Why media relations is important in public relations

A non-profit or profit organization may have the best strategies, goals, ideas in place, but if these ambitions and goals are not conveyed to the public, it serves half-the purpose. Hence as PR professionals, it is very important to build a rapport with media to communicate the organization's goals and ambitions (Epperly, J). As the name suggests, public relations is about building relationship with the public, but it is equally important to build relationships with the media to be able to reach out to the public.

Dennis Rutzou from PR Blog says that just building media contacts and relation is not enough. It is more important to churn out newsworthy and convincing stories that your media contacts will be ready to publish (Rutzou, D. 2011). According to Rutzou, media is always on the lookout of news content that is competitive with their competition and there is no way that they will publish your story because they have a good relation with you.

Media relations have many benefits. It can help with raising funds for research, help get offers of consultancy and helps promote brand name (E.S.R.C.). Media attention can also raise the public profile of the organizations discipline and in turn increase public discussions.

A study Examining Modern Media Relations: An Exploratory Study of the Effect of Twitter on the Public Relations – Journalist Relationship, author Drew Wilson says that Twitter has changed the traditional relationship between PR and media professionals. It has changed the way practitioners and journalists interact. The traditional forms of writing a press release and sending it to journalists is becoming outdated. Social media has opened public platforms for public relations professionally to reach out to the public. And the need to the media is slowly dying. Public Relations don’t really need the media anymore to reach out to the public (Wilson, D. 2013).

Thus looking at all the studies and expert opinion on the relationship between PR and journalist practitioners, it can be seen that public relations is slowly weaning off from being dependent on journalists to get their stories out to the public. Thanks to the internet and new technology like Twitter and Facebook, public relations practitioners can reach out to the public themselves.  

2014 Super Bowl grabbed the most eyeballs

Thanks to digital media the Super Bowl XLVIII broke all records of viewership. This year the Super Bowl set a record of a whopping 111.5 million viewers. Digital media has changed the rule of the game today. New York Times Author David Carr says the mass has gone out of media in modern life. He says that each one is building our own little campfire on our phone, tablet and big screen at a time and place of our choosing (Carr, D. 2014). Carr is so right. You really don’t need to reach your apartment or bar to watch the NFL game live. Digital media has made life so easy today that you can watch it anywhere you wish. All you need is your basic communication gadget with internet connection.

I don't have a television set in my apartment, but that didn't deter me from watching the N.F.L. final. I watched it with my roommate on my laptop. We streamed the game live on Fox Sports Live and enjoyed every bit of it. It’s another thing that the game was one-sided with the Seahawks dominating the game till the end. Many viewers called the game a ‘puppy bowl’ or a ‘zombie bowl.’ I liked the halftime of the Super Bowl the best. Bruno Mars delivered a red-hot performance at the game. I was also thrilled to watch Red Hot Chili Pepper gyrate on their 1991 hit ‘Give it away.’

At the Super Bowl even the advertisements made a lot of noise.  Each and every commercial on the game night had a human element in it. There was a feel-good feeling in each of the advertisements. Take for example the Heinz ketchup commercial by Cramer-Krasselt. The commercial encouraged consumers to hum "If you're happy and you know it." (Elliott, S. 2014).

And then there is the Coca Cola America Is Beautiful commercial that has angered many people. Coca Cola used different foreign languages in the little-more-than one-minute commercial. And many critics cribbed about the advertisement saying that America is a country that speaks English and hence everything should be in English and not be in a foreign language. How stupid is that. There were some people on Twitter who used the hashtag #speakamerican to express their anger to the Coke commercial. Wonder what was going on in their minds to make such foolish comments. 

Super Bowl XLVIII generated a lot of interest not in the game in itself, but rather the commercials and the halftime performances. A tweet from Ogilvy said that 58% of national advertisements have a hashtag and the 2014 Super Bowl generated 24.9 million tweets. And these facts certainly are a boon to public relations which can use this as a great tactic to make big bucks.  

Facebook turns 10

My journey with Facebook began five-years back. That makes me a part of half of Facebook’s journey since it began in 2004.   That makes me thing, how old was the creator Mark Zuckerberg when he gave birth to Facebook. Not even 30 yet, Mark Zuckerberg was only 19-years old when he started off the company on February 4, 2004. He called the company The Facebook then. He designed the www.facebook.com website to help people share information about themselves with their friends. And what is more shocking is that this website was originally created for people in Harvard University to connect with each other (McCracken, H. 2014). But this idea became so popular that Zuckerberg built a fortune with the company that simply allowed people to connect with each other.

Facebook brought the world closer to each other. News became easier to follow. Sitting in front of our PC or Mac enabled gadgets anywhere in the world we connected with the rest f world by sharing photos, anniversaries, life events, achievements with friends, family and also acquaintances. We liked our friend’s wall writings and things they shared on Facebook and in turn hope that they too will like the things we do post. 

All this is good, real good. But critics argue that the very same juggernaut that enabled people to connect with each other is responsible for eradicating the face-to-face connection between people. Critics cite various research studies to prove their point. In a new study from the University of Michigan psychologist Ethan Kross shows how online media contributes to loneliness and reduces overall life satisfaction (Greig, A, 2013). Eighty-two people participated in this study. These participants were text messaged five times a day over a two-week period with a link to an online survey about their Facebook use, their feelings of well-being and the amount of face-to-face social interaction they had engaged in. The research team discovered that the more time participant had spent on Facebook, the less happy they felt over time.

In an interview to IB Times UK, Daria Kuss of Birmingham City University said "Depressive symptoms of excessive Facebook use are likely to relate to the overemphasis on weak ties between individuals which are propagated online and the substitution of real life friendships by online friendships." In his interview Kuss concludes that the relationships today are more superficial made by a click of a button. He justifies his claim saying in the bargain many social media users then make these online friendships more importance at the expense of deeper and stronger ties with friends in real life.  (Charlton, Al. 2014).

Well while we analyze whether Facebook is good or bad for mankind, many say that it is soon going to be the end of the Facebook generation. Or maybe Facebook will evolve. Just got to wait and watch. 

Measuring Social Media ROI

Everyone is talking about social media today. Every organization, individual, and non-profit uses social media as an important tool for branding themselves to millions of people who are out there on the internet. But the question is, have we measured the effectiveness of the social media tool? Is the organization or individual simply on social media because the rest of the world is out there or are they on social media because it is profitable.

In an article in PRNews Author Matthew Schwartz suggests three tips to help monetize social channels. Schwartz says companies should align social platforms with financial goals (Schwartz, M., 2014). The three tips Schwartz suggests are to look at the social data more closely because it can help generate new content or shift company focus if needed. The second tip that he suggest is to look at social media costs and analyze the percentage spent for social media work done. The third tip that the author suggests is to ask clients some business information about their social media service and based on their feedback drive the company focus toward it. 

Even the biggest music award that happened on 26^th Jan 2014 hired only one social media person, Lindsay Gabler, to handle the entire show on social media for the Grammy's. Gabler says that she doesn't only focus on the overall strategy but also focuses on how to integrate the partners and sponsorships into messages and content (Hernandez, A. 2014).

An interesting thing that Gabler says is we as social media professionals don’t have to educate our artists to share their thoughts on social media. They already know how to do it and hence as a Social Media person for the Grammys she has to only share that information that artist make available over the internet (Hernandez, A., 2014).

A recent white paper from the Adobe company states that despite social media is used by everyone and has become a thing to be used by every company, it has become difficult to measure driving website traffic, engagement and revenue generation (Souza, J. 2012).

Adobe had conducted a survey of 750-marketing professionals in 2011 and asked them whether they could measure the effectiveness of social media. Eighty-eight-percent of them feel they could accurately measure the effectiveness of campaigns, with 52-percent citing problems with determining a true ROI as their biggest frustration. This only goes to show that social media is still a new phenomenon and it is going to be some time till we actually are able to measure its effectiveness. 

Pope Francis, the official pop star!

It is difficult to find a person who hasn't heard about the Pope of the Catholic Church. Less than a year old in his papacy, Pope Francis is a well-known pope not only among Catholics but everyone irrespective of faith, religion, race, seems to be talking about him. He is the 266th Pope of the Catholic Church, but the only one who joins the ranks of pop star icons like Janet Jackson, John Lennon, Lady Gaga, Michael Jackson, who featured on the Rolling Stone magazine cover. But does Pope Francis set the stage on fire like people who normally are featured on this magazine?

Rolling Stone is a magazine known for its musical coverage and for political reporting. So what made the magazine have Pope Francis on its cover page? Did Pope Francis’ millions of Twitter followers draw the magazine to have him on his cover or is it the five magic words - "Who am I to judge?" - that did the real magic. 

"Who am I to judge?" said Pope Francis when he was asked by a reporter about the status of gay priests in the church. These five words uttered by the pope undoubtedly surprised the catholic world, but in the bargain the respect for him increased a thousand fold (Carroll, J. 2013).

The Catholic Church for long has been known to impose a set-of-dos-and-don't on Catholics around the world. These set-of-rules has made many Catholics move-away from the church. But the septuagenarian Pope Francis seems to have changed this by becoming the youth icon of today. The young and the old love him. Like Pope John Paul II, Catholics might not nominate Pope Francis to become a saint, but would want to emulate his style and personality. 

Pope Francis is featured smiling and waving in the Rolling Stone magazine. But I won't be surprised if very soon we'll have a fashion magazine feature him sitting on his Harley Davidson. A pope owning a Harley, I mean really? I don't mind going to mass everyday if the head of the church comes riding on his Harley. Isn't that cool!

It’s not the first time that the pope has featured on the cover of a magazine. A few months back Pope Francis was named 'Person of the Year' by the TIME magazine. The TIME magazine justified its cover story looking at the way Pope Francis captured the imaginations of millions of people in a matter of few months since he took office (Dilts, E. 2013). TIME magazine official say Pope Francis was selected by editors of the magazine who considered suggestions and inputs from the magazines more than 2-million Twitter followers. The magazine believes that pope has given hope for a million of people who moved away from the church. 

Social Media finds its new meaning

Social media which began as a thing for entertainment and for simply having some fun has now found a new meaning. It is no longer a platform just to greet your friends. Organizations, professionals, individuals, political parties and politicians have taken on to social media as a platform to communicate with people.

I didn’t even in my wildest of dreams think that politicians would take on to social media. But they did. Today, a 140-character tweet has a power to reach-out to millions of people in a matter of a few seconds. So why not use this powerful platform. And to sum it up with Mr. Bill Clinton's tweet, "Where else can you hear from @BillGates @PaulPierce34 @SenJohnMcCain @TheEllenShow @Usher in one day?"

Look at Iranian President Hassan Rouhani who has effectively used Twitter to communicate with people across the globe. The people of Iran may not be allowed to access social media sites but that has not stopped the nation's president from tweeting almost every hour. The world has been suspicious of Iran's nuclear ambitions. For over decades, the United Nation has imposed sanctions on Iran because of its nuclear enrichment ambitions. But President Rouhani seems to have managed to convert these sanctions to diplomatic talks.
Social media has played an important role in making this happen for President Rouhani. Twitter made Rouhani look like a moderate politician who was serious about talking with the rest of the world. Unlike his predecessor President Ahmadnejad who was a non-negotiator, President Rouhani comes out like this warm and friendly negotiator. And Rouhani certainly needs to thank social media for playing an important role in building his brand.

Social media has the power to make politicians win electronic campaigns. Social media has a key role in President Obama's 2012 presidential win. President Obama spend $47million in the digital campaign spending in the 2012 presidential run vis-a-vis Mitt Romney who spend only $4.7 million in digital campaign spending (Rutledge, P. 2013).

Social media gives opportunities to people to get involved and participate in a discussion. It is not a one-way-communication. Everyone has already started to talk about the 2016 presidential election which is less than two-years ahead. And the most talked about presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton has recently joined Twitter. In her bio Clinton has signaled that she is a “glass ceiling cracker.” 

Reference list
Rutledge, P. 2013. The Media Psychology Blog. How Obama Won the Social Media Battle in the 2012 Presidential Campaign. 

When PR agencies get entangled in political scandals

The nation is criticizing Governor Chris Christie’s administration for being involved in a traffic scandal to punish a Democratic mayor who had refused to endorse Governor Christie's reelection bid. The social media world calls this scandal a #Bridgegate.

Governor Christie clarified his position in the scandal and came out clean saying he didn't know anything about it. He went on to say that he fired the executive involved in the scandalous bridge closure. For now the New Jersey Assembly has set up a committee to investigate Gov. Chris Christie’s administration in the bridgegate scandal.

But in the midst of the bridegate scandal, Gov. Chris Christie is facing another federal investigation from the Department of Housing and Urban Development over allegations that he misused Hurricane Sandy relief funds. The investigators claim that the governor used the Sandy relief fund for an advertisement on the "Stronger Than the Storm" campaign during his reelection run.

The public relations agency MWW has been dragged into the probe initiated by the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development. MWW made the "Stronger than the Storm" campaign for the now embattled Jersey Governor Chris Christie. The total cost of the campaign was a whopping $25 million.
MWW has however welcomed the probe. The PR agency executives say that their ad campaign proposal has no mention to include the governor and his family in the paid advertisement campaign. And that the decision to include the governor was made after the PR agency was awarded the contract.

Well there’s no problem with the campaign if it was only meant to increase tourism and for economic recovery of the Jersey shore. But the inclusion of Governor Chris Christie and his family in the campaign made it look more like a reelection campaign than a tourism campaign and there’s where the problem lies.

MWW is also dragged in a controversy of winning the ad campaign because of its political muscle in the state. The Park Press revealed that MWW has a history of making donations to both Republicans and Democrats. The paper also revealed that MWW hired a former state Republican official just before making the bid for the Sandy campaign. Governor Chris Christie's spokesperson said that these revelations were not true and that MWW won the contract purely based on merits.

Well while investigations of these never-ending probes made on Governor Chris Christie’s administration goes on, it appears that there are many more skeletons that are waiting to fall from the Jersey shores. But one thing is for sure whether you are a politician, a PR agency, or an NGO, it is very important to play a fair game. Because dishonesty in business might not land you in a mess when you are committing it, but some day down the line when it unexpectedly shows-up it can ruin not only an individual’s image but also the brand of the organization will sink with it.  

So while the federal investigations are on, why not just enjoy the parodies and jokes made over the whole scandal. Governor Chris Christie is the topic of discussions at every talk show. You name it – Conan O’Brien, Jimmy Fallon, Jon Stewart or Jay Leno – Chris Christie seems to have beaten even Toronto Mayor Rob Ford’s record today. Even Bruce Springsteen poked fun on Gov. Christie by singing a parody song on Jimmy Fallon’s show.

Well if you ask me, whenever I’m stuck in a traffic jam these days, I start thinking and discussing Governor Chris Christie.