Know what the worst thing about PR/media relations is?  The lack of control.

Ask anyone who is realistic and reputable in the public relations game and they’ll tell you that they can’t guarantee coverage.  If they guarantee you coverage, they’re evil gnarly humans lying.  Personally, I’ve got a ton of long-standing relationships with media, some of them even positive, but regardless, what a reporter or editor writes about a brand that pays BBPR millions of dollars for little results that partners with us is out of my control.

From time to time, media will miss something in the fact-checking portion of their story production.  That could include putting a typo in a brand’s URL or using the word carbon instead of Kevlar.  That’s disappointing, but it happens.  People make mistakes.  I make a ton just walking from my office to the coffee shop around the corner.

What’s tough to stomach for PR people, and even tougher for clients,  is when media omit facts or manipulate them with an agenda.

Take for example, ABC News’ coverage of what’s going on with Toyota and their accelerator issue.  If you’ve read Gawker recently, you may have seen their story uncovering of some interesting things about Brian Ross’ piece.

I’m not saying that Toyota’s recall isn’t warranted, but staging visuals is a little suspect, at least in my book.

With project BLUE, we’ve recently had an incident with the guys over at Drift Surfing.  Nothing was staged, but facts were not officially checked and some feedback left on their comment section by Vipe Desai (project BLUE’s founder) was deleted.

Last week we saw this article by Howard Swanwick about conscious shopping in the surf industry.  He makes a small, erroneous mention of Billabong in relation to project BLUE.

(note: at Vipe’s request, he has since updated it to say “Take Billabong’s involvement in Project Blue.”, which is more factual since project BLUE is a collaboration between numerous brands)

Howard’s is entitled to his own thoughts on project BLUE, but he missed a lot.  A simple visit to the About section of project BLUE’s site would have given him more info.  A Google search may have revealed a lot more, including that more than $140,000 has been donated to Surfrider as a result of the project BLUE partners, answering his question about “What has this much-shouted-about project achieved since its launch in 2007?”

When an online article is published with some information that’s either wrong or you don’t agree with, a brand can either opt to let it slide or provide feedback.  Vipe opted to provide feedback, elaborating on the initiative and $ donated.  Drift opted to delete Vipe’s comments because, according to Drift,  they did not meet the two criteria the site abides by, specifically:

1. They have to be constructive, whether they’re critical or complimentary.

2. They do not constitute commercial promotion for brands.

Vipe tells me there was some back and forth between himself and the people at Drift, but in the end, the article remained intact and Vipe’s comments deleted.  It’s their site and they can do what they want.  project BLUE doesn’t support them in advertising and even if they did, that doesn’t always mean you can get your agenda across in editorial.

Short story long, these things happen in the world of PR/media/editorial relations.  Not every piece that’s come out about project BLUE has been to my liking and there was one year that it seemed every journalist (ok, maybe four) who covered Rome SDS in the non-endemic media titled their article “When in Rome…” or “Rome, if you want to…  The guys @ Rome let it slide and so has Vipe.

As PR people, we have to be truthful with our clients in counseling them that negative pieces may appear and sometimes, there’s very little we can do about them.  Besides a long post on Experts & Insiders.

Want a piece of marketing you can have total control over?  Then buy an ad.  In fact, please do buy ads… they’re a valuable piece of the marketing mix and one I’ll get into justification for later.  Heck, I actually wanted to work in advertising when I graduated college!

If you want to get into the PR/media relations boat, welcome aboard, just don’t think you’re always going to be able to steer the ship.

Does anyone else think that there’s a glut of press releases out there?  Even though some see PR (wrongly) as “free advertising,” a bad or unwarranted press release is going to turn off journalists (supposedly the intended targets) as quickly as a bad ad would alienate consumers.

Perhaps the relative ease of production and distribution, either via email or one of the many wire services, makes it too easy to turn distribute news these days.  However, blasting out a press release to your “list” doesn’t equate to a PR campaign and those that do it are possibly harming their clients more than they’re helping them.  We’ll be doing a bigger well orchestrated rant post on that down the line.

For many of our clients, we don’t do formal press releases unless something really warrants attention.  You’ll see the occasional one in the action sports trades surrounding a new team rider or ASR event, but when it comes to everything else, we keep it to the facts and then send it to just the media who definitely hopefully care about what our clients have going on.  And while we have a big “list” of media here at the office, we don’t just send news to everyone we know.  There’s a lot of news coming out of BBPR’s clients that we just don’t send to Chad @ Malakye for his news section, Kailee @ Transworld Business, JB @ South of the North or Joe Schmoe @ Major National News Outelt.  Why?  It’s not because we don’t like them.  Usually because it’s just not relevant to them and they know when we do send them something, it’ll always hopefully be something they can use.

Before you blast everyone you know with a release that your widget is now 2 percent lighter (which IS a big deal if your widget weighs 20 tons) or comes in a lighter shade of pink, ask yourself “Does anyone really care?”

According to the International Olympic Committee’s rule 41, competitors who participate in the Olympics can’t have their person/likeness be used for advertising purposes during the Olympics.

Wow.  Thanks IOC for letting snowboarding scratch your back but not the other way around.

True, snowboarding in the Olympics gives it a presences on television that no other event does.  But without their sponsors, ranging from energy drink brands to actual snowboard companies, these guys wouldn’t be where they are today.

That private half-pipe built for gold medalist Shaun White, paid for by Red Bull, helped Shaun train and compete at the level he did at the games.  Other brands’ support of their team riders is equally important, not only to the riders success, but the activity of snowboarding itself.  These brands support the media that support snowboarding and with that, the culture.  Heck, those brands that support snowboarding or other super gnarly extreme uber-radical action sports support BBPR, and we’re incredibly thankful for that.

While I’m not personally entrenched or knowledgeable in activities such as bobsledding or skiing aerials, I’d argue that there’s less of a global community and media presence surrounding those two sports… at least here in the US.  Is that because the activities are harder to become a part of?  Possibly… there aren’t very many bobsled tracks compared to ski resorts.

So what’s your take?  Should the IOC let the brands that have helped snowboarding promote their efforts during the Olympics?  Maybe the IOC should start paying royalties to the athletes, then we could eliminate the sponsors altogether?

BTW – if you’re looking for a neat take on action sports in general, check out our friends at South of the North.  Tell’em BBPR sent you and you’ll get a 15 percent mark-up tacked onto on their new t-shirts. Oh, the earlier image came from the fine folks @ Boardistan, which is also a good read, but lacks a presence in the t-shirt market.

The Winter Olympics is around the corner and with it, the most important event in the history of Extreme Sports.  Ever.

Ok, I kid, but snowboarding and the Olympics are a big deal.  It may not be “core” or whatever the hot word of the moment is that describes core, but it will put snowboarding, for better or for worse, in front of gazillions quntillions zebrillions… a lot of eyeballs.

Former BBPR collaborator and eyewear marketing ninja, Liz “Bill, You Ride Too Slow” Randall forwarded me this piece from the NY Times about snowboarding progression and the Olympics.  Here’s a quick snippet if you don’t want to click the link:

What we found really interesting was this call to action:

Love it or hate it, it’s an interesting way for the NYT to try to capture a younger audience.  The paper is no stranger to running stories about extreme athletes snow-skaters radical dudes people who ride boards for a living, but this effort may bring an interesting mix of user generated content into the mix and possibly a new audience for the New York Times.

From our own experiences on this end, sourcing quality videos for a user generated video campaign is less than easy, so we’ll be interested to see how many videos are uploaded/entered into this.  The reach of the times is massive, so anything (or nothing) is possible.

Side Rant:

Like many who make their living in the world of action sports, I have mixed feelings when it comes to how the riders and activities  are portrayed in the mass media.  I’ve worked on the non-endemic side of snow-shredding since 1997 (as a part of Burton’s Cohn & Wolfe PR team – thanks again Ann!) and as a rider and marketer, I’ve seen some interesting things go down.

While it’s common place to rag on contests we think are kooky or riders who may have a more jock than rock image, think about this:  If the only people who bought <<insert your favorite brand>> products were hardcore <<insert your favorite activity>>, we’d have a lot fewer jobs in this industry.

We need to find a balance between posers fans and what we consider the core consumer, and then market to both.  Not everyone who wears a Yankees hat plays baseball and not everyone who watched the Super Bowl last Sunday actually plays the game. Non-endemic brands are almost a necessity to keep this industry going.  Turn on a baseball game and count the number of Rawlings or Wilson banners in stadiums and 30 second spots vs. how many come from baseball’s non-endemic sponsors.

Don’t let this picture deceive you.  People aren’t underutilizing social media because of my poorly Photoshopped image of the Twitter bird as Flavor Flav (original pic courtesy of Radio Grenouille).  No, they’re underutilizing social media because of TIME and MONEY (sorry, didn’t have a cool picture of money and I’ve heard defacing American currency is somewhat against the law).

More than a few media outlets have picked up on the fact that many CEOs aren’t using Twitter or other social media channels, and each week, I seem to get bombarded by a new marketing group of experts who wants me to pay to come to one of their conferences to learn how to use social media effectively.

Rant: I’m not sure how all of these people have become experts so fast or why I’m not considered one too.  After all, we’ve handled social media and digital PR strategy for brands ranging from lux auto manufacturers to furniture brands to snowboards and footwear.  Anyway….

In our experience, which I’ll say is pretty solid, the top reasons people are underutilizing social media in their marketing campaigns are time and money.

On the time front, a good campaign (and not everyone needs a good campaign… lots of people do ok with less than mediocre ones) takes effort to plan.  You can either choose to blast out Tweets and send me a Facebook update every single day about how you posted a new colorway for your Fall 2010 sock collection, or you can take the effort to put some strategy behind your program and hit the right people, at the right time, the right amount of the time.  And if you’re not a social media expert (like I am), you’re also going to need to take some time to learn about the ins and outs of these channels… factor in about a week if you’re a quick study.

The other main factor we see in brands underutilizing social media is money – human capital, finances needed to secure an outside firm to help, etc.  Although there doesn’t necessarily have to be a hard-cost media buy with social media (we’ll post later about those “pay to play” digital PR programs) execution still requires some sort of resources that you pay for in one way or another.

Your social media execution should not be left to an intern or junior colleague who is knowledgeable about what Farmville is, but won’t know how to handle negative posts, develop a strategy, see around corners, etc.  Likewise, if you have a mid-level employee manage your program, that’s adding onto their workload or taking away from another area.  There’s also the option of having a small consultancy such as BBPR or a larger firm, such as our friends at New Media Strategies back on the east coast, but regardless of who you use, expect to pay something for help executing in this “free” space.

To sum it up, yes, many brands are underutilizing social media (and probably aware of it).  At the same time, many are most likely also underutilizing advertising, press release blasting media relations, guerrilla events and their own website.  While these “experts” are well meaning, they should also take a step back and realize that utilizing social media isn’t as easy or “free” as we’d all like to think.  Heck, I haven’t updated my “free” column here on Malakye Experts & Insiders in more than a month.

A Side Note About CEO’s and Twitter

There are lots of high-level execs on Twitter.  Tony Hsieh from Zappos is a popular one and marketing guru Guy Kawasaki is another (btw – did you know he has a team of people Tweeting for him?  True story).

Does Bob McKnight have a Twitter account?  I’m not sure… nor am I sure he really needs one.  I don’t think Josh Reid from Rome SDS has one either, but those guys seem to do ok (disclosure:  I’ve worked with Rome for many years on various projects).

Brands can choose to communicate through a myriad of channels and much like with traditional advertising, what works for one brand may not feel right for another.

The strategy of consumer brands becoming media isn’t anything new, but it is something that many brands could do better.  Sony had (has?) their Sony Style Magazine, Lexus has their own magazine and L Studio video channel, NHS has been doing Strange Notes since I was a kid, Rome has made it easy-ish for shreds to interview their riders via Twitter, Mike West has his column on Malakye… heck so do I (and I could do a much better job of writing for it too).  And the list goes on.  Depending on the initiative, some of these are more commercial than others, but they all serve a similar purpose:  to generate additional exposure for their brand outside of ad buys, events and PR opportunities.

Anyway, while cruising Rad Collector today, I saw New Era is in the brand as media game too.  They’ve launched a new magazine and on the cover is former Vernon Valley shredder Danny Kass (one of many in a long line of industry-tied former Vernon Valley shredders, including myself, Rob Campbell and I think Tim Swart too).

What this magazine about?  I have no idea, I haven’t read it yet.  But, if it’s anything like the other efforts I mentioned above, it probably has some content that touches on New Era (new designs, how to fix dented hats, debates on if you should leave your size sticker on, etc.) and a lot of content focusing on what the folks @ Lexus would call “the Lexus Lifestyle” which Justin and Braden probably call something else (survival of the fitted?).

Kudos to New Era on expanding your marketing mix in this direction.

If you want to check out a digital edition, click here.  If you want advice on fixing dented hats, I read online that holding them over a steaming tea kettle will work.

Disclosure:  Anyone that’s a Facebook friend of mine (or a real friend for that matter), knows that I hate when PR agency types sneak in little promos for their clients under the “hey, look at this cool thing I saw online” wall updates.  With that in mind, I’ll let you know that in the past 12 years or so, I’ve worked with Sony, Rome SDS and Lexus in one capacity or another.  I wasn’t trying to plug them as much as it’s simply easier for me to reference brands I’ve worked with on marketing projects vs. researching those I haven’t, but regardless, it’s still a plug.

As much as I joke about Twitter with certain colleagues (Kim Desai, Liz Randall, I’m referring to you both), Twitter can be extremely useful.  At BBPR (blatant plug!) we regularly Tweet on behalf of certain clients in the eco, surf and NASCAR worlds.  Call it ghost tweeting, Twosting, whatever… just don’t call us social media experts, because their are enough of those on LinkedIn at the moment.

Anyway, as a marketer, I do find Twitter quite useful.  It helps me stay on top of trends and forge new relationships with journalists and passionate consumers.  While I can’t say that it’s brought my agency any direct revenue (must… not… debate… ROI…. yet…) it’s definitely helped us help clients, some of which have asked us for proposals and strategies to better use this massive time suck online platform for peer-to-crowd engagement.

Is there a way Twitter can be monetized?  Sure.  But the best one I’ve seen so far was at CostCo today during my monthly trip to buy groceries and fuel for my automobile.

For a mere $19.99, you can have a directory listing the @ handles for all of your… ugh, you get the idea.

Congrats Mr. Celebrity Twitter Directory Publisher.  While the owners of Twitter are searching for ways to make it profitable, you’ve beaten them to the punch in the offline world.

Who said print was dead?

I was wondering about this the other day.  I get a lot of mail… call it direct mail, call it junk mail, I really don’t care.  Most of it is garbage, but on rare occasions I do get some useful items (typically coupons to my local car wash, which I’m always stoked to receive).  But most of what I receive goes straight into the recycling bin since I’m not in the market for new vertical blinds, fleece from LL Bean and I don’t want free panties from Victoria’s Secret.

Similar to what’s filling my real world mailbox, I often feel that a lot of what comes to my attention through Facebook or Twitter isn’t relevant or exciting to me.  And a big part of that may be due to fellow marketers pushing their clients non-stop.

Depending on who you speak with regarding peer-to-peer channels, the guidelines on disclosure can vary.  I subscribe to the “be obvious” school of judgment.  If you’re an employee of a company and you make a Facebook post about an event you have going on or new product your launching, it’s probably obvious to your friends that this is somewhat about your job (regardless of if your employer asked you to make the announcement or not).  On Twitter or in a message board, your profile can should reveal a lot about you.  When you’re a contractor (say part of an external PR support team, such as BBPR ), the lines tend to get a little blurred on what you’re posting because you really endorse it and what you’re endorsing because you’re getting paid.

As marketers, I really feel we need to be vigilant and ethical about how we communicate online.  Let’s say a large-scale PR firm launches a new campaign for a client.  Is it ethical for each person at the firm to post about “this cool new _____ I found” with feigned enthusiasm?  I’d say no, but that’s me.  Similarly, what if everyone at a particular company submitted a story to Digg because their employer asked them to (or they were paid to), that could very much skew what comes our way.  Are you hijacking Digg then?

(You can read the full article about the above image here: http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2007/04/hacking_social_)

I don’t necessarily have the answer to this question, but I do believe a level of disclosure is needed for marketers and companies in general.  Otherwise…. well, Facebook is going to be a lot less fun.

If you were wondering if I disclose about when I promote my own clients online, just see below:

Just kidding. I really do enjoy the X Games.

Anyway, regardless of if you have a social media expert on staff or not (if you don’t, just go on LinkedIn, there seem to be quite a few available these days), it’s not a bad idea to have a plan in place for your social media program.

A plan? What I’m referring to is having a basic idea of what you’re going to use your brand’s Facebook, Twitter, Friendster, etc., profile for.

There are a lot of options out there.  One option is to just spout about what’s going on with your brand.  Another option is to interact with fans/followers.  Have a conversation with your brand’s champions and challengers.  Or, you can selectively respond when the need arises, have the time or feel the situation warrants it.  That seems to be what Surfrider does.

Recently we made an announcement for project BLUE.  Because Surfrider is a beneficiary of project BLUE, they reposted the news on their Facebook site.  It turns out a fan on the Surfrider page doesn’t think the organization does enough and made a public comment about it. While some organizations just let these comments stew and go unanswered, the folks at Surfrider responded quickly and succinctly.

Nice job Surfrider.

Take a second to think about what you’re doing online, how you’re doing it and who is handling the execution. Make sure you have a program in place and people running it who can adequately respond to issues.  Honestly, I feel it’s unlikely that any organization will have enough staff to respond to, or even want to respond to, ever comment, challenge or kudo posted about them on the Internet.  However, you should make sure whoever monitoring your program is on it and has the maturity to make the right decisions, including when and how to respond.

Your social media presence is an online extension of your brand.  It’s the sign people see as they pull into your parking lot. If someone sprayed graffiti on your sign, you’d try to clean it up, no?

(If someone did this on our building, we’d probably leave it

Now I’ve never met Rachelle.  She could very well be a horrible human (unlikely since Malakye rarely does pieces on horrible humans, but you never know).  Why do I like her then?  She was willing to pay her dues.

If you read the interview, Rachelle graduated with a degree from the Fashion Institute of Design & Merchandising, a great school to go to if you’re looking for a job, say in apparel design or something similar.  What was her first real job in action sports?  Receptionist @ Analog.

Receptionist?  What?  Surely Rachelle didn’t major in receptionist-ing @ FIDM, so why would she take such a job?  Well, probably because Analog wanted her to pay her dues.

From experience, it seems unlikely that anyone is going to hire you right out of college for your dream job.  Many of the people in this industry started at the bottom.  Check LinkedIn and see how many people answered phones @ Transworld.  Myself, my first career job did involve pitching stories about snowboard gear and personalities, in addition to getting non-fat latte’s for people before brainstorms, faxing media alerts about high school science fair winners and making sure Fed-Ex packages shipped out on time.

As Rachelle alluded to, working at a lower level let her really find out how the the company worked on the inside.  She probably would have preferred not having to clean out the espresso machine, but it seems to have worked out for her.  I’ve heard it said numerous times that you need to show you can do the basic jobs first (no offense to espresso techs) before moving forward.  While we’re always looking for talent @ BBPR, when it comes to entry level work, it’s less than enthralling.  Our previous interns have been charged with everything from researching blogger contact info to finding boxes large enough so we can ship an editor a board with bindings mounted (don’t want that jib deck appearing in editorial with an alpine stance, now do we?).

Kill it at the basic stuff and you can show employers that you’re both hungry and willing to take on the jobs that are less than sexy.  Those jobs are an integral part of making things happen.  On them and hopefully you’ll be recognized when the next spot up opens.  And if not… well, there’s this site called Malakye.