Posts Tagged ‘pr professionals’

The right PR professional isn’t necessarily a huge agency

Thursday, March 18th, 2010

It’s a tough perception to break.  Fueled by thousands of billable hours and countless (often worthless) deliverables, large agencies know how to do one thing well: sell time and bill for it. 

The crisis has shaken out many of the large PR and marketing agencies nationwide with restructuring, cut costs, and unimaginable losses in business. 

As much as large agencies create an image and a name for themselves (which really only pays tribute to the combined expertise of the agency’s staff), why would a client prefer to spend thousands on a huge PR agency versus a grounded independent contractor, or a boutique agency?  The answers vary widely on this, below are some brief thoughts on why a contractor and/or a smaller agency can be much more effective for client needs:

- Small means flexible. Period.  Huge agencies are cumbersome.

- Small means real communication from the CEO.  Big agencies have interns taking client calls and bringing coffee into the hi-tech conference room.

- Small offers true experts, since it cannot afford fluff staff.  Large agencies are large, which is why they have to lose the weight in tough economic times

- Small means really great work.  It’s the agency’s bread and butter and credibility.  It’s all small agencies have.  Big agencies already have the solid branding, so they can get away with doing much less for a lot more

- Small understands the word budget and works with it.  Big agencies have billable hours.  And they bill for everything.

Most importantly, small agencies offer real relationships that have the potential of becoming seamless with the client’s business needs, particularly because they have the ability to be very responsive.  Large agencies tend to position themselves as an extension of their clients’ business.  They can take forever with the approval process, and the myriads of people the work has to go through to get anywhere.   And of course you get billed for that, too!

I am sure there are a lot more points to discuss and this was just a brief post on the topic of outsourcing PR.  And sometimes, big clients just want big agencies…  Although, honestly, crisis or not, who wants to pay for extensions?

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Hotel social media: what are you talking about?

Tuesday, February 23rd, 2010

Hotels are increasingly securing a healthy presence on Facebook and Twitter - the two main social networks that make sense to be on… today (this post may be completely outdated in a month, that is how fickle social media are). 

Assuming you have someone in-house, or an independent PR pro who is dedicated to monitoring, updating and overseeing your social media accounts, you should ask yourself: is that enough?

Posting one update a day may be consistent, but probably not enough to start truly engaging conversations.  Determine what your goals are from your presence on social media.  Then, find what makes your guests talk… if it is your restaurant’s specials, talk about them.  If it is a seasonal drink at the bar, or an exciting amenity (yoga comes to mind!) reach out and get some feedback.  The more you think in terms of your fans and followers, the higher the post quality on your pages.

Good pages inspire fans to create new social media groups to continue and carry on the conversation, to make it as viral as possible.  Invest in the right professional to oversee your social media campaign, and have your finger on the pulse to evaluate its success.

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PR pros and PR gurus

Thursday, January 21st, 2010

Ah, yes, my quest to examine why PR people are generally considered hacks and flacks and trying to shift that perception continues into 2010!

Sometimes I am asked what makes a PR person good.  As in, really, really good?  The truth is, I’m still trying to figure that out myself.  I can, however, spot the difference between PR people who have a sales personality and don’t have a clue about messaging, and those who can write razon sharp pitches that end up fantastic placements.  PR is a process that requires true skill. 

The guru wears the smile and shakes hands and talks, talks, talks your head off about their client whether or not the reporter cares.  Gurus go to nearly every event there is just to make their presence known.  They have mastered the art of working a room like you don’t believe and as soon as they are done bombarding guests about their clients of the month, they are out!   Don’t get me wrong, there is value in that form of PR and working a room is certainly a skill.  Their personality comes out in the writing, overusing those poor exclamation points, and choosing words that offer an unnecessary sense of tremendous urgency in the pitch. 

Pros are more reserved and choose carefully which events to attend, and strategically think through the message.  If attending events, they are not concerned as much with the message, because they are already strong writers (a skill which many gurus lack).  They are preoccupied with how to communicate the message so it has impact.  This earns them source credibility because they truly value their relationships with the press.  In fact, there’s tremendous psychology involved within PR, and pros understand that.  Most importantly, pros’ powerful writing skills create newsworthy stories. 

So, where gurus master the art of presence, pros have mastered the art of anticipation. 

There’s a lot to argue here, but it boils down to developing the right skill set that will influence trends and subsequently news cycles:  Good PR people know when to pitch and how to answer media questions well.  Great PR people have already anticipated those questions, so reporters don’t even have to ask. 

Gurus fit in somewhere, too, I guess.  Actually, I don’t like the word guru at all.

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Posted in European Destinations, Hospitality, Integrated Marketing Communications, Media Relations, PR, Top Accommodations, social media | No Comments »