It’s Important

We know vacations are a boon to our mental health, and we might have some awareness that they’re beneficial to our physical health – but chances are vacations are even more important than you realize. Taking part in leisure activities is shown to lead to lower blood pressure, lower stress hormones and smaller waists, and one study found vacations lead to a significantly lower risk of mortality. That’s right – taking a break from time to time can actually contribute to your long-term survival!

Interestingly, even if we have an understanding of the benefits vacations offer our bodies, it’s often harder for us to recognize that vacations are actually critical to being effective at work. Do you know that some scientists have found that stress shrinks your brain (an effect that can be reversed after a period of rest)? Even small vacations actually change your brain waves, leading to improved reaction times, clarity and creativity.

So, when you jokingly (or not so jokingly) exclaim, “I need a vacation!” the truth is, you really do.

For me, because I’m truly nutty as a fruitcake and addicted to goal-setting, I often make mental health-related goals for myself that I hope to achieve while on vacation. During some breaks, I seek to jump start my creative juices by trying new things, while other times I pause to reflect on the directions I’m taking my business and my life. This time, I’ll be doing something especially radical: striving to turn my thoughts off almost completely – to be 100% in the moment, with no thoughts whatsoever (no easy feat for an OCD gal like myself, but I’m hoping it will lead to a helpful recharging).

What vacations or mini-breaks do you have coming up this summer, and what do you hope to accomplish (or avoid) as a result? Let us know in the comments, and if you haven’t decided when your next break is, start planning!

Image: Meawpong3405 / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

In addition to the downloadable transcript in PDF, the following highlights some of the most popular tweets from the chat:

Be sure to check out the transcript in PDF for the full discussion. Note that the transcript is in reverse chronological order.

If you weren’t able to join us this week, weigh in on the chat questions below!

The #solopr chat – held each Wednesday from 1-2 p.m. Eastern – is a weekly ritual for some of the most savvy Solo PR Pros on Twitter. Anyone with a Twitter account is welcome to participate – see Join Us for the #solopr Chat on Twitter to find out how!

By Kellye Crane and Heather Rast

PR consultants that move away from excessive team emails and adopt a useful solution for collaborative project management are able to take on bigger and more lucrative client work. In this series, we help you make sense of the myriad of options by sharing our experience with a few of the top systems.

In Part One, we covered free collaborative project management tools. In Part Two, we focused on “freemium” and low cost options. In this third and final installment, we look at three tools designed to meet more robust needs, including those of larger groups servicing multiple projects or campaigns.

Basecamp

The granddaddy of project management software, this 37 Signals product is road-tested and large team approved.  You can get a taste for the software by signing up for a free trial which allows you to create one project with up to 10MB of storage for files.

Pro tip: Break big (even if they’re ongoing) projects down into more granular components like month, quarter, or subset. It will be easier as time goes on, messages stack up, and milestones get added, to go back and find something later.

PROS:

• No contract required, pay as-you-go. Plans start at $24 per month for 15 projects and unlimited users
• Recommended by 98% of the people who use it. That’s a remarkable satisfaction rating, and the fact that it’s so widely used means your subcontractors and/or clients may already be familiar with using it
• Provides a calendar feature that allows both events and milestones to be applied. If your work is date-based, then these can be good ways to capture progress to completion
• Create lists of standard tasks and assign people to complete them. Re-use the list on your next project or create new task lists based on milestones or whole projects

CONS:

• The dashboard can be jarring to someone joining a project mid-stream. Unless you’re familiar with a projects’ background and goings-on, the dashboard doesn’t really help orient new users at all
• It doesn’t provide a way for a project leader or administrator to view all tasks assigned to a specific team member
• Available via mobile browser, but no native mobile application

Central Desktop

Central Desktop is a full-featured online collaboration tool offering many of the same functions as Basecamp, plus some additional benefits, including online diagrams such as flow charts, org charts, and wireframes. You can also open, edit, and save Microsoft Office documents while within Central Desktop.

PROS:

• Extremely powerful program, with excellent tutorials and help documentation
• Allows custom branding (colors and logo), a nice way to extend the look and feel of your brand into the tool touched often by employees, vendors, and clients
• Integrates with Microsoft Office products (Office, Excel, Word, PowerPoint)
• A mobile app is available for iOS, Android, and Blackberry operating systems to help you stay current while on-the-go
• Keep engagement high by pushing out messages to team members via Twitter and Facebook

CONS:

• The price is out of reach for most solo PR pros. Workgroups start at $99 per month and jump directly to enterprise-level workgroups (price isn’t published). The basic workgroups allows for up to 30 users and 50 GB of storage with 5 workspaces. On a price point level, Central Desktop is expensive compared to Basecamp and DeskAway
• The Wiki-based interface is very customizable. While the flexibility is a definite advantage, it could easily be a case of not knowing how you’d really like spaces to be arranged and organized until it’s full of information and active members. At that point, it could be cumbersome to pivot

DeskAway

DeskAway (affiliate link) is used by the team here at Solo PR Pro. After a lot of research and trials, Kellye decided DeskAway was the best blend of powerful features, usability, and price to serve as the central hub for work across all her projects and teams, including client programs, business projects, the Solo PR PRO Premium membership site, and the Solo PR Pro blog (she even uses it for personal tasks, as well).

Want to dip your toe in the water to understand why she digs it? While all the plans have a 30-day free trial, there’s also a limited-functionality free account that offers access to 1 project for 2 users, with 25 MB of file storage (unlike others with a 30-day trial, there’s no time limit on that one — upgrade at any time).

PROS:

• Simple sign-up process, and a credit card isn’t required (who likes giving that info before committing to buy?)
• On the$25 per month plan, subscribers receive access to 25 projects and 20 users, sharing 2 GB of storage space and 5 project templates.
• Unlike Basecamp, DeskAway provides Getting Started videos and how-to links directly on user dashboards. This makes it easy to set up a new user, then allow them to get acquainted with the system at their own pace
• Numerous options for sharing information among teams (from an internal blog to file uploads) means you can pick the methods that work best for you
• One of the few collaboration solutions that allows you to easily view all the tasks assigned to a single team member, and it includes powerful reporting options
• Includes a basic time-tracking feature, that can be integrated with the Freshbooks invoicing solution
• Provides for 3 levels of user permissions (Super, Regular, Limited), which offers tight team member controls
• Branding is available; use your own logo and colors to customize the look of your work space
• Synch your Google calendar with your DeskAway calendar to simplify scheduling
• Import Basecamp projects into DeskAway should you decide to migrate from one tool to the other

CONS:

• It’s not very intuitive, so there is a learning curve initially, and the user interface isn’t beautifully styled
• There are a lot of options packed into each tab and sub-menu, making it easy to get lost or derailed from the activity you set out to perform
• The mobile version is lacking (Kellye gets around this by using the full Web version on her iPhone)

All of these programs integrate well with email, meaning users can reply to tasks by email and their comments are stored within the system. That makes this most basic functionality easy to use for new (or more limited) team members, without requiring them to dive into the more complex features.

No matter which tool you choose, once you’ve entered your projects and timelines, the process becomes much easier — get started today for a more organized tomorrow!

What’s your favorite project management solution? Let’s learn from each other in the comments!

Photo credit: woodleywonderworks

In that time, there have been some opportunities missed because of the public nature of our various channels. Many of you have also stated this – there are things you’d prefer not to send out to the whole world, but you’d be happy to exchange this information with others in our community.

To meet these needs, we’re happy to unveil the premium Solo PR PRO membership site, now in public beta (at special beta pricing). Specifically for us, this premium PRO content offers road-tested deliverables and downloads, a members-only Forum, a special upcoming Show Me the Money! series on setting rates, and much more.

Why do we need a PRO membership site? I did a quick video to explain the reasoning, and some of the benefits:

If you can’t view this video, watch it on YouTube.

Though some of the Solo PR PRO membership site features won’t be available until after the first of the year, we wanted to go ahead and share this beta content with you at a low initial rate (locked in for life for those who sign-up early), which will increase slowly over time for new subscribers as more content is added. That way, you can start putting the current content to use as you plan for 2012 (never too early to start!).

What does it cost?
As indie consultants, price is always a key consideration – as it should be. Though we’ve seen membership sites that cost $50 a month or more (and they have generic content that often doesn’t apply to indie consultants like us), we’re doing our best to keep costs low so everyone can participate.

The deal: While we’re still in beta for the next few weeks, you can join for just $14 a month, and be a Charter member! The cool part is: you’ll lock in this monthly rate for as long as you maintain your PRO membership (but, at the risk of sounding like an infomercial, you can cancel any time). We’re also offering a money-saving Annual Subscription for just $120 for the year. In addition to the price break, the Annual Subscription offers the tax benefits of purchasing now for the year ahead.

For more details of all the offerings and to sign-up, just visit: Become a PRO Member.

We’re excited to offer something that can help you be more efficient, effective, and profitable in your business, and we fully expect that this content (especially the fee-setting info) will help many PRO members increase their profits by thousands of dollars in 2012. That’s the mission that will drive everything around this effort.

If you have any questions, just let us know in the comments. Hope you can join us!

Many in the Solo PR Pro community have asked what I use — in this video, I demonstrate the “system” I’ve developed over my 15 years of consulting, which uses folders to organize clients and track my time.

If you can’t see the video above, you can watch it on YouTube.

It’s important to note that I also use this same system for volunteer positions and pro bono work, tracking time regardless of whether I’m going to get paid or not.

Obviously there are many software programs that may be more efficient, but for me, I found that I just wasn’t as religious about tracking my time when I have to open a software program to do it. Your mileage may vary — I firmly believe that the best system is the one you’ll actively use!

What about you — what’s your system for client organization and time tracking? Looking forward to hearing your personal experiences and recommendations in the comments…

With my unsung hero, circa 1993-ish

Today is my wedding anniversary. It doesn’t even seem possible, but my husband and I have been together for 19 years, and married for 15. This anniversary feels like a big one, and I’d like to take this opportunity to thank him for being the unsung hero of my business and Solo PR Pro.

Chances are you have an unsung hero, too. While we have supporters and champions that come in many forms, those of us with significant others usually find they truly play a heroic role in our success.

To be married to one of us is typically not easy. A spouse must believe in our ability to succeed, and they have to accept that our income will not always be steady – sometimes it can be far greater than theirs, while other times it may be much less. Our leaps of faith we do not take alone – they have to leap with us.

A solo PR business can intrude on day-to-day life, too. A spouse and other family members have to learn not to answer the business phone. They have to recognize that just because you’re home doesn’t mean you’re available, and for heavens sake, don’t walk off with my stapler!

2010

In return, they win our love and gratitude, but may not always receive a verbal thank you. So (if you’ll forgive this mushy aside), I’d like to mark my anniversary by saying to my husband, Timothy Brezina, that I appreciate your partnership – in life and in my business. Over the years we’ve seen good times and bad, have been together in sickness and in health, and I look forward to many more years with you as my “biggest fan” and best friend.

Who is your unsung hero? What are some of the many things that person has done for you? Please let us know and take this opportunity to thank them in the comments!

Perhaps these brain pickers have no idea how many requests of this type the typical solo PR pro gets in a given month. Regardless, the next time someone approaches you for free advice, try this (unscientific) formula:

1. How long have you known them (in years)?

 

2. On a scale of 1-10, with 10 being your best friend in the world and 1 being someone you don’t know, how close are you to this person?

 

3. In hundreds of dollars, how much work has this person given you in the past 5 years? (for example, $1,000 = 10)

 

4. How many quality referrals has this person provided to you? Multiply this number by 10.

 

5. In minutes, how much time has this person spent directly helping/counseling you gratis?

 

6. On a scale of 1-100, with 1 being not at all and 50 being “try and stop me,” how much do you want to help this person?

 

Add these numbers up, and that’s the amount of your precious time – in minutes – you could consider giving to this requester out of the goodness of your heart.

See something missing?

You’ll notice I didn’t list anything related to the potential future work they might offer. My experience (and that of many other solos) is that it’s almost impossible to tell who will actually be able to provide you with paying work down the road (and I personally know someone who “helped out” a “friend” for literally years, while he dangled that carrot in front of her). Suggesting the possibility of future work opportunities is the oldest trick in the book, and even when the person isn’t purposely misleading you, it’s never a safe bet.

Of course, you do not have to generously provide anyone any advice gratis, but if you do, please consider some of the issues raised here and limit your kindness to a short period of time. It’s important to your business to have some boundaries.

What do you think? Do you have any factors that guide your decisions? How much time do you devote to the typical “brain picker?”

Scope creep is the bane of any independent consultant’s existence. It happens when your client adds things to your to-do list that you didn’t foresee. Or from misunderstandings that occur when you don’t communicate firm boundaries around a project.

Scope creep will cost you money, enthusiasm, and (it often feels like) your sanity. Note that the scope creep affliction isn’t limited to nasty clients who are trying to put one over on you. “Cool” clients, who may not understand the specifics of your proposal or the amount of time they’re requesting, can be culprits, too. Don’t assume that having a good relationship with your client will prevent scope creep – only good contracts can do that.

The way to manage expectations is to tightly define the scope of a project, both within your initial proposal and in the final written agreement/contract. Sample wording for these clauses could include:

Example #1:

This project will include research, writing and editing of one news announcement, one four-page brochure, and one FAQ (to include up to 12 questions). The fee includes two rounds of revisions for each document.

Out-of-scope activities include: facilitating internal approvals at the company, graphical design and layout, and wire service distribution. Additional service requests will be billed at the rate of $X/hour.

Example #2:

The monthly retainer fee includes X, Y and Z. Additional services are available and can be quoted separately upon request.

When working on a project with a portion to be billed upon completion, it’s also helpful to state something like “if two weeks pass without communication from X company, [your PR firm] reserves the right to bill for services rendered to date.” This is important protection for occasions when a client can’t get the final approvals on a deliverable, but your work is largely completed.

Though out-of-control projects can happen to anyone, spelling out the deliverables and managing expectations up front are key to keeping these misunderstandings to a minimum.

Have you ever experienced the horrors of scope creep? What tips can you share?

Photo credit: chego101

This is a guest post from Alison Kenney of KPR Communications.

Recently I met and won over a new client (thank you) but was surprised when presented with a contract that offered bonus payments for achieving media coverage (in addition to a decent monthly retainer). I instinctively turned to the #soloPR community and asked other PR veterans how they handle this situation. They didn’t let me down. As you may know, I posted the question on the SoloPR LinkedIn page and Kellye presented it during a recent Twitter chat. There was a good range of thought-provoking feedback:

A majority of chatters were offended by this “pay-to-play” approach, for ethical reasons:

@jgombita: A1: Wasn’t there some industry buzz a few years ago about an agency that “guaranteed” X number of media stories? Sounded dodgy.

@BevPayton: @MomonMars Yes, promising placement IS a violation of PRSA ethics policy. The only way to promise placement is to place an ad.

@erica_holloway: A1: I prefer following the Barcelona Principles to focus my efforts with full buy-in and measureable results.

Or because they thought it represented a lack of understanding of the value of PR:

@AmazingPRMaven: A1: Usually when those deals are offered, they don’t include a retainer, typically the offerer is ignorant of #pr workings

@KellyeCrane: A1: Many clients who want to pay only when X is met are cheapskates who don’t really value the time things take. Not all, but many.

@erica_holloway: @KellyeCrane Right, like expecting to lose 20 pounds after two months in the gym. Not reasonable.

@cidokogiPR: If someone wants to pay you a commission only for this type of job, they don’t value this type of job…

@3hatscomm: time IS money

@krisTK: A1: Would NASA build rocket only to go to moon? PR has better ways to evaluate results than clips, fans

And devalued the strategic role of PR especially:

@fransteps: A1: Placements are NOT measure of blding relationships & trust? Pay for play people don’t get that long term investment strategy

@farida_h: A1: Was asked for a social media project once – if I could get guarantee x followers – told them engagement more imp than numbers

@MomonMars: @PRjeff I think that’s a very short view of PR, which is more a long-term process

@dconconi: A1: pay for performance is also only related to media relations. We do so much more. How do they pay 4 strategy and counsel then?

@DebInATX: I think clients who only want to pay when X goal is met don’t understand the long term relationships necessary for PR

@karenswim: A1: It can also backfire by providing incentive around a tactic while diminishing long term strategy

@juphilpott: @karenswim Absolutely – why waste the effort planning a successful long-term strategy if client is only interested in end tactics.

Mark Buzan (via LinkedIn) I think the value of PR professionals is not in us becoming “pitch machines”. Instead, we are there to help craft and build reputations. For that to occur, it’s strategy before tactics. Perhaps that’s one of the reasons I don’t work with small biz

Colin Sanford (via LinkedIn) Agree with Mark here. The process of helping a company get straight on its messaging / strategy (which is a central part of pitching/planning) as valuable (and often more valuable) than the articles. I would avoid a “pay-for-performance” approach for all the reasons others have cited as well as the fact that it deepens the perception that all we provide is tactical support in coverage.

Or because they thought it would be a “slippery slope”:

Mark Buzan (via LinkedIn) I think you’re heading down a slippery slope if you start down that path. Often media coverage can result months after a pitch. Also, how much control do you generally have over the content written? What if it’s only a mention in passing or worse yet, something negative even after the best of efforts. There’s a lot out of the control of publicist’s realm in this area. What you need to be pushing instead is WHAT ACTION resulted as a result of the media coverage?

My two cents worth.

Joshua P. Romero, MA (via LinkedIn) I’ve worked at an agency where we had a “pay for performance” model. I didn’t like it because there were no qualifiers on the pricing, specific to the media type, circulation, range, etc. It was print/web, TV, and radio – that’s it. The pricing framework didn’t leave much room for editorial content that appeared via new media channels or online supplements to print or broadcast.
It sounds like what Regine is doing is best-case-scenario pricing for a pay for performance model.

@REDMEDIAPR: A1 DON’T work for free – too many factors like a press event that no one comes to bc of nat disaster news or Today seg gets bumped

@krisTK: A1: too many factors not in my control to consider “pay for performance”

But a few offered examples of how they’ve made it work:

Regine Nelson (via LinkedIn) I’ve had some success with “pay by performance.” However, generally I’ve restricted it to small businesses that need coverage for specific time frames, i.e the holidays or summer. In my opinion, this fee structure works when you a client wants to secure 20 media mentions or less.

In my practice, I offer this option to small businesses such as florists, retail boutiques, cupcakeries, etc. I design their press kit, develop a media list (no more than 15 outlets) and angles for a fair fee. Then I qualify each media opportunity, whether it be print or television. Each publication has a fee according to its circulation and range (local, national, regional). I only invoice the client once the story/mention appears.

Again, as Mark says it can be a slippery slope. You need to manage your time wisely and set goals and parameters with the client. The intention is to help them move sales and create a level of awareness for their product or service. Let me know if you have any more questions. I’d be happy to help - regine@allure-pr.com

@karenswim: A1: In a corporate environment it makes more sense but not as an indie biz owner

@PRjeff: A1: We should be results based. I say if you have a base, find a client w/great story to tell & commish is high enuf, y not?

Diane Pinnick (via LinkedIn) I did it only once. I warned my client he’d be paying more because I was good. He paid a lot more–end of story.

Joshua P. Romero, MA (via LinkedIn) Diane, that’s another great point to make. The price seems more affordable than a retainer, on the surface, but can get costly fast (especially for seasonal clients).

Our agency had a clause in the contract that media mentions made in outlets on the approved media list, within 30 days after the contract’s termination, would still be billed based on our efforts. That made for some interesting phone calls from the agency’s accounts department.

Julie Rogier (via LinkedIn) Just jumping in here – sounds like the consensus is we better serve clients with systematic programs and reputation management, and I agree. However, in niche PR (such as high tech marketing via case studies) I got my start writing Business to Business “case studies” that served multiple purposes besides a media placement – (i.e. content could be repurposed for brochures, direct mail, web, etc) With the client contract, I got paid for delivering the completed case study; and was then compensated for each time the material was published in key trade journals for a set period. This was a fair arrangement to both myself and the client. It’s a good way to start a relationship with a client, as well, to prove value on a per-project basis – then move the relationship to a more regular engagement.

I am impressed and appreciative of the feedback the #soloPR community offered. I discussed the issue with my client and tried to get a better understanding of why they wanted to work this way.

They told me they liked the model because it mirrored the way their sales team is compensated (base pay plus incentives) which is a model they like. I think they also felt unable to justify a large monthly retainer, like the ones they had paid bigger agencies in the past, without some “guarantee” that there would be results; they saw this model as a way to bridge that divide.

My situation isn’t as risky as some of the commenters may have assumed (the monthly retainer appears very fair) and I view the bonuses for media coverage as just that: bonuses. They are not affecting the strategic plan I’ll be creating for this client.

So, I agreed to try it. I’ll try to update this blog or other channels in the #soloPR community with our progress. What do you think?

With more than 15 years of PR consulting experience, Alison Kenney has worked with organizations spanning the technology, professional services and consumer industries. Alison spent the first half of her career at the leading high-tech PR firm The Weber Group, now Weber Shandwick, working with both globally recognized brands and dynamic startups in the technology industry.  She has spent the second half of her career at KPR Communications, putting those connections, lessons learned and experience gained to work for a range of technology, professional services and consumer organizations while serving as their outsourced PR director, virtual PR team member or general “PR Girl Friday.”

Before, during and after last week’s flurry of posts in response to the New York Times piece, the excellent Solo PR Pros LinkedIn Group continued the conversation with insightful comments and observations. Community member Christa Miller (who was the first to post the article to this group) noted that she always looks to learn from criticism, “I try to find the nuggets that might contain wisdom or the grains of a solution.”

Regular readers of this blog know I welcome fresh voices and new perspectives, so I asked Christa if she’d be willing to share what she learned. Lucky for us, she obliged. This post was scheduled prior to my reading Mr. Buschel’s additional tirade yesterday, but it still holds true.

Bruce Buschel’s anti-public relations rant in the New York Times last week raised the ire of many PR pros. Couldn’t he see, they asked, that his own lack of communication was too much of a barrier, his expectations too high, for his PR consultants to work around?

If I had 10 or 20 years’ worth of experience, I might feel much the same way. But I don’t. I’ve only been working in the field for 2 years, following 8 years as a trade journalist. So it was with a self-critical eye that I read Buschel’s op-ed, ultimately finding more than half a dozen nuggets of potential wisdom within.

1. Know your client before you pitch

“Six months before Southfork Kitchen opened, a local public relations director pitched me, telling me what he would do, how he would do it and how much it would cost,” Buschel wrote, making it seem as if the director cold-pitched him.

I hope they met first, without Buschel assuming that a “local” PR director would “just know” how to promote his business. Then again, the way Bruschel frames his pitch makes the director seem overconfident in his own abilities. Or maybe Bruschel sold him on more substance than actually existed.

There is no way to know the actual dynamics of this relationship, but the op-ed does indicate two people who bought into each other’s hype. Therefore, PR pros: focus not on the possibilities, but on cutting through the fluffy meringue to get to the lemon pie underneath.

2. Listen to your client’s stories before deciding where and how to pitch
“We came up with story lines and a list of outlets that might like them,” Buschel wrote. “Print media, electronic media, social media…. We would appeal to locals and tourists and transplants and day-trippers and pescadores, locavores and flexitarians….”

In the push to get the word out, did the agency take the time to think about their client’s stories, to develop a few before deciding on outlets? Did they try to guide their client, to talk him down from his precarious perch to a much more stable (if one with less of a bird’s-eye view) platform?

If 80 percent of your business comes from 20 percent of your clients, then it stands to reason that those 20 percent are loyal because your business resonates with them personally. The judgment “too Long Island for the New York media” should have been an asset, not a liability, based on Bruschel and his staff’s core stories.

3. Communicate as issues come up, not all in one fell swoop after you have driven each other crazy
Bruschel told us that the PR staff blamed the lack of publicity on the shifting opening date. This is certainly a central problem, but not until later, following mounting mutual frustration, did Bruschel and his staff find out that there were other issues.

In my experience, those issues come up sooner, often as gut feelings that something seems “off.” To tell the restaurant staff that “other area restaurants were equally sustainable and/or organic” should have come out a lot sooner, especially since Bruschel himself seemed so convinced that it was his major differentiator. If the agency didn’t agree, perhaps they were not as tuned in to the local area as they should have been.

4. Work with the resources you have
Bruschel wrote that his “blog was a problem, either scooping them or getting in their way.” Honestly, this is the first I have ever heard of this. Most advice I hear about blogs relates to their strength as good background material for journalists.

So what if it scooped the agency’s stories — should they, at that point, not have tried to pitch Bruschel as a columnist for some local magazine or newspaper? Repurposed his blog articles as feature pieces for other magazines?

5. Consider the dynamics of different forms of coverage
A documentarian, following your client around all day? Fantastic! Actually, did the agency consider the effect of this dynamic? How might the observation have altered the management team’s decision-making? How might it have altered their relationship with their PR agency?

Certainly, the opportunity was remarkable. But even observation is its own form of interaction, and the agency should have recognized and counseled on this — both at the outset, and at intervals during the shooting.

6. Criticize constructively
Bruschel’s new PR agency, present for his restaurant’s launch, handed him a laundry list of everything he had done “wrong.” This made me wonder: was there anything people liked about the opening?

When I was a new fiction writer, getting involved with critique groups, I learned early on to tell other writers what they did right as well as what they did wrong. Without that balance, the writer will never learn what works or how to improve what’s wrong.

Bruschel never mentioned whether the new PR team bothered to talk to the other opening attendees. Did they make assumptions based on their own feelings? Were they reading the body language of others in the room? Did they interview those people to see if their impressions were correct? (This is where it benefits PR agencies to have journalists on their teams.)

7. Don’t “twist reality into pretzels” – believe in your client
Bruschel was flabbergasted that his agency felt the need to taste the food after months of working with them, and he was right to be. If it had been that important to them, they would have asked for a sampling up front — perhaps a dinner as they got to know their clients and stories.

Especially as solo PR pros, we’re often given the advice to take on only our ideal clients. We learn to cultivate buyer personas for ourselves as well as our clients, matching values and communication styles. How else can we overcome the derisive view that we are but “spin-meisters”, manipulating hearts and minds?

If customer loyalty is grounded in values, then no amount of buzz can make up for that deep, long-term appeal. Only PR pros who believe in their clients can communicate those values to a degree that will invite people to come in, make themselves comfortable and stay awhile.

The Takeaway

In the end, it would seem that these dysfunctional relationships were based on two factors: the lure of easy publicity, married to the lure of easy money. Fellow PR pros, we can do better — we can make it harder for clients to criticize our profession by listening, challenging our own assumptions, and sticking to our own personal values.

What have your experiences been with the above issues? Would you add anything to this list?

A professional freelance writer/editor since 2001, Christa M. Miller now provides public relations and communications strategy to professionals in the law enforcement and digital forensics communities. See her website, ChristaMMiller.com, for more information.