Maybe big business is starting to get symmetrical PR

Three headlines in the MSM this past week have me wondering if global corporations are moving toward the 2-way symmetrical model of PR. Evidence is anecdotal at best, but these cases are worth discussing, since they show some of PR’s “bad guys” doing good things.

The Wal-Mart Bonuses. I about fell over when I heard our old friend Big Wally is doling out $500 million in bonuses, most of it to hourly workers. Isn’t this the same company demonized by Barbara Ehrenreich in her populist book “Nickeled and Dimed”? The same company held up to ridicule in the “The High Cost of Low Price”? The same company that, in partnership with Edelman, pioneered the “flog”?

Is good writing doomed in the new-media age?

It’s hardly a new concern, but we aren’t talking about it enough.

Will good writing become a casualty of the new-media revolution? It looks that way from where I sit.

In Kent State PR classes, writing is the core skill stressed every day on every project. We’re proud of our tradition that puts writing first. And I know Papa would approve.

But I’m worried that the casual nature of online media is destroying this core value. I see it in students’ classwork, and most certainly in their emails. I see it in professionals’ work, too. Careless writing is everywhere.

This past week I critiqued 12 blogs produced by the students in our Public Relations Online Tactics class. About half of these students are social-media naturals, and they’re all pretty smart kids.

Bringing market realities to the PR classroom — It’s a fast track here, just like in the ‘real world’

We all know the business is changing by the hour. No, make that by the second. And I’m sure it’s true. I learned it from Twitter. Twitter’s been all the rage for maybe two weeks now — center stage in the Web 2.0 world until the next new toy comes along.

If you don’t know about Twitter, not to worry. You probably were focused on 5 or 50 other phenomena affecting audiences in the online world. And if you’re feeling a a little out of breath, join the club. No one can really keep up these days. You simply run faster today than you did yesterday, then you do the same tomorrow.

A letter to my students: Do as I say, not as I did!

Today I celebrate my 100th post on ToughSledding, barely 6 months after this inauspicious start. Since I launched this blog to support my teaching and research, it only seems appropriate to dedicate this one to my students.

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Maybe one reason I get along with my students is that I’m so much like them. At least I was back in the day.

Yeah, I’m 30+ years older than most of them now, but I made all the same dumb mistakes. So I feel this kinship with them, know what I mean?

We all know that nobody’s perfect, yet I walk in that classroom every day and tell students nothing short of perfection will do. And lemme tell you, it’s tough to live up to that standard when those same students find typos in your blog posts, and sometimes even your syllabi. But you press on.

This isn’t the first time I’ve gone on record to admit my foibles. I’ve understood my own fallibility for a good long time. But part of being a blogger, I think, is a willingness to put yourself out there — to “showcase the headcase” as it were.

Community relations and the 800-lb. gorilla

A town-gown dilemma offers lessons about self interest versus community interest in Smalltown, USA

I woke up yesterday wondering how to create an engaging lesson on co-orientation theory. That’s right — co-orientation theory. In case you’re wondering, the textbook defines it as “the belief that people act not only on the basis of their own perceptions, but also on what they believe are the perceptions of others.”

Co-orientation is a central theme in almost every community relations case study, since community relations tends to involve the conflicting needs and concerns of our many stakeholders. Co-orientation is way more interesting than it appears, but that’s true of most things academic once you put them into a real-world context.

As I anguished over how to bring this theory to life, along came Ed Bargerstock, councilman from Ward 5 right here in Kent, Ohio. Ed’s big idea to solve the city’s emerging budget crisis was the lead story in yesterday’s paper. And not surprisingly, his plan includes Kent State University — the 800-lb. gorilla in this story.

Peter Pace produces peck of putrid publicity

If you’re any kind of news junkie, you know that Peter Pace doesn’t have much use for gay people. But hell, he’s not the first high-ranking official to spout off on this issue, is he? What’s the big deal?

Big deal is that Peter is U.S. Marine General Peter Pace, who also serves as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. The AP story says Pace “likened homosexuality to adultery and said the military should not condone it by allowing gays to serve openly in the armed forces.”

Welcome to 1957!

Let’s turn PR researchers into blogging professors

My head hurts. It’s not from the Heinekens I was throwing back at the IPR bash last night in Miami. I knocked off early. Really.

The headache comes from taxing my underused grey matter, trying to absorb all of the great research presentations I watched over the last two days. In the last post I said I wouldn’t try to report what I’d learned. Now I know that I can’t. Just too much there. Besides, a good number of the papers will soon go up on the IPR website. You can read them there if you’re so inclined.

But most of you won’t read those papers. And I think I know why.

How do you measure a relationship?

My head’s swimming after sitting through nearly 20 short presentations on PR research here at the IPR in Miami. I won’t try to report on all of it. Too much info over too short a time. I’ll get back to you after I read the papers.

It’s always refreshing to spend a day surrounded by folks who are smarter than you are. It expands your knowledge and adds to your worldview. The folks at this conference, most of them PR researchers at universities from around the world, are using their skills and scholarship to make our profession more effective and more relevant to the organizations we represent. Noble work, I’d say, and they’re having fun doing it.

One theme did come through, and that theme was measurement.

Catch you next week

I’m off to the IPR conference for a few days. Wouldn’t you know it. We get some great skiing snow, and I gotta go to Miami.

Not sure if I’ll blog from the conference. May just sit back and listen for a change. I’ll be back Monday or Tuesday, hopefully with some insights.

I’m the NRA, and I’ve had enough!

Relax. This isn’t a rant. It’s a two-pronged lesson in public relations brought to you by a group in which I hold a membership card. Arrgh!

Here’s hoping the NRA is among the 20% who regularly monitor blogs. It’ll save me sending a nasty email to complain about the group’s public relations “attack-tics.” This is one NRA member who’s had enough.

What triggers my post today is the NRA’s recent attack on Jim Zumbo, long-time hunting writer and sportsman. I own two of Jim’s books and have benefited from his outdoor wisdom. But thanks to a “slip of the blog” and the swiftness of the pro-gun propaganda machine, Jim’s 40-year run may be over.

Jim’s misstep was a fairly innocent blog post that said sportsmen really don’t need weapons like the rapid-fire AR15 rifle to pop prairie dogs and other varmints. It just isn’t sporting, he said. But it was his unfortunate choice of words that sealed his fate.