As PR professionals, we all know the importance of monitoring mainstream and social media for mentions of our clients. But does your monitoring system include the comic pages?

Don’t ask my students that question. They don’t read “dead tree” versions of newspapers, and they surely don’t bother with the funny papers. In fact, most will tell you the comics aren’t the least bit funny.

But when today’s edition of Crankshaft mentioned Kent State, one of my Baby Boomer colleagues fired off an email alerting me to the “PR problem” it could create. “What should be do about it,” she asked?

Rather than post my response, I’m asking the ToughSledding faithful for some feedback. What would you do?

The Backstory. Crankshaft is a strip about about a crotchety old bus driver, Ed Crankshaft, who lives with his daughter and son-in-law in a small Northeast Ohio town. The strip is a spin off of Funky Winkerbean and was created by two Kent State grads, Tom Batiuk and Chuck Ayers.

Long story short, Crankshaft’s granddaughter, Mindy, has just graduated high school — but barely, it seems. Her lack of focus and poor grades has parents, Pam and Jeff Murdoch, wondering if Mindy has a future beyond flipping burgers.

Yep. Little Mindy — she ain’t the sharpest tool in the shed. So what will her future hold? A life of servitude at White Castle? Jeff and Pam ponder her fate:

But then…good news from the mailman in today’s strip!

If you follow the Crankshaft story line, you know that Mindy’s admission to Kent State is — well — not good news for those who embrace academic standards. Mindy is an underachiever and a below-average student. And for too many years she was precisely the type of kid associated with our university.

Admissions standards have stiffened over the years, which has led to better quality students. But we all  bristle at that old saying from the 60s and 70s: “Kent Read, Kent Write, Kent State.” Arrgh! It even hurts to key it in, and I’m sure a few administrators will be pissed that I mentioned it. But it’s one of the demons Kent State battles as we try to build more positive perceptions of the university.

Let’s not sugarcoat the issue. Kent State has some highly regarded programs — one of which I’m proud to be a part of. But our overall public image is so-so at best, and most high school seniors see Kent as a “second choice” to in-state competitors Ohio U, Miami U and Ohio State.

The admission of Crankshaft’s Mindy Murdoch, though it’s only in the funny papers, adds salt to an old wound. It reinforces a perception Kent State has been trying to escape for decades.

So help me out. Tell my colleague, and anyone else who’ll listen, what Kent State should do to combat this PR problem in the comic pages. I’ve already told her, via email, what I would do. But I won’t share it until I hear from you.

Any Crankshaft fans out there? How about Kent State fans? How about students currying favor with the old professor? Alumni who need job leads? Anybody?

No rest for the old professor this summer. None at all.

It started with a week of intense training in digital storytelling, followed a 3-week crash course in Ethics & Issues. I was student in the former, teacher in the latter.

In the last week of Ethics, I skipped class for a few days to attend the  Edelman’s New Media Academic Summit in Washington. I won’t rehash the sessions. It’s all on conference website, and it’s well worth your time. Some excellent case studies.

What did I learn at #NMAS09? Not a helluva lot, really. I’ve been studying 2.0 communication for about 5 years, and symmetrical communication for 25. The case studies presented were new me, and at times even enlightening. But the theory, strategy and most of the research I’d heard before.

Still, I’m damned glad I attended #NMSA09, if only to reinforce our decision at Kent State 4 years ago to integrate 2.0 concepts into the PR coursework. At the same time, the conference reinforced my skepticism about social media, and my fears about in world in which “everyone is a publisher.”

My reservations about SM are no reflection on Edelman — good folks who do great work in SM. In fact, all of academe owes Edelman a big wet kiss for sharing what they’ve learned. You see any other PR firms doing this kind of thing?

Some nuggets from the conference — and my take on them…

My wife shot this pic at the Hirschhorn Museum in Washington. Said the sculpture reminded her a lot of me.

The attention span of online consumers is shrinking. We’ve all seen this coming for a decade. According to a 2008 Pew study, the average person now uses 8 news sources per day and hits hundreds of URLs per week. Translation: We must craft messages that are brief and hard hitting, but at the same time engaging. I trust you see the paradox in that.

The shrinking attention span of consumers online forces us to write and think in sound bites. And sound bits are shallow. Still, in a 2.0 environment, we can link the sound bite to in-depth content, so at least those truly interested in the topic will find details.

My take? As PR professionals, we gotta dumb it down, and we have to get a bit outrageous to garner attention. This troubles me, but it’s not our fault. In PR, we don’t create the media landscape, we simply operate in it. If our stakeholders use Twitter, we use Twitter. While the messages may seem shallow from our end, you ignore it at your peril.

Twitter and social nets are the new distribution channels. And you thought they were for conversation! David Kirkpatrick, senior editor at Fortune, told us that Twitter and Facebook are “exceptionally important as vehicles for media distribution.” As the risk of reading into his remark, what I heard is that social nets are becoming push marketing channels. My experience of late on Twitter and Facebook supports this idea. Lots and lots of one-way messaging, but also a productive place to distribute links. It’s not all bad, but it’s not all “conversation.”

Mobile Web is huge growth area. Mobile devices amplify the need for brevity — the need for billboard-short messages that can be transmitted via 2-by-2-inch screens. Think of it as trying to connect with a bunch of ADD types who read while walking, eating, driving, and — as I saw twice in D.C — while peeing. Seriously, man. That’s unsanitary.

So let’s recap. We have an audience with an attention span of milli-seconds, and we’re trying to reach them on a screen the size of a business card. Are we up to the challenge?

Google rules. Landing on the first page of a Google search is more important than landing on the front page of the Times. I know, you knew that, too. But it emphasizes the critical role that “search” plays in our communication strategies, and in everything we write. Your audience is people, but it’s also an algorithm.

2.0 PR is more about what you DO than what you SAY. It surprises me how many people don’t get this simple idea. Reputation (another name for “brand”) is built on performance, not on communication. We heard this message in the case studies presented at the conference. But if you’re as old as I am, you’ve been reading about it for 30 years or more, thanks to the writings and teachings of Pat Jackson.

From my notes in Day 1 of the conference: “Pat J. taught me this in 1985.  The more things change, eh?” Social media have amplified the importance of performance, as one voice can become really loud when it’s bookmarked or “retweeted.” Unlike messages, performance is something organizations still control, even in a 2.0 world.

We’re all publishers. Been hearing this since Cluetrain. It’s exciting, and it’s troubling. As traditional media continue to disintegrate, PR has an opportunity to fill the information gap — to go direct to stakeholders with unfiltered content. No more pitching those pesky gatekeepers. From my notes at the conference: “Wow! This is a model for PR job security as we create more and more content to serve our stakeholders. Scary, huh?”

Why is it scary? Because public relations people are — by definition — advocates. We can fill cyberspace will all sorts of useful information, but we can’t be called upon to be the objective watchdogs of business and government. We work for business and government.

Social media criticism? I didn’t hear much of it, but I didn’t expect to. We came to Washington to learn from an acknowledged leader in the SM-PR niche. Edelman did not disappoint. The firm’s clients shared excellent case studies, and they did so with enthusiasm. Edelman demonstrated that social media must be a key component in any PR campaign.

But no one has yet convinced me that social media have fundamentally changed the DNA of public relations.

Edelman spent a pile of money on this conference, and shared a pile of information. I’m grateful. OK, I could ask what Edelman hopes to gain from all this effort and expense. But I don’t care. An industry leader showed leadership, and that’s good enough for me. I like win-win situations.

Blogging in a vacuum. I wrote this post before reading what others have said about the conference. I wanted it to be my take alone. This weekend, I’ll review what others have said about #NMAC09 and post links to some that I think you might enjoy.

But if you’re truly interested in social media — or if it’s becoming part of your job — set aside 10-12 hours and watch the videos. It won’t be as much fun as being there, but you won’t have deal with the Beltway traffic!

Tagged: Edelman, Kent State, NMAS09, PR, PR Education, Social Media ]]> http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2009/06/19/edelman-academic-summit-3-my-take-finally/feed/ 5 Bill DC1 NakedFatGuy kirk google-logo http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/teaching-students-how-to-write-good/ http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/2009/06/05/teaching-students-how-to-write-good/#comments Fri, 05 Jun 2009 15:04:59 +0000 Bill Sledzik http://toughsledding.wordpress.com/?p=2640 ]]>

Read it sometime -- if you have the patience, or if you care.

Fixing online communication one post at a time

Someone should step up and rip the blogosphere a new one. Someone should tell the millions of bloggers, plus the tweeters and Facebookers, that good writing still matters. Those who work in communication-related fields should pay special heed.

But I’ll warn you: It won’t change a thing.

I’ve ranted on the bad writing in this space for nearly 3 years, and I’ve done it in classrooms for more than 2 decades. Posts about writing always draw traffic and comments, but with each post I am preaching to the converted.

Bless all of you who still care about good writing. Your numbers are dwindling.

I know. Blogs and tweets are a “conversation,” and conversations don’t operate on perfect grammar and syntax. Some bloggers, including one who inspired me to start this site, insist that typos and grammatical errors lend authenticity to the message. Besides, another blogger told me, if you spend too much time wordsmithing the message, it’s no longer immediate — and sometimes no longer of value.

Both of those bloggers are fine writers. But they view the medium differently than I. They see only the conversation, and they don’t get all anal about polishing the message.

So what’s my problem? I’m an educator who teaches communication strategy and techniques, so I carry the burden of role model. Yeah, you’ll see typos in this blog on occasion — even though I probably read each post 5-6 times before I publish it. Self editing is a bitch. But it’s something my students expect of me, and I of them.

That’s not funny, that’s sic!

Nope. That’s not a typo. The notation “sic” indicates that “a word or phrase in a quoted passage is reproduced as it appeared in the original passage,” and “ to aid readers who might be confused about whether the quoter or the quoted writer is responsible for the spelling or grammatical anomaly.” (AskOxford.com)

While reviewing a student’s paper the other day, I noted some 4-5 quotes from prominent PR/marcom bloggers, each containing errors in grammar, usage and punctuation. Those errors, I told the student, should be noted with “sic.” But if you do that, I said, anyone reading your paper is sure to question the validity of your sources. I mean, what’s wrong with these people?

Don’t these people have editors?

Nope. Nearly every blog is self edited, and most are hastily posted. A polished blog post is rare. Imprecise and incorrect use of language is pretty much the rule.

To be fair, most bloggers don’t spend hours each week evaluating the writing of college students. They haven’t watched, as I have for more than two decades, the decay of writing skills across the board. The shift to abbreviated online communications contributes to this problem, but I saw it coming long before email or text messaging. Television helped dumb down writing (including Big Bird). Ditto for video games and other pastimes that lure our kids away from reading.

Ask most college students what book they’re reading and you’re likely to get a blank stare. Most don’t read books unless required, and even then they don’t read carefully. They seem to lack the discipline. As any writing coach will tell you, you learn to write well by reading.

Call this a rant from an aging Baby Boomer if you must, but there’s nothing positive about bad writing. Nothing. It calls into question the writer’s credibility and his intelligence.

I should probably just let this issue go, crack open a beer and say, “F#%* it.” But I can’t. I just can’t.

* Headline for this post is inspired by Michael O’Donaghue’s classic essay, “How to Write Good.” It appeared in National Lampoon in 1973. The essay seemed funny back then, but we may be hard-pressed to find anyone who’ll read it today. It’s over 4,000 words! Hell, we might as well assign War and Peace.

I deleted my primary blogroll today. If you were on it, don’t take offense. If you used it as a resource — and I doubt anyone did — sorry about that. It was a decision based on transparency.

A few months back, a Twitter friend asked me why I had so-and-so on the blogroll. I had no answer. Fact is, I had seldom read the blogger in question, who made my list based on some witty Twitter comments.

In fact, I read only about one-third of the writers on my blogroll. There isn’t time for more. But their presence on my personal “A” list implies endorsement. I could leave that one-third in place, but even many of those I don’t read consistently.

Everyone from my former blogroll, and quite a few others, remain on the feeder. I check that feeder about once a week. (Sorry, but I’m busy.) I read blogs daily, and I learn from them. But I find the posts mostly via Twitter or Facebook links, or emails from people I know and whose opinions I trust. Call me lazy, but like I said, I’m busy.

Deleting the blogroll may hurt my readership and may result in my eviction from other blogrolls. But it’s not like I depend on this site for income…though maybe I should.

I was thinking about coining the term “blogrolla.” I wonder how many bloggers would pay me for the traffic I send their way. (Wipe that smirk off your face!) As the home of “blogrolla,” I just might raise a few bucks, you know?

I might also raise a few eyebrows for my lack of ethics, but the way things are going in social media, I doubt it.

Yeah. I’m still alive, filling my vacation time with crazy projects and unreasonable deadlines. I never learn. I just never learn. Here’s how I started the summer…

Dear Mom and Dad,

I spent the first week of my summer vacation at Camp Tweety. (I think they named it for that goofy bird in the cartoon.) I learned a lot about digital storytelling at Camp Tweety, but nearly killed 4 of the camp counselors. They pushed the campers so far out of our comfort zones that I almost hurled — twice. And imagine this: The counselors were my colleagues at Kent State — digital dogs, all of them.

That's me in the headphones -- clueless and behind the camera. A dangerous combination!

Video? Audio? Sound slides? What was I doing in this place?

I’m a rank amateur with the video camera. Ditto for the audio recorder.

Editing? Forget about it. I hire experts to do this stuff — people with REAL skills. But at “Camp Tweety,” the rookies assumed the role of experts — and we had just 4 “short” days to make it all work — a total of about 24 hours.

The challenge: Produce 3 related stories under the theme, “People You Should Know.” The lead story would be a 2.5-minute video, the secondary story a 1.5-2-minute sound slide show, and the third story a series of still photographs. See the results of all four teams here. (I was on Team 3, “A Taste of Lebanon.”)

On Day 1, we learned the fundamentals of shooting video and stills and the secrets of capturing great audio. It was so cool. Then the counselors issued our high-priced camp toys and sent us afield to capture stories. My team opted to feature local Lebanese restaurant. Hey, we were hungry, and this dude makes a mean falafel.

A screen capture of our camp website. The counselors created this element for us, as most of the campers couldn't be trusted with html code.

Old dogs teach old dogs new tricks. The campers at Tweety are pretty long in the tooth. Just two of 11 are under 40, and most are well into their 50s. (Yeah, Mom, I really am that old. Honest.) When it comes to video and audio for the Web, we can talk the talk, but we haven’t walked the walk.

Our counselors? They’re old dogs, too — but savvy digital dogs who believe anyone can learn new tricks — even aging Baby Boomers.

Our stories. I shot a good bit of the video for my team’s lead story and served as primary video editor. (Arrgh!) We used a program called Final Cut Pro — and lemme tell ya, there’s nothing intuitive about that program. Nothing. I learned that editing is hard work to be done by very patient people.

Anyway, when you watch the stories from my team, keep in mind we’re new at this, so we still kinda suck at it. We did OK, but I’m sure none of us earned an “A.”

Camp Tweety wasn’t really about the the stories we produced. Camp Tweety was about lessons we carry forward. I’m guessing those lessons vary from camper to camper. Here are mine, from a PR perspective.

PR professionals should immerse themselves in digital storytelling. Don’t worry, you don’t have to master the art form. But you need to understand it — and how better than to actually do it? Camp Tweety convinced me I’ll never be a video editor. But since audio and video are so critical to Web communication, PR professionals should all spend time at Camp Tweety — or something like it.

PR professionals should hire professionals. Those $100 Flip cameras may be fine for the casual YouTube clip, so stick one in your bag. Ditto for the point-and-shoot still camera. But if you want to produce video, audio and stills with professional results, hire someone who does it for a living. Focus on the job of planning and implementing PR strategies. And except for that cheesy YouTube stuff, assign the visual tactics to experts.

It’s been said that Web 2.0 challenges all of us to expand our skill sets — to become generalists. But it’s also been said that Web 2.0 devalues expertise. Camp Tweety helped me see both sides of that argument.

I’ll close with a hat tip to our camp counselors: Fred Endres, Joe Murray, Gary Hanson, Dave Smeltzer and Ben Whaley. In the normal school year, I call them colleagues. As camp counselors, I call them tyrants — even though they smile a lot. These guys really know their stuff, and our students are lucky to have them.

And get this, four of the five counselors are older than I am! And you thought this digital stuff was just for the millenials.

Send those kids around. We show ‘em how it’s done.

No one cares what you think.

I tell my students this all the time. If you want your bosses and clients to take you seriously, make your case logically and make it with conviction. Don’t start off with: “In my humble opinion…”  People don’t follow your counsel because you “think” you’re right. They follow you because you’ve made a persuasive case based on solid evidence.

A persuasive communicator isn’t tentative. I learned this 35 years ago in a college course called “Argumentation and Debate.” I also learned the value of research — hours and hours of research — from which my team assembled the facts and stories to support our position.

Think about it. Ever heard an accomplished debater begin a case with, “In my opinion…”? Confident debaters, like confident PR counselors, state their positions without qualification and they back those positions with evidence.

Ask me about “I think”

This past semester, I tried an experiment in my Ethics and Issues class. Each time a student wrote the words “I think,”  or “in my opinion,” I placed a note in the paper’s margin that read: “Ask me about ‘I think.’”

I graded 80-90 papers in this class over the past 15 weeks, and I tagged about 20% with the “I think” note. Not a single student asked me about it. Not one.

Dan Santow

Perhaps the students don’t want constructive comments. Or maybe they just don’t care. To be fair, most are graduating seniors and focused on the job search. (Only 3 of 20 were PR majors, and none used the “I think” phrase. I must have beaten them into submission in past classes!)

Some 33 years after that debate class, “Word Wise” blogger Dan Santow presented the “I think” lesson better than I ever could. I’ve been referring students to his “Think Tank” post ever since. Here’s the essence:

One way to make your writing more forceful and dynamic, whether you’re writing op-eds on behalf of a client or internal memos or even new business proposals, is to avoid using the phrase “I think.” Implicitly, when you write something you believe it to be so. There’s no need to precede it with “I think,” which can actually imply that you aren’t so sure that what you are writing is true or reasonable or sage or valuable.

Say you’re a client. Which would you rather hear your hundreds-of-dollars-an-hour communications partner advise?

• I think a word-of-mouth campaign would create buzz. I think that’s what we should implement.
• A word-of-mouth campaign would create buzz. That’s what we should implement.

The first example sounds a little namby-pamby, as if though you’re suggesting it you don’t want to take responsibility for it. The second example sounds confident, implying you know your stuff (which, presumably you do).

I think Dan got it right. His blog is a “must read” for anyone who cares about good writing and effective persuasion.

What the hell. It’s Friday!

What makes you smile? I mean, aside from good red wine and a foot massage? For me, it’s hillbilly singers and the stories they tell. I love those good ole boys, and I live vicariously through them.

I hide my hillbilly roots well. I gave up chewing tobacco long ago. Ditto for squirrel huntin’ and cow tippin’. But somewhere under this PR veneer lies an Appalachian soul that’s part coal miner, part deer hunter, part whiskey sipper.

I know you don’t care about any of this, but it’s Friday. So lighten up. Have a drink. There’ll be time to get serious next week.

What exactly is hillbilly music? My definition includes country, western and bluegrass, plus any rock-n-roll song with adequate twang. Hillbilly lyrics are simple and clear, never deep, and never too philosophical. They tell stories most of us can understand.

Just for fun, I drew up a list of my favorite hillybilly tunes and linked each to a video. Every song on this list makes me smile — even the sad ones. So let’s count ‘em down, shall we? You have my permission to spend the rest of your Friday with my good ole boys.

10.  Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down (by Kris Kristofferson/Performed by Johnny Cash w/KK)

9.  Good Ole Boys Like Me, Don Williams

8. Lonesome LA Cowboy, New Riders of the Purple Sage

7. Yellow Rose Express, Michael Dinner

6. Six Days on the Road, Dave Dudley

5. The Fast One, J. D. Souther

4. Tennessee Stud,  (By Jimmy Driftwood/Performed by Doc Watson)

3. Sixteen Tons, Tennessee Ernie Ford

2. Dead Flowers, Rolling Stones

1. Misery and Gin, Merle Haggard

With apologies to National Lampoon!

No, we’ve never threatened to shoot anyone’s dog. But if you want to study PR at Kent State, you can’t pass “PR Online Tactics” without writing a blog and putting it up for the world to see. If that bothers you, you’ll want to find another major.

As PR professionals, we know that blogs are part of the communication landscape. Not all organizations participate, but all are part of the social-media game — even if they don’t play. So a new PR grad must understand blogging — and what better way than learning by doing?

Some disagree with our blog-or-else policy. In her excellent article in JMC Educator, Shearlean Duke reports on a Delphi study involving top-level PR professionals. The Delphi panel lists blogging as one of the key new-media skills PR students should develop. But the panel also insists PR educators SHOULD NOT REQUIRE students to blog, as “forced content skews the transparency of the blogosphere.” Student blogging, they say, should be voluntary.

I’d link you to the article, but it’s one of those academic journals that requires a membership.

At Kent State, we disagree. Our blog assignments and readings include a heavy dose of transparency and authenticity. But since our program prepares students for PR careers, hands-on experience is the core of everything we do — and blogging is not part of that.

Why not make blogs optional? Because no one will write them. Our students work an average of 20 hours per week, some as many as 40. They don’t drive hand-me-down BMWs, and their Coach handbags are knockoffs. Optional assignments don’t work at Kent State — something we’ve learned from experience.

Does “forced blogging” violate the spirit of transparency? I suppose it does. But do you really think 18 students in Kent, Ohio, are a threat to the sanctity the blogosphere? Besides, some of them do outstanding work that would never happen without a little coercion from the professor. And since most students disclose the assignment in their first post or the “about” page, we’ve got the transparency thing covered.

What about restricting access? Some universities require student blogs, but place them behind firewalls where only classmates and instructor can see them? This puzzle me. Isn’t the point of blogging to open yourself to online conversation? That’s how it works in the real world, so why not the classroom?

What should students write about? For 3 years now, we’ve required our students to write about some niche of public relations — any area they find interesting. I suspect that policy constrains their “passion” a bit, but focusing on a PR-related topic forces students to think deeply and critically about the business, and that’s never a bad thing.

OK. We could allow students to blog about anything they know and love. But will a blog about trout fishing do as much for the student’s portfolio as one focused on environmental PR or corporate social responsibility? You see our dilemma, I’m sure.

For the record, here’s our rationale for requiring students to blog:

• Blogging helps students more fully understand the medium. How to write it. How to interact with readers and other bloggers. How to research a post. How to discover and link to relevant material.

• Blogging helps students develop their online voice. They practice the terse and conversational style of online writing while being coached and critiqued by people who do it well.

• Blogging helps students land jobs. The blog enhances the digital portfolio by showcasing online skills and understanding. It’s especially helpful with employers who are late adopters of 2.0 communication. But let’s be realistic. Never once has an employer called my office to recruit a blogger. It’s an important skill in PR, but not yet a significant career track.

• Blogging helps students develop as PR professionals. The focus is on transparency and two-way communication, just like PR practice. In addition, student bloggers must write well and write often. We deduct points for errors in fact or gaffs in grammar, punctuation and usage.

Some prominent bloggers believe grammar errors and typos add to the authenticity of a blog. We disagree. A PR student’s blog is far more than a “naked conversation.” It a key piece in a portfolio produced by a communication professional. While a student blog should be informal, it must also be polished.

So for students thinking of becoming PR majors at Kent State — prepare to meet thy blog. Or prepare to find another major.

______________________________________________________________

For links to the student bloggers of PRKent, Spring 2009, check the blogrolls to your right.

In our Ethics & Issues class this week, we discussed John Stauber’s documentary, “Toxic Sludge Is Good for You.” The film, and the book it’s based on, is a scathing indictment of the public relations business. And while it’s hardly a balanced view, it’s one every PR professional should see. “Toxic Sludge” begins by questioning an axiom long preached in our field: that the “best PR is invisible PR.” Will that approach work in a 2.0 world?

**********

Adweek’s Brian Morrisey this week reports on the latest social media campaign designed to create buzz. It’s called MyBlogSpark. The campaign features cereal giant General Mills targeting some 900 citizen journalists, most of them mommy bloggers. That’s a sizable and influential group when your job is to sell Cheerios. The campaign is smart and efficient marketing by any standard.

MyBlogSpark sends free product to the bloggers to sample and, if they choose, to review. It’s hardly a blogola scandal, as the bloggers receive nothing more than free consumables and some in-store coupons. If you’re a blogger corrupted by a free box of Kashi Whole Grain, then you’re beyond hope. No one is being “bought” here.

BlogSpark, like Ford’s Fiesta Movement, is ingenius (though Ford, IMO, crosses the line into blogola). The campaign puts products in the hands of influencers within its target demographic. There’s an element of market research to it all, but the real benefit comes from bloggers sharing their experiences with readers. It’s a buzz machine that helps sells product and fuel search engine optimization. It’s also inexpensive to implement and maintain.

So why am I writing this post? These passages from Morrissey’s story bother me a bit:

General Mills can be confident the program will fill blogs with positive reviews. One of the requirements for participation reads: “If you feel you cannot write a positive post regarding the product or service, please contact the MyBlogSpark team before posting any content.”

In response, Stacy Becker (of Coyne PR) told Morrissey of the bloggers: “They are free to write anything they’d like, though.”

Morrissey adds:

Becker could not point to any reviews that weren’t positive, but she assessed some as “not so great,” adding: “We don’t tell them not to write, but most want to only write positive things.”

According to Morrissey, General Mills “suggests bloggers inform readers they receive products for review,” but it’s not a requirement they do so. Though, in General Mills’ defense, how do you force anyone to be transparent? You can only suggest it.

Morrissey then reminds us of the news we’ve all been hearing:

The Federal Trade Commission has suggested it might put in place regulations requiring clearer disclosure from bloggers who review products. A half-dozen product review posts from MyBlogSpark members sampled did not include mention of General Mills. The typical disclosure was more discrete.

“If bloggers want to maintain editorial integrity, they need to disclose their variables for reviews,” said Sarah Hofstetter, vp of emerging media and client strategy at 360i, which has run blog-influencer programs but is not affiliated with MyBlogSpark. “If they’re only going to review things they like, they need to disclose this is part of their deal: they’re receiving a lot of products from a lot of vendors and they only review what they like.”

I don’t know Brian Morrissey, but I know he’s been critic of social media campaigns that fly under the radar. The General Mills campaign is largely above board, but only because Morrissey called them on it. After pointing out the ambiguity of its agreement with bloggers, General Mills’ Brand Manager David Witt had the language removed. General Mills no longer requires its bloggers to forewarn the company when negative posts are coming. (Witt posted this news in the comments section of Morrissey’s story.)

So we can’t be unhappy about the outcome. The critical eye of a journalist brought about change that made a marketing program more transparent. It’s the watchdog function of media working as it should. You see why I worry every day about losing these guys?

What’s wrong with a little free cereal to generate a lot of goodwill? Nothing at all, so long as the writers disclose their relationship with their sponsors, and that they do so at the top of the post.

The age of PR as the “unseen power” is passing. And we’re all the better for it.

Update (5:28 p.m. EDT, 4/30/09): Ben Parr over at Mashable actually praises General Mills for asking bloggers to contact the company if they don’t feel they can write a positive review. “This is good brand management on the part of GM,” he says. I’d call it co-opting the messenger, but it goes to show you the range of opinions on this one.

General Mills earns MY praise for removing the policy from the MyBlogSpark program. It smacked of prior review. (Thanks to Guhmshoo for inspiring this post as well as the update.)

Media reports say 125 police officers were called in to quell the Kent State/CollegeFest riot on April 24. (Daily Kent Stater photo by Katie Roupe)

This post supports a lesson on crisis management and crisis response. Maybe it can help us all. It’s a long one, so go get some fresh coffee.

(Update, Friday, May 1) President Lefton has broken his silence with a lengthy email, but it focuses not so much on last week’s events but on the upcoming two days — traditionally the biggest  party weekend of the year. Wasn’t sure of the best way to share Dr. Lefton’s email, so I’ve opted to post the complete text as “Comment 17″ of this post.)

Talk about timing.

It’s the final 2 weeks of PR Case Studies class, and the topic is crisis management. I need a fresh case to underscore key points from the readings. Where to turn?

Peace signs seemed a bit out of place -- even for Kent State. (DKS photo by Katie Roupe)

Enter the Kent State Riot – 2009 Edition. (Twitter hashtag: #ksuriots) It was an event complete with bonfires in the street, rock and bottle throwing, tear gas, paddy wagons, and handcuffs. By some miracle, it ended without serious injury,* so I don’t feel bad about making it a classroom lesson. I am a teacher, after all.

Our student-run KentNewNet was all over the story; some of their photos and video were picked up CNN, CBS, ABC and Fox. Yep, we were national news again, and again Kent State’s reputation took a beating.

I opened Monday’s class with this question: “How many of your parents called you Saturday night or Sunday morning to make sure you were OK?” Most raised their hands. Parents either saw news of the riots on TV or heard about it from friends who had. Parents were worried. Watch the videos and you’ll know why.

Student unrest is part of Kent State’s DNA. In the 70s, political turmoil here helped end a war in Southeast Asia. You all know about that one. Today, all it takes to spark a riot at Kent State is plenty of beer and 80-degree weather.

Riot 2009 stemmed from an off-campus street party dubbed CollegeFest. Though not a university-sanctioned event, it drew hundreds of KSU students — and the drinking started early. About 8:40 p.m., a young woman’s arrest touched off a series of events that eventually led to the call-up of 125 cops from 5 departments along with the regional SWAT team.

How did Kent State University react? Barely — and badly. The university’s limp response earns a failing grade, even to a professor who wants to be charitable.

Soon after things got out of hand on College Street, a Daily Kent Stater reporter called President Lester Lefton for comment. News of the event must have taken him by surprise. I learned about Lefton’s response from this tweet by DKS Editor Tim Magaw:

Lefton is taking plenty of criticism for his non-response. Here’s what the Daily Kent Stater’s editorial board said, and here’s a letter from a KSU mom/alumna whose daughter is enrolled at the university.

Rule #1: Be grateful. Bad news often comes from an enterprising reporter’s call, so be sure to say “thank you.” Now you know about the problem, and now you can act. Promise to get back to the reporter once you have information — even if it is Saturday night.

If you have a crisis procedure in place, your the team leaders send staffers to quickly gather facts and assess damage. They phone their reports to an editor, who develops a statement for the Web and talking points for your spokesman. Once you have that info, you return that reporter’s call, starting with “thanks, again.”

Armed with information and talking points, a spokesperson is ready for a stand-up interview on the evening news. Going on camera lets you show your concern for those affected and assure parents and community that matters are under control. By 11 p.m., they were.

It’s Crisis Management 101. But none of it happened.

On Saturday night, the university issued a text message alert asking students to stay clear of the area. Then nothing until midday Sunday, and that, a simple statement without a face. The highlight of the message:

The university is disappointed in the events that have occurred and finds the behavior inexcusable.

By Sunday morning, there was plenty of information available and plenty of people seeking it. More than 57,000 visited KentNewsNet’s site on Sunday alone. But they heard not a word from a KSU official. To be fair, a KSU spokesman did respond to some reporters’ questions on Sunday afternoon, but those comments didn’t make the cut on most of the Web stories, as they added nothing to the story. From the AP:

Kent State spokesman Tom Neumann said the students’ behavior is inexcusable and the university is awaiting more information from police.

“Obviously, things got a little bit out of hand,” Neumann said. The university has not received any reports of injured students, he said.

Finally, around 11 a.m. Monday, another prepared statement arrived via email.

When crisis impacts your organization, as this one did Kent State, silence or near silence isn’t an option. And “no comment,” no matter how late the hour, violates the fundamentals of media relations. No wonder my PR majors were scratching their heads.

Students I spoke with following the event saw the non-response as aloof and uncaring. Many were angry, some even embarrassed for their school. One has to wonder if parents, alumni, faculty, staff and community might not feel the same way. And you know what they say: Perception is reality.

What went wrong? I have a theory. During my 17 years teaching PR at the university, never once has public relations had a seat at management’s table. At Kent State, the top “communication” executive has been either a fundraiser or a marketer. While organizations need both functions, you can’t market your way out of a crisis. Veteran PR professionals tend to be well schooled in crisis management.

We all know PR could not have prevented this incident once it began. But a PR professional certainly could have minimized the damage to reputation by responding quickly and sincerely. Alas, all the PR advice in the world doesn’t help when the client ignores it. Maybe that’s what happened.

I don’t relish criticizing the folks who sign my paycheck, and I do it seldom. But if I don’t share this lesson in my own community — and in my classrooms –  I’m not doing my job. It’s a teachable moment, and I’m a teacher.

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Thanks to HST for inspiring the headline for this post.

* While no serious injuries occurred at the CollegeFest incident, a police officer from the Village of Lakemore collapsed and died from apparent heart failure after returning home from riot duty. So the incident is not without a tragic footnote.