“Authenticity” has become a buzzword in public relations especially in talk about social media. I think this may be an error. I think the best we can do is consistency. Authenticity is a tricky concept. The dictionary defines authenticity as adhering to tradition or sticking to the facts, but that isn’t how most people understand the …
Category Archives: Public Relations
How can PR be part of senior management?
You hear a lot about public relations pros wanting a seat at the senior management table or in the c-suite. The question is: what does this mean, other than being a vague validation of the importance of the field? I had lunch at the Modern with a brilliant, independent-minded communications and management consultant in New York …
Freedom of speech and public relations
Today’s barbaric and murderous attack on Charlie Hebdo, the satirical French weekly newsmagazine was the work of an imperialist movement that wants to impose one way of thinking on everyone else. One of the key elements of imposing your will on others is making sure that nobody is allowed to publicize an attractive alternative. There …
Effective analytics in PR: Track your value.
Metrics are the language an organization’s department uses to represent its value to the rest of the organization. Metrics, when well chosen, serve as much a storytelling function as they do a benchmarking and performance evaluation one. That’s why it is very important for public relations and communications management professionals to choose metrics that adequately …
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Marketing vs PR? More like marketing is BECOMING PR
The new world of social networks, ubiquitous smartphones and easy connectivity has made the relationship king of the marketing universe. The thing is, most marketers aren’t trained to understand their consumers to foster a proper dialogical relationship that most people would recognize. Rather, they are good at doing research, understanding trends in the culture or …
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Postmodern insomnia: how to make an internal comms smoothie
Well, here I am at 2:50am wide awake and watching an episode of The Mind of a Chef on Netflix. This bout with insomnia is the result of a lovely Turkish coffee enjoyed at Jerusalem Restaurant at a family New Year’s Dinner. Amazing the power of caffeine in the evening. Anyhow, it called to mind …
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Managing your manager
I have been reading Drucker quite a bit as part of a research project the last few days. In Managing Oneself [pdf], I found the following gem: “Bosses are neither a title on the organization chart nor a “function.” They are individuals and are entitled to do their work in the way they do it best. It …
Drucker’s “Managing Oneself” applied to communications management
I was recently perusing the archives of the Harvard Business Review and came across a classic piece by management theorists Peter Drucker, On Managing Oneself [pdf]. Even though it was written in 1999, before the social media and mobility revolution took off, this chapter from his prescient book, Management Challenges for the 21st Century, seems more relevant …
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7 Tips for succeeding at conferences
Conferences are microcosms of human society. They are opportunities to observe people of all ages interacting, performing, charming and arguing. Everyone is a little nervous before they arrive and then they reveal themselves in the few appointed days of concentrated interaction. Conferences are a great way of focusing and honing your communication skills and your …
A Lesson for PR pros in Robert Redford’s “All is Lost”
It’s unusual that film makes you think about public relations strategy, but Robert Redford’s All is Lost recently did this for me. I happened upon it accidentally, while perusing the new rentals on iTunes. Redford’s performance is masterful: an epic battle of a man against the elements, alone on his damaged keelboat, adrift after a freak …
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