Too many small companies plan to fail ...11 January 2012Too many small businesses fail in their first year, even those that deserve to survive. Mostly these collapse for one or both of two simple reasons: they did not have a realistic marketing plan and, in planning their finance, they did not have the cash or banking facility to survive that first year. The simple fact is that if those starting a venture fail to plan, then they are plannin...
Media interviews can make or break any company06 January 2012The best interview will always be the one where the PR professional takes no apparent part, other than the introductions and farewells. In a debate on LinkedIn, http://linkd.in/zROC68, one correspondent, Barry Wegener, was right in saying that the PR person must be at the interview ..... and, if we have done our training and familiarisation advice properly with the client, then we ...
Cut crazy staff parties and create a super-event16 December 2011All companies should think of creativity as an essential tool in management ... not just something left to the advertising agency. For example, has your Christmas party gone stale - or, worse, got out of hand?
According to a survey reported in Management today, 95% of workers would prefer cash to a company Christmas party: see story in full at http://bit.ly/rrI6vJ. But then staff...
Media training can only work if the company cares15 December 2011The media are rarely the problem for public relations professionals and should be viewed as the opportunity to build reputations and project the thoughtful strategies of a responsible organisation. In a debate on LinkedIn, many respondents have been commenting on the question: I'm getting ready to conduct media training with folks in my organization. Anyone have lessons learned one working w...
Do public relations people not know what PR is?26 November 2011What is public relations? Whatever it is, it is certainly NOT "facilitating the ongoing conversation in an always-on world" as suggested in a discussion on LinkedIn, probably from deepest America where they speak English, but not as we know it.The Public Relations Society of America is looking at a new definition but do not hold your breath: it will probably be something like the pretentious ...
UK will pay a massive price for Unite's strike - so will their members25 November 2011The world knows about the public service strike in the UK next Wednesday and some European business interests will welcome the opportunity to take advantage of this potential to damage the reputation of the UK. The European (and global) financial services sector, the inward investment, airport, aviation and motor industries alone are massively competitive. Some of these will be using t...
Policy is what matters in public relations ...18 November 2011Public relations CAN and should be responsible for the development of the integrity of corporate objectives ... and a failure to take that responsibility is often why so many public relations professionals and their campaigns are weak. Consider this: you are invited to join or are called in to help an organisation in its development. In your evaluation (I hope we all do that befor...
EU should buy Greece's assets and auction them15 November 2011When I made the comment that "the EU should not fund Greece debts but buy their real assets" in a discussion page on LinkedIn, a lecturer from a business college rebuked me, saying: "How cruel." I did not intend to upset anyone, so this was the last comment I expected on stating something that I thought was obvious: do not give more money to wastrels.
Greece is in a mess that it crea...
BT inefficiency hands business to its competitors...22 October 2011Here, word for word, is an email that I have sent to BT and I await their response with interest:
I was impressed by your offer of free roaming wi-fi using my existing BT broadband account, sent to me by email, presumably because you are aware that I have a broadband account with you. You gave me a username and password and invited me to log in. But then the site does not ask fo...
Business survival depends on reputation18 October 2011Business communications leader to present major Dubai seminar
"At all times, especially in a recession, the survival of organisations can depend on their reputations and relationships", believes Roger Haywood. Public relations and marketing trainer Haywood will be leading a workshop in Dubai in December that will be attended by the 10,000th delegate that he has addressed at confere...
England decays from green and pleasant to ... a mean and decadent land10 October 2011
"England has a 'planning habit' that disfigures villages, towns, and the countryside and slowly clogs all the arteries: ever so insidiously and continuously, it impoverishes.
We are all on the game; the pimps are the politicians and the developers.
It is called 'housing' and it is mainly about profit for needy farmers and needy developers. For people without houses it's...
The Times atlas does not recognise Palestine nor does the PM...22 September 2011How can David Cameron claim at least part-credit for the actions to defend the freedom of a nation in Libya yet at the United Nations miss the opportunity to show the same concern over the Palestinians? Keeping friendship with Israel and the United States may be a good policy but not when it gives Palestine no hope for justice.
As of September 2011, some 129 (66%) of the 193 member sta...
Blair proves Humphrys should retire ..10 September 2011Tony Blair calm, rational articulate? BBC Radio Four Today interviewer, John Humphrys, achieved something impossible this morning. His hectoring, interruptions, constant lurches to new issues and refusal to let Blair put forward any point longer than sentence or two, made the past prime minister sound almost statesman-like. In one of the longest interviews I h...
Cynical practitioners are destroying ethical public relations ...05 September 2011A discussion on LinkedIn has been reviewing the question "What do you do if a client complains about not getting a sale or ROI from some good media coverage."
Clearly if you have intelligent agreed objectives you will never get this response. For no objective will ever be to get media ocverage - as this is only one public relations technique not a result.
I have been arguing thi...
Amateur press officers who claim to be PR professionals04 September 2011How many in our business are really PR amateurs? Some, who claim to be in public relations, still behave like old-time publicists. There are serious weaknesses in the views of many respondents to a current debate on LinkedIn* that is going nowhere. The question being addressed is: What do you say to a client when they tell you they "didn't get one sale" or "don't see any ROI" aft...
Most journalists will fail in public relations ......29 August 2011
Think carefully before appointing a journalist straight into public relations for, however eminent, they may simply not have the skills or attitudes that can make them succeed in this far more complex and challenging sector. Or, if you are a journalist, check the needs of the role and decide whether you can or want to adapt - or might this really not be for you, with the serious risk of becoming...
Never trust someone with communications in their job title ......................26 August 2011Much of the confusion in the public relations business derives from the sloppy use of the term communications.
According to the dictionary, communications is an exchange of information and, in PR, listening to and talking to people. But public relations (and marketing) are both much bigger and deeper than that. For example, if a company is polluting the environment then the...
Public relations is more than bricklaying .............22 August 2011Too many supposed public relations professionals do not seem to understand the simple point that public relations is much more than communications, vital though that might be. An analogy might be between the architect and the bricklayer, vital though that latter might be in building. Public relations is about managing reputation which must mean that the organisation has policies and st...
Some 70% of those claiming to be in PR, may not be so .............20 August 2011Some 70% of those who claim to be in public relations are actually not, according to an informal study I ran across a group of people with various PR titles - not stistically valid but an interesting snapshot of our business today.
Issues are about what the organisation does and not just what it says. And public relations is all about these strategies and policies, especially in rela...
Why so many PR people are in the second division - or worse14 August 2011Are you in the first division of public relations? Certainly not if you think it is communications, or you have that in your job title or the name of your consultancy or department. Here is one simple step to move towards being in the premier division....................
Of course public relations and marketing must be coordinated and working to compatible (if differently focussed) br...
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