As a business owner, these are words I never thought I would utter: "Our website is temporarily down. And we're cool with that."
That shows you the power of great communications. Our site is hosted by Squarespace. They're a great company and their operations have been impacted by Hurricane Sandy (more on that below). Operational disruptions happen.
Read MoreThe NHL Players' Association presented its 'alternative proposal' to NHL comissioner Gary Bettman & Company on Tuesday. Reading the media coverage about the handover, I was blown away by the brilliance of the photo opp staged...
Read MoreThere was a huge response this week to our post about the Top 5 Mistakes PR Pros Make When Pitching Journalists. Among the responses we received was this great one from a PR industry veteran, who highlighted some of the more irritating habits of some journalists...
Recently, we told you about the social media campaign we started to get former NHL
coach Pat Burns inducted into the Hockey Hall of Fame in 2010 (Burns has
terminal lung cancer). Over the course of a few weeks, more than 70,000
people joined the group, helping to generate extensive media coverage
for the cause.
A big thanks goes out to all of the reporters across North America who supported this campaign from its earliest days and who took the HHOF to task for this bewildering error in judgment. I owe each of you a cold beer. Email me if you'd like to collect.
Burns
will be inducted some day. But instead of making the speech himself, it
will likely be his wife or one of his children. That's a shame. The HHOF missed a great opportunity to do the
right thing for one of their own. Here's hoping the former coach is
still with us in 2011 when we try again.
* * *
Note: This story is taken from our 'Manage your Message' e-newsletter. To get your own copy sent to your inbox each month, sign up here.
OAKVILLE, ON, April 8 /CNW/ - Less than two weeks after its launch, an online movement to fast-track former NHL coach Pat Burns into the Hockey Hall of Fame has attracted over 50,000 members.
Burns, one of the most accomplished and respected coaches in NHL history, has terminal cancer. In late March, three Oakville, Ontario residents launched a Facebook group called 'Let's Get Pat Burns into the Hockey Hall of Fame - NOW!' The group has attracted more than 50,000 members and has been profiled by media outlets across North America.
"We're sending a message to the Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee that we'd like to see Pat Burns on the ballot on April 15 and that the voting and induction processes should be accelerated in light of his illness," said the group's organizers. "This isn't a debate about whether Pat Burns belongs in the Hall of Fame - his accomplishments speak for themselves, and 50,000 hockey fans agree. This is about expediting the process so he and his family can enjoy this great honour while he's still with us. It's about the hockey community seizing a rare and fleeting opportunity to do the right thing for one of their own."
The Hockey Hall of Fame selection committee must submit its nominations for this year's class by April 15.
"The larger our numbers, the louder our voice," said the organizers. "We're asking Canadians to take a few seconds to visit www.patburns.ca and join the group to show their support for getting Pat Burns into the Hockey Hall of Fame now."
Burns won the Stanley Cup with the New Jersey Devils in 2003. He is also the only NHL head coach in history to win the Jack Adams Award (for Coach of the Year) three times. His exceptional coaching career, which included 501 regular season wins, was cut short by a cancer diagnosis in 2004.
To show your support, please visit www.patburns.ca.
For further information: Warren Weeks, (416) 238-6361, warren.weeks@elevenpr.com; John Perenack, (416) 238-2576, perenack@room-40.com
Read MoreReebok Canada has offered a $10,000 reward (no questions asked) for the return of the stick and gloves Sidney Crosby used to score the gold medal winning goal at the Olympics...
Internal communications often gets the short end of the stick.
Employees are arguably an organization's most important audience. They're the lifeblood of any company. They need to be the first audience you communicate with and the message needs to be clear, honest and free of B.S.
Read More$165 million in bonuses to your employees? Really?
In the wake of the $170 billion government bailout the company has received, this move defies reason and only serves to underscore the prevailing greed that has created this global financial disaster.
The best quote I've seen so far was from New York attorney general Andrew Cuomo, who said, "A.I.G. made more than 73 millionaires in the unit which lost so much money that it brought the firm to its knees, forcing a taxpayer bailout. Something is deeply wrong with this outcome."
The company says these bonuses are needed to persuade employees to stay on with the company. Where else are they going to go and work? The companies that haven't imploded are significantly impaired. These folks are lucky they still have jobs at all.
It is shocking to think that no one at A.I.G. saw the awarding of these bonuses as an impending PR or business disaster. But apparently sound judgment is not something the company is flush with.
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"It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question." He then went on to say that there was "just one thing I was thinking about as I was getting on the copter. I did think it might be useful to point out that it wasn't under me that we started buying a bunch of shares in banks. It wasn't on my watch. And it wasn't on my watch that we passed a massive new entitlement -- the prescription drug plan -- without a source of funding. And so I think it's important just to note when you start hearing folks throw these words around that we've actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles and that some of the same folks who are throwing the word 'socialist' around can't say the same."
I like this proactive call by the President. While reflecting about the interview earlier in the day, he pinpointed something that he thought might become a larger issue in the paper the following day. Instead of waiting to do damage control after the fact, he called the journalist personally to eliminate any confusion about his response and pre-empt a negative story characterizing him as a socialist.
This unorthodox call also serves another purpose. It puts the media on notice that the President is paying attention and that he will vigorously defend himself and his administration in the press if he feels they're crossing the line. I would bet that as a result of this call, more than a few White House reporters will be thinking of that phone call while they're putting the finishing touches on their daily stories.
If you want to check out the original coverage of this story, it's here.
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In our media training sessions, one of the topics we touch on his how to increase the odds of getting a particular message into the reporter's finished story. If you participate in an interview that's 10, 15 or 20 minutes long, that's a lot of material for the reporter to choose from. How can you help narrow that choice down to the points you want them to include? There are several techniques to make an important message stand out. You can: - include metrics that provide context and meaning (percentages, dollar amounts, etc.) - keep it brief (most quotes used in the media take less than 12 seconds to say) - use an anecdote or analogy that helps you tell your story Finding the right analogy can be tougher than it sounds. You have to choose something that won't offend your audience, first of all. And it needs to be something common enough that people can identify with. The odds of coming up with something obscure or inappropriate are high. But with a bit of thought before the interview, finding the right analogy can lead to a short, powerful quote that helps underscore your point of view. I found just such an analogy in a recent New York Times story, "Hope for a brighter future on a darker broadway". A number of productions are closing due to the grim economic times. Marc Shaiman, the composer of Hairspray, summed up the situation as follows:
"For me, it feels like putting a pet to sleep, but not because it's sick -- because you can't afford dog food."
This quote does a nice job of capturing the passion these professionals have for their craft. And likewise, how painful it is to watch these shows close. And all in 21 words. Well said.
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