By Linda Forrest
Further to my post from a few weeks ago asking if journalist burnout was the reason for the escalation of the hacks vs. flacks war, I’ve done a little bit more digging in order to hopefully gain some insight into what job satisfaction ratings are like in the PR industry. Interestingly, the most recent figures that I could find point to very high job satisfaction amongst PR professionals, certainly higher than those indicated by journalists in the prior study. The International Association of Business Communicators, an association for public relations professionals, conducted a survey in 2006 and published the results last year. According to Communication World, the 2007 Profile salary survey was sent to 724 accredited members of the IABC, 125 of whom responded. Though a smaller sample size than the next most recent survey, conducted in 2002, the results from this study reflect an upward trend in both salaries and job satisfaction. In addition to the salary data gathered, respondents indicated the following:
Respondents to the pulse survey somewhat or strongly agreed with the following statements:
-If I had to do it all over again, I would choose a career in corporate communication (84.8%).
-Corporate communication is more respected by the media now than it was five years ago (63.2%).
-My salary compensates for the number of hours I am compelled to work (70.4%).
-I am satisfied with the opportunities for career advancement at my current company or organization (60.8%).
This analysis, coupled with the salary data collected, would seem to indicate that the PR industry is generally contented and well compensated. Perhaps my assumption that PR flacks can claim some of the same complaints as journalists is just attributed to the grumpy (and most vocal) contingents of both industries, those hoping that indeed the “squeaky wheel gets the grease.” Then again, a small survey is not necessarily representative of the entire industry, but still, it does give us some valuable, if limited, insight into the current state of the PR nation.
Since that original post, we’ve also received word from Simon Owens pointing us to his blog where he’s dug a little deeper into the original study that I referenced and interviewed the researcher who authored the original study on journalist burnout.
By Danny Sullivan
When a technology company approaches the date of a significant news announcement, the possibility of offering the story to media under embargo is often raised. For those unfamiliar with the term, it simply means giving selected media advance access to the news that you will be distributing, usually on the understanding that they do not publish anything until after your news has been issued. Although some publications have a policy not to accept material under embargo, the majority of news-oriented media tend to like them a lot and for good reason. Most editors and reporters that have to deal with breaking news are swamped every day with a deluge of potential stories, all of which demand on-the-day coverage. By receiving information on a news story in advance, they are able to conduct interviews at a time that is convenient for them and produce their article over the course of a few days, rather than in the fraught few hours available on release day.
But it should be noted that using embargos is not a valid strategy unless you are already convinced that your story is going to be regarded as worthy breaking news on the day. Embargoing a story that would normally be rejected on launch day for having little news value does not suddenly give it the prospect of receiving blanket coverage. Indeed, it will probably be rejected even quicker if you try and do so.
Similarly, make sure you are targeting the right people with an offer of embargoed news. You’ll be wasting your time speaking to an editor about a week-long embargo if he or she doesn’t go to print for another month! Embargos have to provide some advantage to the media before they’ll be interested.
There is often a fear among tech companies that the media may break an embargoed story before the agreed date of release. Most media are very accustomed to working with embargos but, at the end of the day, it is only a verbal agreement that can easily be broken, intentionally or otherwise. While such an event is a potential risk, it is a very uncommon occurrence – the media know that their continued enjoyment of the benefits of embargoed news is predicated on such agreements being adhered to.
So please use embargos, but do so wisely, and the media will thank you for it.
By Francis Moran
What does an RFID infrastructure company from St. John’s, Newfoundland, have in common with the Livingston, Scotland, outfit that makes the world’s most advanced prosthetic hand? Well, besides being inmedia clients, Cathexis Innovations and Touch Bionics both find themselves this week at the same trade show, Arab Health 2008 at the Dubai International Exhibition Centre in United Arab Emirates.
Touch Bionics is there to exhibit its i-LIMB hand, the world’s first artificial hand featuring five individually articulating digits that has been been fitted to scores of patients worldwide since being launched this past summer. Cathexis, whose mobile RFID reader IDBlue is also a world first, is demonstrating its event-management application at the show, a massive undertaking billed as the largest science gathering in the Arab world.
I can’t help being tickled by what I’m going to do next — email Cathexis’s CEO Steve Taylor and Touch Bionics’ marketing director Phil Newman and suggest they look each other up. At the risk of sounding — hell, let me be honest, at the risk of being — a bit self-promotional, it’s a lovely example of both the broad range of technologies represented in our client portfolio and the truly global scale on which these companies operate. I only wish I could be in Dubai to personally introduce these two chaps to each other.
By Linda Forrest
Many moons ago, I had the great pleasure of taking a communications course with Dr. Eric McLuhan, son of world famous media theorist Marshall McLuhan. A well-respected author and professor in his own right, Dr. McLuhan’s course was designed in order to provide the students, who were studying a range of topics in business management, with a solid language base upon which to establish themselves as competent writers and communicators.
Through course material, we were taught the wonders of styling sentences and how to properly use punctuation. These sound like fundamentals and they are, but the amount of proper grammatical and punctuation training included in a typical primary and even secondary school curriculum is positively lacking. This post-secondary course had us circling grammatical errors, doing word puzzles, correcting punctuation, and learning the true value of a semi-colon among other activities in the name of strengthening our communications abilities. As a result, I feel that each student in that class ended up a better writer and although I’m not certain of the whereabouts of the majority of my classmates, I’m confident that they’re better communicators today because of it.
Having always had a love of language and reading, I consider myself quite the philomath and get positively giddy at the prospect of learning a new word (being in technology PR, this opportunity presents itself quite often, as you can imagine.) Dictionary.com’s Word of the Day email has been coming into my inbox for years now. Having had no idea that I would end up in public relations as my career, my strong feeling is that no matter where I ended up career-wise, I would have been well served by my love of knowledge and language, in part fostered by the course taught by Dr. McLuhan.
Writing is predominantly what we do here at inmedia. Although we may not subscribe fully to the idea that the medium is the message, I feel lucky to have been educated in part by Dr. McLuhan and to this day still make use of some of the reference materials provided in that class. Everyone, even professional writers need to “sharpen their saw” on a consistent basis and I’m glad to have these tools at my disposal. So, thank you, Dr. McLuhan.
By Jill Pyle
Launch day is always busy, usually requiring us to spend all morning, if not the entire day, contacting the media. On launch day, the news release is sent out, follow up calls are made and pitching for coverage begins. On this day we start mining for both immediate and future opportunities. We begin investigating the potential to secure coverage in our most important media outlets, enquiring about upcoming opportunities and what is required to deliver on them.
On launch day, we need to be on top of our game, ready to rhyme off endless facts about the company or product we are representing. Our knowledge of the client and its technology must stretch far beyond the information included in the news release. We need to know exactly whom we are calling, why we are calling and how to make the pitch relevant to them. Before we can pick up the phone, send out the news release, or schedule a single interview, there is a great deal of work that needs to be done.
Launch preparations often consume the weeks leading up to the launch and are in some ways are more intensive than the launch day itself. During the ramp up period of an initial client engagement, we attend briefings and learn everything there is to know about the client and its technology. In an ideal world, we then have some time to digest the information before developing the required media materials, although often, due to tight deadlines, we need to dive into this process immediately.
The rigorous process of researching, drafting, editing and finally gaining approvals on the materials gives us the requisite level of knowledge we need to hit the phones. It is only after finding the right words to communicate the story coherently to the relevant media audience that we can show up to work on the morning of a launch with all of the information we need to make that first call.
-
Analyze this (continued)
January 21, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan In my post about analysts back in December, I promised to expand a bit more on the differences between the large analyst companies and the smaller, boutique firms. The large, global analyst firms that publish all those high-profile industry reports are the undisputed top dogs. They command huge consultancy fees and can […]
Read more... -
Is journalist burnout the reason for escalation of the Hacks vs. Flacks war?
January 18, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest Yesterday’s Bulldog Reporter had an insightful piece suggesting that the model for PR is broken and some suggestions on how to start trying to fix it. It struck me that the author was suggesting a best practices approach to PR, something to which we’ve long adhered, but that sadly, the industry as […]
Read more... -
-
If you want expertise and ROI, hire an expert
January 15, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Today, over on SearchEngineWatch, Marty Weintraub posted an interesting comment warning marketing chiefs against creating “an IT marketing fiefdom”. His point is that just because your IT guys do the techie stuff, doesn’t mean they should be the ones in charge of search engine marketing. “In too many cases, you’re wasting loads […]
Read more... -
Five ways to dazzle a potential employer
January 15, 2008 by Francis Moran
By Francis Moran A few months ago, Karen Russell of The Teaching Blog made a list of a dozen things she wished PR pros would blog about. Since I am on the receiving end of many, many enquiries from people seeking employment here at inmedia, most of which utterly fail to dazzle me, I thought […]
Read more... -
-
Keeping up momentum after the PR launch
January 15, 2008 by Linda Forrest
By Linda Forrest Typically, when we engage with clients, whether they’ve ever done any media and analyst relations in the past or not, we engage in something we call a ramp up and roll out. This media and analyst launch ensures that all the key target media and analysts for a company are made aware […]
Read more... -
Why critical paths are critical
January 14, 2008 by Jill Pyle
By Jill Pyle In a business environment, people often give their immediate attention to the tasks and projects with the fastest approaching deadlines. Whether deadlines are set for internal purposes or imposed by clients, they often guide our priorities and motivate us to make the best use of available resources. When more than one person […]
Read more... -
-
Going beyond no
January 11, 2008 by Danny Sullivan
By Danny Sullivan Any person working in technology PR has probably had to deal with a fair amount of rejection in their time. And no, I’m not trying to make some kind of controversial statement about the psychological make-up of the average tech PR practitioner (although wouldn’t that be interesting?). I’m simply talking about news […]
Read more... -
New findings on how blogs influence traditional media
January 11, 2008 by inmedia
By inmedia Earlier this week, Brodeur announced new findings on how blogs are influencing traditional journalists. According to Jerry Johnson, head of strategic planning at Brodeur, “While only a small percentage of journalists feel that blogs are helpful in generating sources or exclusives, they do see blogs as particularly useful in helping them better understand […]
Read more... -
Twitter
Tweets by @FrancisMoranRecent Comments
The Future of A&R – Walabe : [...] http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/top-10-questions-every-strategic-communicator-should-ask... [...]
Traditional Marketing is Dead – Long Live Bikini Waxer Marketing | Scalexl : [...] pointed out by Alexandra Reid on the Francis Moran website content marketing is becoming more and more like journalism. So, it is not just about the content, [...]
It’s Summertime…and the Networking is Easy? | THE MERRAINE BRAIN : [...] In fact, summer is perhaps one of the times least used to network, yet at the same time has shown to be the most productive time to network. People tend to be in a brighter mood compared to during the gloomy winters-especially where I am from in England! Networking needs to be fun and not approached as another chore, like mowing the lawn. (http://francis-moran.com/marketing-strategy/social-media-strategy-why-meeting-in-the-real-world-matt...) [...]