Artisan has registered a couple of notable landmarks recently: 4th birthday on March 1st and 500 posts on this very blog on February 19th.

And this month is the 4th anniversary of this blog delivering views, news and interviews.  I said on the 500 posts entry about what I had learnt and how I think I have improved as a writer and communicator (barring my desperate need of a sub-editor at times – no more job inquiries I was joking ( well half-joking!) (I do not need a sub-editor for my client work!)).

Well a few of the really early attempts to create material of interest that reflected my outlook and were possibly of interest to readers are not bad on reflection.

I thought this piece (from way back in April 2006) was worth a look: 10 PR Crimes.  This was based on a piece I got in Entrepreneur NW on 10 Networking Crimes for Mark Greenwood of Simply Networking.

Mark actually called me a month ago or so about another article I had written for him that he said read really well and was still fresh even though it has been written a few years ago.  Such praise is welcome.

Anyway here it is:

Rob Baker of Artisan follows on Mark Greenwood’s Networking Criminals article (that appears in the current issue of Entrepreneur North West) with 10 PR crimes that should be outlawed.

Writing poor English.

Anything that hampers the reader: long sentences; long paragraphs; over use of capital letters; jargon etc.

Disguising a press release as an advert – PR is about news, it is not free advertising. If it reads like an advert then you will not get in the paper, but you might get a call from the sales department inviting you to advertise.

Sending stories to papers that are of importance to you but are of no interest to anyone else.

Not recognising a great story when you have one to tell.

Not recognising all the titles and media channels that would be interested in your story or a contribution from you. It is alright getting in the Obscure Suburban Times
or the Unheard Of Village Enquirer but it is a rather limited outlook that will not yield the best results.

Telling the reader how delighted the managing director is that the company has won a one million pound account –would never have guessed that he or she would be pleased, but you can never tell. Quotes should be interesting and give a further insight into the story.

Dull photos. Use images to really enhance your story –it makes all the difference.

Not engaging with journalists. You should build up your relationship with journalists. Anonymous blankets e-mail shots with your story can have their place if you do not have much time. However, working with journalists, learning about their publications, their foibles and needs will really help you.

Writing poor English –it has to be said again.

This is one of the PR Tips article links on the front page of my blog, so it couldn’t have been so poor.  Check out Getting more out of your agency, Tips to improving your PR and Choosing your PR agency.

I really am.

Sainsbury’s doesn’t really get it!  Yes it is a big concern and as such more people will be following than being followed although the ratio is not impressive as such right now.

But it doesn’t get it.

Social networking is about engaging, it is about conversing, it is about helping each other.

It is similar to a face-to-face situation.  The outlook is essentially the same.

Social media, for me, is not about pushing through your ideas only one way on someone else.  Anyone that sells at a networking event becomes a pariah quicker than John Terry does when his shenanigans are exposed.

Alright, it is different for a blue chip.  Yet an attempt at conversing and looking beyond its own interests would show a real interest in its clients.

Mr Sainsbury I am available for consultancy.

George Dearsley, of Avante, has a 20 year track record providing media training for businesses such as Shell, Kodak, KPMG, Bupa and HBoS.

So he has been fascinated, when once again, brilliant marketers and business people continue to cause incalculable damage to their organisations when a crisis hits.  George compares how BAE Systems got it right and Toyota are still getting it wrong, and it need not be that way:

BAE Systems called me about a year ago and asked me to present to its main board on how the company was perceived by the media.

I was both flattered and intrigued. Why me?  I am not a defence specialist, but looking back maybe that’s exactly why I was invited.

I talked to a dozen national media friends beforehand: the first words spoken were “bribes, corruption, brown envelopes.”   There was little or nothing about full order books, cutting edge technology or good employee relations.

In a recent BBC commissioned poll of viewers voting on “What Makes Lancashire Great?” BAE Systems had come 140^th.

Slide two told them that in the same poll black pudding was 1st and the late Fred Dibnah was….26^th.  After the wry smiles we moved inevitably to bribery.  It clearly hurt.

But I told them (as I’m sure a PR person would) that the issue would not go away until there was a significant resolution to the whole affair.

I was reminded of that meeting when I saw a wonderful television performance last week by BAE Chairman Dick Olver.  The company, he announced, had agreed to pay fines of £286m in a deal with US and UK authorities to settle criminal investigations into its actions in Saudi Arabia and Tanzania.  He said in the interview the move would allow the company to “put a really hard line separating the past from the future.”

His key messages were all in place and delivered with great gravity and credibility.  It was a majestic performance.

Compare Mr. Olver’s effort with the shambolic PR exercised by Toyota in handling what began as a minor software glitch involving the braking system in one model.

The opening shot was a Japanese executive who faced television cameras wearing a surgical mask, quite commonly worn during Japan’s cold season.  This soon became a metaphor for a company that wasn’t being totally open with its customers.  The brand loyalty, which took years and millions of yen to build, was beginning to melt away.

The safety defects were initially portrayed as an American problem.  But this was not true and the dithering led to new questions about Toyota’s famous quality control.

In Europe and the US there were crucial delays between Toyota’s confirming a planned recall millions of cars and communicating this to the public.

Journalists, keen to keep the tale hot, were delighted when customers called in with complaints about other Toyota models. The dreaded “bandwagon effect” was about to take effect.

Throughout, Akio Toyoda, the company’s president, was invisible.  After weeks of silence he finally faced the media and was thoroughly unconvincing.

He forgot the golden rules:

• Act quickly and decisively
• Apologise
• Thank customers for their patience
• Explain what’s being done to put the problems right
• Carry out the remediation as soon as possible, whatever the cost

Toyota is now one of the stories of the day – day after day.  The cars have become the butt of pub jokes and programmes such as Mock The Week are getting great mileage out of the situation.  Toyota is now the Skoda of 2010.

The initial $2 billion recall and the loss of 17% of share value is likely to prove small change when the final bill is totted up.

In Japan there is a proverb: “If it stinks, put a lid on it.”

Sadly, it is the very opposite of good crisis news management strategy.

PR agencies sometimes don’t deliver – that is not big news, is it?

There are professionals and organisations that do not measure up in all sectors, perhaps over-selling to ensure the contract is theirs and then disappointing then when tested.

There are real issues concerning the reputation of PR agencies and when I saw this thread on LinkedIn I felt I had to answer.

Here are three comments I think show real misunderstanding – such views need to be challenged.

“The average agency client relationship lasts just 18 months because 99% of agency pitches are dishonest….sounds like PR firms need a lesson in PR!”

Kathy Towner, owner Win Communications

Well if I am honest that means statistically every other PR agency in Manchester and the North West is not – that doesn’t seem quite right.

But let me argue the real point and not the vitriolic bit, which might come from a bad experience and requires a venting of anger.

“Client relationships last 18 months.”

I am not sure where this is sourced and whether it is correct but let’s say it is.

Client relationships can end because a client suffers from a critical cash flow because of tax issues, loss of one of their key clients or the economic conditions.

Client relationships can also end because of the following reasons (I have listed 10 possibles):

• New marketing director wants his or her own agency brought in.
• The client feels a new agency will be extra keen, this is a perception that does not always ring true.
• The PR resource is brought in-house.
• Some clients only want a project with specified aims and time period.
• Sometimes after a couple of years the original aims of the client have been achieved or the account has been exhausted; some clients have a restricted range of subjects and news.
• The client is very busy and feels they do not need a PR agency anymore.
• The client has become very busy and does not have the time to devote to handling the agency and so has decided to put things on hold
• The client has grown or has changed and believes a new agency with specific experience or skills is needed.
• The client has unrealistic expectations and are disappointed when they are not filled.
• The agency has had enough of the lack of co-operation of the client; sometimes clients might not pay on time or at all.  (I worked for an agency where the client refused to pay and said the work was all done for free to curry favour despite contracts and e-mail clearly stating the work had been commissioned.  Apparently they had done this to a number of suppliers).

I have one client that I have worked with for two years and they put things on hold  in April for reasons that were no-one’s fault.  I met them today and they want me to take up the communication reigns again; I am starting work with them tomorrow.

“I’ve always found retainers to be self defeating in that they repeatedly prompt the same question: “what am I getting for this?” My response always has been to offer retainer, hourly rate and “per project” arrangements and let clients decide which they prefer.”

Bill Brody Professor Emeritus at the University of Memphis

Retainers make sense for an agency and client:

• Retainers allow an agency to invest time in researching opportunities.  It allows an agency to act on an opportunity; if you had to wait for an affirmative every time something came up it would be an impractical relationship.
• Retainers enable agencies to plan financially – retainers enable clients to plan financially.
• Retainers give agencies a robust model to work around.
• Retainers show the agency that the clients are committed to the relationship – this is reciprocated by any agency worth hiring.

If you want to offer a range of arrangements then do so.  But if you try and bend to all demands and requirements it is going to be more complicated than it need to be.

“We had two disappointing experiences with PR firms. How can you justify the expense of hours worked if at the end of it you can’t correlate any tangible improvement in business, customers, profits, image, or anything?”

Todd Lempicke

OptimalResume.com

It is not always easy to measure PR.  I tell that to all prospects.  I try to give a realistic opinion about possible results and let clients make a call based on sensible estimations.

• Clients – Let me say that some clients do not ask where new business has come from, so how can you measure it?  What if a client’s website loses a prospect or the way they are handled on the phone? mmmmmmm
• Profits – Doesn’t this mainly depend on variables that aren’t anything to do with PR such as costs of suppliers, wages, the economy, competition etc?
• Image – not easy to measure.
• Anything – PR works on many levels and it has a positive affect on many elements of a company.  If you agency does not deliver at all, either you have a really awful agency and you really need to be more careful in your hiring process or perhaps handle your agency better.

I was speaking to a client I worked for for over two years and whose contract finished in the summer.  He told me last Friday that his agency had got many inquiries, as much as a quarter, from a source he wasn’t sure of.  He supposed, as all his inquiries came from referrals, that this must be PR.  As his agency was small then, he told me PR was an important ingredient in its growth.  But there was no system in place to measure the effect.

I don’t mean this to be a them against us piece: it is not.  All I am saying is that it can be more complicated that is stated by the above statements.

When PR agencies peform and work well with clients the results can make companies.

This is quite a clever piece of marketing: a campaign to banish cliches from B2B marketing.

IAS, a marketing agency, has set-up a site called 101 cliches that invites readers to submit the worst offenders and vote on those already up.  Connected up through social media channels this could be quite a hit as it asks for participation and is fun.

It is heartfelt for me as I cannot stand stock photography – are so many work forces repulsive enough to buy dull bland images rather than expose them to the public? – I really think it is insulting and poor marketing as you want to see who you are going to be working with: we can all spot stock photography.  I have commented on this before on this site.

(The image is number two of worst offenders at present).

Anyway have fun and thanks to Dr Dave Chaffey – who won’t remember me contacting him in 2000 when he was a marketing lecturer and I worked at Congress, a sales and marketing agency for US Internet businesses looking to get into European markets; I can’t think what my question was about exactly or even inexactly, but Dave was helpful.  Thanks for the tweet.

I am sure I have bleated on about this before.

All the while companies invest in digital, video, marketing strategies and PR, but they miss the basics and suffer for it – and they don’t even know it.  What’s the point of using cutting edge techniques if something as simple as a phone call is not answered?

In the past couple of days I have had experiences where the phone is always engaged (an online retail site), voicemail with no mobile number given (a heritage trust) and simply cannot even get through (professional services).

I have been patient, but most people are not.  Well the professional services company might have lost business.

Possible clients are not patient and will generally not tell you that they have been trying to get through.  If they do thank them for their patience and apologise.

I haven’t got onto first impressions when you do get through yet…

Tom Cheesewright of AND Partners left the following comment after I posted a piece about an enterprising graduate:

“When it comes to graduates looking for a job, any effort is welcome.

I get shed loads of letters and emails from grads that start ‘Dear Sir/Madam’.

How difficult is it to look up my name?

From there on in it is clear that the applicant has no clue about my business and has sent the same letter to a thousand other people. If I do bother reading on, I generally (more than 80% of the time) find the letters to be riddled with typos, spelling errors and general nonsense.

Worst of all though, on a few occasions I have taken the time to respond – politely – and point out what they are doing wrong and how to improve their chances. Out of three times I have done this, how many times do you think they have responded? None. Which just proves to me that they were never going to be worth employing. Rant over.”

Now two things before I get started: there will be a terrible typo here that undermines my authority for writing this entry and secondly I have had similar experiences although surprisingly I am not the number one destination of graduate career aspirations.

So here are a few simple tips, which somehow are not followed as often as they should, that is they should be all the time:

Do some research – I have a blog and a Twitter account and lots of references about Artisan on the major search engines.   It is not hard to find out some interesting things about the company you want to work for. Use that research to show you are keen and have some resourcefulness.

Find out the name of the member of staff you are applying to – personalise your application.  A quick call will give you the name you want if it is not online or not clear who the best contact is.

No spelling errors - I reckon a CV takes at least four hours to write and much longer to proof, edit and amend.  Make sure there are no mistakes.  The latest application had this mistake “Daily mail” on the CV.  We all do it but that’s no excuse – get someone to proof it.

Social media – Use Twitter.  Read blogs.  Make some contacts on LinkedIN.

Follow up -  Even if it is a “no,” it might be a “yes” next time.  Initiate contact, generate a rapport if possible, ask advice.  You never know what might happen, maybe a nod towards someone that can help.

Be prepared to accept that job searching can be a thankless task that takes time unless you are lucky or stupendously good – Rushing off / spamming every agency you can find with cut and paste covering letters is easy to see through and generally does not work.

Some people will be rude.  They are probably not working for if it is indicative of their general attitude.  But many employers will not.  They might have been in the same situation.  But if you want them to help at least show you are displaying the respect you want them to show you.

It doesn’t matter how much you spend on advertising or a PR agency or branding or how many tweets you post, if the reality and expectation doesn’t match up.

Marketing is only really as strong as the product or service in the end.

I wanted to give an example of how two different experiences have reinforced the marketing effort or made it inconsequential.  I suppose I wanted to give credit where it’s due and vent my spleen at the same time to be truthful.

Let’s start with the baddie: (apparently 5 star rated) Qatar Airways, not the world’s favourite airline nor indeed mine (to borrow the world’s cheekiest run airline’s strap line (MD Willie Walsh wants staff to work for nothing for a month)).

Qatar Airways, what can I say?

The flight times are changed three times, I’d better check and confirm with Qatar once I arrive advises my travel agent.

Bags go missing on arrival at Delhi, over 2 hours trying to find out where at three in the morning.

Qatar office asks why they are in Bangkok!  I have to explain?  (Oh I wish I was there now).  Do I get any money for toiletries or for the inconvenience, you bet not.  It arrives – 36 hours late.  I check my latest flight times with staff, a puzzled look, and told that they are of course right.

Going back, arrive at Delhi Airport with 800 Rupees (about £10).  Even though the train was 4 hours late my flight doesn’t leave for several hours.  I can relax and have a coffee.

I decide to check in early: the flight’s gone.  Qatar changed the flight back (without telling me).  Luckily sympathetic airport duty officer gets me back to Manchester with Lufthansa.  I am not the first to have this problem with Qatar he informs me.  If I didn’t have the print out of my flight times then I would have been stuck – my card doesn’t work over here.

I write to Qatar for some satisfaction (it must be two months ago or more): nothing.

I take a swipe at Qatar on Twitter: progress, they follow me.  I decide to take another swipe to see if I can start a dialogue: “sorry” would be a start or why are you not happy with our airline?  Nothing!  What is the point of using Twitter for your marketing if you do not actually act on it?

The AA: this is shorter, so stay with me.

I have been with the AA for I don’t know: years.  I have used them 4 or 5 times in the last couple of years and they have been nothing but polite, friendly, highly skilled and professional.  If I hadn’t broken down I would say it is a real pleasure to deal with them.

What’s the key difference: I will tell anyone who is flying to Dubai or onwards not to use Qatar; I would tell anyone looking for a breakdown service to use The AA.

Clients are your most powerful marketing communications, whether it is good or bad, not your marketing spend.

What does planned communications matter at this point, once you have experienced the service yourself?

Simon Wharton of PushON has declared war on BD Recruitment.

A litany of sins committed against Simon when he clearly directed the agency on his wishes has provoked his wrath.  There are only so many unsolicited and irrelevant CVs any man can take.

Within a short time his irate blog post was only a few positions below BD’s site on Google.

The lessons are straightforward: managing reputation online is a constant 24/7 occupation.  It is one where just one voice can have a detrimental impact.

I placed a piece for Simon in What’s New In Marketing, an online magazine that was run by the Chartered Institute of Marketing, on organic search marketing some time ago.

One of the respondents was an electronics company that had read the piece and was clearly interested in Simon’s ideas.

When Simon brought up the URL there was a whole page of disastrous economic news following it.  The company had had a bad year but had recovered – their online reputation had clearly not and they were totally unaware of it.

I believe many businesses neglect their online reputation, not realising the round the clock damage their brand is suffering.

What is perhaps most surprising about this first story is that I came across it through Twitter today, a full year after the blog post about BD Recruitment.  And do you know BD Recruitment has not stopped bothering Simon and his angry post is still a few places below their website on Google.

Manchester PR agencies are using sweatshops to churn out press releases for clients according to some new reports.

The incidences if true mirror Primark’s, perhaps unknowing, use of illegal workers in sweatshops in North Manchester last year.

It appears that a small number of unscrupulous agencies are taking advantage of illegal workers, many from the sub-continet, to produce press releases and articles at much lower rates than English professionals.

The illegal “PRs” are thought to be mainly operating from cramped premises in Cheetham Hill, North Manchester.

The Chartered Institute of Public Relations and Ethical Trading Iniative will be investigating the allegations.

If true it is a worrying sign of things to come.