Public Relations Society of America - PRNewser

‘Bad Pitch Blog’ Co-Founder Kevin Dugan on the Art of Pitching

Patrick Coffee — Tue, 19 Mar 2013 17:34:01 +0000

Today’s guest post comes to you courtesy of our friends at PressDoc, the (social) media-friendly press release distribution, tracking and measurement service. To celebrate the release of PressList, a new service designed to help users pitch stories to journalists, the PressDoc team conducted a series of Q&As with experts in the field.

Their first interview subject is Kevin Dugan, a veteran of both the journalism and PR disciplines. He is the co-author of the Bad Pitch Blog, winner of an Award of Commendation in the Blog category from the Public Relations Society of America and a listed member of the AdAge “Power 150“. He tweets under the @prblog handle.

From your experience, which email pitches do journalists pay attention to, and what makes them read the press release?

Pitching success boils down to relevance. In fact, the list is more important than the pitch. If it’s relevant? It can be long. It can have large attachments. I don’t care because I’m focused on the relevant content and not how it was packaged.

How often is it relevant? Rarely.

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Got PR Ethics? There’s an App for That!

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 15 Mar 2013 15:58:50 +0000

The folks at the top of the PR pyramid spend a good deal of time debating ethics in the industry. We get it: it can be hard to tell whether a certain action crosses that invisible line we draw between “OK” and “Not cool”. Now the PRSA (that’s Public Relations Society of America to strangers) and MSLGROUP have joined forces to address this crucial issue–with a mobile app.

PRSA Chair and CEO Mickey G. Nall says the app, which is of course based on the organization’s Code of Ethics, will give folks in the industry “easy access to real-time guidance to know that what they’re doing is right.”

The app’s features include official statements of professional values, in-depth explanations of the various PRSA code provisions and professional standards advisories on issues like plagiarism, the ethical use of interns, the “greenwashing” phenomenon and the appropriate use of non-original content. It also includes updated links to related PRSA blog posts, an ethics quiz and an “ask us a question” feature that sends your ethical quandary straight to the organization’s resident expert.

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PRSA Defends Industry in LAX PR Contract Dispute

Patrick Coffee — Mon, 28 Jan 2013 16:00:30 +0000

Last week brought news of some significant challenges within the Los Angeles wing of the public relations world–and industry groups have begun to take sides.

Los Angeles World Airports, a group that owns and operates three major transport hubs including Los Angeles International/LAX, recently awarded approximately $4 million in contracts to Southern California PR/media firms charged with highlighting the LAX’s ongoing modernization efforts and promoting Los Angeles as a tourist destination. Last week, two politically ambitious members of the city council questioned the value of the investment and demanded a review by the full council (which has the power to overturn contracts awarded by city organizations).

Their issue? The contracts were “awarded without discussion by the Board of Airport Commissioners last week to companies that are not based in Los Angeles”. Of course the firms in question aren’t particularly happy about the possibility that they could lose these crucial contracts.

The Public Relations Society of America‘s Los Angeles chapter made its position clear over the weekend by stepping into the fray and writing a letter to the city council officially supporting the three firms involved–and the PR business at large.

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Lance Armstrong: What Price Reputation?

Patrick Coffee — Fri, 26 Oct 2012 12:06:36 +0000

Readers: today we’re excited to feature an exclusive op-ed by Gerard F. Corbett, chair and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Corbett, who is accredited in Public Relations (APR) and is a member of the PRSA College of Fellows, has been a member of PRSA for more than 35 years. He also serves as CEO of Redphlag LLC–a strategic public relations, marketing management and executive coaching consulting firm that he founded–and chief marketing officer of Producers Forum, Inc., a real estate Web startup.

Like many folks, I wondered if the world really needed another opinion piece about Lance Armstrong and the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA)’s allegations against him.

In case you’ve just returned from six months manning the International Space Station or conducting research in the Amazon River basin, the USADA released a report on Oct. 10, which cited witness testimony, financial records and laboratory results to support its accusation that Armstrong had participated in a complex, systematic doping program and used other illegal methods to gain competitive advantages in the international sport of competitive cycling.

The seven-time Tour de France winner has faced doping allegations throughout his career, but he’s managed to dodge those accusations by pointing out that he’d been tested for banned substances hundreds of times in the past, without ever producing a positive result. Of course, it didn’t hurt that a two-year U.S. Government investigation that examined Armstrong’s role in possible doping-related crimes was closed earlier this year, with no charges brought.

Perhaps by virtue of his adamant denials, cancer-surviving story and charitable work with the Livestrong Foundation, Armstrong always found a way to push aside the accusations and preserve his credibility (and sponsorship dollars). Then, metaphorically speaking, the wheels came off.

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New Study: Fake ‘User’ Reviews Are Here to Stay

Patrick Coffee — Tue, 18 Sep 2012 17:33:36 +0000

We recently posted a story discussing whether fake “user” reviews posted to social media and retail sites on behalf of clients could be considered acceptable PR tools. The overwhelming response we received from PR professionals strongly hinted at a critical consensus: While the practice is somewhat common, it is never OK.

Gerard F. Corbett, Chairman and CEO of the Public Relations Society of America, even weighed in to state unequivocally that posting reviews under fake names is unethical and should not be tolerated by any respectable PR organization.

Unfortunately, researchers behind a newly released Gartner study believe that the practice will only continue to grow despite our ethical quandaries. It’s a bit of a chicken-egg scenario: As consumers conduct more of their research and shopping online, positive social media reviews will become more and more important to brands—and in the rush to establish and expand a product’s online reputation, quite a few individuals will end up breaking the rules. (Researchers place the percentage of fake reviews at 10-15% by 2014.)

According to Gartner, someone will pay for cheating—and soon.

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CIPR Says PR Pros Shouldn’t Be Editing Wikipedia

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 28 Jun 2012 14:53:17 +0000

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR), the U.K.’s professional association for PR pros, has issued guidance for the industry that states PR pros shouldn’t edit Wikipedia entries where there is a conflict of interest. Instead, they should suggest those edits to Wikipedia editors.

The guidance is an ongoing work-in-progress, with further changes and enhancements expected as time goes on.

Bell Pottinger got into trouble back in December for admitting on secret video footage that they alter Wikipedia entries, among other “dark arts.”

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Coalition for PR Research Standards Has A Few Standards to Share

Tonya Garcia — Thu, 14 Jun 2012 12:13:21 +0000

The Coalition for PR Research Standards — the group composed of the Institute for Public Relations (IPR), Council of PR Firms, the Public Relations Society of America, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), and the Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management — has released two papers that offer recommendations for metrics and ethics for the PR industry. Both papers are part of the Coalition’s ongoing work towards a set of industry standards, and both are open for comment on the IPR website.

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Four Additional Business Schools Join PRSA MBA Program

Tonya Garcia — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 15:39:10 +0000

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) has announced the four schools that have joined Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business for a program that will bring PR courses to business schools across the country. The program was first announced back in December. At that time, Dartmouth was the only school committed to the pilot program.

The other schools are Quinnipiac University’s School of Business, Northwestern University’s Kellogg School of Management, University of Maryland’s Smith School of Business, and University of Texas at El Paso’s College of Business Administration.

The additional schools were revealed at the Silver Anvil Awards ceremony last Thursday night. You can read more on Bloomberg Businessweek and take a look at the complete list of award winners here.

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The PRSA Has PR Job Openings

Tonya Garcia — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:53:32 +0000

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is looking for four staffers, two for the PR department and two for marketing.

The two openings on the PR side were once held by Keith Trivitt, the former associate director of PR for the group, and Diane Gomez, manager of PR. Trivitt has taken a position as director of marketing and communications at MediaWhiz. Gomez will be moving to the PRSA’s marketing department on May 25. All three positions in the organization’s marketing department are new, according to the PRSA.

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Roll Call: JeffreyGroup, Novartis, Viacom, and More

Tonya Garcia — Wed, 22 Feb 2012 12:21:59 +0000

JeffreyGroup, which focuses on efforts targeting Latin audiences, has named Claudia Mejia-Haffner MD of the firm’s New York office and head of the U.S. Hispanic practice. She’ll manage a roster of clients including Clorox, Jose Cuervo, T-Mobile, and Fox Hispanic Media. Mejia-Haffner was previously VP of Axis, the IPG firm targeting Hispanic and African-American audiences and has served as a VP at Hill+Knowlton Strategies.

Michele Galen has been named the head of communications at pharmaceutical giant Novartis. She was previously VP and global head of comms and advocacy for the company, based in Basel, Switzerland. She joined the company in 2001.

Viacom Entertainment Group has promoted Tim Bruno to SVP of event production, talent development, and studio relations. Bruno will add production duties to a number of awards shows and events to his list of duties and will continue to lead talent development and motion picture studio relations. Viacom Group brands include Comedy Central, Spike TV, and TV Land.

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IPR and Partners To Devise New Measurement Standards

Tonya Garcia — Tue, 21 Feb 2012 13:48:48 +0000

The Institute for Public Relations has teamed with the Council of PR Firms, the Public Relations Society of America, the International Association for Measurement and Evaluation of Communication (AMEC), and the Global Alliance for PR and Communication Management to create a series of standards and best practices for PR measurement and research.

According to the IPR, the coalition will each tap agencies, clients, and others to come up with a set of standards that will be used voluntarily to analyze traditional media efforts, social media work, and corporate communications efforts.

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Voting on the #PRDefined Finalists is Happening Now

Tonya Garcia — Mon, 13 Feb 2012 13:38:59 +0000

The campaign to update the definition of public relations has reached the public voting phase. With the suggestions narrowed to three, the PRSA and its 12 partners have put the contenders to the people. They are:

Public relations is the management function of researching, communicating and collaborating with publics to build mutually beneficial relationships.

Public relations is a strategic communication process that builds mutually beneficial relationships between organizations and their publics.

Public relations is the strategic process of engagement between organizations and publics to achieve mutual understanding and realize goals.

Click here to cast your vote. The Public Relations Defined campaign is accepting votes through February 26 with the results expected the following week.

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PRSA, Five Business Schools To Offer MBA Course in Public Relations

Tonya Garcia — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:00:13 +0000

The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) is leading an initiative to bring public relations courses to MBA programs. The group is working with Paul Argenti, communications professor at Dartmouth’s Tuck School of Business to come up with a curriculum that will be taught at that school through a pilot program. Four other participating schools have yet to be determined. The course will be available at these pilot schools in 2012 with the goal to take them nationwide in 2013.

Argenti talked with Businessweek for a story about the program and why it’s important to make PR part of business school coursework (crisis know-how is part of it).

The program was preceded by research commissioned by the PRSA and conducted by MWW Group and Kelton Research that found that 93 percent of business execs think PR is as important as other marketing disciplines. Also, 98 percent think that PR should be included in the business school curriculum. And less than half of the 59 percent of business execs who said they hired a business school grad in the last three years found that the grad had the skills to protect the company’s reputation.

An infographic (two in one day!) about the research is available after the jump.

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So Far, PR Defined as ‘Organization,’ ‘Communication,’ and ‘Public’

Tonya Garcia — Wed, 30 Nov 2011 15:47:49 +0000

The Public Relations Society of America has published a “snapshot” of what they’ve gathered so far from its #PRDefined initiative, and the results are a little… hmm…

Last week, the PRSA announced the initiative, which seeks to crowdsource a modern definition of public relations. The campaign has gotten a write-up in The New York Times and other outlets, and we’ve seen links and info about the campaign zipping around on Twitter.

So what words have people been submitting in order to redefine the profession, its purpose, and its place in the world? The top four words are “organization,” ”public”, “communication,” and “relationships.”

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MSLGroup and PRSA To Host a Conference

Tonya Garcia — Wed, 26 Oct 2011 17:27:15 +0000

MSL Atlanta and the Public Relations Society of America‘s Employee Communications Section are launching Connect ’11, an event focused on engagement with “unwired” employees like those in manufacturing and retail.

“These remote and non-wired employees are frequently the heartbeat and frontline representatives of an organization. So in an age when information moves at the speed of light and customers may find out company information before the company’s own employees, how can internal communications leaders keep these non-wired stakeholders informed and up-to-date?” said Jason Anthoine, SVP and the office’s brand and talent practice head. Good question.

JetBlue’s Jenny Dervin, Mike Mills from Nationwide Insurance, and Renee Kopkowski from Mars Chocolate North America are among the slated speakers. The event takes place November 8. More info here.

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