Reminisce about the conference on Flickr

We have posted several photos from the conference to our Flickr group, www.flickr.com/photos/prondemand.

If you have photos you'd like to share, please e-mail me with the attachments, or for an invitation to the Flickr group so you can post them yourself.

Note: not all photos are posted. We will be receiving photos from the Thursday night reception soon.

Cision: Less is more when it comes to media targeting

Submitted by Ruth McFarland, Senior Vice President and Publisher, Cision, a sponsor of the 2008 PRSA Sunshine District Conference.

A few high-visibility journalists and bloggers have made headlines in the past year by publishing “blacklists” of PR people who once-too-often approached them in the wrong way. Authors of blogs, because theirs is such a personal, conversational medium, are especially sensitive to being “spammed” with news releases and one-size-fits-all pitches sent to mass-email lists.

At Cision we are on the front lines of this controversy, because we maintain the media research database that many PR professionals use to develop their editor contact lists when they are planning campaigns. For that reason we decided early on to take the lead in advising our customers on best practices in reaching out to both the mainstream media and online worlds. In fact, before every entry in our database describing a blog, we state the following cautionary note:

“The fundamentals of working with bloggers are the same as with traditional journalists at traditional media outlets: respect their schedules; take time to read their material to learn their interests; and only contact them if/when they want to be contacted.”

We also send our clients a white paper we authored on media targeting: “What NEVER to do When Targeting the Media.” The white paper gives commonsense advice on the right ways to build long-term relationships with editors, versus the too-frequent practice of using a shotgun blast instead of a rifle shot.

Behind these efforts at education is a single, simple thought: less is more. The better your media research—the more information you have about the editors you are trying to contact, including who their readers are, how they align with your target customers, and how those editors do and don’t want to be contacted by PR people—the more efficient you will be with your time and the more success you will have with your pitch. Why send out 100 news releases, when sending personal notes and making follow-up calls to the 10 editors and bloggers who really want to hear from you will get better results in less time?

With more PR people competing as hard as ever for mainstream media attention while they tackle an entirely new set of targets in social media and the blogosphere, the age-old issue of how to effectively communicate your stories in helpful ways without wasting editors’ time has come to the fore once again. With the right kind of research and care in targeting, you can be part of the solution, not part of the problem.

Looking back

The 2008 Sunshine District Conference is history. With 24 sponsors, more than 25 speakers and 115 attendees, this was quite a wonderful year. I know we all took away some valuable information from the sessions, and I hope all of you were able to enjoy interacting with some new colleagues.

The conference committee is going to take the rest of the weekend to rest, but we will post some photos from the conference soon. If you took photos at the conference, we would love for you to share them (be a citizen journalist, like Peter Shankman said...)

Details to come...

Thanks again to those of you who attended and have a wonderful weekend!

Tic, Toc: Time is Up! Conference time is here...

'Twas the night before Conference, when all through the house...not a creature was stirring, not even the Conference coordinators...OK...that last part isn't exactly true.

We are putting the finishing touches on all things Conference!!!! Hope you are geared up as much as we are. And with 110 registrants, more than 35 speakers, and 16+ sessions and keynotes, it is easy to see why.

Worried about the weather? Don't be. It is always sunny in Florida (somewhere)...look on the bright side: mother nature needs a little thirst quenching. And of course, in case the rain does come down---we'll take the opening reception from pool-side to inside. Don't fret---the Calypso band and Cuban cigar roller will follow us in (as well as the food and drinks!).

p.s. Not just local PR pros...we have guests attending from Georgia, New York, Michigan and California.

Miami Herald's parent slashes jobs

Many of you may have read reports that McClatchy, the third largest newspaper company and parent to The Miami Herald, El Nuevo Herald and Bradenton Herald, is cutting its budgets after major losses due to poor ad sales and the slowing economy (take a look at the article in today's Herald online).

The net effect for The Miami Herald? A staffing cut of 17 percent, or 250 people. The company said that the cuts at The Miami Herald were among the largest within the company since it was underperforming more than its peers. A McClatchy executive cited the paper could also benefit from "opportunities for greater efficiencies."

What does this mean for us as PR practitioners? I know I am not the only one who has noticed that reporters are stretched much thinner than they were even one or two years ago.

Rick Hirsch, the Herald's managing editor for multimedia and new projects, will be on hand to speak at this year's conference in a panel on convergence.

Speaking of the conference, we hit 104 registrants today. With the opening night reception just a little less than 48 hours away, the conference committee is putting in its final work to pull off the great event we've been planning for nearly a year. We look forward to seeing you!

Sneak preview at conference program

It's hard to imagine the conference is this week. After months of planning, we're just about to hit the beach with 15 fantastic professional development sessions.

Take a peek at the conference program online to learn about our speakers and sponsors.

A final note - registration closes on Tuesday. If you still have not registered for the conference, what are you waiting for?!?!

See you in a few days.

PRSA response to CBS: What would McLuhan say?

When I saw today's e-mail from PRSA responding to CBS News' recent criticism of the PR industry, I was intrigued to see PRSA used a video message from PRSA Chair Jeffrey Julin, APR. Upon second glance, I noticed PRSA posted the video on both its media center and on YouTube. I clicked the YouTube link and noticed an interesting comment about the video.

Roger Bridgeman writes, "While I applaud the purpose and sentiment of what's being said here, my goodness, this is YouTube not a PRSA annual meeting. Too many words written and scrubed by committee, too much 'talking head,' and not enough real emotion explaining what we do, our value to our clients and society, and why we feel we've been 'wronged.'"

I must say I agree with Mr. Bridgeman. While I think it was appropriate for Julin and PRSA to respond, I think we have to be careful about how we respond in situations like this. When you are being accused of spin, it's not appropriate to respond with more spin. Julin's response came off too polished to be "real," and I can't help but think that this only perpetuates our image as slick liars.

Communications theorist Marshall McLuhan said it best when he said "The medium is the message." While I applaud PRSA for countering Andrew Cohen's unfortunate stance and using new media like YouTube, a softer, more conversational message might have resonated more.

What do you think?

Check Julin's response out for yourself:

It's not easy being a PR person...

Most of you who are PRSA members probably saw the society's e-mail encouraging you to post comments on a recent commentary on the PR industry.

In the commentary, CBS News Legal Analyst Andrew Cohen responds to Scott McLellan's tell-all book on the Bush administration citing PRSA's Code of Ethics and saying, "Show me a PR person who is 'accurate' and 'truthful,' and I'll show you a PR person who is unemployed. The reason companies or governments hire oodles of PR people is because PR people are trained to be slickly untruthful or half-truthful." Like any good Web story, the article is followed by page after page of comments from PR pros and critics of the profession (see the letter PRSA submitted yesterday).

I personally find it a little tough to take guff about being a liar from someone who is a legal analyst, and I am sure I am not alone in that feeling.

Whether we're seen as professional lunch-takers, liars or bona fide strategists, it shows the industry still has a long way to go to get the credit it deserves.