Phenix Rising: Steven Phenix's Blog

The Blog Song: Please Check My Blog

Please check this funny video about blogging!

Tip o' the hat to new friend Petri Darby, found this via his blog. Petri helms darbyDarnit!, a PR firm out of Houston, TX

Apocalypse Now: Will Recession, Inflation and a Moribund MSM Devastate the PR Industry?

Remember the tech bust in 2001? How about stagflation back in the 1970's? The WaPo laments that, "Unfortunately, the Fed shows signs of overreacting to these pressures and repeating the great blunder of the 1970s." See The Specter of Stagflation. There's more dismal news in BusinessWeek and the AP.

I believe it's time to hunker down because we're fixin' to go on a wild ride. And I'm certain that what lies ahead will make the bust of aught 1 look like an old ABC After School Special.

Here's my torrid take on the bust:

While the VC money flowed like wine back during the dot com boom, [...] I noticed that the pace of hiring and firing accelerated as the dot coms flailed about in desperate attempts to raise revenue. While the repo man banged on the door to collect the ping pong tables and the Herman Miller Aeron chairs, many a PR professional had Security stand guard over them as they packed their belongings. Then, to paraphrase “Howl” by Allen Ginsberg, I saw the best minds of public relations destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked, dragging themselves through the sushi streets of San Francisco at dawn looking for a job. (See Howl.com for a better version.)

Back in 2001, I saw the streets of San Francisco turn into a George Romero film as thousands of howling PR people got pink slipped. I too, was one of the unemployed, the laid-off undead. First, Security came for the PR people. Then the advertising people. Then finally, the remainder of the marketing department.

Here's a prediction: Forget stagflation, now we're in for flackflation. And it's going to smack into the PR industry like a ten ton meteor.

Woe be on to you, those that aren't prepared for what is coming next. Recession, inflation and a dying mainstream media are the Three Horsemen of the Apocalypse. If $100 a barrel oil prices is the fourth guy on horseback, then we will all be bicycling to client meetings. I predict that in less than five years public relations -- as it's practiced now -- will cease to exist. Instead, PR will morph into almost exclusively a social media pure play.

Here's how to recession proof your PR agency with social media.

The Day Mainstream Media Died

Hey, PR people, where were you when the mainstream media died? Apparently it happened back in 2004 and few noticed -- except for those of us in the social media space who have been singing "bye-bye Miss American pie" for quite a while now.

Many social media folks feel that blogs became a real threat to mainstream media during the 2004 presidential race. But now there’s a great new study that corroborates this called Every Blog Has Its Day. This study by three different universities analyzes the data collected during the 2004 blogging surge and guess what? If the findings are correct, then blogs now have more credibility than all other forms of media.

To quote from the study:

"The perceived credibility of blogs is significantly higher than the perceived credibility of any other traditional and online media."

That's right, blogs have more credibility than traditional newspapers and online newspapers. Moreover, blogs are now more credible than traditional television news, online television, traditional cable TV news and online cable television news.

The "good old boys drinkin' whiskey and rye" in MSM board rooms haven't yet realized the particular day that they died. But from the lack of intrepid reporting in the lead-up to the Iraq War, to ever-increasing layoffs in the news industry, to this nasty lack of journalistic standards, it's pretty apparent that is not life we're witnessing---just the spasms of rigor mortis. Is it any wonder that corporate advertisers are pulling advertising life support from traditional media and going online? (Growth is nine times traditional ad spending according to this.)

Need more convincing?

Did you catch Marc Andreessen's launch of the New York Times Death Watch? He told Fortune that if he were running the Times he would "Kill the print product immediately and deliver the base line of news online only. 'Take acute pain now in order to avoid years of chronic pain,' he says. "Basic rule of thumb: Be on offense, not on defense." The offense he recommends is immediately bolting social media features onto the Times' online site.

So PR industry, while business sections are laying staff due to lack of revenue, 126 yr-old newspapers are shutting down and the total media workforce is at a 15-yr low, are you on the offensive?

Before we all begin fighting over the last remaining journalist, I'd strongly recommend bolting social media on to your existing programs.

Recession Proof Your PR Agency with Social Media

Seriously, how can you say your public relations agency is a full-service firm if you don't offer social media services? My advice: You need to add social media to your service offerings -- now.

Why the urgency?

Check out Forrester analyst Josh Bernoff's post on Why Social Applications Will Thrive In A Recession. Bernoff says companies will cut all forms of marketing this year with the exception of social media because,

"It's cheap. Social applications can be nearly free (think blogs, Ning.com, facebook pages) and even more sophisticated communities are typically $30K to $200K -- a lot cheaper than a significant sized ad [and PR] campaign."

If you'd be interested in holding on to your clients during the down turn, we can create these communities like branded Facebook applications for you for whole lot less than $30K.

Bernoff also wrote a report called "Strategies For Interactive Marketing In A Recession" which you can download for free here.

His executive summary states:

"Many economists now believe we are in, or approaching, an economic recession. In the last recession, online spending cratered along with the rest of the advertising industry. But since interactive marketing programs are now fueled by measurable results, not dot-com madness, we believe that they can thrive in a recession. Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects' decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures. Interactive marketers should stop toe-dipping and invest only in programs that can deliver on measurable metrics."

Is your agency toe-dipping now in social media while the economists are gathering enough data to officially announce that we are indeed in a recession?

Here's more. ADWEEK reported in Social Media to Weather Recession that marketers who are moving "into areas like word of mouth, blogging and social networking will withstand tightened budgets. In contrast, marketers are likely to decrease spending in traditional media and even online vehicles geared to building brand awareness. [...] Perhaps more important, Forrester sees more sophisticated marketers shifting their focus from building awareness to motivating consideration, a middle-of-the-funnel activity social media applications like discussion boards are ideally suited for."

Also check out my post from last March, PR is back, like Dawn of the Dead Part 2, where I wrote about my experiences as an account director in San Francisco during the tech boom and subsequent bust. Back in 2001, like the other 40,000 PR pros in the Bay Area, I was laid off and all of us were applying for the only job available at Netflicks. Since then, I've gone to great lengths to recession proof my business and I can do the same for your firm.

Back in March, when Rich Edleman was tooting the horn that PR was back, I wrote that "when the wheels come off the economy–and the wheels always come off–mere activity won’t sustain an account if that activity doesn’t have a direct and clear impact upon sales. Otherwise, when things go bad, the PR peeps are the first one escorted off the property [by Security]....Is it any wonder that the streets of San Francisco turned into a George Romero film as thousands of howling PR people got pink slipped?"

I've been through a recession before and I saw what it did to our industry. But now there's a new service that can keep us all working.

Social Media News You Can Use

Josh Bernoff: Strategies For Interactive Marketing In A Recession

"Many economists now believe we are in, or approaching, an economic recession. In the last recession, online spending cratered along with the rest of the advertising industry. But since interactive marketing programs are now fueled by measurable results, not dot-com madness, we believe that they can thrive in a recession. Social applications in particular, such as communities and social networking sites, are cost-effective and have a measurable impact on prospects' decisions in the consideration stage, which will be important to companies under recessionary pressures. Interactive marketers should stop toe-dipping and invest only in programs that can deliver on measurable metrics."

Josh Bernoff: Why Social Applications Will Thrive In A Recession

"Budgets are tight in light of the economic conditions as you surmise, but [the budget for social applications] has not been impacted. We are still keen to move forward with our trial and have support….at this point anyway. Interactive in general has been more protected than other comms areas and saw an increase."

ADWEEK: Social Media to Weather Recession

"According to the Forrester Research report, marketer moves into areas like word of mouth, blogging and social networking will withstand tightened budgets. In contrast, marketers are likely to decrease spending in traditional media and even online vehicles geared to building brand awareness. Those findings stand in contrast to the previous economic downturn, when spending on Internet advertising cratered as marketers turned to tried-and-true media."

Tom Foremski: The Influence Of The Blogosphere Boosts Salesforce By Over Half-A-Billion Dollars

"It always fascinates me to see how stories move through the blogosphere and into mainstream media. It is always interesting to watch what I sometimes term the "trajectory of ideas" within the mediasphere and the ripples of influence."

Lucas McDonnell: Forums versus wikis: wikis often lose.

"Back in September of last year, I talked about some general questions people should ask before setting up a wiki. The very first question I asked was: 'is a wiki the best technology for what I am seeking to accomplish?." That may not always be an easy question to answer."

Social Media Programs and PR Agencies: The Have and the Have-Not's

By Steven Phenix

AUSTIN, TX--The public relations firms with the largest revenue know something you don't: They've made social media programs an important part of their service offerings.

Take a look at the public relations agencies below that do not currently offer their clients social media programs. Then check out O'Dwyer's site to see how these U.S.-based independent firms rank according to 2006 revenue. Interestingly, six of the top ten PR firms do consider social media important enough to make these programs part of their regular service offerings.

Social media like blogs, podcasts, forums, wikis and myspace/facebook applications should be a part of every PR agency's tool set. In fact, a recent white paper from Council of PR Firms says that in next five years, "social media must become part of the way public relations practitioners do business or they will become obsolete." (From "Relating to the Public: The Evolving Role of Public Relations in the Age of Social Media," available as a PDF here.)

Remember fax blasting press releases? Not having social media programs as an integral program in 2007 is akin to not owning a fax machine, circa 1990.

Would you like to become one of the Have's? Send me an email or call 512-963-4649.

Our Digital PR Service is a turnkey solution that gives traditional public relations firms the ability to open an online channel of communication with their client's targeted universe of customers, influencers and prospects. With our help, you can effectively communicate messaging without journalists standing between the message and consumers.

Anchored by a business blog, our campaigns use a variety of Web 2.0 and social media tools to create extraordinarily effective marketing strategies. Also, out team will take responsibility for as much, or as little of the online content development and infrastructure as you require.

For more information about Phenix Public Relations' Digital PR  Service, click here.

The Social Media Have-Not's

5W Public Relations
Affect Strategies
Airfoil Public Relations
APCO Worldwide
Ashton Partners
Bader Rutter
Bateman Group
Bender/Helper Impact
BizCom Assocs
Bliss, Gouverneur & Associates
Boardroom Communications
Bridge Global Strategies
Buchanan Public Relations
Cerrell Associates Inc
Clifford Public Relations
Communications Strategies
Consensus Communications
Cooney/Waters Group
Coyne Public Relations
CTA Integrated Communications
Cubitt Jacobs & Prosek Communications
Dan Klores Communications
Development Counsellors International
Devine & Powers Communications Group
DuDell & Associates
Dye, Van Mol & Lawrence
Edge Communications
Edward Howard & Co
Gale Group LTD
Gibbs & Soell Public Relations
Guthrie/Mayes Public Relations
GYMR
Hager Sharp
HealthSTAR Public Relations
Hope-Beckham Inc
Horn Group
Hunter Public Relations
Imre Communications
Integrated Corporate Relations
Intermarket Communications
Jackson Spalding
John Bailey & Associates Inc
JS2 Communications
Kaplow
Katcher Vaughn & Bailey
KCSA Worldwide
Kohnstamm Communications
L.C. Williams & Assocs
Lambert, Edwards & Associates
Landis Communications
Linden Alschuler & Kaplan, Inc
Lippert/Heilshorn & Associates
Lou Hammond & Associates
LVM Group
M&P Food Communications
M. Silver Assocs.
Maccabee Group
Makovsky + Company
Maloney & Fox
Marx Layne & Company
McGrath/Power
McNeely Pigott & Fox
Merritt Group
Michael A. Burns & Associates
Moore Consulting Group
Morgan & Myers
Morris + King Company
New West Agency
O’Connell & Goldberg
Peppercom
Perry Communications Group
Pierson Grant Public Relations
Praco
PRx Communication Strategists
Public Communications Inc
Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications
Regan Communications Group
Rhea & Kaiser Marketing Communications
Ron Sachs Communications
S&S Public Relations
Schneider Associates
Shelton Group
Sloane & Company
Solem & Associates
Spectrum Science Communications
Spring O'Brien & Co
Stanton Crenshaw Communications
Swanson Communications
Tech Image
The Bohle Company
The Edison Group
The Harrell Group
The Hoffman Agency
The Jeffrey Group
The Kotchen Group
The Ledlie Group
The Rogers Group
The Vandiver Group Inc
The Walker Agency
The William Mills Agency
Thorp & Company
Toplin & Assocs
Transmedia Group
Trylon SMR
Valencia, Perez & Echeveste
Vollmer PR
Walek & Associates
Widmeyer Communications
Wragg & Casas Public Relations
Zeno Group
Zeppos & Associates

Fools Rush in to Social Media Campaigns

Where Angels Fear to Tread

By Steven Phenix

Meet Linda, a PR account director for several large companies. One day, one of her clients called her in for a meeting and said his company wanted to delve into social media. "You know," said the client, "we want some of that Web 2.0 stuff. How fast can you launch a campaign?"

Poor Linda had never published her own blog and couldn't even tell the difference between a wiki and forum.  But she had read a recent white paper from the Council of PR Firms that said in the next five years, "social media must become part of the way public relations practitioners do business or they will become obsolete." (From "Relating to the Public: The Evolving Role of Public Relations in the Age of Social Media," available as a PDF here.) So fearing obsolescence, Linda and her team jumped in to this brave new world. Their intent was to "join the conversation" but instead it quickly turned into a street brawl.

Writes B.L. Ochman in What Kills a Social Media Campaign:

"Increasingly, Fortune 500 companies like Ford, Wal-Mart, Sony and Dell are embarking on social media marketing campaigns and blundering, big time.

"At best, they wasted a lot of money on ill-conceived campaigns involving blogs, video-sharing sites like YouTube, social networks like MySpace and other new media where users (horrors!) can actually create content.

"At worst, their futile attempts at old-style message control (masquerading as new media) did permanent damage to their brands in the very markets that will determine their future fortunes."

When your client calls you into a meeting and asks you to help move the company in a Web 2.0 direction, don’t panic. Melvin Yuan has put together a PR 2.0 University with a great list of required reading. He’s included all the classics like The Cluetrain Manifesto, Naked Conversations, The Long Tail, The Wisdom of Crowds, Wikinomics, plus various articles, ebooks and PDFs.

If your client expects you to have a program in place immediately — before you have time to digest all this course work — well, it might be time to panic if you haven’t been a long-time student of social media in your spare time. And if you’re just beginning to dip your toes into all this Web 2.0 goodness, would you be comfortable putting your client’s reputation on the line while you learn on the job?

My advice: As tempting as new channels like blogs and massively-multiplayer environments may be for marketing, you should make sure you understand the needs, opinions and language of the audience before throwing your messages at them. If you don’t know this new world as well as your Rolodex of reporters, it’s best to hire a consultant.

Our Digital PR Service is a turnkey solution that gives traditional public relations firms the ability to open an online channel of communication with their client's targeted universe of customers, influencers and prospects. With our help, you can effectively communicate messaging without journalists standing between the message and consumers.

Anchored by a business blog, our campaigns use a variety of Web 2.0 and social media tools to create extraordinarily effective marketing strategies. Also, out team will take responsibility for as much, or as little of the online content development and infrastructure as you require.

For more information about our Digital PR  Service, click here.

For a free consultation, send me an email or call now at 512-963-4649.

Survey on social media says...

...stop listening to surveys on social media/Web 2.0.

By Steven Phenix

AUSTIN, TX--Business owners, if you need to wait till acceptance rates hit a certain plateau before adopting your own social media strategy, then I promise you you're efforts will be doomed. Fact is, social media is growing so fast and morphing so rapidly, that if you're company takes a "wait till next year" approach, you'll be left behind and never be able to catch up.

Take for example a new survey by Jupiter released this last July that warns retailers away from social media campaigns. eCommerce Times quotes Jupiter's report

"The majority of online shoppers who have used social and community sites while researching and purchasing do not believe that such sites affected their purchase decisions, and few online shoppers said they spend incrementally more due to their use of social and community sites."

Also quoted is Jupiter's the lead analyst for the report, Patty Freeman Evans, as saying

"Retailer[s] should take a pause from all the hype they've heard about social networking and social media because those sites are not something that's going to immediately drive incremental sales for them."

If you take Jupiter as Gospel and forgo a social media campaign, what will happen to your business if just say consumers begin to flock to social media and your largest competitor has a year's jump on you with their wikis, forums, blogs and user-generated content (UGC)?

While you consider that, here's another study called IT Execs: Social Media Most Trusted Source for Purchasing Decisions to chew on by the good folks at ITtoolbox and PJA Advertising + Marketing. Take these findings from the study into consideration:

• IT professionals cite social media as the most trustworthy online source of information when making purchasing decisions

• Executive-level decision-makers spend nearly 3.5 hours per week consuming or participating in social media - the highest usage profile of any IT audience

• Nearly two-thirds of IT professionals surveyed say social media content and user-generated tools have made for a more informed purchasing decision; nearly three-quarters say such content and tools have made their lives more efficient.

• IT audiences now spend as much or more time consuming or participating in social media as they do consuming editorial media or vendor content.

What do the purchasing habits of IT geeks mean to you if say you're a maker of premium dog food? (Attention Jim Kelly!) Consider that these geeks owned PCs while you were still banging out forms in triplicate on an electric typewriter. They were online as you bought your first Commodore 64. And now that you're ordering just about everything on Amazon while listening to your iPod, take a moment to consider who was there first. The geeks shall inherit the earth not simply through usurping the popular kids. The ultimate Revenge of the Nerds is that you and your customers grow a little more geekier every day.

Are you going to sit on your hands while your competitors adopt the Tao of the Geek and steal away your market share?

Here's some more findings about UGC that Jordan McCollum culled from a new survey from PR Week and Manning, Selvage & Lee:

• 43.4% of marketers will use UGC in the next year

• 42.3% have definitely allocated some portion of their budget to UGC

• 92.5% would consider turning to an Internet/new media specialist for a “new media campaign,” and 47.7% would turn to them first (that’s more than 2.5 times greater than the next choice, a PR agency).

• 46.6% think Internet/new media agencies do a very good or excellent job measuring their effectiveness (second only to direct marketing agencies).

Did you catch this figure -- 43.4% of marketers will use UGC in the next year? What percentage of these marketers are retailers, the survey didn't say. My advice is not to wait till next year to find out.

I'd also advise you to stop listening to surveys and start ramping up your social media campaign now.

Need more convincing? Check out Why Your Business Needs a Blog.

Repent, PR Industry, the End is Near

By Steven Phenix

AUSTIN, TX--There's nothing like a little validation.

According to a new white paper from the Council of PR Firms, in the next five years, "social media must become part of the way public relations practitioners do business or they will become obsolete." From "Relating to the Public: The Evolving Role of Public Relations in the Age of Social Media," available as a PDF here.

Amen! In fact, I've been preaching this sermon for a while now, since I walked away from traditional PR over three years ago.

For more on the impending demise of the public relations industry, see my previous posts:

• Buzzards Circle Over the PR Industry

• Public Service Announcement for Panicked PR Pros

• Second Life may not be a Marketing Gold Rush

• Note to PR Flacks: Lighten Up

• PR is back, like Dawn of the Dead Part 2

Skip the PR and start a blog. Why does your business need a blog?

Austin Businesses: Reach More Customers with a Blog

By Steven Phenix

AUSTIN, TX--When Austinites are searching Google for the products you sell, where does your business show up?

Whether you're a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker, every business owner knows that the survival of your company depends on your ability to compete with other butchers, bakers and candlestick makers. But then things got a lot more complicated with the Internet -- now 58% of shoppers, according to Accenture, are going online first to do their research before stepping foot in a store.

Over the last several years, Phenix Public Relations has cracked the Google algorithm with its corporate clients and subsequently pushed their blogs up in the Google rankings to the number two position next to large enterprises like IBM. Lately, we've been tweaking our campaigns so they could be affordable to small business owners. And now we've launched our new Digitial PR Service for Small to Medium-Sized Businesses. (For more information about this program, click here.)

Our Digital PR Service enables clients to open an online channel of communication with their targeted universe of customers, influencers and prospects. With our help, you can compete not just locally but also against international companies that have spent millions of dollars to reach that coveted number one position on Google.

Anchored by a business blog, our campaigns use a variety of Web 2.0 and social media tools to create an extraordinarily effective marketing tool. Also, out team will take responsibility for as much, or as little of the online content development and infrastructure as the client requires. Why does your business need a blog?

Considering that 62% of searchers click on a 1st page link and only 10% goes beyond the 3rd page, let's go back to my original question:  When a consumer types "best (fill in the blank) Austin" into Google do you show up on the front page?

If you'd like to get more out of your marketing efforts and do it with a much smaller spend than traditional advertising or PR, let's set up a meeting.

Send me an email or call me now at 512-963-4649.