If you’re in the PR industry, you’ve spent endless hours debating, agonizing over and reading about the future of PR. But it’s not every day that you’re invited to look into the crystal ball of one of the great PR minds of our generation.

Last week, Worldcom Public Relations Group invited its members to do just that. Paul Holmes, president & CEO of the Holmes Group and editor of the HolmesReport, shared his predictions for the PR industry in 2012. And to my relief, it looks like there may be exceptionally clear skies ahead.

In fact, Holmes predicts that PR will soon earn a seat at the executive table as the C-suite begins to recognize the importance of effectively managing relationships between organizations and key stakeholders.

But is PR really ready to take on this challenge? According to Holmes, we’re in an era of unprecedented opportunity for our industry – but it won’t all be smooth sailing.

Here are the 10 things Holmes says PR must “get right” if we’re going to succeed:

1. Recruitment: We must attract top-level people – those who understand not only PR, but the business environment impacting our clients.
2. Development: Our industry is evolving; it’s critical that our people keep pace. We must ensure we are continuously seeking out and providing learning opportunities for our colleagues/employees.
3. Retention: Attracting the best people isn’t enough; we must also retain them. It’s important that we create engaging work environments and put our people first… even if that means letting clients go when they don’t do the same.
4. Research: Think Moneyball. Billy Beane was able to defy conventional wisdom and outsmart much richer baseball franchises with the use of research. PR needs to do the same.
5. Conversation: PR isn’t about crafting and delivering messages. It’s about two-way conversation; listening as much as talking.
6. Content: We have to become adept at content creation. We must be able to create content that enables us to reach stakeholders in an impactful way.
7. Courage: “Do one brave thing today… then run like hell.” We must have the courage to counsel our clients; to truly earn a seat at that executive table.
8. Integrity: Credibility is critical to our industry. As Marcus Aurelius said, “If it’s not right, don’t do it. If it’s not true, don’t say it.”
9. Independence: The advice we give must be genuinely neutral in terms of media channels and tactics. PR folks: that means that if the right solution is advertising (gasp!) – that’s what we recommend.
10. Measurement: At the end of the day, if we’re going to have a seat at the table, we must become better at measuring the value of PR and the relationships it builds and manages. We have access to more data today than ever before. We must find more effective ways of using it!

What else would you say PR needs to “get right” to survive as our industry and the business environment we work in continues to evolve?

To connect with Aven:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: aven@blisspr.com
Twitter: @avenlea
LinkedIn: Aven James

Comfort – If you’re in this business, you’re a Mad Men fan. That being the case, you know Roger Sterling, partner at Sterling Cooper. In the show, Sterling mentions something to the effect that 50 percent of his business is getting people to like you. (Note: he was shouting at an account executive at the time) Returning back to reality for a second – billionaire industrialist John D. Rockefeller said, “The ability to deal with people is as purchasable a commodity as sugar or coffee. And I will pay more for that ability than for any other under the sun.”

While in the eyes of a client, much of a PR agency’s success can be quantified in media “hits” and other end-results, it’s the relationship forged in the life of the account that ends up being the true strength of an agency. If you are to succeed at an agency, client relationship-building must be a primary goal.

Credibility – Why are you here? For the purposes of this exercise, think less philosophical and more skill set. Under the best circumstances, you will be given ample time to prove yourself on the job. The pace with which new talent is integrated into an account will vary by agency and job title. Regardless, it’s important to have a voice as early as the first week with clients and your work will speak for itself in due course. Be succinct in discussing your background as it’s relevant to the account. Study the client’s business and offer expert counsel by introducing some new ideas. It won’t always matter that you’re right. It will always matter that you’re smart and speak eruditely about the company.

Continuity –To avoid an argument, let’s agree that change is neither good nor bad. It just simply is. Your arrival at the new agency represents change, whether you were part of a wave of new hires or are filling a new post. Every client has a different tolerance level for change. Your job is to get them comfortable with the new arrangements. Assuming the existing work was satisfactory, the client expects a minimum of what they already have, but ideally, your agency wants to exceed those expectations. You’ll want to show that by working you into the lineup, the team will ensure a consistent and continuous level of performance in a smooth transition.

Now, go make Sterling and Rockefeller proud.

Connect with Matthew:

To Connect with Matthew:

Email: matthew@blisspr.com
Twitter: @kirdahy
LinkedIn: Matthew Kirdahy

“What’s the name of the dog?”

When I first started as a newspaper reporter more than two decades ago (has it really been that long?), this was the question cub reporters were often asked. As long as the story referenced a dog, that is. If it mentioned a child, a horse, a cat, then the question was changed appropriately.

The important part was not the subject of the question, but what the question itself represented: It was meant to remind us that the details matter. That you should never be so caught up in the excitement of a story that you can’t take a step back and make sure that you’ve thoroughly reported on the issue and understood all sides.

News-making was simpler then. The only real competition for newspapers was local and national television news. The Internet was several years away. Still, TV was eroding the number of newspapers nationwide and subscriptions dropped. We consoled ourselves with the notion that TV might get the news out first, but newspapers told a more complete story.

In that environment, what set newspapers apart was the constant push for details and context and accuracy.

Fast forward to 1999, just as I was looking to make the transition to my first PR agency, and the Internet was suddenly a very real contender for the attention of the American public. My managing editor at the time told me, “You can be first or you can be right. But with the Internet, people want news the moment it happens and still want complete context. I don’t know how we’re ever going to do both.”

Since that time, the Internet has virtually taken over and the number of newspapers and magazines has plummeted. The drop was so dramatic that Newspaper Death Watch launched in 2007. Thousands of journalism jobs are lost each year. More than 3,775 disappeared in 2011 alone, according to the Newspaper Layoffs website. Despite the overall drop, the number of news outlets – from bloggers to satellite news – has proliferated.

The survivors have been left with a shrinking news hole, but even greater pressure to perform. Based on anecdotes from friends still in the business, reporters have to cover more beats and meet even more deadlines – both for the online, as well as the print publication. Speed is now king.

Besides the reporters, though, who really suffers?

We all do.

We get news faster and easier than ever before, but often the articles can be – at best – incomplete and – at worst – inaccurate and misleading. Reporters, who have always looked for compelling stories, are also looking for those that are easy to tell. In just the last few months, I’ve seen repeated coverage of biased reports that tell only partial stories – and the coverage is written as though the reports are completely accurate. Time to understand complex industries has slipped away from reporters, which makes it even easier for inaccurate information to be spread by those with an axe to grind. And, thanks to the web (the very outlet that started this wild ride), errors spread farther and faster than ever before.

The lessons from this environment have come hard and fast for many:

• It’s more important than ever for a company to take control of its reputation – after all, you either control your reputation or someone else will
• Educating media about a company or an industry can be even more important than garnering coverage
• The story you tell must be simple – especially when the truth is complicated

I don’t mourn the loss of newspapers. Times change. Communication evolves. We either evolve with it or we’re left behind. What I do mourn is that the all-too-often need for speed has seemingly triumphed over the pursuit of accuracy.

Connect with Julie:

Email: julie@blisspr.com
Twitter: @julieajohnson1
LinkedIn: Julie A. Johnson

Sometimes I feel a little bit like Noah in the middle of the flood.  Only in my case, I’m drowning in a sea of marketing predictions for the coming year.  It seems that almost everyone has an opinion on what will happen next.

That doesn’t mean there aren’t some powerful, actionable ideas in the deluge. Here are 10 trends that will almost certainly influence B2B marketers next year:

1. Pictures, Not Words:  While it pains the English Literature major in me, most marketers have begun to accept that video and illustrations are becoming a critical element for many marketing programs.  In fact, Cisco predicts online video will account for 90 percent of all Internet traffic in the next three years.

• 2012 checklist: How much budget can you move from “word content” to “picture content?

2. Easy Bite Media Consumption: We are now a community of “scanners,” so we want our information delivered to us in small chunks and sound bites.  Major news organizations – and the Obama reelection campaign – are using the Tumblr platform to satisfy that need.

• 2012 checklist: You’ve investigated WordPress blog platforms, but have you considered short form alternatives?

3. New Insights into Customer Segments: Every second, your customers and prospects are scrolling the internet and your website, hoping to better understand your company. New tools like Personyze will allow you to understand what your visitors want, so you can give them a more customized experience on your website.

• 2012 checklist: You’re probably already using Google Analytics or a paid tool, but have you investigated how to extend the power of that data to create more personalized marketing content?

4. Your Marketing Program has a Plus One: Most B2B companies are still trying to determine how to differentiate their editorial voice on Twitter, LinkedIn and YouTube.  Meanwhile, Google Plus is quietly weaving “plus ones” into their search algorithim. That means you have to pay attention to it. Now, please.

• 2012 checklist: Establish your page and circles…and spend time with me?

5. Turning Social Media Disconnects into Coherence: Most of my clients have social media monitoring tools that grab almost endless amounts of data. The tricky part is teaching yourself to find meaningful trends that impact your business.  Are you reacting to surface data or looking below for actionable insights?

• 2012 checklist:  Think of your monitoring tool as the first – not last – stop on your analysis.

Tomorrow, I’ll share 5 more predictions for 2012. But, in the meantime, do you have a “marketing bet” for next year? What is it?

Connect with Elizabeth:

Phone: 212.840.0017
Email: elizabeth@blisspr.com
Twitter: @elizabethsosnow
LinkedIn: Elizabeth Sosnow

We subscribe to seven different publications in my apartment. They range from the daily Wall Street Journal to The Economist and New York magazine to Food & Wine and Fast Company every month. I also follow countless blogs and am signed up for daily e-newsletters. You might call me a content addict. And I’m not breaking the habit anytime soon.

As marketing communications strategists, we help our clients become part of a story (or even create the story itself), whether it’s a single article or a larger narrative about an industry, trend, or movement. We do this by crafting original messages that aren’t being talked about yet, which means we have to know – better than anyone – what is being talked and written about, so we can come up with fresh ideas for the media.

When junior employees start at BlissPR, the first thing we tell them is to read. A lot. It starts with diving deep on the publications our clients care about, whether it’s a financial services magazine or human resources trades, as well as the national dailies. We push them to read with a purpose in mind, and always ask questions: How could our clients fit into that article? What’s the flip side of that story, and how do we tell it? This kind of “strategic reading” helps generate ideas that can break through the clutter journalists receive every day – which is essential for a successful media relations campaign.

The ability to do this comes with experience, but any professional, no matter their length of tenure, can start doing the same thing with a little guidance. I’ve broken down my approach to strategic reading below, which can also be applied to other types of content.

1. Look for what’s not there: When you finish reading an article, take a minute to think about what it didn’t cover. What questions weren’t asked? Who else could have been quoted to round out the story? If you give some thought to this, you’ll likely come up with an interesting twist on the story that could be your next big pitch idea.
2. Consume content that has nothing to do with your clients: Inspiration can strike in unlikely places. While it’s imperative to keep up with publications important to your clients, it’s equally important to stretch your brain a bit and see what kind of ideas you can derive from unrelated sources. Even though we serve B2B clients, I’ve gotten ideas from consumer PR blogs, lifestyle magazines, and the metro section of the New York Times.
3. Go beyond reading and watching: Journalists are curious by nature, so it only makes sense that they like connecting with other people who like ideas. Next time you read an article that pushes your thinking, take the next step and send the reporter a short note. Ask questions or commenting on stories (with no pitch involved) can often spark conversations that lead to meaningful journalist relationships – and interesting dialogue!

We all process a ton of information each day, and it can be tempting to do your reading for clients and simply check it off your list. But you will have a much easier time generating creative ideas and turning those ideas into key placements if you take some time to apply the advice above.

Connect with Siobhan:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: siobhan@blisspr.com
Twitter: @shiv245
LinkedIn: Siobhan Ford

Many clients we work with will go through some type of major re-branding or marketing effort every few years. These monster projects often take a heavy people investment, significant resources and are the focal point of endless meetings, conference calls, brainstorm sessions and retreats. Once the project is complete, we get a call that the company would like to publicize the initiative and interest the media in their efforts.

Sometimes, this makes sense. But more often, it does not.

These internal marketing or branding initiatives can include (but are not limited to):

• Redesigned website
• New logo
• Revised messaging statements
• New branding vision
• Changed internal processes or structure

Announcing these types of developments is akin to announcing a pregnancy – you don’t know how it’s going to turn out yet; how it will impact your company and your clients. The real news comes after the birth; after the child/idea has grown into maturity.

Exceptions to the above:

• You are a FORTUNE 100 company or the leader of your industry
• The initiative means a significant change in customer experience or service
• The development is truly groundbreaking and you are a pioneer
• The change has impacted (either positively or negatively) your stock price or investor sentiment toward your brand

What do you think? Do you think there are other internal initiatives that should not be publicized, or additional exceptions to this rule?

Connect with Katherine:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: katherine@blisspr.com
Twitter: @kilpatrickk
Linked In: Katherine Kilpatrick

• How to begin?  This is absolutely the most important sentence in the entire pitch. It has to be like Renee Zellweger’s line in the movie Jerry Maguire when she says to Tom Cruise, “You had me at hello.”  If you can’t captivate the reporter with your hello, you’re less likely to keep them interested to read on about your client.

Start with a question. Lead with a set of three current news trends related to your topic. Or   begin with the newsworthy impact of a just-released study. Too often, I see pitches where PR professionals lead with the name of their client, their credentials and some announcement that the media relations executive thinks is important. Turn that pitch upside down and take the news and put it on top.

Survey results may be interesting, but what is the impact of those results? A client who makes a coveted spot on an important industry-ranking list is newsworthy—but only to the client. You need to turn that into news. So for example: Say your client is a 5-time winner of this recognition and that turns out to be since the inception of the award. An interesting story might be what other winners are in the same pool? A reporter might want to interview them and do a round-up of what made them successful.

• Where to introduce your client? The best pitches I’ve seen introduce the client no sooner than the end of the pitch letter’s first paragraph, and sometimes, all the way at the end. A story I did for the Wall Street Journal about using personality testing in hiring professionals didn’t tell me about the client until the end of the letter. The client, a organizational psychology firm that created and implemented a personality test used in hiring, was widely quoted in the story.
• How long should the pitch letter be? The shorter the better. I have been known to say if you can’t tell your story in 50 words or less, you’ll lose the reporter’s interest. Why 50 words? That is the amount of space on a Blackberry screen—often where reporters are reading your pitches. The truth is, the story idea should be in the first 50 words—but a good rule of thumb is: Good pitches shouldn’t be more than one page. As a communications expert, you should be able to get all the relevant and salient information in a limited amount of space.
• What else to include? Again, less is more but make sure when you re-read your pitch—you’ve given the reporter a story to pursue. To do that, you might need to add some independent research or other nuggets of knowledge to help craft the story line.

And finally, just as a reporter wouldn’t let a story go to print or go live online without a good read and line edit from an editor, you too can certainly benefit with the help of a second set of eyes or an editor.

To reach Toddi:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: toddi@blisspr.com
Twitter: @toddigutner
LinkedIn: Toddi Gutner

1. B2B is different than B2C. Okay, but what does that mean for an intern? Through working with clients across both the financial and professional service spheres, I’ve learned how important ideas can be. Because you aren’t being given a tangible product to pitch to a reporter, gaining coverage is ultimately going to come down to how well you can frame your client’s thought leadership and communicate that to a reporter.
2. Networks like LinkedIn and Twitter haven’t really affected traditional PR, right? PR is a constantly changing field, and the people who succeed are those who are excited to embrace new iterations of what it means to be in the industry. If you don’t have a Twitter profile, make one right now and start following people and sites you find interesting and engaging. If you don’t have a LinkedIn profile, upload your resume as soon as possible, and reach out to people you’ve met through previous experiences. You will have to use these networks, and many others, every day, and the more experience you have on them the better.
3. Do you really need to read the Wall Street Journal, every day? It’s tempting to get by on just skimming the “most-read” articles on the New York Times website, but in PR you’re expected to know the ins and outs of every news story that could affect one of your clients. Find newspapers, blogs, and Twitter feeds that you think are generating truly interesting content that relates to your interests and experiences, and stay up-to-date on their stories.
4. What exactly is a “pitch”? On my second day in the office, I was asked to “pitch a few trade pubs” – my first thought was that BlissPR had a softball team that no one told me about. As it turns out, a pitch is the story you’re telling to pique a reporter’s interest in your client. Whether it’s an exclusive, one-on-one interview or a new national study, being able to pitch means crafting a general story into a targeted, compelling, and one-of-a-kind story that reporters just can’t let pass them by. Toddi Gunter’s July post, titled “Marketing to the Media,” was invaluable for helping me understand how to create dynamic and engaging pitches.

My ten weeks at Bliss have flown by, and while I’m sad to pack up my desk, I’m excited to take the lessons I’ve learned this summer back to school with me.

If you’re a soon-to-be intern or new hire at a PR firm, what questions would you add to this list? PR pros, have I completely missed a lesson that you wish your interns would learn?

Follow Shannon on Twitter @rice_shannon

I know this is an obvious piece of advice, but unfortunately, many PR professionals often fall short.

They either don’t take the time to really understand some of the more complicated topics they may be asked to pitch on behalf of their clients or they don’t have access to individuals who can teach them what they need to know to get up to speed on the topic.

Reporters have it easy. They get the knowledge they need just by picking up the phone. More often than not, someone is always willing to be their knowledge base to write a solid story (as a finance reporter, I always appointed someone to be my guru to teach me all the background information I needed).

But PR professionals don’t have it as easy. In many cases, clients assume their PR firm already has the institutional knowledge they need to understand the content.  More often than not, the senior leadership at the PR firm has the necessary knowledge and that is why the client signs on with them. But what sometimes happens is they aren’t the ones who are calling the reporters to pitch the stories. The junior folks are the ones smiling and dialing—but they also might need a little help getting down in the weeds on topic or making the necessary connections between content and relevancy in today’s news cycle.

One suggestion is for your PR agency to bring in subject matter experts (SMEs) to educate your team about content they need to know.  This individual, or guest speaker, can not only be an educator but can also be a sounding board for your team to discuss the nitty gritty aspects of some of the content they are expected to pitch to the media. Questions can be asked, story angles discussed, and predictions made. This is incredible valuable when your PR team gets on the phone with a cranky reporter who expects the person on the other end to know the esoteric details of a particular topic.

I would argue that even when your team knows all there is to know about a topic, it is helpful to bring in someone from the outside. That SME can put the industry, topic and content into perspective for your team. They can elevate the conversation to what is actually happening at the moment in the field. This exchange of ideas and knowledge helps your team not only become as well-versed as the reporter who is covering your client but also helps to advance story ideas.

Finding a SME is as easy as thinking of your own business and personal network. When you think about it, most professionals are experts at what they do. Many of them enjoy talking about their work and may even have a secret desire to teach. Tap them and learn. It’s a win-win for everyone: the reporter and the agency.

To reach Toddi:

Phone: 212.840.1661
Email: toddi@blisspr.com
Twitter: @toddigutner
LinkedIn: Toddi Gutner

A lie can travel halfway around the world while the truth is putting on its shoes. – Mark Twain

We spend a good deal of our life preparing for emergencies – perhaps more than we might realize.  We’ve all gone through fire drills…learned the importance of “Stop, Drop, and Roll”…maybe even discussed what we should do if we encounter a bear.  The pre-flight safety briefing might go in one ear and out the other, but I would bet most of you have quickly and subtly counted the number of seats to the exit row before turning back to Skymall.

There’s a simple reason for all this: When the emergency comes, we hope to have our response pre-programmed into our heads.  This preparedness helps in more than one way.  Knowing the action we need to take can save us in an emergency situation, but the preparation helps us to prevent panic and to implement the plan as quickly as possible.

A quick read through the newspaper shows us there is never a shortage of corporate crises relating to the digital world: privacy breaches (Sony, Citigroup), Twitter SNAFUs (Chrysler, Entenmann’s (I forgive you, Entenmann’s!), and just a general speeding up of the normal pace of corporate scandal/bad PR in the digital age.  As social media has grown in importance, we have seen many large corporations appoint a specific person to head their social media efforts.  It stands to reason that a crisis communication plan would probably be in place for most companies by now as well, right?

Actually, no.  In an age where a corporate brand can be instantly devalued by a malicious outsider or a fat-fingered employee, a recent study by Burson-Marsteller shows that only half of business decision makers surveyed had a plan in place to deal with issues arising from digital communications.  In a world where negative publicity makes its way around the globe in seconds, it is imperative that a company be able to set a plan in motion – immediately – to deal with a rising crisis.
I’ve been called on several times to advise clients on their crisis communications strategy both during periods of turmoil and as part of a broader preparedness effort.  While the details of each plan vary according to the clients’ needs, there are a few core elements that fit most scenarios:

• Know who will comprise the team that will be responsible for dealing with a crisis.  Each team member should know their role in advance and have been trained in both traditional and social media.
• Keep up with and understand industry best practices for dealing with issues like privacy breaches and unapproved corporate messaging.
• Technically correct any unauthorized/rogue action.
• Publicly acknowledge the issue, but turn the focus on the positive steps taken by the company to correct the issue, alert impacted customers, and ensure that the problem cannot be repeated.

In a world where unpredictable problems can arise in a flash, no one will ever be able to predict the exact nature of the next crisis. But having an action plan in place can help to limit the damage.

To reach Donna:

Phone:  212.584.5479
Email: donna@blisspr.com
Twitter: @donnamcsorley

Photo courtesy r3v || cls