A few months back I had a spirited discussion (argument?) with an acquaintance regarding some viral marketing issues. Without discussing details, I vehemently disagreed with him and told him what he was saying was incorrect, based on facts. He retorted that he was going to urge his organization to spend money pursuing his viewpoint, because some leading PR-and-marketing blog research and books told him he was right. I replied that it wasn’t just me who would disagree, but I was also confident all of my competitors would share my opinion. He told me he didn’t have time to meet with agencies and that reading the blogosphere was enough. I didn’t see him for a few months, but today I ran into him. He told me how right I was and what a mistake he made…and therein lies a major problem with the blogosphere: one’s ability to decipher authenticity.

The fact is that someone with a blog has a following, but does that person actually make a living doing what they are writing about? The same goes with books. That is a question I always ask when reading material, online or off. Are they successful at doing what they say? For example, in the PR agency business, shouldn’t someone like a Richard Edelman not hold more weight than a blog written by a college student or a one-person PR practitioner? Would an agency owner not know more and have better insight than an account executive? (Another example: If brands trust someone to spend their money, I trust that person’s opinion more than someone who theorizes…. The same way anyone who manages my personal finances or cold-calls me promising major returns on money. My retort is always, “Great. Send me your personal tax returns — I want to see what you invest in.)

A major issue for public relations, marketing, and advertising bloggers and information that exists is authenticity. There are so few owners of agencies in the space who actively blog on relevant topics that it makes it hard to qualify “true” expertise. Shouldn’t rankings in this arena — such as Adage’s Power 150  — be skewed towards those who actually make a living (and a good one at that) doing what they blog about (i.e. do people actively listen to them)?

Conversely, no matter what the blogosphere might say about international diplomacy, I’d think in just a few months Condoleezza Rice probably has a better understanding of international diplomacy than does a professor from American University. Shouldn’t a blog by an expert have more weight than a commentator?

Reminds me of a quote I heard recently from a close friend: “Professional work is not an academic exercise or a marketing experiment. It’s the difference between making money and philosophy.

Ronn Torossian
5WPR

Sunday’s New York Times article entitled “How to Erase That Smea…” is a good read not just for politics, but also for real business.  Business these days is very aggressive, and that’s life.  One must often respond to half-truths.

As the article states, “the very notion of viral marketing, a phrase that describes the exponential multiplication of e-mailed campaign messages sent to one network of people who send it on to another, reflects the answer that has emerged from that debate: Never wait. Everything is moving at warp speed.” During meetings, it’s often necessary for me to check BlackBerry messages multiple times. We live in an era in which people – both clients and the media — demand and expect instant answers, and on numerous occasions when I haven’t been able to respond very quickly for whatever reason, I see stories in which my client hasn’t yet responded, or hasn’t been included, or has missed opportunities because we didn’t respond quick enough.

I subscribe to the thought that rapid response is a very necessary component of winning in PR, and as I have blogged about previously,  great business leaders should read IT’S NOT THE BIG THAT EAT THE SMALL…IT’S THE FAST THAT EAT THE SLOW  by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton. Our PR agency absolutely believes in working quickly.

I’ll end this post the same way the New York Times did. How often is Mike Tyson, of all people, quoted in a New York Times business story? In his heyday, however, Tyson answered pre-fight interview questions about his opponents’ strategies this way: “Yeah, they all have a strategy — until they get hit.”

Ronn Torossian
5WPR

A truly remarkable political milestone occurred last week.  Barack Obama’s campaign launched a Web site devoted entirely to discrediting so-called smears at www.fightthesmears.com. 

When I first learned of the initiative, I assumed it had to be an unaffiliated site run by Obama supporters, but I was amazed to learn it was part of his official campaign.

In past political campaigns, rumor and innuendo has consistently been part of the game.   Third parties with vague affiliations to specific candidates leak unsubstantiated information that calls an opponent’s character into question.   In this campaign, however, the official Obama for President campaign’s plan is to attempt to challenge existing rumors head-on, which raises many additional questions:

* At what point does the campaign decide to list a “smear” on its site? Are these smears prior negative evening stories, or Page Six items, or merely circulating rumors that many have yet to learn about? 

* How does the campaign respond differently online vs. its daily press briefings? By calling attention to and denying a “rumor” so blatantly, there are inherent risks. 

* Does the campaign risk opponents abusing the “Push Back Now” feature to further disseminate rumors/truths from the Obama email system? 

Clearly, this is a very aggressive strategy for a presidential candidate.  Forward thinking, yes, but perhaps not the best move for the official campaign.  I think it is wiser to use a third party support group than have the official campaign as the front. 

Third parties have the freedom to take controversial actions that a candidate would never dream of undertaking.  A third party would keep the situation at an arm’s length, leaving Obama free to steer the campaign away from smear and toward the issues.

One Obama quote on the Wall Street Journal’s Washington Wire that I found telling and quite interesting from a campaign that claims to be positive: Candidate Obama set the stage for the coming “fight” by saying, “If they bring a knife to the fight, we bring a gun.”

For an interesting marketing perspective on the initiative, Washington Post blogger Chris Cillizza’s post is worth reading.  His most compelling argument in favor of the site is how the speed of information has exponentially increased in the last four years, making rumors spread far faster and deeper than in past campaigns.  That particular issue is one we’ve seen affect a wide range of industries, and it’s not surprising that politics is no exception.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

In today’s internet environment, saturated with self-made content, the rules of journalism are constantly re-establishing themselves.  This week, Mayhill Fowler has certainly reminded us of that. The 61-year-old “citizen journalist” and Huffington Post blogger proves that you don’t need a press pass to break a story, catching both Obama and Bill Clinton off-guard and on-tape.  Her rise is certainly another milestone in the debate on the relationship of bloggers and journalists. 

Many very interesting comments and discussions can be raised on the topic of the changing world of journalism.  However, the question that I always come back to is, “can all bloggers truly be considered journalists?” With many bloggers, there’s no way to determine objectivity or allegiance.  For example, would anyone expect me to write something positive about a product which competes with one of my clients’ products?  Of course not.

I found the following LA Times article to be very interesting, but for me the key line was: “Now, every person in a crowd could be a Mayhill Fowler.” At the very least, it’s certainly interesting food for thought.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

I recently sat on an NYIABC panel discussion with some prominent bloggers and journalists, and I wanted to share some thoughts and feedback about the impact of online media.

• As this New York Times article points out, there are major restructurings occurring across the board in print journalism. The Tribune Company alone is eliminating 500 pages of news a week by axing many of its employees. On the panel, Jon Fine said he believes there will be a major metro newspaper this year that goes out of business. What does this mean for PR professionals? Journalists are busier than ever before, so now more than ever we need to provide them information that’s accurate, clear and brief (Hint: No 2-3 page press releases). Our materials need to be user-friendly, and we must increasingly build relationships, so writers want to take our calls and know we aren’t wasting their time.

• Print media clearly won’t die. It will decline, but those who talk about the death of print media outlets are simply out of touch. Print is epic – it outlasts the test of time. Reading a newspaper is something you can touch and feel, and there’s a real value to that.

• The relationship between bloggers and reporters is constantly evolving. Reporters are now using blogs to research stories or phenomena. As opposed to providing factual evidence, bloggers provide reporters with information on “sentiment.” According to the 2008 PRWeek/PR Newswire Media Survey, which polled an array of media professionals, 73% of respondents use blogs in their research, while only 19% of respondents never use blogs.

It’s always interesting to sit with my fellow PR professionals in a room and engage in a thoughtful discussion. I enjoyed it very much.

Ronn Torossian

5WPR

There’s been a lot of debate recently about the difference between bloggers and reporters. I, for one, firmly don’t believe that bloggers and reporters are synonymous. Bloggers are biased. (Although, reporters are also. Let’s remember that while both FOX News & CNN claim to be unbiased, one needs only to watch a political report for all of 5 minutes to see that they both clearly “skew.” Right or wrong…)

This morning I read an article where the VP of student affairs at Duke University was quoted as saying, “It’s a world where someone with half a brain, a computer, and an Internet connection can be a publisher.”

Now, clearly this isn’t true for all bloggers, and there are many different types with different levels of objectivity. However, social media, Web 2.0 and today’s blogosphere plays by a whole different set of rules, and public relations professionals who want to be relevant need to be prepared and equipped to handle client communications in this era of new media.

As an aside, yesterday’s New York Times included an article about the pressures bloggers face from a 24/7 news cycle, but failed to mention that many reporters now face these same pressures. The news cycle in every outlet – from broadcast to print to online – has become global and continuous, with every outlet competing to break each story the moment it happens.

That’s one of the reasons consistent public relations and communication with the media has become so pivotal. I tell my employees that a good PR professional never shuts off – with an endless stream of changing news coverage, there are countless opportunities to create relevancy.

Ronn Torossian
5W PR

So, yesterday I received my first pitch from a PR agency about something I should promote on my blog… and I will by telling Accoona that they should hire 5W Public Relations if they want a PR firm that can actually get them results. For the sake of decency I deleted the person’s name who emailed me (The firm was Fleishman-Hillard), but I for one will never understand why an employee of another PR firm would pitch me about a product.

Blogs are not unbiased… and mine certainly will never be… People shouldn’t pitch me products, unless they want to hire us. We are capitalists, pure and simple…. So, Ms. Fleishman-Hillard, I mentioned your product… and Accoona – If you want a PR firm to get you results, call us.

Below is the pitch.

From: XYZ
Sent: Tuesday, March 28, 2006 11:22 AM
To: Ronn Torossian
Subject: PR resource – a new AI enhanced search engine

Hi Ron:
As an FYI, I thought you might be interested in checking out this search engine we’re working with called Accoona (yes, as in “Hakuna Matata” meaning “Don’t Worry, Be Happy” in Swahili): http://www.accoona.com. Accoona recently relaunched its news and business search engines. The engines are built on artificial intelligence (AI) algorithms which enable retrieval of more results for stories associated with the search term and not just containing the term.

For instance, when users type “Oscar winners” into the search box, Accoona delivers stories about Academy Award winners, whether or not the stories mention the word Oscar. It understands the larger context of your search. Through the “SuperTarget Your Search” function, you can further refine search results using on-screen, scroll-down menus, including “people mentioned,” “date published,” and “publisher,” among others. The menus reveal the number of times each choice is mentioned in the results.

The third portion of the overall engine, the Web search function, will be updated in the coming months. I look forward to hearing your thoughts about the product and encourage you to mention or link to it on your blog.

Best, XYZ
Fleishman-Hillard
212-453-XYYZ
XYZ@fleishman.com

Ronn Torossian

5W PR

Welcome to my blog – As CEO of the fastest growing PR firm in the US, 5W Public Relations, I am known for speaking the truth… for being honest and for being real, with our clients, with ourselves and with the world.

I believe we are the best at what we do, bar none… and within these pages I plan on sharing some real and honest thoughts of mine… representing me and me alone on PR, communications, politics and the world.

I welcome your feedback and thoughts…

Ronn Torossian
5W PR