What Every PR Person Should Know

As a public relations consultant who does a lot of PR programming, I was intrigued by a recent piece in Fast Company , based on data from the Global Information Industry Center , that described Americans’ “greed” for information. A few interesting factoids:

• Americans consume some 3.6 zettabytes (a billion trillion bytes of information) — the equivalent of 5.1 trillion hard drives — every day.

• Of the almost 19 hours daily we spend ingesting data, the biggest chunk of time — seven hours — is spent on a computer, console or handheld device.

• Just over one hour is spent reading and only slightly more (1.13 hours), on the phone.

• More time is spent on radio (5 hours) than on TV (4.5 hours).

Knowing and prioritizing our stakeholders and learning where they get their information are critical components of every effective public relations plan. Increasingly important for PR professionals will be the ability to craft strategies that cut through “info inundation.”

The BIG News in 2009

Media relations — knowing how to craft a news hook and shape a client’s messages to create a strong editorial story — is one of the most important skill sets for public relations firms and individual PR practitioners.

But tunnel vision can sometimes be a challenge for public relations pros when it comes to crafting a strong pitch. That’s why I think that the infographic produced by GOOD magazine is worth a look.

Based on data provided by Journalism.org, the interactive chart offers media relations experts an enlightening look at the broad range of news stories that grabbed our attention last year. In 2009, the two biggest stories were the economic crisis and healthcare reform — no surprise there! — but the mammogram policy change appears to have gotten just as much coverage as the Tiger Woods scandal.

Journalism.org reviews the news from 55 outlets every week, calculating what percent of the week’s print, television, radio, and internet reporting is devoted to each story.

The Demise of Truth?

A couple of years ago, in his My Three Cents blog, PR guru Ken Makovsky wrote about the concept of “truthiness,” a word coined by the Stephen Colbert, host of the Comedy Channel’s Colbert Report. Truthiness is believing what you feel or wish were true, without reference to logic, evidence or facts.

There’s new book out called True Enough: Learning to Live in a Post-Fact Society, by Salon.com staff writer Farhad Manjoo. In it, he explores the idea — well supported by cognitive scientists— that when the facts don't fit a person’s frame of reference, the frame stays and the facts are ignored.

Manjoo cites a study by Stanford professor Shanto Iyengar and Washington Post columnist Richard Morin who tested Republicans and Democrats’ reactions to a list of headlines covering topics ranging from politics and race to travel and sports. The headlines were randomly paired with one of four logos: BBC, CNN, Fox and NPR. Not only did the Fox logo triple Republicans’ interest in stories about politics and Iraq, it even increased Republicans' interest (and decreased Democrats' interest!) in headlines about travel and sports.

The rise of the internet and the disintermediation of the mainstream media were supposed to help us get to the truth faster than ever before. But when people choose to read only the news that supports their ingrained prejudices, those of us who are responsible for public relations and brand management must recognize that we are facing a bigger challenge than ever before.

The Court Rules in Favor of Wikileaks

Last week, Federal Judge Jeffrey S. White withdrew his earlier order disabling Wikileaks, a website that allows the anonymous posting of documents to discourage unethical behavior in governments and corporations. He’d originally shut down the site at the request of Bank Julius Baer & Company, a Swiss banking company that serves the ultra-rich. They charged that Wikileaks had posted confidential information about some of its customers.

Wikileaks is designed to enable whistleblowers to leak documents, without fear of censorship or the risk of the political repercussions. Its founders contend that Wikileaks will “civilize corporations by exposing uncivil plans and behavior. Just like a country, a corrupt or unethical corporation is a menace to all inside and outside it.”

It’s still in its infancy, but Wikileaks is worth a careful look if you’re at all concerned with the possibility of adverse publicity or if you are involved in issues or crisis management.

Only 6% of corporate frauds are revealed by the SEC and 14% by the auditors, according to the Center for Economic Policy Research. More important monitors are media (14%), industry regulators (16%), and employees (19%).

As it develops, it’s likely that Wikileaks will become a useful source for the mainstream media … so it’s worth keeping it on your radar.