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The John Edwards trial – what a personal, political and PR nightmare! It’s the cover-up of the sex scandal that could get Edwards up to 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine, according to the Associated Press:
“Jurors will have to weigh whether to believe Edwards, who argued that he didn’t knowingly break the law, or his aid, Andrew Young, who said Edwards recruited him to solicit secret donations in excess of the legal limit for contributions, then $2,300.
The choice before them comes down to which liar to believe.”
Edward’s defense attorney Abbe Lowell summed up the conundrum in his closing arguments:
“This is a case that should define the difference between a wrong and a crime… between a sin and a felony.”
There is a difference between what is ethical and what is legal. I learned that in a Business Ethics course. Honesty is the best policy. I’ve learned that through living my life. Honesty is also the best policy for Power-PR.
Edwards denied paternity of Rielle Hunter’s child on national television. That TV clip has come back to haunt him in the current trial.
“The truth will out“…Shakespeare, Merchant of Venice. Remember that the next time you’re answering a media inquiry.
I’ll admit I’ve been using my Facebook page for both personal and business posting — in the form of commentary. Unless the rules have changed, you still need to start with a personal page before you can launch a business page on Facebook.
It makes sense to have a separate business page so that you can be more strategic in your messaging. Facebook itself offers strong incentive for having a separate business page: You may be banned from Facebook if you try to sell products on your personal page.
I’ve had a business page for probably two years, but I haven’t used it. After reading the second edition of Jennifer Abernethy’s The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Social Media Marketing, I’ve decided to dust off my business page and start using it.
As Jennifer says:
“And as with any good brand, you need to provide a place for your fans and followers to gather. With nearly 800 million people on one platform, Facebook fan pages, which are now referred to also as business pages (or simple pages) and groups are a great place to start. Guess how many users join a Facebook fan page each day? Over 10 million! that’s a lot of fans. Don’t you think that some of these fans might as well be yours?”
Sounds good to me!
There are 5 other reasons for having a business presence on the world’s largest social media site:
1. People are using Facebook as a search engine. If you want to be found, you need to be there.
2. It’s cost efficient. Your only expense is your time, but you need to budget your Facebook time wisely or you may lose control.
3. It’s interactive. You can speak directly to your customers (fans): what you post on your business page will also appear on the pages of your fans.
4. You can get feedback: your fans can post their comments on your page.
5. It gives you added visibility: you can show your blog postings on your Facebook page.
P.S.
If you are a financial planner, your company may not allow you to have a business page. In that case, you will have to keep it personal.
There are so many sign restrictions in Northern Virginia that you rarely – if ever – see a billboard. So I did a double-take when I saw this front page story in today’s Richmond Times-Dispatch: “Interstate ads tout area’s entrepreneurial spirit.”
Gregory Gilligan of the Times-Dispatch reported that the billboards along I-95 and I-64 are sponsored by the local Chamber of Commerce:
“Greater Richmond Chamber began the billboard marketing effort to promote its Entrepreneurial Trilogy, a series of events organized by its i.e* initiative, and to help showcase the region’s creative and entrepreneurial talents.”
Apparently, the Trilogy is a Start-Up Competition, with 142 contenders. Finalists in the competition will be selected by public voting online May 31 and June 1. If you’re interested in voting, the URL is www.ie-rva.org.
Whatever happened to Ladybird Johnson’s Highway Beautification Act of 1965? I’ve provided a link for those of you too young to remember Lady Bird Johnson.
Two years ago, USA Today reported “More cities ban digital billboards.” Critics say the digital billboards are as distracting as texting while driving. I’m not sure what to make of the Greater Richmond Chamber billboards…. innovation or anachronism.
What do you think? Does the medium suit the message?
Watch out what you ‘like’ on Facebook. It has cost six employees in the Hampton Sheriff’s Office their jobs. Of course, they happened to express their ‘likes’ on the Facebook page of the sheriff’s opponent in the 2009 election campaign. When the sheriff was re-elected, he fired the disloyal employees, who then sued, alleging violation of their First Amendment rights.
I found out about the case when I happened to pick up a copy of Virginia Lawyer’s Weekly at yesterday’s Influential Women of Virginia Awards Luncheon, sponsored by the legal publication. The case of the fired employees was reported on the front page: ‘Like’ on Facebook is not protected.
Here is what Virginia Lawyers Weekly reported:
“Merely ‘liking’ a Facebook page is insufficient speech to merit constitutional protection,” said Newport News U.S. District Judge Raymond A. Jackson. “In cases where courts have found that constitutional speech protections extended to Facebook posts, actual statements existed within the record. … Facebook posts can be considered matters of public concern, but not in this case, Jackson said in Bland v. Roberts (VNW 012-3-171).
Aw, come on! It seems disingenuous on the part of these employees not to expect repercussions when the sheriff was re-elected. As far as Power-PR, this case reinforces the lesson that you need to be careful what you say or what you ‘like’ on Facebook. It becomes a matter of public record, which an employer can hold against you. To quote Falstaff in Shakespeare’s Henry the Fourth: “The better part of valor is discretion.”
If you have been watching the CBS TV series, “Person of Interest,” you may find similarities between the premise of that show and the article on “Facebook and your privacy” in the June issue of Consumer Reports (CR).
Each episode of the new CBS crime-stoppers series beings with this warning:
“You are being watched. The government has a secret system: a machine that spies on you every hour of every day. I know because I built it. I designed the machine to detect acts of terror, but it sees everything. ….”
The warning comes from computer genius Harold Finch, who has designed the system which is watching everyone in the U.S. He employs former CIA operative John Reese to help him play crime-stopper. While Finch’s words play as a voice-over to the opening of the show, the viewer sees a series of computer boxes that look like the Facebook “tagging” system.
This is great fodder for conspiracy theorists and for Consumer Reports, which sounds the alarm that “one company now controls such a vast biometric database about so many people.” According to the CR article, Facebook controls more than 60 billion photos, with 250 million more added each day.
We already know that potential employers scour the social media sites as part of their background checks. Other cautionary notes from CR: when you tell the Facebook world that you are going on vacation, you are alerting potential burglars that your home is vacant and waiting. When you “like” a Facebook page about a specific health condition, an insurer might see that and make an inference about your health.
You might want to check the privacy settings for your personal Facebook page and think twice about what you post. CR reports: “Almost 13 million users have never set privacy controls.”
I’m not writing this to raise your level of paranoia; I’m hoping to raise your awareness. I like Facebook. I’m having fun with it! It’s a great way to connect.
From the perspective of Power-PR or in this case, self-posted PR, my advice is to think before you post – don’t be hasty. Consider your audience. Spread only news that’s “fit to print” on your personal Facebook page, which your children or grandchildren may be reading!
P.S. These CR warnings apply to personal pages on Facebook. There is a different rule book for business pages, where you want to build readership and expand your fan base.
The Washington Post reported recently that only 10 percent of the country relies on free broadcast TV today. Local broadcast companies are struggling to maintain their audience and advertising dollars. They are competing with all the online sources of news, information and infotainment.
For a number of local stations, the answer to this economic trend has become news-sharing. Take Richmond, Virginia, for example. Two local TV stations share one news staff. The crew from WWBT-TV, Richmond’s NBC affiliate, provides the news for the local Fox viewers. In the morning the WWBT-TV news team signs off at 7 a.m., as the Today Show comes on, and reappears seconds later on WRLH-TV.
The news-sharing between the two stations started in January. Since I have recently moved back to Richmond, I thought that the news-sharing arrangement between the two local stations was something unique. Not so.
After a Google search I found the following examples of news-sharing:
Fox affiliate, WTIC-TV in Hartford, Conn, has a news-sharing agreement with a newspaper: the Record-Journal of Meriden, Conn.
Four TV stations in Chicago have been practicing news-sharing since last summer.
Freepress.net reported: “Chicago is the poster city for this kind of covert consolidation with a local news sharing agreement between four stations — CBS, NBC, FOX and CW — that combines journalists, crew and editorial staff to produce a single newscast.”
The Chicago Reader reports:
” ‘Across the country, hundreds of TV stations have quietly merged newsrooms, circumventing the Federal Communications Commission’s media ownership limits at the expense of independent local journalism,’ charged SavetheNews.org.”
The Free Press suggests “covert consolidation” and “collusion.”
I’d call it survival and possibly the only way to save the local broadcast news. All the traditional media are suffering from loss of readers, viewers and revenue. I’ve even noticed recently that The Washington Post is printing material from the online magazine Slate; however, Slate has been part of the Washington Post Company since 2004 (more Google research). Still, it’s an example of news organizations sharing staff and content.
People do business with people they know and like. Judith O’Brien is one of those likeable people. She is an expert at building rapport. On Saturday night Judith sponsored a special reception for clients and friends before the appearance of comedienne Paula Poundstone at the University of Richmond’s Modlin Center for the Arts. I have to admire Judith: she knows how to put on an event with style. She was a perfect hostess, made everyone feel welcome and happy and, in the process, she supported the Modlin Center. A perfect PR coup!
For full disclosure, I need to tell you that Judith is a new client of mine. When I write about a client, I do so because I feel they are exemplary of some facet of Power-PR and people can learn from them. Judith is the competent professional. She personifies what Kristine Schoonmaker says in her blog posting: 6 techniques from the Playground for Building Rapport with Clients:
“Treat them like friends immediately…..We feel comfortable around our friends and we’re warmer towards them than we are with strangers. With clients, this comfort will come as your relationships grow over time. So why not expedite things? Some clients can be intimidating – yes – but authenticity and warmth can win over almost anyone.”
That’s Judith. No wonder she won recognition as Long-Term Care Insurance Sales Leader for 2011 and Disability Insurance Sales Leader for 2011 at her Mass Mutual offices in Glen Allen.
P.S.
Judith didn’t try to sell insurance at the reception. She created a “feel good” event. If you’ve ever experienced Paula Poundstone, you’ll know we had an evening filled with laughter. And if we need insurance, you know who will get our call!
“Future Shock” is here! I can’t add. Calculators built into iPhones do it for me. I can’t spell. Spell-check handles that. I’m not sure of the exact term to use in a computer search. Google’s “autocomplete” function reads my mind. Has Artificial Intelligence (AI) taken over for the human brain?
My friend Bev Barker of InsightsMarketingNews.com sent me her recent blog post,” Latest ‘Word’ on Spelling.” She pointed me to an article,”You autocomplete me,” by Will Oremus on Slate.com.
Commenting on these latest developments in AI, author Oremus says, “Over the past five years, web browsers have become better at spelling than most humans.”
I’ve never been good at spelling. I’m glad to have some help, but I prefer not to have an algorithm complete my thoughts.
The situation of man vs. machine with “autocomplete” reminds me of the game where one person starts a story and then others in the game continue with the narrative, adding their interpretation until the narrative reaches some sort of ending, entirely out of the control of the person who started the story.
Are we humans losing our grip? Or is there still hope that the human brain will prevail?
“A ‘hard problem’ in AI is more than just a problem that’s tough to figure out,” says Oremus. “Rather, it’s a problem that can’t be solved without also solving the fundamental problem of the field: how to make a computer think like a human.”
Thank goodness the machines haven’t totally taken over! I prefer to write my own endings.
On his blog journalistics.com, Jeremy Porter recently posted some good tips for getting your news published: Getting Coverage for Your News Should be Easy:
“If you work in media relations today, and you’re having a hard time getting coverage for your news, you’re doing something wrong. Journalists exist to write about news. If you have a legitimate news story, you shouldn’t have a hard time getting coverage. When I reflect on the 15 years I’ve been doing some aspect of media relations as part of my job, I can’t think of a single instance where I had a hard time getting coverage for news.”
Obviously, the operative word here is NEWS. Often clients want to send out a news release on something that is important to them but something that isn’t NEWS in a general public sense. It’s up to the PR Pro to guide them in a discussion that will discover the real news value (or lack of news value) in an event.
It’s also the purview of the PR Pro to guide her clients to the right publication and the right reporter for the subject. There is more than one angle to any story and, while a general interest publication may not be interested in your news, a specialty publication may find your story of interest to its readers. Also, your story may not be “hot news,” but it may have potential as a feature article. So it’s important to know your media. Build a targeted list of publications and writers interested in your subject matter and refresh your list at least every six months.
Porter continues, ” As employees, it’s easy to get distracted by the people we report to. Your CEO or team leader isn’t always the best person to determine the quality of news. To them, more often than not, everything is newsworthy and a good fit for The New York Times….What makes a good news story? Your topic should be timely and relevant for the audience of the outlet you’re pitching. Even if your story is timely and relevant to the outlet you’re pitching, it might not be a fit for the reporter you think writes about that stuff.”
I’ve been doing media relations for 30+ years and I agreed with everything that Porter has said. I urge you to read his entire post. Then do your homework or hire a PR Pro to do it for you.
PR pros, journalists and others who have taken a communications course will be familiar with the KISS formula – Keep it simple, Stupid!
Lisa Rein reports in today’s Washington Post that federal agencies are required to report their progress this week on complying with the Plain Writing Act. “Speaking plainly, they ain’t there yet,” she says, indicating that government agencies have only converted 10% of their documents to simple speak.
Lack of money and lack of staff are among the reasons agencies cite for lack of progress. Rein suggests more simply that lack of a penalty for noncompliance explains the slow conversion rate of government letters, forms and directives.
Suggestions for rewriting government documents include rules of good English: using active rather than passive voice, using “you’ to replace “addressees,” avoiding double negatives and what Rein calls “clunky coinages like ‘incentivizing.’ (first known usage 1970).”
The same rules apply to Power-PR. In my blog posting of March 27, ( Learn to say less and convey more….It’s not simple-speak; it’s effective-speak!) I referred to an article from Harvard Business Review:
“…the ability to sharpen an idea so it can be communicated quickly and effectively is becoming critical. In most organizations today, information has expanded while time for analysis and decision-making has shrunk. We can’t afford to wade through reams of material and convoluted arguments. We need to get to the core of an issue as quickly as possible.”
I’ll repeat here what I said then: Cut the clutter, get to the point, quickly and effectively…. It’s not simple-speak; it’s effective-speak!
Back to government agencies: Are they even listening to what they are saying in their disconcerting documents and documentation? If they read their documents aloud, maybe they would understand…. Probably, they would be as confused as the rest of us.
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