Two random musings from a day in the life of the CEO of a PR firm:

1: This morning, I received a standard client request to call a reporter and vet an opportunity he was presented with.  The reporter answered his phone at the designated extension of his major business publication, and proceeded to ask a series of questions.  I found these questions to be quite unorthodox given the usual style and length of articles in this particular publication.  After 10 minutes of prodding and back and forth, I learned that this reporter was working on a book and using this publication’s resources and credibility to call sources for it.

When I established that my client wouldn’t participate in the book, the reporter got very upset and spoke of editorial rules, none of which exist when dealing with a book writer.  Quite simply, remember to always investigate media opportunities; evil may be lurking, and journalists can’t always be trusted.  Don’t be naïve.

2:  Yesterday, I received a package in an expensive bag filled with a great new product – a consumer packaged good.  I received the gift I imagine as part of the target demographic of business owners, or entrepreneurs I imagine, and my estimate is the package cost $75 or so per piece.  I imagine I was gifted with the hope that I’d love the product and tell employees, clients, and friends about it – maybe even purchase it.

And I did love the product.  But when I tried to reach out to the people who sent it to me, I found that they had sent the package without the card of a contact person.  So, after spending all that money to research who I was and then deliver me the package, they overlooked one of the most basic tasks: I didn’t even know who to thank. And it’s far from the first time it’s happened.  Don’t forget the basics.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

We are in the midst of a new economy that is still being defined.  A new economy where years of wealth have been lost, where a debate on Fox News I saw this weekend asked if all banks should be government operated, and where bailouts are the most popular form of financing.

I had breakfast yesterday at The Loews Regency, one of my favorite NYC breakfast locations and a 5WPR client.  An older couple there, playing with their grandkids, told me that in 28 years of owning their own business, they had never before had layoffs.  But now, they’ve already had two rounds, and they’re worried about whether or not their business will survive.  In the gym that afternoon, an entrepreneur who rented a new, 6,000-square-foot office six months ago told me he’s closing his company and giving his landlord back his keys.  Scary times.

5WPR’s answer?  We are looking at many new hires and ways in which we can invest in our clients’ businesses and our business.  We’re looking at items (and people) that don’t require ramp up time.  We’re demanding more from employees.  We’re delivering more to clients.  We’re conserving cash, but investing in the future as we believe we will be one of the few PR agencies to emerge from this recession stronger than we went into it.

We also continue to look at PR firms, or one- or two-person PR consultant operations, that may want to stop running their own business and be absorbed by a larger agency.  We have had many discussions, made some offers and will emerge stronger.  Are you a small PR agency with a client base?  Let’s chat. Email me directly at ronn@5wpr.com

It’s a new economy, and the rules have changed.  As an employee, look around and realize what needs to be done today.  As an entrepreneur, it’s war.  And I only continue to learn what this new economy means: the unemployed financial executive who just accepted a 200k job, even though he previously earned in excess of 700k, or my countless friends in real estate who aren’t doing even 10 percent of the deals they used to do.

It’s a new economy, and the rules have changed.  Without knowing when it will change back, everyone needs to adapt to the new rules and change accordingly.  I continue to be focused on continuing to grow and hopefully change the PR industry.  The line from The Notorious B.I.G. movie (which I saw this weekend) epitomizes it: “You can’t change the world until you change yourself”.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

Why is it that so few people, including professionals, and business owners understand media relations and the essence of how the media works?  Conceptually, it’s really not that hard, but every day I’m amazed by the basic questions I receive from smart business people.   Just today, someone with a very successful business asked me how much we pay news anchors to place clients on the air.  (Any PR or Marketing 101 class we tell you in this country, one can’t pay news anchors to book guests. At least not in the publicity business.)

Public relations, particularily media relations, is a fairly easy to understand business: find a story angle, pitch it to the media and open the paper (or turn on the TV) and there’s your story.  Yet one of the reasons PR budgets are so low in comparison to advertising budgets is that so few understand PR.  If they did, you’d see many more businesses spending much more on all aspects of public relations in general.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR

One of my closest friends, a well-known person in his field, emailed me with a witty one-liner from an industry conference this week: “The game has changed, but I still love playing it.”  This afternoon, a credit card that we have done business with for years called out of the blue and said that we now have a credit limit.  We have perfect credit, and this company hounded us for months to take a credit line with them, and we have never had a credit limit.  But they said the limit was standard for every company they work with.  The times they are changing.

The world has changed; the question is for how long.

I believe those of us in the service industry – PR, advertising, marketing and the like – need to work harder than ever before.  We need to be more focused and keep our eyes on the ball.  We can control our own destiny, but especially now, only excellence can survive.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR

The definition of Public Relations is rapidly changing to mean many things to many different folks: media relations, marketing, social media and many other things.  I spoke at a great event to a few hundred people at The Princeton Club this week on the power of networking, and naturally, on-line networking came up.  The question arose of how to meet people, deal with people you meet online, etc.

I don’t believe that people (particularly successful people and executives) maintain enough privacy on Facebook, Twitter, etc.  Often times, internal staffers and friends ask me detailed questions about blog postings.  It’s information I often can’t and won’t share, because PR for me is not an academic exercise but a profession.  I have to keep secrets, and as I have said before, my blog is biased toward my clients, my interests, etc.

I don’t post personal information on social network sites, because I don’t believe my staff or clients should know if I am out till 4 AM.  My “friends” online are contacts – not necessarily people I share intimate thoughts with.  First and foremost, people are concerned about their interests.  If I am out at 4 AM, and G-d forbid, the next day at 9 AM we lose a client, may my staff see a connection?

I write this as another PR firm learned a painful lesson: one of their senior executives twittered insulting a client’s home city.  He got blasted en masse by the client (who cc’ed both the PR agency management team and internal management).

While Twitter is about honesty, a PR agency shouldn’t forget clients pay the bills.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR