Pushkin PR

Balancing act

2010-04-01T16:47:00.000-06:00

Sorry I am late. Really late. I've been neglecting my blog for weeks now. I've been busy taking care of clients, pitching new clients, doing interviews, having meetings, writing plans, worrying about health care, taking care of my family, trying to have a personal life, watching too much sports, playing a little music and just being generally distracted by the return of baseball season and springtime.

Wow, that is a lot of excuses. While we may counsel our clients to avoid this sort of trap, Denver public relations pros are not immune to the "getting wrapped up in trying to do too many things at the same time" disease. Before you know it you are unfocused, unhappy and unmotivated. Diffused, dazed and disconnected. Stuck in a rut.

A recent survey of social media practitioners on CloudSpark.com found that for an average brand, it takes 65 hours per week to maintain four social media channels at any given time. That's one full time job for 1.5 people.

I find this hard to believe. If you are like most serious PR pros I know, you are doing much more than just social media. You are doing strategic planning, media relations, crisis communications, community relations, writing articles, media training clients, business development, networking, mentoring and presentations. Oh, I almost forgot, and trying to have a personal life.

Social media is a very important strategy, but it should be just one pillar in what is hopefully a well-balanced, strategic, integrated communications program. The key word here is balance. Focus too much on one pillar and the others will certainly weaken. Eventually, things will start to fall apart. That is true for your business or your personal life.

A smart brand knows that success is not just based on sales or revenue or how many people follow you on Twitter. It is based on your reputation, which depends on how you conduct yourself and how you treat others. Do you behave ethically? Do you have a sense of balance in your life? Do you allow the people who work for you to have a sense of balance in theirs?

Today I will stop to smell the coffee and write this blog. I can get back to the rat race tomorrow.

Mike the Headless Chicken

2010-03-12T11:49:00.003-07:00

Have you ever worked with a client that is constantly running around like a chicken with its head cut off? I have.

Last year, Pushkin PR helped the world famous Mike the Headless Chicken Festival in Fruita, Colorado garner local and national media attention for this annual celebration of an actual headless chicken who became an international celebrity after he lost his head. It seems his farmer cut off Mike's head to prepare him for dinner. When he saw Mike shake it off like nothing happened, he kept Mike alive for years by feeding him through a straw and Mike toured the country as a famous sideshow. True story.

The truth is that economic pressure can often make any client feel urgency to see instant results. They feel pressured, so they try so many things all at once that nothing ends up working. Like a chicken without a head, they end up just running into walls.

Our job as communicators is to get them to calm down. There is a tendency for us to try so hard to please our clients that we allow them to dictate tactics over strategy and to decide too soon if a particular tactic is working or not. Our job is not to make them happy. It is to make them successful. And the way to do that is to be patient and strategic in our approach.

This strategic approach generally includes four steps:

Identify the problem and what you want to accomplish. A communications review can provide a picture of where you are today and where you would like to be in 12 months. What problem do you need to solve? What is working and what isn't?

Develop a communications plan that starts with your objectives, then determine what strategies you will use to meet your objectives and the tactics you will use to support your strategies.

Stick to the plan. Give it enough time to tell if it is working or if you need to make adjustments. Try not to get sidetracked. Make sure not to lose your head and end up bouncing around from wall to wall.

Give your plan enough time. Only then can you evaluate whether you met or exceeded your objectives, and if not, what you could do better next time.

Our clients depend on us to steer them in the right direction, not to let ourselves be steered off course by their fears and anxiety. Our job is to not lose our own heads when we see our clients running around without theirs. Like Mike the Headless Chicken, just feed them through a straw and send them back on their way.

Sitting Shiva

2010-03-01T15:59:00.004-07:00

My mother passed away on February 20. I got to spend the last two days of her life with her. She was not afraid, she was ready, and she died peacefully without pain.

Jewish tradition requires us to observe a seven-day mourning period called Shiva. When we "sit Shiva" we don't leave the house, so people from the synagogue bring us food and take care of menial tasks. They bring the services to us and say the daily prayers in our home, including Kaddish, the Jewish prayer for the dead. Once Shiva is over, I will continue to say Kaddish for my mother during daily prayers and on Shabbat for 11 months to honor her life and her memory.

Shiva gives you a lot of time to think, and I spent the past week thinking a lot about the lessons I learned from my mother. Sandra Pushkin was a proud Jewish woman. She was born in Brooklyn to immigrant parents who arrived in America with nothing. They taught her to be frugal and work hard, which she did her entire life. The only thing she loved more than the Jewish community and Israel was her family.

My mother was devoted to her husband, her children, her family and her friends. She taught me to waste nothing and appreciate everything. Responsibility was big with my mother. Not just being responsible for yourself and your family, but the responsibility we all have to help others, to practice kindness and charity, to stand up for what is right and to speak up for those who have no voice.

So as I sat there reflecting on my own life, I took heart from the lessons my mother taught me.

Be responsible. That means providing for my family, being accountable to my clients, behaving ethically at home and at work, contributing to my community, my people, my country and my planet.

Be grateful. Appreciate where you came from and everything you have. Treat others with kindness.

Be happy. Even though my mother was a big worrier, a trait I inherited, she always had a smile for everyone. She enjoyed taking care of people. She wanted to make sure everyone always had enough to eat. She ended every one of our phone conversations with "I love you, up to the sky and into space."

Be present. Understand what is important and what isn't. Don't sweat the small stuff. Always treat family, friends, clients, employees, colleagues and strangers with kindness, respect, dignity and love.

There are a lot of people who teach us important lessons in life. Sometimes we are too busy or too arrogant to remember to appreciate those lessons. Sometimes we need to sit Shiva to finally understand what it was that they were trying to tell us. If we are lucky, we will keep those memories with us when we stand up and move on.

Spring Training

2010-02-15T11:26:00.003-07:00

It's hard to believe but baseball Spring Training starts this week. Pitchers and catchers report in a few days. Although Spring Training is a time for renewal and looking ahead, not back, here's a blog that I posted last year at this time. I think is still relevant.

For baseball fans, there is nothing like Spring Training. It is a time to forget about last year and look forward to a fresh start. It is a chance to shake off your blues and have a little fun in the sun. It's like a break but not a vacation. Teams establish their goals for the coming season, and every player works hard or they don't make the team.

Hope springs in Spring Training. Whether they are rookies or veterans, All Stars or Minor Leaguers, Hall of Famers or guys who only had a cup of coffee in the show, everyone has a positive outlook. There are no egos in Spring Training. Everyone mingles with the fans and signs autographs. Every fan has a chance to sit in the front row.

We could all use some spring training to help us escape from the daily dose of gloomy economic news that makes us dread getting out of bed in the morning, and refocus on what we need to do to improve personally and professionally. From a PR perspective, spring training would be a chance to examine our brand, polish our key messages and adjust our communications strategies. It would be a time for every player and coach to get on the same page and realize that only by playing as a team can we give ourselves a real shot at winning the title.

To paraphrase Nuke LaLoosh from the movie Bull Durham, "Baseball is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."

If we think about our own businesses and our own lives that way, we can boil it down and keep things simple. We can avoid getting hung up on the negative and focus on the positive. We can allow ourselves an opportunity to let go of our mistakes and start fresh.

In Spring Training, every team starts out in first place. The teams that win in October are the ones that maintain that perspective through all the ups and downs they encounter over the course of the long season.

Ship of fools

2010-02-02T13:14:00.003-07:00

A Denver funeral home puts the wrong body in a casket. Then they have to dig up the right body. Then they tried to bury the problem by refusing to comment.

The University of Colorado dental school lets unlicensed residents prescribe drugs using the credentials of off-site faculty members who never saw the patients and in at least one case, did not have an active state license to practice. Whoops. I guess someone forgot to attend the regulatory compliance class.

Toyota spends months ignoring or denying a serious safety problem until the company's reputation for quality and integrity is badly damaged. Now Toyota is spending millions on full-page "open letters" (don't you love that term?) in major daily papers and facing hundreds of millions in repair costs and lost sales, not to mention the long, painful process of repairing its brand. Oh what a feeling.

A crisis can happen to any organization, big or small, at any time. It is not surprising that all these crises popped up in the same week. What is surprising is how they were handled. The funeral home obviously did not have a crisis plan at all. CU and Toyota apparently knew about their situation but ignored or failed to address it for a long period of time. What the heck were they thinking?

Crisis management is not just about how you respond when you have a crisis. Putting the fire out is a lot harder than preventing the fire in the first place. Repairing a reputation is a lot harder than building it. Every organization should consistently be anticipating potential problems, determining how those problems can be prevented, and developing a fluid plan to address those problems if, in fact, they do happen.

This plan should include:

A designated crisis team and team leader. The leader sends out the "Bat Signal," and calls the team into action when action is required.

A system of communication: Who contacts which stakeholders? Who is the spokesperson designated to speak for the organization?

A messaging platform that allows the spokesperson to show compassion, define how the organization expects to fix the problem, and puts the situation into perspective in a way that positively reflects the values of the organization.

A careful post-crisis review process to help the team identify what worked well and how the crisis plan could be improved.

The midst of a crisis is not the time to wonder where the fire extinguisher is and when was the last time you checked to see if it works. Taking some time to plan ahead will provide you the best shot of minimizing the damage and reducing the recovery time. In business, your reputation is all you have. Don't screw it up by being stupid, shortsighted or arrogant. No one wants a ticket on a ship of fools.

Solid Gold

2010-01-26T12:02:00.003-07:00

In public relations we talk a lot about messaging. Staying on message is, as Banya would say on Seinfeld, golden. It's the gold standard. But before an organization can stay on message, it needs to first figure out what the message is, whom the message is for, and the best way to deliver it. That's not as simple as it sounds.

Organizations that try and do too much for too many, or worse, to be all things to all people, end up with messages that can be confusing and dull. Some organizations dilute their messages because they want to please everyone. Many are just too busy to develop a clear understanding of what they want to say. And that's a problem that can be very frustrating for each internal and external audience the organization is trying to reach.

Organ donation organizations are a good example of delivering a clear message in a consistent way. Many of them use Donate Life as a primary message. It communicates the organization's mission and a call to action, all in two words. From there, they can expand the message. "Organ donors save lives." "One donor can save the lives of eight people." "Give the gift of life."

Townsend (a Pushkin PR client) is an intellectual property law firm. They wanted to communicate that no one is better at protecting the ideas and innovations that inventors and entrepreneurs create. When the firm went through a recent rebranding process, it settled on a way to communicate that message in one word: Townsend. The message is simple, clear and direct. You came to the right place. Enough said. Rather that coming up with long, complicated sentences that tried to explain the firm's long history, every practice group and every industry it serves, it settled on something beautifully simple: Townsend, period.

When an organization struggles to explain who it is or what it does it is an indication that something is wrong. That's when you hear people saying that someone is "off message." They ramble, they stumble, they get themselves in a whole lot of trouble. It’s like taking to someone at a party that's had a few too many drinks. Pretty soon you start explaining to them that you are due back on planet Earth.

If this problem sounds familiar, take a step back and ask a few important questions:

Who are we?

What do we stand for? What is our brand promising?

What do we do?

What are the three most important things we want people to know about us?

Answering those questions will help you define the core qualities that define your organization. After that, the trick is to communicate them in a clear and consistent way. Once you master that skill, you'll be in like Flynn. Solid gold.

Taking a peek at the future

2010-01-11T15:13:00.005-07:00

Taking a peek at the future is no simple thing. Just look at Colorado. Who would have guessed that Governor Ritter would decide not to seek reelection? Or that Ken Salazar, the leading candidate to take his place, the man who said being governor of Colorado was his dream job, would decide to stay in Washington?

It's the same in public relations. We all try and come up with our most educated predictions on the economy, industry trends, new technology and the job market. We tweet about the "new" Twitter, we blog about the "new" PR, we tell our friends and our connections what is about to happen, but none of us has a crystal ball. Instead of guessing what's going to happen, what if we decided to make it happen?

What kind of business do you want? What kind of reputation do you strive for? What are the three most important things you want to accomplish this year? And how can you go about achieving them?

James Brown was the hardest working man in show business. Would you like to be known as the hardest working doctor in medicine? Or would you rather be considered the smartest lawyer in the room? Do you want to be a thought leader or a community leader? Do you want to be feared or loved? How about respected?

For me, instead of worrying about being an expert at all things and mastering everything I don't have time to master, I would like Pushkin Public Relations to be known for its integrity. Don't get me wrong, I want us to be known for our smarts too. But technology and the media world are changing too fast. Mastering every new social media tool that comes along is too overwhelming. That's what strategic partners are for. Personally, I would be happy to be known as the hardest working man in PR. The James Brown of PR. I like that.

Being a leader means being able to anticipate change and help your team, your co-workers, your organization, your clients or your community adjust. It seems that we can make the process easier and more predictable if we work as hard as we can to create the future we'd really like to see.

What can we learn from this?

2009-12-22T17:00:00.001-07:00

For most Americans, 2009 will be a year to forget. The Great Recession took its toll. Millions lost jobs and millions more lost their health insurance. Businesses closed, families were torn apart and communities suffered.

If you were fortunate enough to survive you feel relief, but as you count your blessings you also feel sadness for those that did not fare as well. One thing for certain is that no matter how you did, there are some valuable lessons to gain from the experience. So what can we learn from this?

For one thing, we learned a lot about our survival skills. Do we have the ability to get creative in times of distress? Can we adapt to changing circumstances or have we become too rigid to change? Can we respond positively to a daunting challenge and even thrive when tested?

We also learned something about our capacity for compassion. Did our primal instinct to protect our turf take over, or did we extend a helping hand to someone in need? Even during hard times there are lots of ways to help, from volunteering at a food bank to being flexible with employees who can no longer afford childcare or health insurance. It can even be as simple as scheduling an information interview with a job seeker.

Perhaps the most important lesson we can learn from the past year is to never take anything for granted. Always deliver above and beyond what is expected. Make sure you consistently communicate with staff, clients, customers, contractors, patients, students, co-workers, vendors, partners, family and friends. Let them know how much you value and appreciate them.

As you look toward 2010, take some time off from worrying about what you've lost and remember to appreciate everything you have. Resolve to buy lunch for a client, drop a friend a thank-you note, forward a lead to a vendor or send a colleague a referral. Give a loved one a call and lend a hand to a stranger. Understand that in all the uncertainty the one thing you can count on is you.

Here's to a bright, happy, healthy and prosperous 2010.

Chasing Tiger's Tale

2009-12-03T10:26:00.004-07:00

Like Tiger himself, I am somewhat conflicted about how to respond to the episode of the mysterious car crash. The general consensus from PR pros is that Tiger could have avoided a drawn out media frenzy by quickly and truthfully addressing all the speculation, rumors and innuendo. In his words, the advice from the PR community was to come forward with a "public confession."

There is no doubt that using vague wording like "sins and transgressions" just fuels the speculation. The media and the public love to see revered figures brought low and when they smell blood they really get nasty. Knowing that an icon is "not perfect"
or "only human" just means they are weak enough to take them down. So in that regard, it might have been better for Tiger to accept the advice of his PR counsel and come clean. Explain what happened, answer any questions, beg forgiveness and move on with his life. Smart steps for any brand concerned about its reputation.

But the truth is that Tiger is more than a brand. He actually is human. So is his wife. And they have the right to work out their issues privately, without the assistance of the public, the media, the PR community or the floozy from Vegas. His brand has been damaged but not nearly as badly as his marriage. His sponsorships might suffer but not nearly as badly as his family. Corporate Tiger has taken a minor hit, but Personal Tiger's life is a mess.

So while I am certain that this episode will become a classic case study in crisis communications, my advice to the media, bloggers and PR pros is to back off. Let him be. Let his wife be. Let them work it out. Stop being so consumed with the personal problems of celebrities and celebrity wannabees and pay attention to the serious problems facing our planet, our country, our communities, our business and our own families. Let's stop chasing Tiger's tale. There's plenty to do right here at home.

See the brand. Be the brand.

2009-11-20T13:47:00.002-07:00

One of the most interesting discussions in public relations circles these days involves social media channels like Twitter and Facebook. The question is, who should be representing your brand? Are your tweets more authentic if they come from a person or from an organization? What is more effective, a Twitter handle that uses the name of the company or the name of an individual who works for the company? Can whoever speaks for the brand, actually be the brand?

In social media, authenticity is crucial. To be followed, you must be credible. To be friended, you must not be phony. On the other hand, many brands are using Twitter to provide quick, responsive customer service that they can't provide through a call center that reeks of "let us put you on hold until tomorrow because we don't really care about your whining."

Pete Codella is a social media strategist based in Salt Lake City. He says that just like companies raced to reserve their dot-com name, they should do the same to protect their brand on the various social media platforms. They can keep those URLs as placeholders or use them as active channels. Pete also says that in social media it's the people and personality that really shine.

"We're naturally accustomed to interacting with other people and not with big entities, so a brand is more effectively represented by its people than by the brand alone," says Codella.

There is also the issue of who owns your social media content, the employee or the company? What happens to all the company's followers, fans or friends if the employee leaves the company? But we will save that topic for another blog.

The bottom line is that both approaches are necessary. The brand should have its own channel, which may be most useful for customer service, contests and incentive programs, or directing online traffic to important news and announcements. Individual employees can serve as the brand's ambassadors while using their own channels to support the company's mission.

Ultimately, social media is a way for brands to build awareness and loyalty by connecting the brand with people who share the same passion or promise. Brand ambassadors play a critical role in evangelizing the brand through their own social networks.

Like other areas of PR, social media works best when it is part of an overall strategic communications program. And like any communications program, the best way to start is by asking, "What is the problem and what do we want to accomplish?" The answer to those two questions will determine the answers to all the questions that follow.

Full Circle

2009-10-22T09:26:00.002-06:00

As a kid growing up in New Jersey, I was fascinated by the Old West. Stories of cowboys and pioneers, and songs about hobos and freight trains struck a chord with me. So as soon as I could, I loaded up the wagon (in this case it was a VW squareback) and headed west.

I knew about the bums of Larimer Street from a Utah Phillips song and from Kerouac's On the Road, so the first place I stopped on my arrival in Denver was Larimer, where I explored the skid row saloons and freight yards. I soon discovered the Denver Folklore Center, where I learned another song called Larimer Street by a Denver songwriter named Chuck Pyle. Not long after that, I was street singing in Larimer Square and performing in clubs like Josephina's and the short-lived Cabaret, now the Comedy Works.

My journey took me to Texas, Minnesota, Estes Park, Boulder, Key West, Boston and back to Denver. Now, 12 years after opening Pushkin PR, I find myself back where I started, in a new office in Larimer Square. I move in November 1. Maybe I won't be doing much street singing, but I do expect the move to be good for my business, my brand and my spirit.

I look forward to being part of the downtown business community and I know I will enjoy the energy, diversity and opportunities to network with other creative firms. As a virtual agency and a member of the Sage Public Relations Group, I will continue to work collaboratively with the same team of talented colleagues, contractors and communications specialists that Pushkin PR clients have come to appreciate.

Coincidentally, I signed my lease on 9/9/09. The number 9 comes up a lot in my life, so hopefully, all those 9s are a good sign. At least that's what my wife keeps telling me as I stress out over the details of the move.

So now I've come full circle. I am where I want to be and excited about beginning the next phase in my business and my life. To quote Chuck Pyle, "everybody's down on Larimer Street." Hope to see you there soon.

Rocktober

2009-10-09T16:32:00.002-06:00

Look, I feel bad enough as it is without you reminding me. I know that I've been neglecting my blog lately. I've been busy and I just have not had that much to say, at least not anything very interesting. Sometimes even public relations pros can run out of clever things to say.

When that happens in any business, it is a good time to take stock and evaluate where you are. Take your pulse and check your vital signs. Are things going the way you planned or is a change in course in order?

It could also be time to make sure you are not neglecting other relationships in your personal and professional life. Are you taking the time to communicate with your staff? Are you neglecting your clients? How about your wife and kids?

When we over extend, we risk failing to do anything right. We cut corners, we lose sleep and we get sick. Then we feel stressed and guilty for neglecting the things and people that are most important to us.

When I was president of the Colorado chapter of PRSA, a few former chapter presidents gave me some good advice. Basically, you could sum it up in one word. Delegate. Know when to hand things off and make sure you surround yourself with people you can trust. They will have your back.

Just ask the Colorado Rockies. If you put together the right team, no one player has to shoulder the entire load. Someone always steps up when another player gets hurt. The team wins or loses, not just one player. They support each other, they take care of each other, and they fight for each other. They leave their egos at the door.

It's Rocktober. The Rockies are in the playoffs and the Denver forecast calls for snow. Go celebrate.

New Rules

2009-09-18T15:15:00.003-06:00

Shana tova (Happy New Year). It is the beginning of the ten-day period called the High Holy Days. It is said that on Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year, the book is written, and on Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement, the book is sealed.

That means we have this time to make amends and reflect on how we want to live our lives. If we reflect well, we will be written into the Book of Life for a good year. If only it were so simple in business. We could just look back on the past year, make up for all the times we screwed up, promise to be nicer to our employees, clients and colleagues, and know that this year, everything will be different. New year. New rules.

It reminds me of a Steve Goodman song that goes like this:

If your life was on videotape
Everything would be all right
When your head hurts the morning after, you could roll it back to late last night
You could replay all of the good parts and cut out what you don't like
Wouldn't we be in good shape, if our life was on videotape.

Unfortunately, nobody uses videotape any more. Everything we do or say is on file somewhere in cyberspace, digitized and spread around instantly for anyone to see. In the digital world, nothing is off the record and it is much harder to take it back. Unless you are a politician and you have people who specialize in pretending something never happened and explaining what you really meant to say.

The point is that in business and in life, we need to be more thoughtful, more civil and more responsible with our words and our actions. We need to speak and act with integrity and respect toward others. We need to understand that everything we do impacts others and make sure that we remind ourselves of that every day.

All of us can benefit by taking some time to renew, to recharge, to reflect. To make amends for our blunders. To make a promise to do better. We can, we must, we will.

May you be inscribed in the Book of Life for a happy, healthy, peaceful and prosperous year.

Don't get fooled again.

2009-09-02T11:51:00.002-06:00

One year ago my friend Seth got sick. He was healthy one day and deathly sick the next, but in spite of his terrible pain he refused to see a doctor. Seth had no health insurance.

By the time his brother convinced him to go to the emergency room it was too late. They rushed him into surgery but there was nothing they could do. He never made it out of the hospital. This is America. No one should die because they can't afford health insurance, but every day, thousands of people lose their coverage and thousands more go bankrupt trying to pay their health care bills. Fewer companies provide employee health benefits and more people gamble that they won't get sick.

As the debate about how to fix a broken system rages on in Congress and across the country, powerful lobbies are spending hundreds of millions of dollars scaring people into believing that health care reform is something to fear. That is just a lie. Making health care more affordable and making health insurance available to every American is not scary. It is something every American should want. It is patriotic to support it. To not support it is morally indefensible.

There are no villains in this story. Insurance companies and doctors and hospitals and the government are not intrinsically bad people or businesses. Most of them want to find a way to do the right thing, to communicate civilly, to collaborate in a positive way to solve a huge problem. They may be suspicious of someone else's motives or protective of their own interests, but ultimately everyone wants to be part of the solution.

As communicators, that is our opening. That is where we can play a positive role by encouraging constructive dialogue and keeping the debate transparent and civil.

Don't get fooled again. Now is the time to put people before profits. The time to fix our broken health care system is now.

Communicating Strategically Helps Nonprofits Get Attention

2009-08-05T11:23:00.005-06:00

Non-profit leaders are stressed out. How can anyone survive, let alone thrive as funding dries up, endowments shrink and long-time donors disappear? Even in a good year, every nonprofit thinks they are a well-kept secret. How can we get some attention for the great work we do? We have a great story but how can we get people to listen?

Too often, the answer is to focus on tactics. Getting a story on TV may get you some nice results, but if it is not part of strategic communications program the results will likely be short-term. Long-term success depends on moving strategically. A tactical campaign is like putting the cart before the horse. You might make some progress but you won't get very far.

So what does a strategic communications plan look like? It should include your goals, measurable objectives, strategies to meet those objectives and tactics to support your strategies. A good place to start is by asking, "What is the problem and how can we solve it?"

Situation analysis

The first step is to see where you are now. What is the problem we need to solve? What are our challenges and opportunities? Is the problem that we've been around for years but nobody knows us? Or we have a serious competitor? Or we need to reach Hispanics but we don't speak Spanish?

Define your goals

Depending on the situation analysis, your overarching goal might be to raise brand awareness or to reach a wider audience. Maybe it's establishing a multicultural outreach program. The goal is really the solution to your problem.

Identify clear objectives

Establishing measurable objectives at the outset will help you determine if the campaign was successful. A measurable objective must be specific. We will increase donations by 15% by year-end. We will add 200 new members within the next year. We will increase Web hits or calls to our hotline by 25% over the next six months.

Know your audience

Who do you want to reach? Every organization has multiple stakeholders. Some are internal, like employees and volunteers. Others are external, like donors, foundations or clients. Understanding your audience is essential before you can decide which strategies and tactics you will use to reach them.

Craft your messages

What are the three most important things you want to communicate? If you want them to resonate, they should be culturally relevant, clear and consistent.

Design your strategies

Your strategies should help you meet your objectives. For example, a media relations program is a strategy that could help you increase donations. A social media program could increase traffic to your Web site. A community relations program could help you target potential new members.

Create your tactics

Each strategy needs supporting tactics. A media relations program might need a media kit and a news release. A social media strategy might require an online newsroom and Twitter. Community relations might include a booth at a cultural festival or health fair.

Starting strategically makes determining the success of the campaign easy. Just see how you did at meeting your objectives. If you did well, you should also see that you achieved your overall goal.

If you want to be a highly regarded success instead of a well-kept secret, resist the temptation to focus on tactics. Take the time to think strategically and develop a plan that gains you the attention you deserve.

Teachable moments

2009-08-02T14:09:00.004-06:00

As a former history teacher, I was fascinated by the Budweiser sponsored teachable moment at the White House. Most teachers don't include beer with their lesson plans but hey, whatever it takes to get through to your students.

Denver public relations pros have been fascinated by some other teachable moments lately. One was the never-ending saga involving Ward Churchill, a professor at the University of Colorado. That one involved issues of free speech, tenure, plagiarism, meddling politicians and how not to handle a crisis. Another one involved a surgical tech at Denver's Rose Medical Center who may have exposed thousands of surgical patients to hepatitis C by stealing their pain medication and replacing it with her used, saline filled syringes.

Public relations pros can use situations like these to teach our clients how to manage conflicts, communicate complex, controversial issues to diverse groups of stakeholders, and repair damaged reputations. Whether you are dealing with a conflict that needs resolution or a crisis that needs managing, there are some basic lessons to remember.

Lesson #1: Pipe down. I can't hear you when you are shouting.
Professional mediators know that conflict resolution depends on establishing a safe environment for respectful conversation. Maybe it's a community forum or maybe it's over a beer, but before you can get another group to understand your point of view you need to stop shouting and start listening. Communication is a two-way process. You need to listen before you can have a chance for constructive dialogue.

Lesson #2: You can bury your head in the sand but it won't save your butt.
I was recently called in to help a company handle some negative press. The company felt that the reporter was out to get them, but when the reporter called for a comment the company ignored the call. Then they demanded the paper print a retraction. I proposed that we arrange a meeting with the reporter so the company could express its point of view in a non-confrontational setting but the company was convinced it would not get a fair shake. They used the excuse of protecting the privacy of their investors, but they should have been worried about protecting the reputation of their company. When you say "no comment" it just looks like you have something to hide.

Lesson #3: You can't control the message if you don't take charge of the situation.
The beer summit, CU, Rose and the company facing bad press all have something in common. They let outside forces manipulate the situation, and in the process they lost control of the message. At the White House it was the media and political special interests. At CU it was the Governor and State Legislature. At Rose it was the health department and lawyers. And at the company with bad press it was the attitude of one misguided executive who thought he had all the answers.

In every crisis someone will try to influence the outcome or control the way an organization responds to the situation. Our job is to help our clients communicate their messages quickly, clearly, and openly.

If you are faced with a crisis that can damage your reputation, remember these basic rules. Show compassion and do not speculate. Tell the truth and do not hesitate. Be ready to listen without getting defensive.

If you follow these guidelines you may find that you and your stakeholders actually learn something from your teachable moment. Class dismissed.

Bon voyage

2009-07-14T10:40:00.002-06:00

There is an active debate going on within the public relations community about the future of the profession. It is the kind of soul searching that we encourage our clients to do. It keeps brands fresh and makes sure they deliver what they promise.

The debate centers on how we perceive our brand and how we want others to perceive it. On one side we have people who see PR as publicity. Publicists are about who you know. They believe that being seen with the right people in the right places is what makes you influential, and that clients will pay for that kind of influence because it creates buzz and word of mouth.

On the other side we have people who see public relations as strategic counsel. Counselors are about what you know. They believe that their value is in their experience, wisdom and savvy. They perceive of themselves as trusted advisors to successful entrepreneurs and CEOs.

This debate got me to thinking about how the public perceives public relations. In the Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy, Douglass Adams described how the people of the planet Golgafrincham decided to get rid of the useless third of their population. They told them the planet was about to be destroyed and they had to leave immediately. So they built a space ark and loaded up their middle men -- insurance salesmen, HR directors, management consultants, accountants, hairdressers, TV producers, marketing consultants and yes, public relations pros -- and blasted them into space. The useful people stayed on the planet, while the ship of fools eventually crash-landed on Earth, where the mediocre, useless Golgafrinchams mated with the cavemen and became our ancestors.

If this is how the public thinks of us, we have a big time branding problem. As the public relations profession continues to evolve, we have an opportunity to blend traditional approaches with new technology to create a brand that can be taken seriously. Mediocre and useless is unacceptable. It is time to ship the spin doctors into space and make a clear distinction between publicity and public relations.

OK, maybe I am being a little too judgmental, but if you want to be a self-promoting bimbo specializing in fluff, fine. Get on the ark. Bon voyage. The rest of us will stay here working on thoughtful approaches to complex problems for ethical clients contributing to a better society. Have a nice flight.

Knock on wood

2009-06-29T15:56:00.003-06:00

The King of Pop is dead. OK, I admit it. I was never a fan. I'm not a fan of pop music in general. And like Farrah Fawcett, another pop culture icon who also died last week, Michael Jackson and his music seemed too slick, too artificial, too produced for my taste. Not phony exactly, just too made up, too commercial, and too manufactured.

In pop culture, fame and fortune are destinations we aspire to. But when it comes to the way we want people or businesses or politicians to communicate, we prefer it to be authentic. It's like the difference between acoustic and electric music. They are both good, but acoustic music is more authentic because it sounds the way a wooden instrument was built to sound. It is not distorted by effects or electronics, or forced through speakers. It is as real as it gets.

Authentic communication is one reason why social media is so powerful. It is raw, uncensored, personal and emotional. We demand authentic communication from our political leaders, and when they deliver, we support them in a way that is also authentic because they connect with us on a level we can accept without skepticism. We don't always agree with them on everything, but we accept the fact that they are not just blowing smoke.

Organizations that communicate authentically are better positioned to build long-term brand loyalty. Healthcare organizations can reach more patients, and nonprofits can serve more constituents, if they earn the trust of the community. Corporations can protect their reputation and retain their customers even when hard times force them to make difficult decisions. Even if tuition goes up, students will want to attend a university that communicates authentically about the challenges that lie ahead.

Farrah and the King of Pop found out that fame can be fleeting and fans can be fickle, even for pop culture icons. But if we make the commitment to communicate authentically, the chances are good - knock on wood - that we will reap real and long lasting rewards.

Father's Day

2009-06-21T19:05:00.004-06:00

Today is Father's Day and I'm thinking about my dad. I think about him a lot since he's been gone, but most of all during baseball season. Baseball is one of those true things that fathers and sons share and pass down, like war stories or treasured heirlooms. It was the one way my father and I could still connect even during those years when we weren't communicating at all.

It was at a Father's Day doubleheader at Shea Stadium where I learned that my dad was a baseball genius. He taught me how to keep score. He knew exactly when the Dodgers bus would pull up to the player's gate before the game so I could get Sandy Koufax's autograph, and how to slip the usher a five so we could get down to the good seats. I inherited from my father, who grew up as a Brooklyn Dodgers fan, the unfortunate genetic trait that makes me live and die with my team even though I know that I am doomed to be bitterly disappointed year after year after year.

Today on Father's Day, I realize that even when communication seems hopeless there is always a way for people to find a connection. Even in Iran, where the government cuts off access to cell phones and TV, but the people use Twitter, YouTube and Facebook to tell the world what is going on in the streets of Tehran. Even in Washington, where the debate over health care becomes louder and more contentious while reasonable compromises are being floated behind the scenes that make finding common ground seem possible.

This weekend, I went to my first game at the Mets new stadium, Citi Field, and I thought about my father. Today I realize that an even better way to honor him would be to figure out how to connect with people when it seems impossible, and how to sidestep the traps that prevent us from communicating. We all have lessons we learned from our fathers. If we are as smart as they were, we take those lessons and use them in our daily lives to make our little corner of the world a better place.

Don't rain on my parade

2009-06-12T11:23:00.004-06:00

Let's review the recent national news. The first Latina ever nominated to the U.S. Supreme Court, who was raised by a single mother in the Bronx housing projects and worked her way up to the top of the judicial system, is called a racist by a bunch of cranky old white guys. Democrats and Republicans took turns locking themselves out of the New York State Senate. When asked to take a seat at the healthcare reform table, special interest groups responded by drawing a line in the sand. We saw two Americans murdered by domestic terrorists.

What we have here is more than just a failure to communicate. We are drowning in a sea of toxic rhetoric that makes respectful dialogue impossible. You can blame it on anger and fear and economic stress if you want, but this hate filled atmosphere did not happen overnight. It is fueled by insults, slurs and verbal tantrums on radio, TV and the Internet, and it will not disappear overnight either.

Jack Kerouac wrote, "Imagine trying to explain to 1,000 raving Tokyo snake dancers in the street that you are looking for peace but you won't join the parade." When we try and communicate with people who just cannot see things from our point of view, we are in for trouble. Either we are not communicating clearly or the other party is not willing to listen. Finding common ground becomes impossible if we insist on remaining in our own separate camps.

The PR profession gets a bad rap, but the PR pros I am privileged to call my colleagues are sincere, ethical communicators who counsel their clients to practice integrity and to communicate with respect. It is time for us as a profession to step up to the plate and take a leadership role in guiding America away from the precipice and back toward undivided ground. It is time for us to return America to a place where we can voice our own individual opinions in our churches or synagogues or capitols or museums without fear of being shut up or shot down.

We can begin by challenging the media to behave responsibly. We can counsel our clients to engage in positive collaboration that builds healthy communities. And we can challenge ourselves to motivate our extensive social networks toward positive change and to make sure we always communicate responsibly within those networks.

You don't have to join the parade to see that the dancers are having fun. Let them. Maybe that simple act of tolerance is all it takes to make a difference.

Hat Man

2009-05-27T16:53:00.002-06:00

I've always been a hat man. Panama hats, fedoras, baseball hats, cowboy hats, I like them all. But these days it seems like everyone is wearing a lot of hats, especially PR pros.

That was the topic of conversation at the Colorado Healthcare Communicators program this week. As the media landscape shrinks due to mergers, layoffs and closures, journalists are becoming scarce. So to get our clients' stories told, we have to play the role of journalists. We have to be writers, editors, producers, reporters and photographers. We have to produce the stories and feed them to the media in a format they can use in print, on the air, or online.

Not long ago, the media would have turned up their nose at our VNR. Now they are practically begging us to send them video. The good news about this trend is we have a lot more control over the story. Now we can actually create it instead of wondering if our messages will be diluted, misconstrued or edited out altogether, or if the story will paint our clients in a negative light. We can make sure our clients say something clever, compassionate or profound, and that they always look like an expert. Then we can take the story and put it on our own video channel. Just like an ad.

In some ways, that is also the bad news. Bad because we are losing a level of journalistic integrity that allows the public to trust that the source of the news is credible, honest and objective. We can debate about whether the news media has already lost that claim, but if PR pros can now deliver not just the idea for the story but the actual finished product, what's to prevent us from only telling one-sided stories that always paint a positive picture? Nothing, really, except our own professional code of ethics, which we can choose to abide by or ignore.

The real question is, if PR is evolving into citizen journalism, do citizen journalists have an obligation to adhere to the same ethical standards as professional journalists? Do citizen journalists have an obligation to practice journalistic integrity? The answer is, it depends. And the way you feel about that depends on how you answered.

Like every complicated issue, there are two ways of looking at it. Which is why we as a profession are so conflicted. By day I'm a PR pro. By night I'm a citizen journalist. What can I say? It's my fate. It's my curse. I'm hat man.

The Dumb and the Useless

2009-05-21T11:53:00.007-06:00

Like an episode of the classic soap opera, The Young and Restless, which a friend of mine aptly dubbed The Dumb and the Useless, I am becoming a little annoyed with the crusading social media evangelists who gleefully dance on the graves of newspapers and PR firms while busily texting and tweeting people they've never met about every inane thought and intimate detail of their apparently really cool and exciting lives.

I admit it, watching a room full of people at a conference tapping away on their iPhones and Blackberries instead of giving the speaker the courtesy of listening seems to me to be rude and obnoxious, not hip and trendy. If never being present anywhere is the future, let me off at the next stop.

And another thing, I don't care what you had for breakfast or when you are going to the gym or how bored you are at work. Keep it to yourself. Tell me something I don't know, share your opinion about something important, or let me know about an event or cause or organization I might be interested in, and you might get my attention. Otherwise you are just wasting my time.

Look, I get it. It's new, it's evolving, it's your world and you love it. But please try and explain it to me in a way that doesn't sound like anyone who has a different opinion about it or doesn't quite see it the way you do is a total moron just living in the past and hanging on for dear life against the rising tide of global change. Dig (with one g) this: We are all members of the same family and there is room here for all of us.

Social media has its place but so does traditional journalism. Public relations is evolving and it should evolve, but it is still about building relationships with groups you need to communicate with and determining what you want to tell them. Sometimes the best way to build those relationships is over the phone, or even (gulp) being present enough to meet someone face to face. Imagine the possibilities.

I'll make you a deal. I'll listen and learn from you if you will be present long enough to listen to me. Or as Dylan said, "I'll let you be in my dream if I can be in yours."

It's about the band

2009-05-15T16:58:00.004-06:00

The Dead came to Denver this month on their first tour in years, and the party was on. Non-Deadheads may wonder what the big deal is about a band that's been around for 45 years and has lost a few members along the way, including its spiritual leader, Jerry Garcia. But as any Deadhead can tell you, what makes the band special is their ability to play as a team.

Like jazz musicians, they seem to telepathically communicate and instinctively understand what the other band members are going to do next. On stage, everyone is improvising. With few words and minimal body language, they can play long sets of complex songs, shifting gears seamlessly as one cohesive unit. No set or solo or concert is exactly the same from one night to the next. The fans have their favorites but the band has no stars. The difference between the Dead and most other rock bands is that the Dead is about the band, not the players.

So what is it that creates teamwork and how can you instill that attitude in your organization? In sports it's called chemistry. Winning teams have chemistry and losing teams need it. But do winning teams have natural chemistry or do they create an environment that encourages it? Does team chemistry require a charismatic leader to set the right example, or can a group of players with a common goal create their own chemistry?

Not to be Zen about it, but the answer to those questions is yes. Teamwork is something everyone can appreciate but it is difficult to accomplish. Each leader and each organization is capable of creating it, but many are not willing to devote the time or make the commitment. And sometimes it just happens.

Take the mysterious case of the Denver Nuggets. Maybe some of the Dead's attitude rubbed off on them, because the notoriously me first Nuggets are suddenly playing the type of team first game that NBA coaches dream about. They are even talking championship. The lesson here is, if the Nuggets can play as a team, anyone can. It takes a major commitment but the rewards are worth the effort. Once everyone buys into the concept, the results will come quickly.

There is no specific roadmap to teamwork, but the path becomes illuminated once an organization is open to following it. To quote the Dead, "that path is for your steps alone." Ramble on easy.

When a pig flies

2009-05-04T14:32:00.005-06:00

Swine flu is making us sick. Not the virus, just the overwhelming media frenzy that is scaring the pants off everyone. It would be one thing if pigs were actually flying, but the reality is that so far, this appears to be a new but milder strain of the seasonal influenza virus, which causes 36,000 deaths every year in the U.S. To put that number in perspective, to date we've seen 26 deaths in Mexico and only 35 of the 286 confirmed cases in the U.S. have resulted in hospitalization. Not exactly cause for widespread panic.

It seems that what we have here is a failure to communicate, or at least a failure to coordinate clear, consistent and factual messages. The media, seeing a great opportunity to jump to conclusions, sensationalizes the flu hoping for news of deaths or at least a few school closings and people on airplanes in surgical masks. Public health officials are sending mixed messages, one day warning us about a scary pandemic and conjuring images of the Black Plague, and the next day reassuring us that it is not as bad as we thought. One day we should not get on a plane and the next day we should not overreact. One day it's off with the pigs' heads and the next day it's not even called swine flu anymore.

No wonder we are all confused. It's situations like this that make PR people crazy. We'd like to sit everyone down, have them all take a deep breath, find out exactly what the facts are and then prepare a few clear consistent messages for a few key spokespeople so that each expert speaks to their area of expertise in one collective, level-headed voice.

When a crisis happens it breeds chaos. It is natural for people to speak before they know the facts or to panic if there is too much uncertainty. Rumors can spread and the damage can grow worse by the minute. But the only way to put out the fire is to be deliberate, disciplined and organized. Follow the plan and stick to the rules. Be compassionate. Do not speculate. Maintain your composure. Communicate clearly, consistently, factually and transparently.

No doubt, public health officials, media and PR pros will learn a lot from this crisis once it finally resolves. We will look back and examine what we did right and what went terribly wrong. It will be a good crisis communications case study. But for now we must endure weeks and months of rumor, speculation and recrimination, while the media camps out at schools and hospitals, following every parent with a sick child, hoping for some drama.

Life's a beach

2009-04-29T11:05:00.003-06:00

Vacations are great. We all need to recharge from time to time, to unplug and unwind and get away from the daily stress that consumes too much of our time.

A week on the beach gives you a whole new perspective. Nothing much to worry about except pass me the sunscreen and is it time to go back in the water yet? In my case, I was in Kauai, the least stressed island in the least stressed state in the nation. Even though unemployment is up and business is down, the locals know that there is no need to sweat the small stuff. The ocean speaks to them and it says, "Don't worry, be happy."

Nevertheless, I did learn some important lessons on vacation. For one thing, a lot can change in a week. I returned to the swine flu crisis, a reminder that it is critical to plan in advance for a potentially game-changing crisis like a pandemic flu. If your clients are not ready to communicate internally and externally about how to protect or minimize the impact of a dramatic event on their stakeholders, now is the time to discuss it.

I also learned the value of backup. Knowing that the world and my business would not fall apart without me for a week because I left my clients in the capable hands of my trusty associates was huge. Although I did check messages and email occasionally, I could feel comfortable doing it much less frequently and even unplugging entirely some days. No Twitter, no Facebook, no problem.

Most importantly, it may seem obvious but a vacation reminds you that service counts. If the people and staff where you stay, eat, recreate and shop go out of their way to make sure everything about your vacation is a pleasant experience, that's the message you will communicate when you return. My wife and I stayed at the Hanalei Colony Resort. Check it out. It is secluded, first class, laid back and unpretentious. No phones, no TV, just a perfect resort in a perfect location.

A good vacation teaches us that the best thing we can do for our own business is to deliver that same level of primo service to our clients every day. We need to make sure our own brand delivers what we promise. No exceptions and no excuses.

Life is definitely a beach. Surf's up, enjoy.

The changing media landscape

2009-04-17T11:38:00.004-06:00

The topic of the PRSA Colorado April lunch program was the changing media landscape. All the panelists agreed that the media landscape sure is changing fast. They just didn't have a clue about the long-term impact of this trend on the public relations business, journalism, or just the general level of intelligent conversation in this country. Join the club.

As newspapers continue to shrink, "citizen journalists" continue grabbing more of the news business. The problem is that by definition, they are not professional journalists. They report on things they have an interest in and an opinion about, but not with a journalist's eye, ethics or editor. Their readers tend to be people with the same interests and opinions, so the news they provide tends to be biased, not objective. Their articles often generate feedback from other people with strong opinions one way or another.

The question for PR people is, will this trend make our jobs easier or more challenging? On the positive side, we can now become the reporters. We can write the story, take the photos, provide the graphics, and place it in online community-based publications that are replacing dying newspapers in many cities. We can make our clients sound great and we never have to worry about our pitches being sent back to us faster than a Gary Sheffield homer off a 95 mile an hour fast ball.

On the negative side, being the reporter, the photographer, the editor and the producer means doing the jobs of four people. And like advertising, we can say whatever we want about a client, whether it is credible or factual or not. We can post it on Web sites and Facebook, we can convince people to follow our clients on Twitter, and we can even become "citizen journalists" ourselves whenever we want.

This may be the future but it doesn't sound like journalism to me, and it doesn't really sound like PR. It sounds like publicity. It sounds like promotion. It sounds like P.T. Barnum.

If the public relations profession is serious about using the evolving new media landscape to benefit our clients and our communities by communicating honestly, transparently and respectfully, we need to be careful to apply the same sort of ethical guidelines and rules that are fundamental to our profession. We need be our own editors. We need to do what we can to shape the landscape toward a path we can walk down with pride, not trepidation.

The four sons

2009-04-09T09:54:00.004-06:00

Passover, the celebration of the Jews' freedom from slavery in Egypt, is a time to reflect. It is a time to appreciate what we have (freedom) and to remember what it was like when we had nothing.

During the Seder, we retell the Passover story and pass it on from one generation to another, because by doing so, each of us can feel like we were there when the Red Sea parted and the Exodus from Egypt happened. Part of the story is particularly memorable for Jewish fathers and sons. It involves the four sons, who each look at Passover differently.

The wise son is the responsible one. He wants to learn from his father all there is to know and he understands his responsibility as a link in the chain. There is the simple son, who doesn't quite get why this is important, and the son who does not even have the ability to ask a question because he is so removed from his heritage. Then there is the contrary son. He argues with his father about everything, and he proclaims that this entire ritual has no meaning for him. Some traditions call him the wicked son.

We don't have to look too hard to find the four sons represented in the business world. Wise leaders understand they have a responsibility to the people they lead. They listen to their employees, groom them for success, and take pride in being part of their community. Some leaders are just happy to get by. They are tactical, not strategic, and they are focused on survival. And as we have seen too often recently, there are the contrary leaders. They can be self-absorbed and even cruel. They think the rules don't apply to them and that there will be no consequences for their actions.

What kind of leader are you? One who feels a responsibility to your employees and a connection to your community, or one who feels that it's a cutthroat world and it is not your responsibility to worry about whether someone else falls on hard times?

In challenging times, we need to decide what sort of leader and person we want to be. Because that decision will have an impact well beyond our own personal Seder table. It will influence how people think about us now and how they will remember us in the future. It will determine what sort of world we leave to the next generation.

Tweet tweet

2009-03-31T11:42:00.006-06:00

There must be a lot of twits running around because it seems like everyone is tweeting. Everyday, another article hails Twitter as the latest social media rage and no wonder. According to CNN.com, Twitter grew by a whopping 1,374 percent in the past year to 7 million users from less than half a million a year ago. That's a lot of twits.

In the Twitter world, you communicate with people in short phrases of 140 characters or less, called tweets. Twitter lets you follow people, and the people with the most followers are the biggest twits, or as Twitter users prefer to think of them, the most influential. Shaq has over 400,000 followers and trend setting celebrities, politicians and bloggers all have their own Twitter groupies who monitor what they are doing from minute to minute.

You can even follow me on Twitter: Jon_Pushkin. I'm approaching 100 followers, which makes me not very influential but interesting enough for some people to want to know what I'm up to. As we say in show biz, there's no accounting for taste.

Some people think Twitter is the future of journalism, public relations, and all human communication. There are others who feel that Twitter is dangerous, addicting, and a narcissistic cult. I'm somewhere in the middle, still making up my mind.

Twitter can be annoying. Frankly, I don't care what you are having for breakfast or when you go to the gym or how long you had to wait in line at the airport. I have better things to do than tweet every five minutes about every thought that enters my head and the last thing I need is some other excuse to play with my iPhone more than I already do. Call me old fashioned but I am still fond of face-to-face communication. I would hate to miss the really important things in life because I was too busy worrying about the mundane.

But if you are an entrepreneur or a business leader, you need to know about Twitter, Facebook and the other channels that tech savvy people use to communicate. If you want your brand to be visible and respected, you need to monitor and participate in the conversation or you won't be considered credible. And people won't want do business with you.

At it's best, Twitter is more than just inane chatter. It provides instant breaking news updates, commentary and insight into the views of influential thought leaders more directly than ever before. It can even help you understand different points of view.

OK, maybe Twitter doesn't boldly go where no man has gone before, but it's a start. Beam me up Scotty. Let's shift her into warp drive and see how we like the ride.

Anger management

2009-03-23T15:22:00.002-06:00

America is angry. So as we've always done throughout our history, when we get angry we look for a scapegoat. And our scapegoat now is those no good scoundrels at AIG who had the nerve to award bonuses to the same managers that got us into this financial mess in the first place.

I was born in Brooklyn, so I know from anger and it doesn't really bother me. It seems like a healthy way to blow off steam. Mostly I get angry when the Mets play like bums or the driver in front of me is an idiot or the pundit on TV is so incredibly dumb. I may get loud but I never get violent.

Watching the CEO of AIG squirm before the venom directed at him by Congress, and listening to him explain to an angry mob of Americans dying to tar and feather his bonus babies that he couldn't release their names because he feared for their safety, I was struck with just one thought. If this guy had only listened to his PR people, he wouldn't be in this mess.

No self-respecting public relations counselor would let a client go before a hostile audience with a message like, "I've asked them to return half their bonus." The PR pro's response to that hypothetical answer in the Q&A prep session they surely did before the hearing must have been, "Are you nuts?"

AIG got in this mess because of bad corporate financial decisions, but they keep digging the hole deeper by making bad corporate communications decisions. Maybe the CEO didn't anticipate the hostility of the public outcry, but their PR team surely did. And that team was probably counseling the CEO to say something like "I don't care about contracts, I don't care how many managers quit rather than give back their bonus, there is no way that any of us will accept another dime from the American taxpayers until we right this ship and make things square with the taxpayers for showing so much faith in us."

Maybe it's hard to swallow for someone so used to having all the answers, but sometimes even a CEO needs to realize that it's time to shut up and listen. The bottom line is, it is not the American people that need anger management; it is the management at AIG.

Feedback

2009-03-06T12:41:00.003-07:00

Musicians know how to listen. They understand that the music within and around them provides the inspiration they need to express themselves. They also understand the value of feedback.

Any rock n' roll guitar player can tell you how to get good feedback. Just turn up the volume, point the guitar at your amp, and let it wail. It's not always pleasant to hear, especially when it happens by accident. But in the hands of a master like Jimi Hendrix, feedback can unlock a whole new world of music.

Feedback is also important in public relations. Too often, PR campaigns focus on communicating to someone. The problem is, when we forget that good communications also involves listening, it's like a pilot flying on instruments. We are really communicating blindly.

These days it seems like no one is listening. We communicate to someone about how we feel and what we are doing. We react instinctively to perceived threats by laying off staff and slashing budgets. Glen Broom, co-author of Effective Public Relations, compares it to what a squid does when it senses danger. It squirts ink.

Squirting ink is tactical, not strategic. It means we are focused on getting some ink when we should be getting an inkling instead.

By seeking feedback, you may learn that your publics don't trust you. Maybe your employees are worried about their jobs or retirement. Maybe your patients don't think your hospital is worried about their health. If the community is skeptical about your motives, maybe it's time to ask if you are communicating the right messages.

It's easy to get stressed out by day-to-day worries and not take the time to think strategically. Your business goals should guide your communication tactics, not the other way around. When business is slow, take advantage of the downtime to enjoy the silence. You may be surprised by what you hear.

Great musicians pay attention to what the musicians around them are saying musically. It's the same with good communicators. We all have communications breakdowns. The trick is to take a deep breath and listen.

Like a rolling stone

2009-02-26T17:16:00.003-07:00

How does it feel? To be on your own, with no direction home, like a complete unknown, like a rolling stone. Leave it to Bob Dylan to put things in perspective.

The Rocky Mountain News died today. As a news junky and someone who works with journalists everyday, it's hard not to take this personally. I expect the hurt to linger, like the emptiness people from Brooklyn must've felt when the Dodgers left town.

Nothing against the Denver Post. It's a great paper with a talented staff. There's just something about being a two paper town that Denver has lost. No more newspaper wars. No more reporters fighting over scoops and exclusives. No more two papers with two voices and two newsrooms motivating each other to earn the bragging rights that comes with being the very best in town.

Two paper towns are cosmopolitan and sophisticated. The people who live there are urban, intellectual, independent thinkers who can decide for themselves which paper they want to read. Some people even read both papers just to feel extra special. Or extra informed.

That's gone now and Denver is less of a city because of it. Maybe we will recover quickly. Maybe we will adjust and move on. Maybe we are so overwhelmed by all the job losses that we don't have room to care anymore about people losing their jobs.

Like everything else (except for Brooklyn Dodgers fans), in time this pain will pass. The news business is changing faster than we can imagine, and everyday we are creating new ways to communicate and inform people about the important issues that they care about. It is up to us to decide what kind of city we want Denver to be and what kind of culture we want to nourish.

But I have a feeling that the sense of loss and mourning that I feel today will stick with me for a while. How does it feel? Like a complete unknown. Like a rolling stone.

Spring Training

2009-02-20T12:04:00.002-07:00

For baseball fans, there is nothing like Spring Training. It is a time to forget about last year and look forward to a fresh start. It is a chance to shake off your blues and have a little fun in the sun. It's like a break but not a vacation. Teams establish their goals for the coming season, and every player works hard or they don't make the team.

Hope springs in Spring Training. Whether they are rookies or veterans, All Stars or Minor Leaguers, Hall of Famers or guys who only had a cup of coffee in the show, everyone has a positive outlook. There are no egos in Spring Training. Everyone mingles with the fans and signs autographs. Every fan has a chance to sit in the front row.

We could all use some spring training to help us escape from the daily dose of gloomy economic news that makes us dread getting out of bed in the morning, and refocus on what we need to do to improve personally and professionally. From a PR perspective, spring training would be a chance to examine our brand, polish our key messages and adjust our communications strategies. It would be a time for every player and coach to get on the same page and realize that only by playing as a team can we give ourselves a real shot at winning the title.

To paraphrase Nuke LaLoosh from the movie Bull Durham, "Baseball is a very simple game. You throw the ball, you catch the ball, you hit the ball. Sometimes you win, sometimes you lose, sometimes it rains."

If we think about our own businesses and our own lives that way, we can boil it down and keep things simple. We can avoid getting hung up on the negative and focus on the positive. We can allow ourselves an opportunity to let go of our mistakes and start fresh.

In Spring Training, every team starts out in first place. The teams that win in October are the ones that maintain that perspective through all the ups and downs they encounter over the course of the long season.

How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live?

2009-02-07T17:51:00.001-07:00

On December 4, 1929, a West Virginia fiddler named Blind Alfred Reed recorded his most famous song, How Can a Poor Man Stand Such Times and Live? With lyrics lamenting the cost of food, clothing, doctors, schools and taxes, the song seems especially appropriate today.

Watching Congress bicker over exactly what measures would most stimulate the economy, while hundreds of thousands of American workers lost their jobs, brought something clearly into focus. Even a blind man can see that fiddling while Rome is burning is just bad PR.

The difference between Blind Alfred Reed's time and today is that now, no one seems to be too worried about the poor man. We seem more concerned with large financial institutions than with the people who are losing their homes because of the bad business decisions those companies made. Congress seems fine with extending bailouts and tax breaks to big business, but it apparently will take more than an act of Congress to extend health care, food stamps and unemployment insurance to the poor. It might just require an act of God.

Without getting too preachy (Reed's song railed at preachers too), this seems like a lost PR opportunity for elected officials and our business leaders. Paying more attention to the health and safety of their constituents, stakeholders, and employees could help them sustain the kind of reputation that can withstand any crisis, now or in the future. It could help them create the kind of brand loyalty that can withstand any storm.

With more than 3.6 million U.S. jobs lost in the past year, smart politicians and savvy business leaders would be wise to consider how addressing the needs of the newly unemployed (and those who are scared to death the axe will fall on them) in a compassionate, respectful and urgent way would pay public relations dividends for years to come. Someone who needs help will remember the ones who helped them and grow to resent the ones who did not.

Now is the time for us to pull together in the common task of helping our economic recovery. PR pros can lay a major role in this effort by explaining why that mission is so important and communicating hope to those who see only despair.

The bang we get from that buck will be well worth the investment.

Closing the News is Bad PR for Denver

2009-01-23T16:14:00.004-07:00

By Jon Pushkin, APR and Gina Seamans, APR

The news about the News hit Denver's PR community like a bombshell. Partly that's because we spend a good deal of our time building relationships with members of the media. We get to know them as people and in many case we build friendships that go well beyond the newsroom.

So when the finality of the announcement that the News was on life support was delivered to employees matter-of-factly by the corporate decision makers in the Scripps company, we felt their pain as though it was our own.

We also had another eye-opening realization that was even more sobering. That is that newspapers and the journalists who work for them are disposable. It is one thing to make a business decision to sell or close a company that is not profitable. But in this case, the surprising thing is what the people making this decision failed to see: the value in the brand is worth more than the money they will save by closing the Rocky.

The equity in a 150-year-old brand like the Rocky Mountain News is priceless. Maybe you tweak the business model or make some significant changes, but you don't just discard it. The intellectual capital represented by the talented journalists who work at the News is another valuable asset that the owners fail to appreciate. Rather than asking for options or even concessions, the owners are content to dispose of that asset as well.

A free and vibrant press is a core pillar of public relations. The Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) Code of Ethics states that "protecting and advancing the free flow of accurate and truthful information is essential to serving the public interest and contributing to informed decision making in a democratic society." Healthy communities and democratic societies depend on the free flow of information to help the public make informed decisions about important issues. The troubling trend toward eliminating newspapers and treating journalists as expendable will have a serious long-term impact on the health of our communities.

Blogs and social media and word of mouth are important sources of information but they are no substitute for professional news organizations. They usually have a particular perspective and they generally do not cover stories in the same in-depth way that a reporter would. In many cases, the people who provide the news through those channels are not professional journalists. They are not Clark Kent or Lois Lane or Damon Runyon or Jimmy Breslin or Thomas Friedman. They are just people with opinions who like to express them in public forums with other people who share those same interests. There is nothing wrong with that, but it is not news. Too often it is just noise.

PRSA Colorado believes that the loss of the News would be devastating to our city's culture and reputation. We call on the decision makers at Scripps to exhaust every potential buyer and to consider other creative options before they close the paper. We offer our assistance to help them explore these options and research reasonable alternatives. We stand in solidarity with our colleagues at the News and encourage them to keep the faith.

Disposing of a priceless brand and a valuable asset is not good business. It is just bad PR.

Jon Pushkin is president of Pushkin Public Relations and a past president of the Colorado chapter of the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA). Gina Seamans is a senior counselor at JohnstonWells and president of the Colorado chapter of PRSA.

We Are One

2009-01-19T11:51:00.002-07:00

As a student of history, I have long been aware of the historic nature of Barack Obama's campaign and election as the 44th President of the United States. But it was yesterday, as I was watching the "We Are One" inaugural concert on HBO, that the enormous wave of history washed over me and I was overwhelmed with emotion.

It was not just the culmination of the march begun by Martin Luther King or the similarities to the presidency of Abraham Lincoln. Those comparisons are powerful to be sure. But the specific moment that brought it all home for me was seeing 89-year-old Pete Seeger, the father of American folk music in the freezing cold with nothing but his banjo, wool hat and flannel shirt, standing with Bruce Springsteen before the next President of the United States, leading the crowd of a million strong in the singing of Woody Guthrie's ballad, This Land Is Your Land.

The song was written to express anger at the way ordinary Americans were discarded and disposed during the Dust Bowl, a time when millions of people lost their homes and farms, stood in relief lines, and finally took to the road in a great migration to find the American dream. There was a time when Woody and Pete and many who sang with them were branded communists and blacklisted. Yesterday, the next president joined Seeger and Springsteen and millions watching in person or on TV in a spirit of unity and hope for a better tomorrow. The smile on Seeger's face lit up the screen. It was an incredibly moving moment.

On January 20, America and the world will watch as the first African American President is sworn in and this land becomes our land again. His ability to inspire was what got him elected. His ability to unite us in a common purpose will be what enables him to lead.

Racing in the Rain

2009-01-16T11:43:00.001-07:00

I recently read The Art of Racing in the Rain by Garth Stein, a writer from Seattle. It's about a very smart dog who understands English and likes to watch TV. He's a lot like my dog Django actually, except this one is especially into auto racing.

The dog learns from studying car races that racing in the rain takes a lot of skill. You have to make decisions quickly but you also need the moxie to stick to that decision even if it makes you nervous. You just point the car in the direction you want to go and have faith that your skill will deliver you there. You need to trust your own instincts, because even a slight hesitation can really mess you up.

When you do that, good things happen. Just ask the pilot who landed his plane in the Hudson River yesterday. He had seconds to react but he trusted his instincts and every passenger walked off that plan safely.

Running a business today is like racing in the rain. It's slick out there and accidents can happen. Seasoned business leaders who never doubt themselves are facing indecision, maybe for the first time. Executives with nerves of steel are feeling nervous. The hounds are at the door and a hard rain is falling.

In times like these, entrepreneurs need to remember what got them here. Chances are it was a sense of adventure, and the confidence that they had the skills, talent and moxie to stand a little risk. It is that kind of confidence that allows business leaders to stick to their plan even if the wind shifts. They have a sense of purpose, and they understand that if their plan is strategic enough, it will lead them where they want to go.

It is not so much where we are. It is really our reason for being there. Maybe that understanding is all it takes to keep us on track.

Collaboration is King

2009-01-03T14:25:00.004-07:00

Most of us try and begin a new year with a fresh approach. Whatever setbacks happened last year are in the past. Now is a time for optimism. But how can we be optimistic in the face of a 24-hour cycle of depressing news? The answer is collaboration.

Economists and prognosticators predict a wave of mergers, collaborations and partnerships in 2009. Joining forces can help businesses with a common cause overcome common challenges by supporting each other, much like caregivers for people with a devastating illness form support groups with families dealing with a similar challenge.

From nonprofits and government agencies to healthcare organizations, professional services firms, or educational institutions, forming networks, collaborations and partnerships will be the key to surviving and thriving as the economy recovers. It can help organizations communicate with common stakeholders and design creative campaigns to raise revenue, deliver services and increase brand awareness.

Here are some examples of how organizations can help each other reach common goals:

Checkoff Colorado is a collaborative public awareness campaign to encourage donations to the charitable funds in Colorado's tax checkoff program. By "checking off" a small donation to one or more of these causes, a taxpayer can make a huge difference to communities across the state. The members of the collaboration realize that a rising tide lifts all boats, so they pool together a budget to get more taxpayers to make donations. The idea is that you don't have to make a big donation to make a big difference. The program is a simple way to give.

Healthcare organizations often team up to get the word out about a common cause. For example, they might join forces to encourage people to get a flu shot or to get their child immunized. In Colorado, many organizations work with the state and local health departments to promote these efforts through the Colorado Influenza and Pneumococcal Alert Coalition (CIPAC), a statewide coalition dedicated to decreasing vaccine-preventable respiratory disease in Colorado through collaborative efforts in education and immunization.

Pima Medical Institute is a medical career college that collaborates with local medical job sites to provide internships for Pima students. The on-the-job-training programs prepare students to hit the ground running, and provide the job sites with a steady stream of highly trained employees.

Sage Public Relations Group (Jon Pushkin is a member) is a collaborative, virtual agency of veteran PR pros that combine their individual specialties to put together customized teams and strategic communications programs according to the needs of each client. Sage is designed to help each member quickly add the depth and expertise they need and to provide members with a built in network of support and resources.

As you begin the new year, think of how you can help your business or your clients by creating new or strengthening existing collaborations and partnerships. It may be the most effective way to create successful momentum in 2009.

Reflection Time

2008-12-19T13:54:00.001-07:00

Year-end is a time for reflection. Did we accomplish what we planned? What are we proud of and what could we have done better?

It is also a time to look ahead. Some people make resolutions and others set goals. Compared to resolutions, goal setting is hard. Resolving to be a nicer person is easier than having to explain to yourself why you didn't double your revenue like you said you would. But if you miss the goal it doesn't mean that you failed. And if you meet the goal it doesn't mean you can coast.

The other thing people do at the end of the year is make predictions. So in the holiday spirit, here are some resolutions, goals and a prediction for 2009.

Resolve to stay positive and seize opportunities. Remember what is most important in life and don't worry about what you can't control. Do your best to extend help and charity to those that need it and love to those that deserve it.

Conduct your business ethically. Never stop learning. Add new clients, develop new strategic partnerships and continue to grow your business.

PR will play an important role in Colorado and nationally in 2009. PR pros will craft and communicate important messages promoting commitment, teamwork, sacrifice and tolerance to all Americans. Wartime propaganda and partisan bickering will fade away and be replaced by a new spirit of hope, innovation and confidence that will spur economic recovery and restore America's reputation in the world community.

However you celebrate the holiday season, I hope yours is safe, healthy, and peaceful. Here's to a happy and prosperous 2009.

The News is Out

2008-12-05T12:16:00.004-07:00

Whenever something dramatic happens, there is usually a line from Bob Dylan that helps me put things in perspective. In this case, when I heard about the Rocky Mountain News being sold and probably going under, it "shook my windows and rattled my walls." The times certainly are a' changing. See Mike Littwin's column in today's News.

Most of all, I was sad. Sad that a lot of good journalists, many who I consider friends, will be out of work. Sad also that Colorado's oldest newspaper will likely not survive. That's a bad thing for Colorado PR firms, who rely on the media to cover stories about our clients, but it is also bad for anyone who thinks that understanding what is going on in the world around you is important.

I am one of those people who love to read the paper. I usually read 3-4 papers each day. The joy of holding the paper in my hand, checking the box scores in the morning with my coffee, or falling asleep in my chair with the paper in my lap is one of life's little pleasures that my father passed down to me, along with baseball, folk music and a sense of history.

I was also angry. Angry that corporate executives can decide to save their own jobs by throwing the people they employ out of work during the holidays. And angry that we are evolving into a society that thinks newspapers are not important.

Blogs and social media and word of mouth are important sources of information but they are no substitute for newspapers. They usually have a particular perspective and they generally do not cover stories in the same in-depth way that a reporter would. In many cases, the people who provide the news through those channels are not professional journalists. They are not Clark Kent or Lois Lane or Damon Runyon or Jimmy Breslin or Thomas Friedman. They are just people with opinions who like to express them in public forums with other people who share those same interests. There is nothing wrong with that, but to me, that is not news. Too often it is just noise.

So for David Milstead and Jamie Paton and Joyzelle Davis and Joanne Kelley and James Meadow and John Ensslin and Rob Reuteman and Roger Fillion and Mike Littwin and Tina Griego and Gargi Chakrabarty and Bill Scanlon and Laura Frank and Lynn Bartels and so many others, I hope someone steps forward to buy the News and save all your jobs. And thanks for all the stories.

Money Honey

2008-11-25T14:25:00.003-07:00

You know things are bad when even the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation is worried about money. A recent posting on their website says, "The financial crisis is affecting everyone, from our foundation to our partners".

When corporations, foundations and individual donors cut back on their charitable giving, nonprofits suffer. Especially at this time of year, when most nonprofits count on their annual fundraising drives to bring in the revenue that will allow them to provide services next year. Making up the difference is not easy. It is not just a matter of asking them to cut corners or to get creative about raising money. They already do that. Constantly.

The reality is that some nonprofits may not survive. And a year from now, the people and communities that those organizations serve will really be hurting. Some organizations, however, are well positioned to weather the storm. Take for example, Checkoff Colorado, one of my clients.

Checkoff Colorado is a collaborative campaign for the charitable organizations that are part of Colorado's tax checkoff program. Anyone can make a big difference by making a small donation when they file their state income tax return. The campaign's tagline is "A Simple Way to Give," because the average donation is about $10. So even in hard times, everyone can feel like they helping a worthy cause.

I have always enjoyed helping nonprofit organizations get the attention they deserve for the important work they do. Public relations is a great way to do that, but you can also help by volunteering or joining a board or becoming a donor.

However we decide to get involved, the important thing is to not let the economy prevent us from remembering that as bad as things might seem, there are people who have it much worse. From Denver to Darfur, they need our help now more than ever.

Fear Factor

2008-11-14T16:41:00.002-07:00

When it comes to the economy, as FDR said, we have nothing to fear but fear itself. The problem is that everyone seems really scared. So as PR pros, we need to stay focused and positive if we expect to be able to talk our clients down off the ledge.

That was the gist of a panel discussion today at a PRSA Colorado program in Denver. The panelists included Andrew Hudson, the wizard behind Andrew Hudson's Jobs List, Scott Bemis, the publisher of the Denver Business Journal, and Laura Love, the founder of Ground Floor Media, one of Denver's top PR firms.

It may feel like the end of the world, but it only is if we allow ourselves to wallow in our fear and trepidation. The choice is ours. We can give in to paralysis or take advantage of the opportunities that this recession presents. Opportunities to refocus on who we are and what we do. To redefine our brand and help our clients do the same. To boldly go where...oh, sorry, I am getting carried away.

In times like these, public relations can play an important role in helping companies find those opportunities. We can create cost effective strategies to open new doors using social media to reach new audiences and develop new business. We can design internal communications programs to improve transparency, keep employees informed, and contain rumors and anxiety. We can use this time to plan for the future and set new priorities and goals. And we can over serve our clients by providing added value more often.

As if we all weren't feeling bad enough, later in the program the keynote speaker, online guru Dave Taylor, pretty much said traditional PR was dead and we all need to get with the Web 2.0 program. Who asked Dave anyway?

So here's what I learned at school today. The car goes where we point it. We can either look backward or shift it into drive and keep moving forward. We can sit on the shoulder or merge into traffic. It's our choice.

See you in the fast lane.

Quiet!

2008-11-04T13:16:00.003-07:00

The late great Bill Monroe was the Father of Bluegrass. He was a regal, revered legend in country music who commanded respect wherever he went. A friend of mine who played in his band, The Bluegrass Boys, told me this story.

One day Bill and the boys were in New York City for a concert at Carnegie Hall. Bill was a southern gentleman from rural Kentucky, so the noise, chaos and intensity that is just daily life for New Yorkers was a major culture shock for Bill.

As the Father of Bluegrass stepped from the serenity of his hotel out on the streets of Manhattan, he was overwhelmed by the sound of jackhammers, horns honking, people yelling and other sounds of the City. It wasn't exactly music to his ears, so he yelled "Quiet!!!" at the top of his lungs, as though he could wave his regal wand and the city would fall silent on his order.

That's the way a lot of people have been feeling about the incredibly long election campaign. Here in Colorado, a swing state, the ear piercing noise level from all the negative ads, TV pundits, robo-calls and talk radio screamers has been truly deafening. Now that it is finally election day, no matter how the ace turns out it will be nice to have some relief from all that shouting.

Of course, if the election doesn't turn out the way I hope, I'll be doing some screaming of my own. But at least I will have one day of peace and quiet.

Spare Change

2008-10-27T11:46:00.002-06:00

Change is all we hear about these days. The candidates promise change, and thanks to the roller coaster ride on Wall Street, most of us could use a change of scenery. But the truth is that change is often difficult.

When the economy forces businesses and individuals to make changes they may not be ready for, the results can be paralyzing. Some see only risk, so they cut back or just hunker down. But others see opportunity and are energized by hope.

For Colorado public relations firms, this kind of introspection can be a good thing. It allows us to help our clients examine their priorities and develop a strategic plan to move forward. Whether we see the glass as half full or half empty, there are some simple steps any business can take to address the challenges that lie ahead.

Do more with less.
Reduce waste, increase efficiency, and set some goals. Focus on your strengths. Do not try to be all things to all people.

Be creative.
New media tools like Twitter and LinkedIn allow us to communicate today in ways we never could have imagined 10 years ago. Learn how technology can help you reach and communicate with audiences in a way that resonates.

Focus on what matters.
Whether you are a healthcare or nonprofit organization, a financial planning firm or a university, all this uncertainty makes employees, patients, donors, clients, students and other stakeholders stressed out and anxious. Do not add to their stress. Constantly and consistently reassure them that you understand their concerns.

Seize the day.
If your competitors are sitting in the sideline, now is the time to take the ball and run with it. Invest in your business and hit one out of the park before they know what hit them.

History Lessons

2008-10-13T16:14:00.002-06:00

I have to admit, last week was a bad week. Seeing all those grainy black and white photos of people standing in soup lines during the Great Depression plastered across the cover or front page of every magazine and newspaper in the country was downright depressing. Not to mention listening to all the experts on TV predicting another one.

What makes matters worse for those of us in the Boomer generation is the everyday realty of taking care of our aging parents. Their generation was tough enough to survive the Great Depression, and that experience taught them several very important lessons. Always pay in cash. Never go into debt. Never waste anything; you never know where your next meal is coming from. Save as much as possible.

Our parents were independent people. They hated depending on anyone else and they never wanted to put themselves in that situation. Now many of their generation find themselves living out their lives in long-term care facilities, spending the inheritance they planned to leave to their children and depending on total strangers to take care of them.

In fact, the healthcare and long-term care industries are two sectors that are going strong even as the rest of the economy tanks. From geriatric medicine to joint replacement to home care and assisted living, many of the fastest growing jobs in America involve taking care of our aging population. And as the Boomers age the need will continue to grow.

As I make more frequent visits to see my mother in a long-term care facility two thousand miles from my home, I am struck by several lessons of my own. Never forget to treat people with dignity. Always treat people with respect. A smile gets you much farther than getting angry. Customer service is essential, no matter what business you are in. Life is short and unpredictable; enjoy every moment. Save as much as possible.

Sometimes history has a way of repeating itself. This time, I am confident that as the economy begins to recover we will realize what went wrong and how to avoid it the next time. And although this is certainly a dark cloud, the silver lining may be in the thousands of new jobs, new technologies and opportunities we are creating in the healthcare and long-term care industries.

Denver's public relations bounce

2008-09-10T15:20:00.002-06:00

The DNC is gone but the public relations buzz that Denver got from the convention lingers on. It is not just the knowledge that the city pulled off such a monumental event with thousands of moving parts and an incredible number of things that could have gone wrong, or even that everything went off so well without a hitch. It is really the understanding that all the officials and agencies and politicians and business leaders involved are capable of collaborating with each other to make something this huge happen. Who knew?

You can't argue with the fact that the people who came here for the DNC left here with a very positive impression of Denver. No snow storms, no airport baggage fiascos, no major foul ups. Just a big festival and a good time and lots of celebrities roaming around town. We don't usually see celebrities here, at least not the movie star and media types. Our celebrities are athletes. Bumping into Jessica Alba or Charlize Theron or Susan Sarandon or even Brian Williams is not exactly a daily Denver occurrence.

So now things are getting back to normal here. It's NBB - nothing but Broncos. Soon the latest injury updates on the Broncos will be the lead story on the nightly local newscasts. And when Monday Night Football broadcasts from here during an unusually early season snowfall, the ski resorts will be happy and it will be great PR for Colorado.

In the meantime, I hope the rest of the country remembers how great Denver looked during the DNC. And that the public relations bounce Denver got from the convention will remain with us for a very long time.

News from the DNC

2008-08-27T09:21:00.011-06:00

It's amazing to see many of the 15,000 members of the news media who have descended on Denver, including some of your favorite TV news anchors schlepping their cameras, tripods and gear for blocks in the 90 degree heat only to wait in a long line with the rest of us to get through security at the Pepsi Center.

In addition to the media, Denver is packed with delegates, protesters, police and swat teams, Secret Service, and other fun seekers hoping to get a glimpse of the movie stars, political celebrities and beautiful people that we never get to see here. We are not exactly Aspen, you know. My most exciting encounters so far have been Al Franken and Biff Henderson from the Letterman Show.

Studio 08, the place where I am working, is a flurry of activity from 3am to 11pm each day. Dozens of PR volunteers are booking satellite TV and radio interviews with media around the country for Senators, Representatives, Governors, Mayors, DNC and Obama spokespeople and "real people" who are speaking at the convention. At any one time there could be three TV interviews, five radio interviews and a You Tube interview going on at the same time. It is noisy, hectic and sometimes wildly insane. But it is exciting to be on the scene at the biggest thing to hit Denver maybe ever.

I stand in awe of the the people who organized this. They have somehow managed to construct an entire city of tents and pavilions on the grounds of the Pepsi Center with an extremely high tech communications and entertainment system inside. They are coordinating thousands of volunteers and everyone is managing to communicate effectively. The security is mind boggling and the sheer scope of this event is unbelievable. Then they are moving it all to Invesco Field at Mile High tomorrow. Amazing.

Two more days and the city will start getting back to normal. Me too.

On the bus.

2008-08-18T12:13:00.005-06:00

You're either on the bus or off the bus. It's not exactly Ken Kesey and the Merry Pranksters, but that famous sixties mantra is a good way to describe how people in Denver, regardless of their politics, are feeling about the Democratic National Convention.

Denver public relations pros are definitely "on the bus". PRSA Colorado volunteers will be escorting visiting media around and basically making sure they have a good time. They will join hundreds of other volunteers in cowboy hats and Crocs putting on a good show for all of the out of town visitors. It is Denver's chance to shine and no one wants to blow it.

Not wanting to miss the fun, I'll be working the DNC media studio where visiting politicians and delegates can do TV and radio interviews with their local media back home. It is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to see how it all works and be on the scene when history is made. The downside is that during the convention week I need to be there at 3am every day so we can coordinate East Coast interviews on the 5am newscasts. I am not exactly a morning person, so looking my best at 3am will be a real challenge. But as we say in show biz, the show must go on and luckily, I won't be the one being interviewed.

Despite all the excitement there are lots of people in Denver who are decidedly "off the bus". They get more and more grumpy with every new announcement about road closures, detours and other disruptions. Some are heading to the mountains. Some are making a killing renting out their own homes. But most of them will simply ride out the storm by avoiding downtown.

Personally, I am glad the DNC is coming to Denver. It is the biggest thing around here since the last time the Democratic Nation Convention came to town 100 years ago. Some people still think of us as a cow town, but a lot has changed since then. We can't hide all our blemishes, but when the lights are on and the cameras are rolling, I expect that Denver will look pretty good. Even to those folks who didn't get a seat on the bus.

That's Mine and You Can't Have It

2008-08-04T10:41:00.011-06:00

To protect or not to protect, that is the question. Hasbro, the maker of the popular word game Scrabble, answered that question definitively when it slapped a lawsuit on the Agarwalla brothers from India. The suit accused the brothers of pirating Hasbro's intellectual property when they created Scrabulous, a popular game application that's attracted half a million users on Facebook.

Scrabulous was one of Facebook's most popular applications, attracting more than 500,00 users a day. It was also an obvious rip off.

Nevertheless, the blogosphere has been up in arms about what many perceive to be a bad PR move by Hasbro. Shouldn't they be thanking the brothers for generating so much fuss abut Scrabble? The company reportedly made a huge offer for the software but the Agarwalla brothers turned it down, confident they could get more money. So was this a good business decision or bad PR for a big company to pick on two punks from Calcutta? It is better business for Hasbro to protect its intellectual property or to look at it as free advertising that builds its brand?

Trademark and copyright infringement is serious business. It is also illegal. That's because there is great value in intellectual property. Many of today's most iconic brands, from Microsoft and Apple to Coke and Starbuck's, owe more of their worth to intangible assets like intellectual property than they do to fixed assets like property and equipment. If you don't protect your brand, it's like leaving the keys in the door when you leave home. Everyone and his brother can just help themselves.

Maybe it was all fun and games at first, and these guys were just benevolent, open source Robin Hoods who wanted to improve something you own and then give it away for free. But at some point greed took over and it became a case of theft for profit, clear and simple.

So Hasbro weighed the bad PR it might get from some bloggers against the bad PR it might get from its stakeholders by giving away the Scrabble brand. And it made a business decision. It decided to launch its own Scrabble application on Facebook. Facebook users now have the option to play Hasbro Scrabble application or simply go directly to the Scrabulous website.

So for the two brothers from India, the game comes down to this. What's a four-letter word for bummer?

Practice Makes Perfect

2008-07-18T12:54:00.002-06:00

When I was a working musician, I always looked for opportunities to soak up a lesson or some words of wisdom from musicians whose talent just blew me away. It did not take me long to figure out that the one thing that separates the good musicians from the great ones is that great musicians never stop practicing. They know that they can always get better and that there is always something they can learn. They know that the day they stop being creative is the day some young hotshot passes them by.

Now that I own a Denver, Colorado public relations firm, I know that the same rule applies for PR pros. If you ever get to that point where you think you are smart enough, that is the time to get out of the business. There is always something you can learn to help you provide better service to your clients.

These days technology is changing so fast that it is hard to keep up. It is not just learning how to use new media tools like social marketing, SEO, podcasts or blogs. It is researching which tools are most relevant for your clients and learning how to use them to communicate in a relevant way to the audiences you are trying to reach.

Whether it is new media, old media, business basics or economic fundamentals, the best way to keep learning is to surround yourself with people who know something that you do not. We can all use a mentor. That person could be someone with more experience or an intern who looks at the world with a fresh perspective that opens your eyes. It could be someone in your immediate network or someone you meet by joining a new social or business networking community. It could even be the person you are mentoring yourself, who just might be able to teach you as much as you are trying to teach them.

Now some people do not like to practice, they just want to play the game. Remember when basketball star Allen Iverson famously defended himself after he was fined for missing practice?

Practice? We are talking about practice?

But basically, it boils down to this. No matter what business you are in, there is always something to learn. And whenever you think you know it all you are about to learn a valuable lesson. The rest is just practice.

Taking Your Seat at the History Table

2008-07-10T16:15:00.006-06:00

Denver is putting on its dancing shoes and gearing up for the 2008 Democratic National Convention. Unless you have been living under a rock you know that it is coming to the Pepsi Center in August. And now that the DNC has announced that Senator Obama will deliver his acceptance speech to a crowd of 75,000 strong at INVESCO Field at Mile High, Denver PR firms are definitely stressing out. We all have our hands full figuring out how we can get our clients and ourselves a seat at the history table!

Along with the obvious historical implications of the Obama presidential campaign, this convention will make history in another very important way: the role that new media will play in instantly delivering the up-to-the-minute news on every speech, meeting, meal, deal and party taking place in every corner of town. Thanks to Twitter, Facebook and Digg, we can expect constant updates on what is going on and who is saying what, right down to what they had for breakfast, lunch and dinner. And with the help of laptops and mobile phones, we can expect every gaff and screw-up to be uploaded to YouTube within seconds.

To leverage all the capabilities that this new technology provides for those of us savvy enough to grok it, a new media Big Tent is going up: http://www.demconwatchblog.com/2008/06/big-tent_27.html.

Hosted by Daily Kos and sponsored by Google, this is a 9,000 square-foot, two-story showcase for bloggers and new media journalists complete with a stage for political discussions and a kiosk to make You Tube videos. A lounge will provide workspace, WiFi and refreshments, and the public can come to mingle with influential bloggers, journalists and community leaders. It sounds like heaven for people who get their news from the Internet and blogosphere rather than TV, newspapers and radio.

The most historic thing about all this is not really the technology. It is how the technology will be used to give even the little guy a voice. Under the Big Tent, the public can listen in on experts debating every hot topic and participate in the conversation through social marketing networks that actually make democracy democratic. For the first time in a long time, people can feel that their opinions matter and that their voices will be heard. Imagine the possibilities.

Denver public relations pros would be wise to consider how their companies or clients can participate in this truly American conversation. Even if they have nothing to say, they can still listen. Even if they can not sing, they can still dance to the music.

Diving In

2008-07-02T17:33:00.003-06:00

The other day I took my puppy swimming for the first time. She's a lab so she dove right in, followed my other lab and pretty soon she was swimming. Nothing to it. She was having a blast with the other dogs like she'd been doing it all her life.

That's how I feel about blogging. This is my first blog entry and even though I have no idea what I am doing, I figured the best way to get started was to just dive in. Now I'm blogging.

I think for most businesses and entrepreneurs, that's the best way to deal with these uncertain economic times. Even if it makes you nervous, the worst thing you can do is to sit on the sidelines watching all the other dogs swim. Take a risk and dive in, it will make you feel better.