We all like to be liked, and in business we like to be generally viewed as being well-connected, and what better way of doing that than having vast numbers of connections on LinkedIn?

Yet, LinkedIn is surely about relationships, not just numbers.

The real strength of LinkedIn is that you can ask your connections’ connections for introductions – an immensely powerful tool for generating new business or sourcing suppliers or associates.

Yes you can use LinkedIn to broadcast news, but there is also Twitter and e-mails and newsletters and direct marketing and press releases and websites and blogs – better options than collecting names on LinkedIn to target.

The discussions, if you have time, can be useful – I have given referrals and gained pitching opportunities through such groups.  I am not saying LinkedIn is not multi-purpose, but to link up without any connection misses the point.

So if someone is allowed to enter into your LinkedIn realm, would you be happy to make an introduction or ask for one from somone you don’t know, like and trust, with perhaps, a valuable and highly regarded contact or friend?

Yet I continue to get the standard,  “I’d like to add you to my professional network on LinkedIn” from people I have never met, who have sometimes the most passing things in common.

One contact – who somehow connected with me – even asked for a testimonial even though I had never done business with him nor indeed recall meeting him!

You might like to add me to your professional network, but at least tell me why.  If you can’t I am happy for you to follow me on Twitter no questions asked.

In some ways it is surprising that the Syrian uprising is being covered to the extent it is in the UK broadcast media.

Yes, the events in Syria are marking a radical shift in thinking and politics in the Arab world.  Yet with so little substantiated news it is surely very hard for this story to dominate news agendas as it should.

There have been no iconic images such as the one of Neda Agha-Soltan, the young women who lost her life protesting against the almost certainly fraudulent Iranian elections results two yeas ago.

And with next to no verifiable footage taken within Syria, independently minded journalists banned by the Assad regime have to rely on the accounts of refugees streaming across international borders.

In Turkey, President Erdogan, who has been building up strong economic and political ties with Assad’s regime has offered refugees from the town of Jisr al-Shughour – which has been the target of a concerted military assault – protection on the understanding they do not talk about their experiences to journalists keen to update reports.

So when the established media cannot report there is a vacuum.

It is left up to citizen journalists such as Amina Abdallah Arraf al-Omari, a 25-year-old gay woman in Damascus to tell the world what is going on.

Amina, within a few short months, was able to give an insight that no journalists could.

The blog was attracting hundreds of thousands of hits, and no doubt was used as a source by many reporters.

Then Amina was abducted, but by whom?  No one was sure although one of the many branches of the Syrian secret police or security services must have been involved – an online campaign to free her resulted.

However, it has been unmasked as a hoax, a complete fraud.

It was the work of a US student residing in Edinburgh, Tom MacMaster and possibly his partner Britta Froelicher (although MacMaster now claims it is his work alone).

Even the pictures of Amina were stolen from the Facebook page of a Croatian girl living in London who had no connection to the material being used on the blog.

MacMaster had the gall to explain his deception:  “While the narrative voice may have been fictional, the facts on this blog are true and not misleading as to the situation on the ground. I do not believe that I have harmed anyone – I feel that I have created an important voice for issues that I feel strongly about.”

There are many issues raised by such behaviour but I want to concentrate on just one:  The reliance of news sources where there is no legal or editorial safeguards to ensure a commitment to follow standards of integrity and professionalism.

Of course no news outlet is free of bias, but the issue with Citizenship Journalism is that those basic standards we expect from a news source might be there or not, through design or lack of it.

This is one reason why established media outlets such as national newspapers do not have to feel threatened when there seems to be others with greater access, speed or credentials disseminating news.

I was reading the Daily Mail – I was in a cafe and it was freely available, alright?!! – when I came across the story of Sacha Hall.

Sacha had, without permission, taken £215.16 of food, including 100 packs of ham, from Tesco according to the substantial write-up.

She was spotted by the store manager in her activities.  This is what happened next according to Sacha:

“They knocked on the door (at home) and said if I didn’t open up they would use a battering ram. They handcuffed me and treated me like I was a hardened criminal and when we left they raided my house.”

She later entered no plea in court and now faces a maximum 7 year prison term if convicted when the case comes before a Crown Court.

It seems like a criminal waste of police time, CPS resources and Legal Aid, and not only because it seems Dickensian in reaction.

But because – and this is the twist I have been over-egging – Sacha took the products from the bins of her local Tesco after they had been ruined after a power cut had interrupted refrigeration.

(Whether ruined means not fit for sale or consumption is a point that is not satisfactorily clarified although I tend to think it was the former).

I am in no position to argue the legal intricacies on whether Sacha was allowed to take the food- When does the food leave the possession of Tesco?  Who does it belong to if the bins are the council’s?

And I am not going to talk about the moral issues although I cannot see much wrong with freeganism.

What I can say is that surely taking such action only provides fodder for attacks on the Tesco brand.  One issue is the power of big brands and their treatment of those that do not have the resources to hold their own, financially and legally.  One only has to think of  the McLibel case.

Surely the Tesco PR department should have convinced senior managers and legal represntatives of the harm this case will do.  Sometimes you wonder how a basic PR blunder like this could happen.

I will leave the Tesco reaction to shake your heads at: ‘It’s not for us to comment on.  That’s a matter for the courts.’

Having booked many months in advance to spend their honeymoon in Didsbury at their favourite hotel, they find they have been gazumped at the last moment.

Didsbury House Hotel has decided that it makes more “buisness sense” to take a wedding party that wanted exclusive use of the hotel for the weekend of the booking.

Yet, it doesn’t take a lot of business or indeed common sense to see how this backfired in the way it was handled:

• The couple discovered their room had been given to someone else only when they called to make an amendment.
• In an apology – by e-mail, how personal – they were offered a room at another of the group’s hotels with free spa treatment and half a bottle of Champagne – surely a bottle was too much to offer.
• And when contacted by the press, a spokeman (another mistake – how personal and caring) says, “We don’t make any comments on internal matters.”

This is not earth shattering news I grant you.  But even if the “business sense ” move prevailed and you wanted to make amends to a couple that has used your hotel on five occassions, surely this situation can be handled better:

• Profusely apologise, acknowledge the error and promise to make amends.
• State a solution (as such as it can be remedied) that is generous and shows that this situation is of real concern.  Give the couple the best room in another hotel at no extra charge or even no charge.  Perhaps I am not generous, but a little more than half a bottle of bubbly.
• The manager or someone senior should be handling this, from dealing with the couple to the media – show that the situation is important.
• When it goes to the press it is rarely “an internal matter,” it is an external one.  Do not dodge the issue, face it and answer it frankly: state the problem and how you are setting about solving it.

I am not saying that the above situation can be resolved with complete satisfaction for Matthew and Rachel.  However, the way it has been approached has generated some very negative PR that could cost the hotel many more thousands than it made with this move.

Who can operate in business with a poor reputation?  This is why PR is important.

I think I am at a meeting at the hotel on Thursday morning – and I will not be shifted.

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.

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.

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.

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…