How to Make an Impact with Your Message

The public relations practitioner, as well as your typical journalist, must be well versed is how to be politically correct (whenever possible), and how to convey his/her message in a meaningful way, one that has impact. For instance, as a social media administrator, I could use the tactic of taking a "hot topic" and interjecting a little humor, while tagging it on Twitter.

An example? The Republican National Convention just ended, and it was a memorable one.
As I went to get my coffee this morning, I gazed across the street to the post office, and saw the flag was (still) at half mast - has been this whole week (sad state of affairs, both inside America and abroad - so much turmoil...sigh). The political satirist in me was saying...
"Huh, I wonder if the flag's at half mast because of Ted Cruz's speech the other day?"

Let's say I wanted to bring attention to something I thought was relevant, but not necessarily hard/breaking news. I was looking at the gasoline prices at the pump today, and saw it was down (again, decreasing all week) to $1.83 per gallon. Wow! I can't remember the last time it was a summer month and the gas was that low! Curiosity got the best of me, and I did some exploring...and this is my public relation "spin" on how low gas prices have gotten:
On July 7, 2008, WTI crude oil was $147 per barrel, average gasoline price at the pump: $4.11 per gallon
In July 2016, WTI crude oil is $44 per barrel right now, and I am staring at a gas station that reads $1.83 per gallon.
The price of gasoline is so much cheaper that it is less than half what it was eight years ago - perhaps as much as two-thirds less if you factor in inflation...the consumer price index figures indicate that the average cost of living has gone up (roughly) 10.2 percent from June 2008 to June 2016; using that gauge, gasoline should be about $4.53 on July 7, 2016
People, the price of gasoline is crazy low right now!
One little nugget of positivity during these trying times for the average American consumer.
Donald Trump gave a very long acceptance speech last night (Thursday July 21), informing Americans about everything he was going to change, if elected to office. One thing I am pretty sure wasn't on that list was knocking the oil companies for "socking it to us", because right now we are very blessed with what arguably is the cheapest (average) gasoline in a very long time, if not ever.

See how I put that message into a perspective that had more impact?
Numbers speak, so just saying the it is the cheapest gasoline ever will no resonate - a person will pay more attention when you put a "spin" on it, putting it into a perspective that "accents" or emphasizes the depth/significance of the change.
As I always tell my students, advice for up and coming professional communicator - if you are looking to become a journalist or PR practitioner, get away from the habit of using two words that the youngest generation tends to overuse:
Refrain from using "ever" and "never", or for that matter most all superlatives, unless you have solid evidence that they absolutely apply.

Melania Trump learns a PR Lesson

Mondsy July 18th Melania Trump spoke at the Republican National Convention, the first of several (six) Trumps scheduled to speak in the coming week. English is not her first language, and her speech caused a media controversy.

From a PR perspective, there is a lesson to be learned here. Be careful what you say publicly, choose your words wisely... but most importantly, several eyes are better than just yourself. Also, it might be wise to leave the political speech writing to the professionals.
Most everyone was initially applauding her speech, praising her for doing such a good job. The delivery was unquestionably well performed. The content and in particular the word choice(s), on the other hand, left something to be desired. The media were quick to compare the speech to Michelle Obama's back in 2008, and its similarity was tantamount to plagiarism to some degree. The media did a side-by-side (Melania 2016 vs. Michelle 2008) to support such accusations, and the findings were damning. To me, this was a PR nightmare of sorts, as the media shifted from confirming Trump's nomination to quickly taking any momentum that might develop over the week and halting it. Trump nay-sayers were given a window of opportunity to "speak their peace", opposition to his selection from those within the Republican party. The hope was that the party would unite and back Trump, but this event fueled the divisive criticism against the Trumps.

My initial impression was that someone had really "dropped the ball", a PR blunder that needed to be fixed posthaste with the firing of the speechwriter. Unfortunately for the Trumps, this couldn't happen -
The mistake of Melania's part? Writing her own speech. A "rookie mistake" of sorts - she tried to deflect the blame by saying someone had assisted her in part. That person's assistance, evidently, was not sufficient to redact commentary of substantial similarity to Michelle Obama's 2008 speech.
What could have saved her this embarrassment? Using a professional speechwriter, or having several people edit/review her speech prior to delivering it. Someone would have caught the similarity, avoid the plagiarism accusations.

This incident supports the assertion I tell my students all the time - that everyone is a prospective PR client - that with today's technologies and the social media... whether a politician, celebrity, non-profit organization or business - thing's are complicated enough that it is unwise to simply "do it yourself" where PR is concerned. Another thing the youngest generation might learn - that to some degree, the political conventions prior to the Presidential election are, primarily, huge pseudo-events designed to attain free publicity and gain momentum for the campaign of a candidate that has (almost always) already been determined. Managing public opinion and image awareness is not as easy as one might think - you need to have strategies and plans to ensure PR "success".

VP Pence Revealed: Consider of Various PR perspectives

There are many public relations program at universities under the guise of different titles - beside the obvious inclusion of Advertising, here are a few of them:
#1 Strategic Communication
#2 Integrated Marketing Communication ir Integrated Communication
As prefaced earlier, I am not going to include advertising, which not only has a different objective.outcome, but also tends to have an easier to define budget. And oh yeah, the success of an advertising campaign is much easier to assess - non-compliance is usually measured through (lack of) increased sales/revenue or a tangible action - a visit or contact inquiry expressing interest.
I will also excluded marketing - which is generally speaking a concerted effort, a campaign of directed communication intended to "brand" someone toward a product/service, or improve the likelihood of continued business. An exchange of funds isn't necessary for successful marketing, but great communication skills, including public speaking or presentation, are essential. My father was a marketing specialist during the space race - he worked for Ryan Aeronautical in San Diego, a company that made parts used in the Lunar Excursion Model (LEM) and the Apollo Lunar Roving Vehicle. He job was to manage relationships with government officials in Washington DC and working for NASA, keeping them informed on progress being made - outlined how the public money was being spent, reassuring them that they were in compliance with deadlines and following safety standards.
As you might imagine, that made my father a very popular show-and-tell guest back in the day.

Strategic Communication focuses on plans, strategically laying out an outline for success. The PR process, as defined by the RACE or ROPE acronym, is the easy way to remember the four major steps: either Research - Action - Communication - Evaluation or Research - Objective - Programming - Evaluation. Integrated Marketing Communications programs teach a business perspective that involves what my father did, marketing and branding, good communication techniques, delivering the effective presentation to close the deal.

Now back to the PR practitioners working for political candidates -
Donald Trump has one - the obvious consideration was introducing their VP choice BEFORE the Republican Convention, developing momentum heading toward their confirmation and into the election.
Hillary Clinton has one as well - What was their strategy? Well, let's see, attack Trump and make him look incompetent...I know he makes it so easy for them, but they still have to earn their money. The strategy was probably to do whatever they could to undermine his choice, and to take the media attention away from Trump. Possibly by announcing Hillary's choice the day after?
This is what I meant when I said that you need to think critically and objectively, considering all perspectives. Planning and Strategy are everything.

The Tragedy Of Nice and Donald Trump's VP candidate

Starting just another blog that might serve to provide some examples of the Public Relations job opportunities that are out there for students, as well as pointing to some good (and bad) public relations practices.

This first blogpost is inspired by one PR move by Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump.
The context: Today is Friday, July 15th, 2016. The Republican convention is a week away. Both Republican and Democratic candidates, the frontrunners already identified as positioned to gain the nomination of their respective party, have been reluctant to public announce their VP candidate. And yes, both have known for some time that they are "in" - ample to time to select someone. There has just been a tragic terrorist act in Nice, France; at least 84 are dead, with two Americans from Austin, TX - a father and his 11-year-old son. This is coming one week after another Texas crisis management scenario - Five white Dallas police officers gunned down by an African-American male armed with an assault rifle, at a racial protest inspired in part by the killing of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile, two African-Americans shot by white police officers in Baton Rouge and Minneapolis respectively.
I have already covered details of the racial protests in different blogposts that cover the Supreme Court and controversial legal issues.

The PR problem: there is a PR challenge here - we have to consider what has happened on Bastille Day the day before, along with the many victims - two of whom identified as Americans. Donald Trump had announced he was going to reveal his VP running-mate choice on Thursday in a press conference. What should he do?

How it was handled: Trump announced Thursday he would delay the press conference announcement of his choice one day. Then on Friday, he announces he would delay the press conference to Saturday. He proceeded to reveal Mike Pence as his running mate in a Twitter post Friday morning, and the media announce his selection/intention publicly.

Analysis of the Situation: Was this the right PR way to handle this situation? My assertion is NO, that he/his PR people proverbially "dropped the ball", failing to take full advantage of the "media hoopla" - free publicity and dedicated media coverage - of his announcement. Since already public, he let the proverbial "cat out of the bag" - it is no longer a "hot news" story that would demand more media attention. Not only that - he has allowed the Democrats a day to critically attack his choice online for a day, before he officially announces it tomorrow. Why did the candidate take so long in the first place? You need to look back to Sarah Palin and the lack of "vetting" for that candidate in 2008 - a critical mistake on the part of John McCain - another PR blunder of arguably catastrophic proportion.
So what was the big deal of using Twitter? Twitter definitely has its place for the revelation of news information. But there are certain activities that PR practitioners host, called pseudo-events. It is design to attract attention - to get free publicity for a newsworthy event. Classic examples of PR pseudo-events include the ribbon-cutting ceremony for a new hospital, or even the hosting of a grand opening day (with signs) for a new restaurant. Since these activities provide news that might be valuable to readers/viewers alike, the media tend to cover them, devoting media time considered "free publicity". The more coverage, the better it is for the PR client.
This is not going to happen the way it could have, with Trump's press conference on Saturday.

As an aside to this when I teach students growing up as technologically dependent generation - I always stress to them that is inappropriate to end a relationship with a text message. Such a message has emotional overtones, and it should be done in an as-personal way (preferably in-person) as possible. The medium or channel often defines the message - choose your format wisely. As an afterthought if you haven't seen the movie Game Change, you should. PR educational value, at the very least.