Images made available from Mir Hossein Mousavi's election  campaign media operation, Ghalam News, via AP.

I have been sad today watching the events unfold in Tehran and other cities throughout Iran. I am not sad that these uprisings are happening. I am sad because I can imagine how it will end. Because those of us over the age of 20 have seen it before. When a tyranical state is challenged, it moves with swift certainty to eliminate those who threaten to undermine authority. I can't imagine how it will be possible for the backlash against the sham elections in Iran to have a happy ending.

We can hope and send our good wishes and watch for updates. And color our Twitter avatars green and at some point surely there will be rallies of support in cities around the world.

20 years ago I was a 25 year old journalist -- the news director of a Chicago-area all news-talk radio station. It was the most amazing time anyone could possibly imagine. Things that we assumed would last our entire lives were crumbling unexpectedly. The Soviet Union relinqueshed control of Eastern Europe and the people of Germany joyously climbed atop the Berlin Wall -- to celebrate and to begin tearing it down. The change happened so swiftly that it was literally breathtaking at times.

But what really made those moments awe-inspiring was what had happened in June of 1989. The 20th anniversary of Tiananmen Square was just a couple weeks ago.

I don't want anyone to think I was there. I was not. But as story tellers, all journalists played a role in examining and explaining the meaning of what happened. In that respect, I did cover the events in Tiananmen Square, seeking to give it some context in between the weather, traffic and sports.

This video does a great job of explaining how events unfolded:

20 years later, China remains a superpower. It has never been more economically powerful and a good argument could be made that it has never been as politically or diplomatically powerful. As the U.S. struggles to find its place in a new world economy, China is calling more shots and flexing its diplomatic muscle like never before. I am not an expert, but from what I understand, China's people enjoy more freedoms than in the past, but they remain under the control of single party rule. There is no free press. Dissent is not tolerated. 

There are clear similarities between the reform movement in China and the protests in Iran. Like in China, a charismatic leader is urging the young protesters on. The protesters are capitalizing on sophisticated communications techniques to disseminate images around the world. The provoked government provides just enough latitude for the leaders of the revolution to reveal themselves. At which point, swift, definitive, deadly action will be taken and it will all be squashed. Literally and figuratively.

It is a generation later. Many of the Chinese citizens who sought reform are now in the 40s. However, lacking the charismatic leaders who were killed or imprisoned for treason, they remain powerless and voiceless.

I fear for the men and women in Iran. I worry that in their urgency to act they may be helping the government rapidly dismantle a fledgling Democratic movement. If you look at the movements that brought change to the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, you will see that they took a long time and blossomed from the inside out. Between Gorbachev and Yeltsin, it took nearly a decade to bring Democracy to Russia.

Can change happen more quickly? Certainly. But will that happen? No. I just hope that the impending slaughter does not set Iran's reform movement back so far that 20 years from now -- in the year 2029 -- we are not wondering if Iran's reformers will ever re-emerge.

        

Enjoyed a giant lunch covering every conceivable food group with the Greater Fort Worth Chapter of the Public Relations Society of America today. The luncheon speaker was Beth Harte of Harte Marketing & Communications. She had presented a morning workshop along with Twitter freaks Richie Escovedo and Terry Morawski from Mansfield ISD on how public relations counselors can use social media tools to achieve measurable PR objectives.

I grabbed my camera and asked Harte to walk through what she thinks are the most important points for PR professionals to consider in this rapidly changing environment.


At this point -- about five years into the social media adoption cycle -- I can't help but feel that there aren't too many more original thoughts on the subject. The PR pros who haven't yet emersed themselves in social media have to be making a conscious effort NOT to do so. I mean, my 78 year old Mom is now on Twitter and plays card games with gamers around the world on Yahoo when she gets a break from caring for my 102 year old Grandma. If you are behind the adoption curve from my Mom you really must be trying to not advance in PR.

So my point is that everything I just heard Beth say is fine, but I worry that it's not pushing us forward. And it's not just Beth -- it seems to be everyone who is out there speaking to PR groups about social media. I don't hear anyone showing those of us who have a cursory level of involvement in the space anything particularly new. It isn't new to suggest that we need to plan and have objectives and measure results on the back end. It isn't new to suggest we need to know who we are engaging and be authentic. Anyone who has been involved in a grassroots effort knows the importance of connecting with influencers in a genuine way.

So it starts to dawn on me that this isn't about the technology. It's about PR fundamentals. But I am telling you: IT IS ABOUT THE TECHNOLOGY!

If the PR community intends to annex the social media space, we can't just say that we are social media counselors and then suggest that all the rules we've always followed still apply going forward. They may not. Do we really need to spin our wheels examining the tone and frequency of every blog post that mentions us? To what end? I say go ahead and engage. Just like if you overheard a conversation about your company or product on a street corner. Listen and then offer your two cents. Connect! No need to over-think it!

Of course more information is always better than less, but the constant push by PR pros to slow down the process in the name of strategy inevitably diminishes the magic that comes with embracing spontaneity. You can be strategic and spontaneous. We do it all the time in issues management and crisis response. Just because you are making decisions on the fly doesn't mean that they aren't rooted in strategy.

Do I really need to assess if taking a camera along for a tour of a client's facility and posting the videos on YouTube will deliver results? It doesn't cost anything extra. And yet, how many PR folks have a video camera in their bag? How many have a basic understanding of video editing?

If you haven't noticed, folks, the media is US. All of us. So if you want your stories told, go ahead and tell them.

We have to constantly push forward and examine how new technologies can be used. For instance, we need to understand the emerging world of cloud computing, which some suggest will radically change the way information is generated and shared in the coming decade (disclosure: I represent Mezeo Software, developer of the Mezeo Cloud Storage Platform). We need to better understand crowdsourcing and collective problem solving.

We spend so much time obsessing about Twitter that I am certain we are completely ignoring the NEXT Twitter. Whatever the next big thing will be is probably already in use. We're oblivious because we're all patting each other on the back for starting a Twitter account and updating our Facebook status.


EDIT: Beth Harte has posted a great response on her blog. Just to be clear, this wasn't intended as a critique of Beth's presentation. It is a reflection on the PR / social media relationship.

        

A big thanks to Brent Frei, co-founder and executive chairman of Smartsheet.com, for his illuminating piece, "Small BusinessesWill Inherit the Earth," published online at Xconomy.

Frei notes that specialized sole proprietors, such as independent public relations counselors, are the big winners in the current economy, which is forcing all organizations to do more with less. He writes, "On one hand, they provide the “just in time” component services no longer staffed at the downsized firms, and on the other, they are adept at operating with lean resources and contracting for component services themselves."

It just so happens that WSJ careers reporter Sarah Needleman also took on this subject in a segment on FOX this morning entitled, "How to Survive as a Freelancer." Thanks Joe Cockrell (@joePRguy on Twitter) for giving me a heads up about the clip.

I do think that Needleman gets it wrong when she suggests that what is happening will be short lived. I believe that the splintering of work from larger integrated service providers to smaller, more efficient providers is permanent and is changing the way organizations that are in need of services behave. It wasn't long ago that a large company would turn its nose up at the prospect of engaging a sole proprietor. But in this business climate, many are going forward with small providers because they (we) deliver extraordinary value.

Will these companies go back to the large integrated service providers when budget pressures ease -- despite having positive experiences with their small but capable independent service providers? I do not believe they will. Here's what Frei said:

"This atomization of business is...a function of the nature of work today, and of the growing availability of technologies that will soon transform this approach to business-as-usual.

"The ability to provide results electronically greatly benefits small businesses and individual contractors, as geographical location and infrastructure are no longer barriers. More and more opportunities will be available to productive workers to serve countless niches.

"The main barrier to this volume of atomization has traditionally been the “productivity tax” on the coordinator who manages all the players working outside the company. The information overload becomes intense with too many e-mails, spreadsheets, and overhead material with so many separate contributors. The logistics and technological challenges often outweighed the gains. But new online tools are changing all that.

"Collaborative work management tools will be tightly integrated with online work marketplaces (LivePerson, eLance, RentaCoder) as well as crowdsourcing technologies (Amazon Mechanical Turk, Smartsourcing). Think of these solutions as part of a global switchboard that connects real and virtual teams on an as-needed basis in order to accomplish specific work. They will be as universally accessible as Gmail, and available to all. And the important components—the tasks, milestones and deadlines, as well as the team members who own specific responsibilities—will always be clearly visible to whoever owns the end results."

I not only believe in what Frei is saying, I have experienced it firsthand. I have successfully used Get A Freelancer to identify writers and designers for various projects. The writers I've worked with have done a great job and deliver their work at an extraordinary value. The service provides an e-Bay style rating system (a 10-star scale) that enables the customer to quickly see which service provider gets the most positive feedback from customers. People and firms from all over the world bid on projects. I had someone in the Phillipines create a logo for a client. I wouldn't have been able to have a phone call with a local design firm for what it cost us. I use only U.S.-based writers, but they deliver similar value.

The bottom line in all this is that there is a global talent pool that is now just as easily accessible as the local talent pool. The fact that organizations are growing more comfortable with virtual relationships makes in unlikely that the Genie will ever go back in the bottle.

        

Here are the most frequently read blog posts in April:

Entry
1. Farewell to Rocky Mountain News and staff
2. Yet more discussion about public relations ethics
3. Cash4Gold's take no prisoners approach to blogger relations
4. Consuming PR Blog Says Public Relations Saves the Day
5. USA Today book review slams public relations ethics
6. Public relations being hurt by public's cynicism about business
7. An amazing show by Bruce Springsteen in Austin on April 5, 2009
8. Make plans to participate in Beer Wars Live on April 16th
9. Burson chief throws gasoline on Maddow's fire
10. From now on I'm calling Linkedin "InkedIn" because it can generate PR buzz

        

Bruce Springsteen's hand-written playlist from the Austin show is close, but not quite accurate because they took three requests from the crowd during the 3-hour show!

What does Bruce Springsteen have to do with public relations? Absolutely nothing, except that being able to go to the occasional concert is one of the rewards for working hard and building a small PR practice.

As entrepreneurs, some of us like to spout about the flexibility that our independent businesses allow, but we can be trapped by the smallness of our companies and find it hard to get away. I have fallen into that trap in the past, but I work hard to enjoy the fruits of my hard work, too.

Springsteen is no fruit, mind you, but his music is one of my vices. One of my first assignments as a reporter at the Loveland High School newspaper (the now politically incorrect "Redskin Reporter") was to review The River when it came out. I have that clipping somewhere, but I'm not sure where. I didn't give it a great review because I thought the pop sound of some of his songs were a bit of a sell-out.

That year I went to two of his concerts, seeing him at McNichols Arena in Denver and later sleeping out at Red Rocks to get good seats. My buddy Chris Buck and I -- along with a couple thousand other whackos -- were stunned when the whole band came out at about 3:30 in the afternoon, which was five hours before show time, to do a sound check. It was raining, but nobody cared a bit. They played four songs, ending with Credence Clearwater Revival's "Here Comes Who'll Stop the Rain." It was one of those moments that you think at the time you'll remember forever and here it is nearly 30 years later and I REALLY DO STILL REMEMBER IT!

So I am happy to share the Sunday night Arpil 5 show I enjoyed at Frank Erwin Center in Austin with you. The set list shows 27 songs, which would have been amazing, but it is wrong because as the band was wrapping up their final jubilant number, Bruce spotted someone holding up a sign with a request, grabbed it and ran through one final classic -- Glory Days -- from Born in the USA.

If you really enjoy The Boss and would like to get a sense of what the show was like, here is a link to almost all the songs played in order on my blip.fm playlist. If this is the first time you've heard of blip.fm, it is a great social network built around sharing songs legally. It is what the music industry should have thought to do about 10 years ago. There might still be a music industry if they had figured it out.

To give you a feel for the show, here is a brief video uploaded from the road. There are plenty of unauthorized videos on YouTube as well, but I don't want to get a cease and desist letter, so I'm not posting them.

        

Most who know me are aware that I've been a craft beer fan for longer than I care to admit. Sure, my friends and I began our beer drinking swilling bottles of Miller back in the late 70s. But shortly afterward, we looked for a better beer experience. Thankfully, we lived in Colorado, where we had a few alternatives to Bud/Miller/Coors, such as Henry Weinhard's Private Reserve ("Hanks"), which became our beer of choice as we graduated high school. Once I moved to Boulder to go to college in 1981, I was exposed to Boulder Beer, which had just unveiled what was then their new building after acquiring an old 1940s era bottling line from Coors.

My friends and I were dumbstruck about the prospects of getting free beer tastings after a tour. We were in heaven! I still visit Boulder Beer whenever I visit Colorado. If you can find Hazed and Infused on tap anywhere, order it. Good stuff.

As usual, I've made what was intended to be a short plea into a too-long prologue. The bottom line is that I liked craft beers before they were popular and really get a kick out of the renegade spirit that continues to permeate the craft brewing culture. That's a big reason why I am looking forward to the movie, Beer Wars, which premiers a week from Thursday with simultaneous screenings at theaters across the country followed by a closed circuit town hall hosted by economist and free market evangelist Ben Stein ("Beuler, Beuler"). 

Here in Texas, I've been involved in our own version of Beer Wars. One of my clients, Saint Arnold Brewing Company, is working with others in the craft brewing industry to change laws to allow brewery visitors to take some beer home with them. As the movie Beer Wars depicts, the beer industry here in Texas and elsewhere is politically manipulated by deep pocketed distributors who spread money around the legislative lobby like fertilizer on a Texas wheat field. Texas Watchdog did a great 3-part investigative series, "Beer drinkers could purchase direct from local breweries under compromise plan," that should be must reading for anyone wondering how laws that don't seem to make any sense, are anti-consumer, anti-business and stifle innovation and entrepreneurship get on the books and stay on the books.

Here is a listing of theaters participating in the screening on April 16th http://fathomevents.com/theatres/Beer_Wars_LIVE_with_Ben_Stein.html. And here is the trailer for Beer Wars, which looks like a lot of fun:




Disclosures: As referenced, I represent Saint Arnold Brewing Company as part of my PR practice. They did not compensate me for this post. I also am a shareholder in Saint Arnold, but I own about one gajillionth of it, so don't sweat it.

        

Hey, I never would have guessed that people would be jumping at the chance to read my take on Burger King's branding program, but that remained the most-read blog post for a second consecutive month in March. Not surprisingly, the posts about Rachel Maddow's scathing criticism of public relations in general, and Burson-Marsteller's work on behalf of AIG in particular also were popular. I'll keep trying to come up with something that is more compelling than my Burger King take. 

Burger virgins offers lesson about branding, but not the one Burger King intended

Public relations being hurt by public's cynicism about business

Farewell to Rocky Mountain News and staff

New York Post cartoon deserves a real apology

PR firm exeucutives are either optimistic, pessimistic or undecided according to "survey"

Burson chief throws gasoline on Maddow's fire

Presentation on counseling the CEO in a Crisis

Interview with Kasey Pipes, Keynoter at Southwest District PRSA Conference

The top 10 posts in February

Consuming PR Blog Says Public Relations Saves the Day

        

I have to admit that I ventured into social media reluctantly, believing that the tools were primarily used by misfits who had too much time on their hands. Those who have seen my presentation on dealing with bloggers in a crisis have heard my scorn firsthand. For the most part, I think bloggers are people who are seeking some fleeting acknowledgement of their self-worth. They pontificate on things about which few have more than marginal knowledge and they gather in packs to shout down dissenting opinions.

"Crisis Communications: How to Recover from a Black Eye," was published in Perspectives

To a certain extent, I think I've been proven partially right in that initial assessment. Snarky cynics make up a far greater percentage of bloggers and people who post comments than they represent in the offline world. If that was not the case, you would be stopped in the street and ridiculed if your shoes didn't match your belt.

But I have also been proven partially wrong. Social media tools have proven to be valuable in promoting my own small business and in helping me to help my clients. The most recent example of this is the publication of the story, "Crisis Communications: How to Recover from a Black Eye," in Perspectives, which is a publication for the insurance brokerage industry. I was featured as an expert source in the article. And I owe that to LinkedIn.

Several months ago I noticed that LinkedIn has groups, so I looked at the groups that some of my connections were members of and I clicked to join them. I am now a member of groups of PRSA members, Accredited PR pros, independent PR practitioners, University of Colorado alumni, Loveland High School alumni and several others. I've actually found the groups on LinkedIn to be a great way to derive value from what otherwise seems to be a fairly stale way to connect with business peers and colleagues.

One day, someone posted an inquiry on the LinkedIn PRSA group seeking an expert in crisis communciations. I actually thought she was seeking someone who could provide some advice, so I responded. She actually was writing a story on the subject and we proceeded to do an interview. 

So without LinkedIn, I wouldn't have gotten that valuable visibility for my crisis communication practice. My involvement on Twitter has prompted similar interview opportunities. Tweets have also sparked reporter interest in client activities. I regularly tweet about my client Saint Arnold Brewing Company, which always seems to have something going on. This week, they'll be part of a contingent of small brewers heading to Austin to advocate for the passage of a bill that would allow Texas craft breweries to sell beer to visitors to take home with them. A few tweets on the subject peeked the interest of several journalists and boom, the founder will be live on the radio Thursday morning.

With the encouragement of Ed Schipul and his team at Schipul - The Web Marketing Company, I have embraced Flickr, YouTube,  Facebook and others. Each has provided some degree of revelation. For instance, through Facebook I have reconnected with my core group of high school friends who haven't been together in 28 years. On Flickr, I was able to track down great photos of client events -- much better than our official photgrapher took. Through YouTube, I connected with a passionate supporter of my client's products who offered to create a video to promote safety and save lives. And so on.

So mark me down as a blogger who thinks bloggers are narcissistic know-it-alls who spend entirely too much thinking about and promoting social media. And I just posted about how great social media is.

Please forgive me if I stare at myself in the mirror the next time we're together.

        

Last week, I reported on Rachel Maddow's gutting of the public relations profession in general and Burson-Marsteller in particular in the post, "Public relations being hurt by public's cynicism about business." Unfortunately, the story didn't end there.

As reported by PR Week, Mark Penn, who heads Burson, issued an internal memo defending the company, its clients and its practices. Okay. Great. Get the facts out to the internals so they know the Company brass is aware of the issue and is acting appropriately.

As many of you are aware, especially in the US, a segment appeared on cable television last night that attacked Burson-Marsteller and the work that we do.  The jumping off point for this commentator was our work for AIG – a company that has certainly been in the news a lot lately.  We are proud to work for AIG – work that has nothing to do with “burnishing their image” but is all about helping this company handle the massive volume of media, government and employee interest in their situation.  It is ironic to me that someone in the media is complaining about attempts by AIG to make sure they have the resources to respond and interact with the media (and other key audiences).  It is the very fact that AIG realizes it has a responsibility, as a recipient of government money, to be as accessible and open as possible in its dealing with external audiences that led them to utilize our media relations services along with that of several other public relations and communications agencies.

Then he goes off the issues management response rails a bit. He says the firm only "works" for one of the companies that Maddow listed in her Thursday night skewering. As in they used to work for the others but they don't anymore. That's not much of a defense. Of course, you no longer do crisis work for Three Mile Island. It happened 30 years ago! It would have been so much better if Penn had not suggested that they are innocent because those bad guys aren't clients any longer. It is so much more powerful to argue that PR plays a role in helping companies be better corporate citizens.

The cable host also reeled off a list of other purported Burson-Marsteller clients of which she was critical.  Of every potential client mentioned, we only work for one -- Phillip Morris (now Altria in the U.S.) and our work for them is largely to help with legislatively mandated smoking cessation programs; we do not work on the marketing of cigarettes at all. 

This is disingenuous as well, because Burson most certainly DID do cigarette promotion work previously. I know people who used to be on BM's Phillip Morris account. Maybe you don't do it now, but you used to do it. Penn's insistence that his firm doesn't work for these clients now or help to market tobacco suggests that he IS embarrassed about the firm's past work for these clients and their tobacco promoting pedigree. That's too bad, because I don't think Burson has anything to be ashamed of. Their work delivers value and helps communities and companies come together. I'm not a smoker and have no tolerance for it, but smokers deserve advocates -- as do the bars and restaurants who believe patrons should have a right to smoke. That's a different story, but suffice it to say that Penn's weak-kneed defense of the company's clients and work leaves a lot to be desired.

But that's not the worst of it. Penn also attacked:

Her commentary also significantly mischaracterized the nature of the firm's past – for example, we never took a dime from Blackwater.

If that was true, it would be okay. But facts have a funny way of coming back to haunt you. Word of caution for anyone who is having a tit-for-tat with a journalist or media outlet: you better have YOUR facts 100 percent locked down before you accuse THEM of sloppy reporting. Here is Maddow's Friday commentary:

Here's a tip for Mark Penn that his leadership team may have been too proud to whisper in his ear last week. Let it be. You don't want to become the story. Your only concern should be helping to right the ship at AIG. If your firm's involvement makes it harder for AIG to advance its cause, you should consider extricating yourself from the matter.

After all, it is pretty clear that you will quickly deny any involvement with them in the future anyway.

        

There were more than a few cringe-inducing moments in last night's diatribe against public relations on the Rachel Maddow show on MSNBC. It is illustrative of the populist sentiments of the moment fueled by the tsunami of bad economic news and unfortunate business practices.

I hear and understand what Ms. Maddow and others who are raising their voices in criticism of investing in PR are saying. She is not alone by any stretch. Chicago Mayor Richard Daily thisweek took steps to cancel 11 PR contracts with the city. His administration had come under criticism for wasteful spending and PR was the poster child.

It is important that we as a profession listen to these scathing critiques. It is clear that there is a difference between what we believe we do and what the public believes we do. That is a fact.

So what did Rachel say? Take a look: 

Rachel Maddow does her best impression of Keith Olberman

Well, at least I'm not part of Burson-Marsteller! I'm sure they didn't like to see their brand linked to virtually every bad thing that's happened in this decade.

Michael Cherenson, who heads the national board of the Public Relations Society of America has written on this subject as well in his post, "An Ill-Considered View of AIG and Public Relations," on the PRSAY blog.

 

"I...doubt very seriously that AIG is engaging public relations firms to soothe the taxpayers’ souls, or portray the company as just another innocent victim in the current economic meltdown. My guess, as it would be in any crisis, is that the reputable and highly qualified public relations firms working on AIG’s behalf are tasked with explaining what happened, what AIG is doing to fix it, why such steps will be effective, and why those steps will prevent future such occurrences. Only then can the process of rebuilding AIG shattered image begin."

Even with the laundry list of "evil" that Maddow read, public relations can play an important role -- not in seeking to manipulate or distract attention -- but in helping an organization understand how it needs to change in order to rebuild trust. We help organizations align what they do with what they say they do. And we provide a clear understanding of what the public wants and needs from them so they can make the necessary adjustments in their attitudes and behaviors.

In times of trouble, organizations have a tendency to turn inward, which is almost never in the best interests of their communities. Public relations can be a catalyst for positive change and greater openness. How do we get that point across in an era of growing cynicism and distrust?