I Don't Like this Form of PR

The other day while finishing up a project at the non-profit foundation where I work, I got a call from a PR person from another charity. I won't use any names to protect the innocent, but the charity itself is a very noble cause and the person I spoke to was genuinely friendly. She was essentially calling me asking for ways to get them grant money, which is fine since we do award grants.

But this was about the third time in six months I have either spoken to this same woman or had an email exchange with her and she still doesn't know who I am. Not only that but she sends these massively huge email files containing Word document attachments that clog up my inbox or that don't work or look unprofessional when I am able view them. In fact, one time when she sent these Word files that didn't open, I suggested she make them into PDFs. She replied saying she didn't know how to convert Word documents to PDFs. So I replied telling her how to do it. So she did it and rattled off like seven in a row in a drive-by emailing. They promptly went into my trash file. And then, as part of this latest phone call that she made, she had the audacity to ask me what my email address was.

I really don't like this form of PR.

What this tells me is that I'm just one person on a huge list, she has no kind of records about who I am, and quite frankly, she doesn't know how to do her job.

Nice combo there.

To all college graduates looking to get a job in public relations, here are a few quick tips:

If you're going into the field of public relations...

1. Learn who your audience is and how to talk to them
2. If you're trying to build rapport with someone... build it! Don't just dump your emails on them or pester them with phone calls. That just moves your organization down a notch on your caller's list because you're annoying them.
3. Learn the latest best practices and how to use technology. Don't expect anybody to bend over backwards for you. You need to be ahead of the game and be able to make somebody else's job easier, not more complex. People are busy and you're trying to get their good favor, not make things harder for them.

Good PR can do an organization a world of good, but bad PR can set it all back a hundred years.

Time to Think Differently about the Michael Vick Story

With all of the hullabaloo surrounding the infamous Michael Vick dog-fighting case, I have noticed a recent backlash regarding the treatment he has received from the media and public at large.

A recap: once the story broke, an immediate and intense firestorm swelled when people got word that Vick was involved in a dog fighting ring and ultimately killing many "underperforming" dogs.

But then in the past few days or so, I've observed several instances of people expressing their concern and/or disgust for how far the outcry has gone. I have heard the following arguments, either on talk radio, in the commentary section of the newspapers, or on TV:

-Although dog fighting is gross and inhumane, what's the difference between that and killing a mouse in your house?

-This case has garnered so much attention, but why can't we garner that kind of attention when a man beats his wife?

-If you eat meat, you're essentially doing the same thing as what Vick did.

While all of these questions are valid, I see it a different way. It's not an "apples and apples" comparison.

For starters, the reason that this became such big news, is, in fact, because it truly is big news. Any reporter, marketer, or public relations expert will tell you that the only things that make big news are the things that are undeniably different from the rest of what's going on during that particular day.

So, for better or worse, killing a mouse, abusing a spouse, or eating a grouse (sorry, the rhyme was too good to pass up there) are not inherently different from what goes on in ordinary life. A millionaire, celebrity pro football player electrocuting dogs in his own mansion is undeniably different. And that's why it makes the news. Trying to determine if it received too much or too little attention is pointless. People are interested in hearing the stories that are different, and that will never change.

All in all, my main point here is that we should treat each individual issue separately and not try to compare what is more or less important.