I’m totally off topic today, but it’s that time of year.

It’s almost the end of fall semester, and that means I’ll be intensely busy for the next 3-4 weeks grading projects and presentations. But it’s not all about the students.

The semester’s end overlaps the white-tailed deer hunting seasons in New York and Pennsylvania — my call of the wild. It means I no longer have weekends for grading papers or preparing lessons. I must head to the woods in search of God’s creatures.

I’ve been chasing whitetails in Pennsylvania since 1965, the year I turned 12 and qualified for my first hunting license. My grandfather gave me his .35 Remington a few years later. It has 6 notches on the forearm to mark his deer kills dating back to the early 1940s.

Hunters didn’t shoot a lot of deer back then, as there were damned few around. But I’m told Grandpap and his miner pals had quite a time at their hunting camp near Bradford, Pa.

New York deer came into my sights in 1988 when my friend Blair invited me to his camp near Allegany. I’ve been dropping in nearly every year since, including this past weekend.

The woods were eerily quiet Saturday, with not more than 20 shots fired in or around Cherry Valley all day. Have the deer moved to better feeding grounds? Maybe. But so have the hunters.

Hunting is a dying sport. Long a blue collar tradition, hunting has declined along with the labor population. Few of our knowledge workers are socialized into the sport these days, and firearms training isn’t high on parent’s to-do lists.

With few folks living on farms or in rural areas, fewer have access to hunting land or any day-to-day exposure to wildlife. In my native Pennsylvania, sales of hunting licenses are down 9% over the past decade. The median age of hunters, I’m told, is approaching 50.

(Update: Could be I was wrong about the “dying sport” thing. My friend Blair sent me this link from yesterday’s NYT. Enjoy “The Urban Deerslayer.”)

Venison is pretty much the only read meat we consume in our house. It tastes better than beef, and it’s way better for you. It’s low in fat and contains no growth hormones or antibiotics. It also comes with no “factory farm” guilt. The meat in my freezer roamed the planet freely until stepping into the crosshairs of my .308 Winchester.

I’d like to tell you there’s a social-media or a PR lesson in this post. But I can’t locate the metaphor. It’s just one of those weeks when my mind isn’t on PR. It’s in in a tree stand in Western Pennsylvania — at least until December 12.

And since Pennsylvania doesn’t allow Sunday hunting, we also get to watch the Steelers game. Life is good.

From Wikipedia Commons

I spent just 72 hours at the PRSA conference in San Diego last week, and I tried hard to be a good blogger. It didn’t work.

My most popular post, the one about Mike McDougall’s 24-second news cycle, drew just 5 human comments and 111 views. Key message in that post was about ethics in media relations, but I buried the lead. You sometimes make those mistakes on deadline.

My post titled “A Tale of Two Assemblies at PRSA” cries out for perspective. I should have called PRSA Chairman Mike Cherenson to get his take. And I should have talked with a handful of Assembly delegates and included their views. A good reporter would have done that.

I’m a writer, not a journalist — at least not anymore. Real reporting is best left to professionals, as gathering and presenting information on deadline is a skill few have mastered. I was damned good at it once — back when Jimmy Carter was president.

The conference was valuable and the content solid. In my role as “student,” I was reminded how tough it is to earn and retain the attention of several hundred people in a large room, about 20% of whom never get off their damn BlackBerrys.

I’m not a big fan of PowerPoint, but the presenters served up some quality slides. I hope they’ll post their presentations to SlideShare so everyone can see them. Or maybe PRSA will put the slides on the public section of its own website…you know, do a little sharing in the spirit of 2.0.

I learned more from the sessions than expected, and I wish I could have seem more of them. The program was a little too weighted toward social media for my tastes, but SM is the topic of the hour for most PR pros.

Advocacy for PR. PRSA has again launched an advocacy program for the profession, but I can’t get excited about it. “PR for PR” has been a priority of the Society long before I joined in 1983. But let’s be honest, the mainstream media don’t have much interest in covering this business, and I expect the same is true for bloggers.

I tend to think the whole “PR for PR” thing stems from our industry’s massive inferiority complex. We need to get over that. On the other hand, PRSA’s Business Case for PR in the C-suites has potential for some payoff. I’ll support it where I can.

What was missing at PRSA09? Pat Jackson. Pat last spoke at a national conference in 2000, about 6 months before his death. For some 20 years, Pat’s sessions at the national conference drew standing-room crowds, sometimes necessitating double sessions to accommodate demand.

Pat was the “Prophet of PR” — one who showed us how to operationalize symmetrical practice and to harness real 2-way communication. And he did it all without social media.

Pat knew that without behavioral outcomes, PR would never win a seat at management’s table. Pat’s lectures and writings changed the way thousands of PR professionals do their jobs. No one, but no one, has come close to replacing Pat as PR’s thought leader. You  can learn more about Pat Jackson here.

I’ll close this post with a thank-you to PRSA’s Arthur Yann and Diane Gomez for offering me a view of the conference from the media room. I enjoyed the perspective, even if my readers didn’t much care. Before my trip, I was planning to end my 27-year run with PRSA, but now I think I’ll hang around another year or two — if only to stir the pot!

******************

PRSA’s invitation to cover the conference came just two weeks before the event. While the media pass gave me access to the conference sessions at no cost, I paid all travel and lodging expenses. PRSA picked up the tab for 2 margaritas on Monday evening in the exhibitor’s hall. Gracias.

Art Stevens

Longtime PRSA leader Art Stevens doesn’t mince words in a scathing editorial posted today at Bulldog Reporter. It is a must-read for all PRSA members. (Special thanks to Judy Gombita for the quick link.)

Stevens’ wrath is directed at the 2009 PRSA Assembly, which last week rejected a bylaw change that would have opened the ranks of PRSA leadership to many more of its members.

Some excerpts from his editorial:

The PRSA Assembly has literally closed the doors to the best minds in our profession. How did the Assembly pull off this art of self-destruction? By requiring that all national officers and board members be accredited.

For the past forty years or so, only APRs could be elected to the national board. Now, this would be fine if PRSA accreditation were universally embraced. But the fact is that it’s not. Less than 20 percent of the 21,000 PRSA members have chosen to become accredited. And that pattern hasn’t changed in years.

Instead of seizing the opportunity for PRSA to represent the entire PR profession, the Assembly chose to remain exclusionary. This was a defining moment for PRSA. And it failed the test.

Stevens, himself an APR and member of PRSA’s College of Fellows, voices strong support for the APR as a tool for promoting professionalism and competence. His editorial even offers suggestions for how PRSA could redirect marketing of the APR, aiming it as more junior-level practitioners.

I don’t talk much about accreditation in public relations. I earned the APR in 1986 and have always believed the preparation process made me a better professional. At the same time, the APR did nothing to improve my leadership skills or potential, nor were any of my clients impressed when I added those letters to my business card.

When an industry leader like Art Stevens’ speaks so passionately, we should all listen carefully. When the Assembly gathers in Washington next year, let’s hope they vote to open the clubhouse.

The APR is a wonderful benefit of PRSA membership. It should not be a prerequisite to participation in the national leadership ranks. It’s time to let that go.

Update 11/16/09: Longtime PRSA national leader, Art Stevens writes a strongly worded editorial in Bulldog Reporter this week regarding APRs and national leadership. I agree with Art on this one. It goes well beyond “inside baseball.” A must read for all PRSA members.

*****************

To most of us, the workings of the PRSA National Assembly is “inside baseball.” That is, unless you’re part of the governing body, you tend not to know or care what’s going on. I have little interest in PRSA politics, but I’m struck by what I’m calling “A Tale of Two Assemblies,” one presented by PRSA, the other by newsletter editor Jack O’Dwyer.

From O’Dwyer’s newsletter yesterday:

An aroused PRSA Assembly rejected (175-103) the board’s attempt to turn it into an advisory body and also rejected just about every other major plank in the bylaws revision. The revised bylaws were then accepted overwhelmingly.

Voted down were attempts to make all national directors “at large”; sprinkle “communications” throughout the bylaws and in the Preamble; place a sitting board member as nominating committee chair; let the board expel any member at its “sole discretion”; allow non-APRs as directors or officers; allow 25+ national committee heads to vote in the Assembly, and let the national board create additional classes of Assembly delegates.

Contrast O’Dwyer’s take on the Assembly outcome with PRSA’s news release on the topic:

Delegates to the Public Relations Society of America’s (PRSA) Assembly overwhelmingly approved a new set of bylaws that strengthen the Society. New provisions were adopted that give the Nominating Committee greater flexibility in proposing candidates for board service, establish a “Leadership Assembly” to focus on issues of concern to the profession, and move the organization closer to the direct election of directors and officers for the National board.

The Assembly adopted the comprehensive slate of changes to PRSA’s bylaws, which become effective immediately, by a final tally of 264 to 20. In most cases, the revisions successfully attached amendments proposed by Assembly Delegates to the original changes suggested by the Bylaws Rewrite Task Force.

PRSA’s release quotes CEO Michael Cherenson: “While there is always a tendency is to look for winners and losers in a process such as this, I’m certain that those who were in the room today would all agree that it’s the future of PRSA that emerged on top.”

Attempts by O’Dwyer to elicit a comment from PRSA leadership met with the usual resistance. PRSA doesn’t talk to Jack, and it’s been that way for some time. From the O’Dwyer’s story:

Chair Mike Cherenson and bylaws chair Dave Rickey, asked to comment on the rejection of so many of the bylaw recommendations, refused to do so.

Cherenson, asked what he would say about the near total rejection of the bylaw committee recommendations, “If that’s the way you want to characterize it, that’s your opinion.” He would not comment further. Rickey, asked the same question, said he had no comment and added that he did not want to be quoted saying no comment. He turned away.

I’m guessing that the truth of this story lies somewhere between the two extremes. But this tweet from PRSA Chair-elect Rosanne Fiske has me wondering. But like I said, for the average PRSA member wondering these hallways in San Diego, it’s inside baseball.

Made it to the PRSA conference hall in time to catch a session on Sunday afternoon. Since I’m back to teaching the Media Relations class at Kent State, I decided to take in Mike McDougall’s session called “Working at the Speed of ‘New’: Secrets for Conquering and Surviving the 24-second News Cycle.”

I’m a sucker for titles with colons in them. Must be the academic in me.

Mike, VP of corporate communications and public affairs at Bausch & Lomb, offered some great advice for media relations practitioners, but the media landscape he described worries me – a lot.

A summary

Monitor the media landscape 24-7. We all know that’s important, but do we honestly track stories about clients, issues and competitors thoroughly enough? Here’s why you should, Mike says:

• Journalists are simply unprepared to covered most of the stories that come their way. Staffs are smaller and less experienced these days, so Mike suggests feeding the journalists simplified content that helps them do their jobs — ready-made content. Few journalists have the time, interest or ability to dig deeply into a story. Very often they’ll run with what you give them. (See why I’m worried?)

• Journalists get it wrong — a lot. And fewer take the time to check their facts. Mike showed examples of how incorrect and unconfirmed information finds its way into stories, then spreads like H1N1. And it’s not just the tabloid press who’s guilty. Examples included stories from CNN, the New York Times and the BBC.

• When the story is wrong, jump in immediately and make the adjustments. Phone the journalists responsible and seek corrections — before the story spreads across the Web and makes its way into print, too. This process can make for some sleepless nights.

Mike suggested a couple of tactics that — while they may be strategically sound — also raise some ethical questions. He made two key points that resonated with me:

• Displace stories as soon as they happen. When your company is the subject of negative press, be ready to push new content that will help push the negative press from page one of the search engines. The story you push needn’t be related to the negative coverage, but thanks to the algorithms of Google, it will dilute the bad stuff. Mike suggested using similar tactics to displace positive coverage on your competitors —sometimes using a ready-made evergreen story.

• Surveys are newsmakers. OK, they always have been. But the lightning-fast news cycle makes it more likely that media will jump on that survey story, even if supporting data are weak. So if your sample is small, don’t sweat it. Mike suggests framing your survey questions to meet your organization’s needs, a statement I hope puts my academic colleagues on edge. Bad research is bad research — no matter how you use it.

Media in this “24-second news cycle” are more concerned with getting the story out than with carefully vetting the facts. Call me crazy, but I find it troubling that we would use that to our advantage. I worry that advocacy takes precedence over truth.

In Mike defense, he twice mentioned the importance of ethics and truth, and expressed his belief that good media outcomes begin with solid relationship building. But the idea of pushing content ONLY to displace bad news or competitive news is less than transparent. And building news around survey data we know to be shaky — I can’t recommend that to anyone.

I left the session thinking about the intersection of client interest and public interest. And we all know about that conflict of loyalties. Or we should.

I landed in San Diego about 11 a.m. yesterday, but didn’t have the time or the access to alert my Twitter friends or my ToughSledding readers. I’m sure you all survived my absence

Everyone is raving about this beautiful city on the bay and its perpetual 72-degree weather. Me? I don’t get it. On Saturday, back in Ohio, we celebrated the end of fall by raking our leaves, then taking a barefoot kayak tour around Sandy Lake and its feeder canal. But here’s the big difference: In San Diego, $250K doesn’t by your squat. In Northeast Ohio, it gets you 2,600 square feet on a private lake.

Okay, I know I won’t be paddling the kayak come January. But I will be skiing the trail around Sandy and celebrating the change of seasons. Like I said, I don’t get California. Let it snow.

In the PRSA conference center, I’ve connected with two PRKent grads and had a great chat with Jack O’Dwyer – PRSA’s staunchest critic – and some will say – its only media watchdog. I know the leadership of PRSA thinks Jack is awfully biased in his coverage. And at times I agree. But I’m glad someone’s out there watching the hen house.

Also met and chatted with my online pal Jason Kintzler, founder and CEO of PitchEngine, the social-media news-release platform that I wrote about here. Jason told me about some exciting new services coming soon, and I’m happy to offer a plug. You may recall I talked about the SMR a few posts back.

I’ve decided that since the conference hall has no wifi that I’ll do my posting here on the “real” blog. It’s be tough to keep up with Posterous and Twitter without instant access. So much for the immediacy of blogging, eh?

I touch down in San Diego Sunday morning for my first PRSA national conference in 8 years. This time, I’m attending not as a PR professional or educator, but as a PR blogger — a media person in search of a story. (Stop your snickering!)

Photo from Creative Commons.

What does this mean? I have no idea. But as a “credentialed journalist” in a tough economic year, I’m not expecting a press room stocked with champagne and caviar. OK, it would be nice. But I’m told PRSA has eliminated the media room altogether, an anachronism from an analog age.

(Update 11/5/09: PRSA email says there is a “media center” at the conference. I stand corrected, but I still don’t need it. Opps! See next update. I guess I DO need it!)

No matter. I’ll find a place to collect my thoughts and dash out a few lines of copy. But don’t count on detailed coverage of the sessions or keynoters. I’m one of those oddballs who sees live blogging and tweeting as disrespectful to the speakers.

Reining in the budget. I stopped attending PRSA conferences when the out-of-pocket cost exceeded my academic travel budget by 4-fold. This year, it’s a bit different. I snagged a cheap flight and booked a 4-star hotel near the conference at less than half the conference hotel rate. The Hilton Bayfront, via hotels.com, is just $109 a night. I’m told you can find even better rates on Priceline.com, but I don’t trust Captain Kirk since he gained all that weight and became a travel shill.

Talk to me about tweet-ups. I’ll be watching the Twitter hashtag #PRSA09 for news about social gatherings in San Diego. I way more interested in talking with conference goers than listening to presentations. But I’m thinking the place for me, at least on Monday night, is Bub’s Dive Bar in Pacific Beach.

Bub’s is where the Steeler faithful of San Diego meet to worship. If you didn’t know, our World Champions in black and gold meet the Broncos on Monday night football. That’s a 5:30 start on the West Coast. A word of caution to the Steeler Nation: No boilermakers until halftime — or about 7 o’clock.

What will I write about? Maybe nothing at all. But look for some short blasts on my Posterous site and my usual snide remarks on Twitter. I doubt I’ll have time to write much for ToughSledding until I return, since real blogging requires focus.

Update 11/6/09: Just learned the conference center doesn’t have wifi available. Who knew? So I won’t be doing any microblogging on this trip, which means no Posterous and no Twitter. That’s fine with me. It’ll improve my focus! The media center at the conference does have an Internet connection, so at least I can check my email! And don’t suggest I run out and get an iPhone. Ain’t gonna happen.

Thanks to Arthur Yann and Diane Gomez, the PR pros from PRSA, for offering me a shot a covering this meeting as a “media guy.” I wouldn’t be making the trip were it not for their invitation.

Oh, yeah. If you hear of other places where the Steeler Nation is meeting up on Monday night, drop me a line, OK? I may not make it to Bub’s, but I gotta be with my people.

Photo from opendemocracy.net

When the Berlin Wall came down 20 years ago, I was a 37-year-old grad student studying social change. Hey, I was a late bloomer!

Each week, as our seminar convened, my classmates found something exciting to discuss as we dutifully applied our sociological theories to the events unfolding in Europe.

Two decades later, I don’t remember much about those theories. But I do remember wondering precisely what prompted the citizens of East and West Berlin to grab their hammers and tear down the wall. Surely, a small group of activists triggered the action in much the same way rebel colonists arranged to toss tea into Boston Harbor in 1773.

Behind most social movements is a core of committed souls who,  depending on their actions, become the heroes or villains of history. The effective ones use tools of public relations to influence opinion and drive action.

Unless you spend time with the literature of sociology, you probably don’t think of  PR professionals as “change agents.”  But that’s precisely our role: to influence and ultimately change human behavior to the benefit of our clients. When it works, it’s a powerful thing to behold, but comes with great responsibility.

Enter the role of ethics. If you believe PR people are, in fact, “professionals,” it follows that you must believe in a strong code of ethics. Ethical conduct is the imperative of every “professional,” by definition. And nearly every professional code of ethics stipulates a duty to client, but also a duty to society and its rules.

As we support those who pay our salaries and fees, how can we ensure the plans we implement serve both client and public? Or is it simply not our problem? And what happens when client interests conflict with public interest, as they so often  do — like here:

Marketing the Boffo Burger. Would  you resist if asked to promote the newest double bacon burger deluxe? After all, no one forces customers to eat these artery-clogging monsters, right? But have you studied the statistics relating to heart disease and obesity lately? I’m a libertarian at heart, and I like a good burger, too. But I also know that fast-food burgers have a negative impact on public heath. How much information does the client owe the public? And what price will society eventually pay for this gluttony?

Community relations. Imagine opening a new store that offers low prices (always) and a range of choices to serve low-income shoppers. Great economic news? Perhaps. But you know the impact Big Wally’s will have on the smaller merchants in the community. They can’t compete. You also know how a “low prices always” philosophy drives manufacturing jobs off shore. Does having another Big Wally’s down the street really serve the public interest? I’m not so sure, and I wonder if Wally’s PR firms ever raise such questions.

Public affairs. Tomorrow is Election Day, and I’m betting Ohioans approve casino gambling. PR and marketing types working for Issue #3 say it’s all about jobs. And since our rustbelt economy is in the crapper, voters are listening. The body of evidence showing the negative impact of casinos on families and communities has been cast aside this time around. I couldn’t work on behalf of Issue #3, as the long-term negatives outweigh the positives. But then again, I have a job.

Considering consequences of our work. Ethics wasn’t part of our discussions in Dr. Stone’s “Theories of Social Change” class. I brought that baggage with me. In public relations, our work sometimes has real and lasting impact on society. But I wonder how many of us think about those consequences when we collect our fees. Or do we simply shrug our shoulders and do the client’s bidding? How about you?

If you’re among those who insist that PR is a “profession,” then you’re obligated to consider the impact of your work on the public interest. We won’t all agree that a Boffo Burger is a threat to society or that a casino in Cleveland is the devil’s work. But we all know that both will have plenty of negative impact down the line. Does it matter?

I’ve been intrigued by the social media news release since Todd Defren posted his first template in 2006. SMRs are versatile tools, especially for reaching consumer audiences. They incorporate audio, video and still photo components along with story information. And they allow for comments and bookmarking, making them truly interactive.

But there’s a downside to SMRs. Those audio, video and photo components — done professionally — don’t come cheap. And with budget cutting all the rage these days, who can afford such a labor-intensive news vehicle? There’s also the question of “How much is too much?” when it comes to communicating a story.

But what if you already have the audio and video in your archives? And what if you have really sharp interns already researching the story for an internal campaign?

Goodyear's SMR for "111 Innovations"

That’s how Kent State seniors Justin Metz and Amanda Hayes came to post their first professional SMR earlier this semester. Interns for Goodyear Global Communications, Justin and Amanda were assigned to an internal communication project called “Celebrating 111 Years of Innovation.” It was a campaign to boost employee pride in a company that, along with the auto industry, has seen tough times of late.

“The story has zero news value on its own,” Justin said. “Without the old photos and videos from the archive, no one would have cared.” And what an archive. Stored in the vaults at Goodyear are old TV commercials, training films, and all sorts of photos and artifacts, some dating back a century or more. A veritable mother lode of content, but not a great story hook. I mean, who celebrates a 111th birthday?

Justin Metz

Justin had learned his way around the PitchEngine SMR platform last summer in my Media Relations & Publicity class. He tutored, Amanda, who needed about 45 minutes to get up to speed.

Amanda Hayes

“We rolled out the internal project in August,” Amanda said. “But we didn’t have much hope for traditional news coverage because we produced so much information,” Amanda said. “But we found so many cool photos, videos and information, and we wanted to share that part of Goodyear’s history in an interactive way.”

The pair produced a traditional news release (featuring just 11 of the 111 innovations), but it was hardly a man-bites-dog story. But maybe the greatest accomplishment by these interns was selling the idea to Goodyear’s PR brass.

“The company had never produced an interactive release,” Amanda said, “Our supervisors told us they’d rather us try it with a soft news story than a major event. The 111 Innovations story was perfect because it could be accompanied by lots of photos, videos and links.”

While the SMR added one more experience to Goodyear’s growing social-media activities, the metrics are soft to nonexistant. The release earned 2,000+ visits in its first week, but a server problem triggered a reset the counter, so a good bit of the data were lost.

So did the SMR increase tire sales? “Probably not,” Justin said. “But it did remind a lot of people that Goodyear has a rich history, and any company that’s been around for 111 years must be doing something right.” And that was an extension of what Goodyear was trying to achieve internally. In the end, all were happy campers.

Like so many tools in social media, the SMR offers real promise in reaching and engaging wider audiences, and in using a news tool to extend beyond news media. PR professionals know how to do this whereas the marketing types often do not.

While I’m proud of our students’ performance on the project, part of the lesson well all must learn is the need for more precise measures in our communication tools. And we’ll have to do that work if we hope to turn the SMR into a mainstream tool for PR. But here in my corner of higher education, we’re having a great time with the experiment. We learn from what works, and we learn from what doesn’t.

But you know, as an old tire and automotive PR guy who launched his career in Akron, then Detroit, the SMR is like a walk down memory lane.

_____________________________________
Special thanks to Jason Kintzler for allowing out classes to use PitchEngine. The system is easy to use and easy on PR budgets. A simple 30-day SMR posting is free.

Susan Getgood

Online pal Judy Gombita sent me a link to this post by popular blogger Susan Getgood. I’m not a regular at “Marketing Roadmaps,” but I am interested in issues of PR ethics, so I’m happy Judy passed it along.

In her post yesterday, Getgood tells us about a PR pitch that appears to have been plagiarized from another blogger’s post  — almost word-for-word.  That’s more than bad PR practice — that’s theft of intellectual property.

Getgood deleted the name of the pitch firm, and I don’t blame her. We’re just bloggers, after all, and we don’t need an army of high-priced New York lawyers beating down our doors and forcing us to defend ourselves. It’s costly, even when we’re right.

Anyway, I did a quick Google search with some key words from the pitch letter, and I turned up this post over at a blog called “All Because Two People Fell In Love.”

The post is a verbatim pick up of the plagiarized PR pitch. Since it was posted by blogger Stacy Moore, one might infer that it’s her work. But clearly it is not.

In my days as a pitchman, I was always pleased when a writer ran my content verbatim. But this case is different. And this case shows what can happen when we grab whatever comes through the digital pipeline and post it to our blogs. Ugh.

As we used to say back home, “Sumpun’ ain’t right here.”

____________________

To my students in Ethics & Issues who missed class yesterday because of my illness: This is required reading.