Middleberg's Musings

Baruch College, an Emerging Marketing/Communications School Bears Watching

Last week I had the pleasure of participating on a lively panel covering Digital PR. Hosted by Dave Armon (former head of PR Newswire) with fellow panelists Jeff Gluck of IBM, Peter Himler and Bill Southard (both head their own PR firms), the discussion was spirited and educational.

 

What really impressed me, though, was the quality of the audience. Over 100 strong came with different backgrounds, different skill sets, and different experience levels—from student to 30-year vets. The whole thing was put together by Michael Lissauer (former Ex VP of Business Wire and now an Associate Professor). Mike knows what he is doing when it comes to putting on events. It absolutely delights me to say that this school is going places.

 

As a graduate of the City University system a long time ago (Lehman College), I can tell you it was an unbelievable education for nearly zero cost. It was called “the poor man’s Harvard” in those days. While CUNY didn’t have Harvard’s reputations, some phenomenal students came out of that school system, students who today are among the leading lights in law, accounting, financial services, communications….you name it. I wish Michael and the entire faculty all good luck. Go for the best and you shall reap the rewards.

Digital PR Event

Thanks to our strong speakers and engaged participants, our annual event hosted this year on Tuesday, Sept. 22 was a smash hit!

 

The overarching theme emphasized the importance of social media in how we better serve our clients. Simply put, social media is a critical part of media communications today. To ignore it as a way to communicate with journalists borders on communications incompetence. We’ve learned this and more.

 

Among the 30-some professionals in attendance were current and former clients, venture capitalists, corporate communications executives and journalists. They heard some of the richest and smart presentations I’ve experienced.

 

Guest speaker Jen McClure, founder and president of The Society for New Communications Research (SNCR) revealed some preliminary research finding from the latest Middleberg/SNCR journalists survey and everything pointed to the growth of social media as a journalists communications tool. Meanwhile, Shel Holz, communications speaker and consultant extraordinaire spoke on trends and developments in digital PR. Then Adam Glazer, CEO of his own shop focusing on SEO and SEM work spoke on social media in a crises involving Ford Motors.

 

Finally, we heard from journalists Karen Bannan and Lance Ulanoff (editor-in-chief of PC Mag.com) about how they use social media in the performance of their work.  

 

Over the next few days, we will be posting some of the presentations on our Web site. Stay tuned!

What's Hot and What's Not in Digital PR

We’re now a week away from hosting our seminar, “What’s Hot and What’s Not in Digital PR.” Getting very excited. Got some of the best speakers around headed by communications guru Shel Holz, Karen Bannan, journalist extraordinaire who has written for some of the best business and consumer books around and Lance Ulanoff, editor-in-chief of PC Mag.com. Social media maven Adam Glazerwill provide some best practices case studies. Finally, Jen McClure, founder and president of the Society for New Communications Researchwill discuss with me our latest research on jounalists’ use of social media.

 

These programs on journalists and their use of new technology and new communications tools is becoming a yearly event. It is something I believe in deeply—the idea that to be effective communicators with the third estate we need to understand what motivates them and how they work. This seminar is designed to uncover some newly researched methods to make everyone in PR better at what we do. More to come.

California Dreaming

Just returned from 9 days in California—from the gorgeous wine country in Sonoma, to cold but wonderful San Francisco, to stunning Carmel, and then down to Santa Barbara, which was beyond our expectations. The whole trip makes me pine for another San Francisco office. There is just something about the lifestyle. From the freshness and quality of the cuisine to the outdoors feeling that permeates the place, San Francisco makes a wonderful change for this lifelong New Yorker.

 

Two restaurants really stood out: Cyrus in Healdsburg (Sonoma) and San Ysidro Ranch in Santa Barbara. Both have earned the highest rating of 5 M’s (Middleberg Musts) which can be found on “Don’s Favorite Restaurants” on our website. Another must is to visit the Jordan Winery in Sonoma. A beautiful chateau sits among 1,300 stunning acres. I found the wine at Jordan and another winery, Robert Young, to be sensational.

 

The only bummer of the whole trip was leaving from LAX (should have left from Burbank). LA traffic is a nightmare.

Michael Vick--Another PR Nightmare

 

The second toughest job in PR right now has to be representing Michael Vick (the toughest client in the world being, without question, Bernie Madoff). As for Michael, does anyone buy into his 60 Minutes bit Sunday night? “I didn’t show enough leadership.” Leadership, give me a break. This idiot didn’t show enough brains or compassion. This wasn’t a case of a simple mistake. This was something that went on for years….and it was horrific. I didn’t believe he showed real contrition at the end of the interview either. They were like empty words spoken by a man trying to make a living because he is deeply in debt.

 

I never understood why someone subjects themselves to 60 Minute interviews in the first place. Maybe he’ll win over a few people who believe everyone deserves a second chance—oh btw, does that also include murderers and pedophiles? What Michael Vick needs to do now, and for the rest of his life, is lead a Boy Scout life. He’ll only win people over by his actions over time. Not by his words on 60 Minutes. Enough of MV, I’ve got better things to do.

Need More Proof How Twitter has Become Part of the Corporate Mainstream?

                     

 

See today’s WSJ piece (B6). The piece describes how some of the big guys—Pepsi, Ford, Southwest—are using Twitter to monitor/measure consumer sentiment in times of crises. As my associate senior fellow at the Society of New Communications Research, Shel Holz, says in the piece, “Social Media has magnified the urgency of crises communications.” Amen Bro.

 

So important is this tool that, to me at least, any company dealing with the public that does not have a social media monitoring and crises plan in place is guilty of PR incompetence. And soon this will spread to companies in the b2b space. In the 30+ years I have been in this business I have never seen public relations change so quickly or dramatically as it has thanks to social media. It is almost mainstream. To us at Middleberg Communications Social Media is now virtually 50% of everything we do. No doubt this will only grow as social media spreads. 

I can’t wait for this September 22^nd when Jen McClure and I will release the results of the 2^nd Annual Middleberg/SNCR study of journalists’ use of social media. Stay tuned.

Twitter, the Rodney Dangerfield of Social Media

Why does Twitter receive so little respect? So many critics say that its popularity will soon fizzle out, that it is a flash in the pan and will never amount to much. Yet all the metrics prove otherwise. Take the latest results from a survey from VMS, a news monitoring service. According to VMS, Twitter generates $48 million of media coverage a month. Yikes. In the past month alone Twitter received nearly 3 billion media impressions—and online Twitter is outpacing even Google.

 

Maybe it is time to give Twitter its due. Maybe, Twitter will be as firmly entrenched in our social media world as Facebook. Until shown otherwise, those of us in PR would be wise to find ways to work with this unique new communications tool rather than fight it. We know from surveys I have done with the Society for New Communications Research that journalists are turning to Twitter in increasing numbers. We know that people of all ages are using Twitter. What further evidence does one need? To me, to not incorporate Twitter in a communications program borders on incompetence.

Crisis PR: If Bernie Lived Out His Sentence

So now that good old Bernie M got sentenced, I was thinking about the kinds of image problems he would face if he lived out all 150 years in the Big House and then had to reenter the outside world. For those of us who practice Crisis PR it doesn’t get any better than this. I mean this guy is the epitome of crisis. So here are some ideas I plan to use if I get a chance to pitch Bernie.

 

“To begin with, Bernie, you need to take stock of the situation. Even though your crime was committed 150+ years ago, you’ll have even more people mad at you than you do today. These would be the relatives of those folks you originally screwed, you know, all of those people who have missed out on a big inheritance. Say you originally messed with 10,000 people, given that it is now 3 generations later, you will have probably 50,000 folks or so really, really upset with you.

 

So what do you do? Here are my suggestions:

 

1. Get that smirk off your face

2. Burn all those $5,000 Zegna suits

3. Leave town. In fact, leave the country. I would also rule out Israel and all of Europe. Maybe the Sudan

4. Change religions. Buddhism is pretty neutral.

5. Cut your hair. That East Side super chic cut you have now won’t do. Consider a buzz cut

6. Change your name. Maybe Muhammad Madoff may win you some friends is the Islamic world

7. Lose weight. That shouldn’t be a problem considering the quality of prison cuisine  

8. Get Divorced. No one likes or believes your wife anyway. In fact, didn’t she put you up to it?

9. Disown your kids. Ditto the reasoning

10. Become the Victim. After all, it was all those greedy senior citizens who put you up to it.

 

Your humble PR servant”

 

 

Interesting take on the evolution of online media as Silicon Valley Insider highlights the real differences--good and bad--between online journalism, “then versus now.”

One of the greatest challenges of a business today is keeping up with new media platforms and practices.  Twitter, Facebook, and blogs have altered the way we do business, distribute news, advertise, and gather intelligence. Some would say that with these changes, online media has never been so “cynical” and “profit seeking” as it is now. The plethora of top 10 lists, ads, and reminders to E-mail, Digg, RSS, or comment on online stories may be irritating, but they have proven especially important to PR agencies like mine.

 

The difference between online journalism “then versus now” is especially significant, helpful even, to staying ahead.  Journalists use media platforms like Facebook and Twitter to promote and express themselves, and in so doing, they allow PR people to keep up with industry trends and buzz-worthy interests as they develop.  The more these articles and posts are shared, the more influence they have. Everybody wins.

 

The amount of information on the web creates the new challenge of having to sift through it all, but the ability to track new industry beats and follow tweets from my favorite journalists is definitely a perk.

The NYT New Pricing Is Madness

Effective June 1^st, the cost of the daily NYT goes to $2 and the Sunday edition to $5. Five buckaroos for a Sunday paper. Brilliant. I love the paper, but $5 is over the top. At a time when papers are losing their audience hand over fist, the NYT is now killing itself. And it is going to lose its most important market—the younger demographic, big-time. I can afford to pay the price, but I’m going to think twice. What average young person newly starting out in a career complete with slave wages is going to pay the price? No one I know. Sheer stupidity. I want the paper to be successful. We all need the NYT to succeed. But this insanity is business incompetence personified.