Enough is enough
Strumpette has finally irked me to the point that I have to say something. I’m finished commenting directly to her blog after she refused to publish a comment I made to one of her first posts. She resorted to e-mailing me instead, saying: “Flackette, Go away. Shoo.” I suppose I was too lowly on the blogging totem pole to merit her attention. Or maybe a few of the things I said in the comment were too close to home? E-mail me if you’d like to see the comment; I still have it saved. But on to more important matters.
Has anyone ever noticed that whenever a negative comment is made about Amanda, she posts an answer to it minutes later? Who’s the real nerd here? Those of us that have lives and blog when we have the time to do so, or Amanda, who seems to spend so much of her life on the Internet that she is able to provide up-to-the-minute retorts to every opinion made of her in the blogosphere?
Or, maybe she’s not on the Internet so much. Perhaps s/he is in fact a team of prepubescent ghostwriters secretly plotting to destroy the credibility of the PR field, one illogical and sexually charged post at a time. This could explain the disjointed and immature tone of Strumpette’s writing. The theory of Strumpette having an “editorial team” is not unlikely, especially since Gawker, which seems to be Strumpette’s template of choice, is very open about the fact that they have a full staff of writers to keep content running on a continuous basis.
Shel Holtz, one of my favorite bloggers and also an editor of the amazing podcast, For Immediate Release, published a great post yesterday defending his honor and the good of transparency. Amanda’s retorts lampooning Shel’s credentials and writing skills are juvenile, and were among the many things that have pushed me over into anti-Strumpette territory:
“30 years in the profession, accredited, an IABC Fellow, author of five PR books… so what?!”
“I will compare my writing and the issues I address with your incessant silly drone any day of the week.”
Aww, I think Amanda’s jealous! She knows that she will never have Shel’s credibility as a practitioner, and her writings, at their best, are illogical ramblings that happen to be peppered with good vocabulary. Poor thing. Her credibility is so shot that even if she wanted to attempt transparency now, it would backfire in her face.
In another of her comments to Shel’s post on the matter (yes, there really were that many!), she quotes the following from Edward Wasserman, the Knight Professor of Journalism Ethics at Washington and Lee University:
“Instead of ad hominem critiques, we’re better off focusing on what matters: subjecting reporting to the test of truthfulness, and argument to the test of persuasiveness. That’s the terrain we can fight and win on.”
Amanda, you really should take your own advice. Since when have your posts been anything but ad hominem critiques? I mean, come on, your first post was a direct stab at Steve Rubel. Don’t act as though you are a stranger to using this tactic. Truthfulness? I think any logical human being would agree that deciding not to reveal your identity on Strumpette was a first step in deceit, not truth. And as for persuasiveness, if you think that tying all of your arguments to sexual innuendos is persuasive, you have forgotten that the majority of the PR field is made up of women, who tend to think with their minds and not their sex drives. This would explain why 99% of your comments are from men that seem to focus more on your sexual commentary than on the merit of your arguments.
Let’s just face the facts Amanda. Although you claim that your blog is still getting trafficked like a prostitute in the Red Light District, your posts are only getting one to two comments per (sometimes more if you get in a discussion with the commenter, which shouldn’t really count in any case). I’m absolutely sickened by the sexual nature of the blog, which I think is completely irrelevant to the field of PR and even if there could be a connection, you fail to make it convincingly. There were a few posts that intrigued me because they actually had something to do with PR, but it is a tough call to say whether it is worth it to deal with the rest for a few gems of information. I’m sure there are others that feel the same way.
Why is transparency important, Amanda? Because it’s a check and balance on how you present yourself in the blogosphere. It is so easy for you to make your conniving accusations while you hide behind your lascivious stock photo and high school-ish team of ghostwriters.
I participate in blogging because I want to improve my writing and become the best I can be at my job. I enjoy learning from other seasoned PR practitioners that blog like Shel, Jeremy, Todd, and Phil, among others. They inspire me to rise to new levels of excellence in my everyday tasks and to dream big. Your blog is the antithesis of this. I feel like your aim is to embitter those in PR against their field and to turn outsiders against PR practitioners in general. What is your deal?
If you want to be taken seriously, Amanda, you’re gonna have to make some changes to your approach. I’m not the only one who’s getting tired of your antics.
Great advice from a PR vet
I know I haven’t been posting a lot lately, but things have been busy. I have yet another wedding coming up that I have been helping to plan (I’m at the “all of my friends are getting married” stage of my life).
This morning on the Bulldog Reporter’s Daily Dog, I found this great article spotlighting Gloria Dittus, a well-known and respected PR veteran.
Highlights:
“A good PR person is a resource and knows not to waste a journalist’s time. When I talk to journalists, I hear them say they get called by so many people who have no idea what they do, who their readers are or what their publications are about. You can’t succeed in this business by doing that—you can’t succeed by generating stories through press releases, either. Instead, you’ve got to develop good story lines and angles reporters might be interested in. You have to help the reporter build the story. You have to help the reporter develop sources.”
“Once you’re talking to the reporter, ask where she was before. Ask what she’s interested in and where she wants the story to go. Ask, “What angles make sense to you in this story?” You have to have a journalist-to-journalist conversation with them. This actually helps the reporter. It lets you give them information that is more robust, relevant and incisive—so you’re not just a pain-in-the-butt PR person pitching a story. The key is to help the reporter do the reporter’s job.”
Also note her advice for having a great career in PR:
“I tell folks who are just getting into this business to get into a part of the business that they love. If you love what you do, you’ll be successful at it. If you love sports. Do that. If you love policy, get into public affairs. If you love making children smile, then get into marketing to kids. That will lead you down a road to success far faster than just taking any PR job you can get.
“My advice is different for more senior folks. I think it’s really, really important to keep your skills fresh. I say that because I often talk to senior people who say, “I’m tired of pitching media and want to manage.” I think if you don’t keep skills fresh, you can’t be a good manager. If you don’t know what your people are doing day-to-day and if you’re not living it with them, you can’t advise them. So my recommendation is to practice the basic skills of PR—and hand off the knowledge you have to younger staff.”
The Measurement Standard: Free Until April 15th!
For those of you that are interested in the measurement side of PR (and if you plan on getting anywhere, you should be), make sure you take advantage of the current offer from KD Paine’s measurement newsletter, The Measurement Standard. It’s usually $20 a pop for an issue, which is always chock full of great articles and useful information, whether your firm be small or large.
However, in celebration of the newsletter’s 4th birthday, The Measurement Standard is offering free access to the site until April 15th!
Don’t miss out on this opportunity. And after April 15th, even if you can’t afford a full subscription you should check out their free One-Minute Benchmarking Bulletin. Quite a few of the articles are free to read without a subscription, and if you decide that you just HAVE to read one of the subscriber articles, you might justify shelling out the $20 on an infrequent basis.
A Rose Among Thorns
It seems that the PR industry has been taking quite a few hits lately from outsiders. Just read this glaring Chief Executive piece by Bill Holstein. His claims are blatant generalizations that are easily shot down. Just read the comments for numerous defenders that excellently refute his points (and one who submits an opposing article that targets the journo side of the equation).
And of course there is now the lovely Miss Chapel, who, despite widespread skepticism, seems to have furnished the house of Strumpette permanently in the blogosphere. In the first legitimately informative post she has thus scribed, she highlights a (negative) study of the PR industry that should interest public relations practitioners.
According to her April 3rd post, “One of the world’s leading experts on business and economic theory, Martin Turnbull of the renowned Kepler School of Management, today released the findings of a 5-year study of the PR Business.” Entitled “The Image Industry, Public Relations at a Flashpoint,” the study is reportedly 62 pages long and includes interviews with the most well-known firms in our industry. I won’t go into the details of her summary now but simply put, it’s not good news. I’m checking into it and hope to have a copy in hand soon to give my own review.
But on to the Rose I promised.
In a March 27th article from PR Week by Michael Bush, the successes of a Proctor & Gamble study on the effectiveness of PR is discussed. It points to the fact that ROI on PR can be calculated when the tools are available to do so, and the results are good. Very good. It is a stepping stone toward supporting everything the PR field has been claiming for years.
Highlights:
“P&G…originally tested six brands. For three of those test brands, PR had the highest ROI. For the remaining three, it was second.”
“The outcome proves that PR is an efficient, effective investment for P&G, and it’s a marketing tool we should consider and leverage…For the brands that currently leverage it, many are considering increasing their investment. For brands who have never considered PR, it’s now on the radar screen.”
Of course, this study has the most influential implications for larger companies with big enough budgets to do this type of research and those that have the marketing component as a measurement tool.
As P&G external relations officer Charlotte Otto says in the article, “[The industry] needs more cost-effective capability to get high-quality impressions data.”
However, it’s certainly a start and I for one was ecstatic to finally see something positive being written about the PR field.
Yay for us!
Flackette 