However, in spite of this online uprising, where email is king (often the only way journalists communicate), and bloggers become legends, there is still something to be said for doing things the old fashion way – through the art of face to face conversation. The days of taking a reporter out for an expensive lunch are gone (as much as we enjoyed it), but being able to craft a one minute elevator pitch to deliver in person about a product or service is still very much in vogue. We were reminded of this when we spent three days in New York two weeks ago meeting with business, consumer and trade media. Yes, email is convenient and standard operating procedure, but there is nothing like spending time with media and being able to look them in the eye. Seeing a positive or negative facial expression to a story, a color or a technology provides data that you cannot glean from an email.
An obvious conclusion? Perhaps, but it is important not to forget the origin of public relations and the fact that it was founded upon the notion of establishing personal relationships in order to convey a specific point of view.

In today’s non-stop world, that point of view may land on a highly regarded blog or on a fabulous website with millions of unique viewers – definitely a home run in our world. But the adrenaline one feels through securing a segment in the first hour of the Today Show or a placement in the Wall Street Journal above the fold is unmatched.

The PR profession has been given a new set of tools to communicate, but in my 30 plus years of experience, I can’t help but think the more things change, the more they stay the same.

What is also interesting about Mr. Smith’s letter of resignation is that he chose to bring this to the “The Gray Lady” of journalistic circles, what some might call one of the oldest, most traditional forms around of media, a newspaper. It was not initially posted on Facebook, or a blog, or tweeted, because, one would suppose, Mr. Smith thought it wouldn’t be noticed as quickly. No question, he was determined to make his point with all the noise he could muster. Interesting choice.

Of course, the PR storm reverberated globally and immediately went viral, spawning all kinds of humorous imitations including, “Why I am leaving the Empire,” by Darth Vader on The Daily Mash. It seems Darth Vader and Mr. Smith shared the sentiment as noted in the last sentence from Mr. Vader’s letter, “And I can honestly say that the environment now is as toxic and destructive as I have ever seen it.” No wonder, author William Cohan said on Bloomberg TV that he thought Mr. Smith “is in the witness protection program right now.” And who doesn’t laugh and remember the memo that Jerry Maguire penned, “The Things We Think and Do Not Say?”

One doesn’t know whether to laugh or cry when hearing the various names used by Wall Street: “Muppets”, or “pikers” (small fish), “marks” (easy prey), or “pawns” that have no backbone. Even the London Evening Standard chimed in its fantastic front page story:” Goldman Boss: We Call Our Clients Muppets.”

Today’s New York Times article by Julie Creswell makes the point that calling clients names is a past time that is alive and well in many other industries including advertising, with flight attendants, in the intelligence world, within the railroad industry and lastly, in the credit card industry. I think my favorite was “foamers”, for train enthusiasts that ride the rails and foam at the month while they go on and on about their passions for old trains.

While I am not sure I support his approach, I wholeheartedly agree with Mr. Smith when he says, “Make the client the focal point of your business. Without clients, you will not make money. In fact, you will not exist.”

And I am very glad that I am not Goldman Sachs’ new PR chief Richard Siewert, who just arrived and is probably still trying to find his way around the building. Talk about crisis management – he is drinking from the fire hose.

Mr. Smith’s letter raises two key questions: Was he right to share his thoughts in The New York Times and is Goldman Sachs, and who knows how many other Wall Street firms, up to their old tricks? For me, I will take passion any day. The answer to the second question is far more troubling.

1) Gilbert Gottfried: In March, millions of people were devastated by the deadly earthquake and tsunami in Japan. Following the disaster, comedian Gilbert Gottfried tweeted a slew of insensitive remarks including:

@Real Gilbert: “I just split up with my girlfriend, but like the Japanese say, They’ll be another one floating by any minute now.’ ”

Result? Gottfried lost his job as the longtime voice of the Aflac duck. To make matters worse, 75% of Aflac’s business was done in Japan.

Bottom line: This guy has no class. He didn’t think about the impact of what he was tweeting and therefore, this is a great example of what not to do via Twitter.

2) Ashton Kutcher: There is no need to rehash the ongoing Penn State scandal; we all know how unfortunate the entire crisis has been … well all of us except Ashton who tweeted this to his 8 million followers:

@plusk:”How do you fire Jo Pa? as a hawkeye fan I find it in poor taste, #insult #noclass. ”

Result? Ashton chickened out and turned his Twitter account over to his PR team.

Bottom Line: Isn’t that running away from the problem? Instead of showing followers that he learned a lesson and would be more aware in the future, he took the easy way out and quit. That’s no way to rebuild your reputation, but honestly I’m not sure I care.

3) Anthony Weiner: In May, Congressman Weiner tweeted a lewd photo of himself that he meant to send as a direct message to a 21-year-old college student. Instead of admitting to his wrongdoings, he denied the accusations saying his Twitter account was “hacked.”

@RepWeiner: Insert lewd image here and use your imagination.

Result? It took two weeks for the truth to surface, however, the media pressure eventually caused him to admit to his errors. He resigned shortly after.

Bottom Line: He is a sad personality and ended up making matters worse. Tell the truth and get on with it.

4) Rashard Mendenhall: Pittsburgh Steelers running back’s Twitter reaction following the death of Osama Bin Laden:

@R_Mendenhall: What kind of person celebrates death? It’s amazing how people can HATE a man they have never even heard speak. We’ve only heard one side … ”

Result? Anger and outrage and the loss of an endorsement deal with Champion.

Bottom line: Really? You do know who Osama Bin Laden is right? Also, you play in America … right?

5) Kenneth Cole: In February, the hasthag #Cairo was a trending topic due to the protests in Egypt. The controversy was anything but a joke … except to the fashion designer who tweeted:

@KennethCole: “Millions are in uproar in #Cairo. Rumor is they heard our new spring collection is now available online at http://bit.ly/KCairo -KC”

Result? The twitter sphere ripped Cole apart, who later deleted the post and apologized on his Facebook page saying the tweet was, “poorly timed and absolutely inappropriate.”

Bottom Line: Probably not the best idea to use the uprising in Cairo to promote a new fashion line, not to mention that it definitely wasn’t funny. Careless and stupid and enough to cause consumers not to buy. What does deleting really do anyways … we all already saw it.

6) Alec Baldwin: Alec Baldwin was ejected from an American Airlines flight after refusing to shut off his iPhone despite several requests from flight attendants. Baldwin had a public meltdown on Twitter.

@AlecBaldwin: “Let’s play a game called Mass Unfollowing. I want to crash this act and start again. But, tonight at 10 PM, NY time, unfollow me.”

Result? It is not clear how many of his followers actually unfollowed him, but his Twitter account was later deactivated.

Bottom Line: Did Ashton give you advice on Twitter troubles? Yet another celebrity feeling entitled. Alec, man up.

Cheers! Happy New Year and Happy Tweeting.

Herman Cain just doesn’t get it – I mean he really doesn’t get it – I mean he really doesn’t know what he is talking about. His most recent pause when discussing Libya was painful to watch. This lapse, on top of the harassment accusations, is rich soil for PR professionals, news professionals, and comedians.

If you really think about it, aspiring politicians are faced with the same central task as marketing pros selling or launching a product – it is about brand building and developing brand loyalty. PR, social or traditional is fundamental to that task. There is the logo, the packaging, the online support, and print ads. But perhaps, nothing is as important as public relations.

The PR dilemma Penn State faces is tragic for a number of reasons, but certainly, is a prime example of how not to handle a crisis. In the short term, the Penn State brand is toast. Perhaps, after time, with perspective, and the assistance of the recently appointed crisis management firm – the brand will garner the respect it once had. Too bad they didn’t listen to their own PR professor who offered his advice as outlined in yesterday’s article USA Today by Andy Gardiner:

“The golden rule of public relations is you have to get something out in the first 60 minutes,” Steve Manuel said Tuesday during a guest appearance in professor Mike Poorman’s class, “Joe Paterno, Communications and the Media.” “And mentioning the victims always comes first. “Bad news doesn’t get better with time. When you cede the message to (critics or adversaries), you lose the battle.”

The PR lessons here are pretty simple and have stood the test of time.

- There is no escaping a news cycle that is now 24-7

- Have a plan in place – always, to prevent needless scrambling (because your scrambling will be played out in public, definitely something to avoid)

- If there is a crisis, address it immediately

- Your message needs to be the first one that the outside world sees – otherwise the media will tell your story for you.

The bottom line? Public relations can lead to great success and also destroy great brands and personal dreams. If utilized correctly, it can propel personal achievement, energize a cause and even bring a country together.

It is one of the oldest communication tools around, yet still trips up the best of us.

It was also a week full of shock and awe including the passing of Steve Jobs, the uprising showcased by Occupy Wall Street and the President again pleading for someone to pass his jobs bill.

While our assembled group discussed issues pertinent to the outdoor industry, Apple devotees around the world left apples and candles at Apples stores and garbage piled up where Occupy Wall Street demonstrators left their mark.

I always come back energized from this meeting because this is the best place on earth to share and exchange ideas about keeping the outdoor industry healthy. This time, however, the world changed around us in a big way. Make no mistake, I am still heartened by the absolute passion at the heart of this industry, but am dazed as well by the challenges we face just to get by.

I learned a lot from this gathering from friends and experts alike. Here are few of those learnings:

Trending Today with Tweens and Teens:

- Their spending is changing from conspicuous consumption to conspicuous reduction.

- We need to help them feel good about their purchases

- They are concerned about a brand’s commitment to charity or sustainability

- 1/3 of teenagers have smart phones

- Facebook continues to be the social network of choice because it answers where is everybody, what are they doing and how can I connect with people like me?

- Male and female teens’ favorite commercial is the Geico lizard

- Some define an outdoors person as someone that does BMX, paraglides and wears tight jumpsuits with Red Bull patches

- One reason young people don’t go outdoors is because there is a sense that they are out there and not connected. Huh?

- Other reasons include lack of time, no outdoors activities at school and being scared

- The best reason for not going outdoors? Because they can do outdoor activities on the Sony PlayStation so there is no need to do the real thing

- #1 teen distraction in class is daydreaming

- One interviewee said, “You need to let people know why they would want to be outdoors rather than in gyms or lazing around the house.”

- Their definition of friends: “if you have written on my wall.”

- The Global Snack Exchange – a barter system for exchanging local snacks is the next form of globalism

Best New App: “Last Night Never Happened” — erasing all bad Facebook posts from the effects of posting while drinking

Top Issue for Teens: Bullying — the NFL and NHL are taking this seriously launching anti-bullying campaigns with athletes

And these tidbits…

Commenting on innovation, from Tony Post – President of Vibram (known for the original minimalist shoe: “Keep it fresh because consumers today like to discover things, don’t be discouraged, and stick to your gut.”

Consumer experience drives sales (great examples are the Geek Squad, Disneyland and Starbucks)

Trade shows are the b-to-b equivalent of going to Disneyland

Great Apps:

Words Lens

Google Goggles

Post It Pop Notes

Companies today need to change marketing experience to do the job of marketing. Here’s how:

Stage marketing experiences

Hit the sweet spot

Get real

Mass customize your offerings

Go beyond the experience

From respected branding strategist Graeme Newell:

Build from the customer’s ego up

Not from the product up

Last thought? The world is changing drastically and we will never see the likes of things as in 2008. Everything, no matter what you are involved in, revolves around a cycle of 24-7 and you need to be completely engaged to succeed.

What did he do wrong? Everything beginning with believing his own press, ignoring the seriousness of the issue and not owning up to horrible missteps executed by his favorite lieutenants. Crisis management 101.

His letter today to his employees was a step in the right direction, though one wonders about the sincerity of the content: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/news/rupert-murdoch-outlines-accountability-plan-213019 . I mean, … really?

Talk about crisis management and what not to do, future PR scholars will have field days as one of the most prominent figures in media history becomes the PR gift that keeps on giving.

It is classic “Ivory Tower” thinking, “The rules don’t apply to me.” And as we have seen with countless downfalls of public persona in the past year, they never think the rules apply to them.

At least this news frenzy accomplished one thing – removing Casey Anthony off the front pages.

This week, Casey Anthony was found not guilty of first-degree murder and two other felony charges for the death of her daughter, but found not guilty of four misdemeanor counts of providing false information to law enforcement officers. Like the verdict reached in the OJ Simpson case, there was shock and dismay from both the media and the general public, as both had been passionately condemning Anthony as a murderer for the past few months. Within two days of the verdict, we are seeing jurors on late night TV and the prosecutor on CNN.

Many have given Nancy Grace the credit for spearheading essentially a witch-hunt against Anthony. Grace’s extensive coverage of the trial earned record-level ratings for HLN with 1.2 million viewers at any given time of day by July 1, five weeks into the trial. To keep up with its competition, other cable news outlets, such as MSNBC and Fox News, began devoting more airtime to the trial.

What might have been a murder trial like any other in the U.S. became a media obsession. With live streaming of the trial available to the public, as well as the “Anthony Updates” iPhone app, and Facebook and Twitter, everyone could follow the proceedings and share their outrage in real time, driving even more frenzy.

Now that Anthony has been acquitted, her lawyers are condemning the media for its treatment of the trial. One of her attorneys, Cheney Mason, said he hopes, “that this is a lesson to those of you that have indulged in media assassination for three years,” and that he is “disgusted” by the, “bias and prejudice and incompetent ‘talking heads’ saying what would be and how to be.”

Maybe this feeding frenzy is just about human curiosity, but it seems pretty clear that this is about ratings and financial gain

This technology saves data to an off-site storage system maintained by a third party, which provides access through the Internet. This method of storing data has become very popular lately with Microsoft recently improving the speed and efficiency of its SkyDrive cloud-based storage service, Apple’s introduction of the iCloud for online storage of music, photos, files and software, and the development of other various cloud storage sites such as Amazon Cloud Drive and Google’s Gmail, Docs, and Picasa.

Last Sunday, the cloud storage site Dropbox, used by 25 million customers for storing documents, videos, and photos, among other files, experienced a glitch that allowed visitors of the site to use any password to log in to customers’ accounts. While Dropbox says that the problem was fixed within five minutes of its discovery, the site’s accounts remained accessible to all for four hours prior to being fixed. On Monday, Dropbox posted a blog explaining that, “a bug affecting our authentication mechanism” was introduced when a code was updated on Sunday morning. Dropbox promised it would investigate to see if any accounts were improperly accessed and would be immediately notifying the account owners. The blog ended by saying that,

James drew criticism from fans and some former NBA players when he decided to leave the Cleveland Cavaliers to play for the Miami Heat, with Cleveland fans even burning his #23 jersey after the announcement last summer. This, along with his statement at the beginning of this season, in which he said that he would bring “not one, not two, not three, not four, not five, not six, not seven” championships for the Heat, contributed to the public’s perception of James as overconfident. His “&KingJames” twitter moniker as well as the oversized “Chosen 1″ tattoo displayed across his back also have helped enhance James’ egotistical image.

Recently when asked if it bothered him that so many people are happy to see him fail, he responded with the controversial:

“All the people that were rooting for me to fail, at the end of the day, tomorrow they have to wake up and have the same life that (they had) before they work up today. They got the same personal problems they had today and I’m going to continue to live the way I want to live and continue to do the things I want to do.”

On Tuesday, he tried to backtrack his comments by saying that his statement had been, “interpreted different than what I was trying to get out there.”

The general public is clearly not pleased with Lebron James’ behavior on and off the court. Talk about James on Facebook and Twitter continues to spread like wildfire, and the consensus seems to be that James needs to change his attitude, be quiet or win a championship in order to redeem himself. Social media, a tool he needs to better understand, has the power to very quickly affect an athlete’s career both positively and negatively. Lebron James is feeling the negative backlash of social media right now. Facebook and Twitter can be useful tools for promotion, but they are also used for nasty criticism and harsh opinions.

The same rules for traditional media apply to the social media world: if you don’t want to see something online don’t say it. It is that simple.

What do you think Lebron’s next step should be? Should he attempt public apologies and outreach to his fans or should he just keep quiet? Do you think winning a championship in the future would actually help his reputation or has he damaged it too much with his overconfident behavior?

As we know in politics, it’s not the crime, it’s the cover up that revolts the public. President Kennedy apologized for the Bay of Pigs scandal and was lauded for taking responsibility for his actions. But few political figures follow President Kennedy’s example – instead choosing to take matters into their own hands by lying and denying, even in the face of paternity tests, video tape, or a hacked Twitter feed.

Had he admitted his faux pas right away, things clearly would have been different. But instead, he made jokes, insulted reporters and was completely silent over the weekend. Acting like a high school student caught with booze at the prom is never a good idea. And we are certain that Weiner has a large team of PR and political advisors who implored him to behave differently in the wake of this hack. But clients ultimately do what they want, and all we can do is consult, advise and sometimes, even beg them to handle unpleasant publicity in a manner that aims to right the sinking ship.

What do you think? Has Weiner’s handling of the Twitter leak damaged his rising star beyond repair? What would you have advised him if he was your client? Let us know.