
• "Vanilla flavoured" - meaning that you have very little control over how well you can match free platforms to your own branding.
• Starting from Scratch - No campaign, social or otherwise, is likely to work without the support of other avenues.

There is no doubt social media can be a powerful tool in any PRs arsenal however it should never be the only one.

The old adage, "There's no such thing as a free lunch" applies.

The article is well worth a read - http://www.socialmediaexplorer.com/digital-marketing/the-high-price-of-free/

Did Techcrunch cross the line of professionalism?

There's quite a bit of buzz at the moment surrounding TechCrunch's attack on Timothy Johnson. Seems the general consensus is that both sides are at fault but nobody likes it when someone decides to air dirty laundry.

Here's a couple of the more interesting responses:

http://www.waxingunlyrical.com/2011/03/02/when-did-professionalism-go-out-the-window/

http://www.swordandthescript.com/2011/03/confessions-and-media-relations.html

http://www.spinsucks.com/communication/what-is-wrong-with-pr/