I created quite the stir on Saturday when I tweeted that “celibate” means “unmarried” and “forte” is actually pronounced “fort.” But my favorite is how do you pronounce “ghoti?” The answer is “fish.” You take the gh from enough (F), the o from women (I), and the ti from option (sh).  Rather tongue in cheek, but it’s a great representation of our language.

For our weekly Inside PR podcast, Martin Waxman and I took a few minutes to talk to Darryl and I got the interview on film, with me behind the camera. Watch here for insights on the English language, as well as a couple of resources you can read and/or listen to in order to better understand the mistakes we make daily.

Between riding the Blue Ridge Parkway, hitting mecca at Mast General (see photo), playing Sorry on a Saturday night with seven other PR pros, Club 461, dueling pianos, a 60s party, and crashing prom, we actually did quite a bit of work. The sessions that were of most interest were on social media, client engagement, business growth in a new economy, and creating a vision for your business.

Following are some nuggets of wisdom I found during my trip:

1. Agency leaders should create a vision that brings in all the senses to engage positive (anabolic) energy (Alan Cohen).

2. The easiest way to get a book published is to ask your peers to write one chapter each and compile them into something people want to read (Henry DeVries).

3. Culture, communication, and coaching should drive your business (Randy Hall).

4. You should sell social media ingredients instead of entrees (Jay Baer).

5. It’s important to hire for talent AND growth potential (Elise Mitchell).

6. Measure your social media efforts – work backward from what you are trying to make happen (Brian Solis).

7. Canadians are smarter than Americans at the English language as Dan Tisch proved when he beat all of us at Darryl Salerno’s English as a First Language.

If you have a few minutes to spare, read the tweet stream at #CAPRSA to find some additional nuggets.

If you run a PR agency and you don’t attend this conference, it’s a must. Mark your calendars for May 13-15, 20 2011 and we’ll see you in Vegas!

“EARTH,” Disney’s first movie out of their Disneynature department (which is newest film label to be introduced by Disney in 60 years) gives moviegoers an extraordinary view of our planet. Even better, Disney is using great PR initiative by planting a tree in everyone’s honor who attends their movie during the opening week. Yes, Disney does have the money to do that anyway, but it shows there are big companies that don’t just care about the money and themselves.

Disney’s goal is to ensure trees are planted in areas that conservational is identified as hot spots of biodiversity issues – the Brazilian Atlantic Forest.

That alone takes away the argument that many of us have been making that executives who managed a company so poorly to put it in a dire financial condition, do not deserve such bonuses.  So the spin question is, were those employment contracts really written with “retention” bonuses or were they “performance” bonuses, or just promises of a general bonus, no matter what? That’s what I’ll want to find out.

According to New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, at least 73 AIG executives were given those bonuses, each amounting to at least $1 million. One might also ask, are those 73 employees so valuable and talented that they can’t be replaced?  To the tune of $73+ million in taxpayer funds? I would guess not, but, that is probably not the issue.  To read between the lines of Mr. Liddy’s column, those were employment contracts put in place by prior AIG management and they are legally binding documents.  Not to bash on the U.S. legal system, but I can only imagine the even more ludicrous amounts “we” would have to pay if the new AIG management decided that the company could no longer pay the contracted bonuses and greedy attorneys got involved in that gem of a lawsuit.  That amount of wasted money then would have likely doubled, tripled, quadrupled or even worse.  Is this what one might call “Caught between a rock and a hard place.”? I’d say Mr. Liddy is certainly earning his $1/year salary right now.

One last thought: does it feel to you that our elected officials are reacting in an “Oh crap, I should have thought of that” way?  Maybe they too freely handed our billions of dollars with no oversight, no strings attached? Oops.

To read Mr. Liddy’s full column:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/17/AR2009031703019.html 

Well I am troubled as I read the story on cubs.com today. One, because I am big Cubs fan, and two, I don’t think the Chicago Cubs media relations team would produce such a story. So where did the facts come from?

The offseason of any sport is filling with trades, free agency, and rumors. Does that mean they are all true? The amount of times Jake Peavy was leaving sunny San Diego to join our cubbies was endless and heartbreaking, because as we all know, that trade didn’t go through – for now.

In the Chicago Sun-Times a story regarding Mark DeRosa’s departure was published suggesting manager Lou Piniella and DeRosa never seemed to hit it off in their two year player-manager relationship. The facts are all there in the story supporting DeRosa’s reaction to the trade, but nothing supports the accusation of Piniella’s and DeRosa’s relationship. Where did that come from? Instinct? Opinion?

The funny thing is Piniella was interviewed about the Chicago Sun-Times story and had this to say Thursday in an article on cubs.com Web site:

“”How can they say that? That I didn’t hit it off with him? Was that what he (DeRosa) felt?”

“I have nothing but respect for Mark. He played exceedingly well, I used him all over. I think he had his best season playing for me.”

And even better, Mark DeRosa had this to say:

“I don’t understand that. Whoever wrote that article is wrong. I had a great relationship with Lou. I respect what he did as a player, and I respect what he does as a manager. I enjoyed playing for him. He lit a fire under me. That guy, the writer, has it wrong.”

So if this story was not pitched and based off of opinion, is it saturated in journalist spin – I think so.

In the words of the Black Eyed Peas – Where’s the love Chicago Sun-Times?

This was a not all that uncommon occurence (birds in the engine) but with a dramatic, unique, and ultimately happy outcome (plane in river with no deaths or life-threatening injuries).  So, what should the US Airways folks do now?

On one hand, the crew and company did everything right, right?  So, wouldn’t they be justified to use this to their own advantage?  On the other hand, to do so will seem cheap and opportunistic for a corporation to take such advantage of an unfortunate accident.  However; the pilot and crew seemed to do everything right, if you read the reports.  So, are they allowed to use that in their marketing and branding as a way to say, “Fly with us, we’re safe, experienced and have proof.” Or, will that be a turn-off to potential customers?  To do nothing in this situation could be missing a huge opportunity, some will argue.

So, what do you think? As a consumer, what would you find acceptable in future promotions? What would  you think if nothing about this incident was referred to in future promotions?

For those of you in the field, is there some subtle middle ground where the US Airways marketing, branding and communications experts can indirectly and inconspicuously use this event in a tactful yet effective way to promote their brand?

To read more:

http://www.mediapost.com/publications/?fa=Articles.san&s=98567&Nid=51444&p=988816

However, due to your spamming (if you will) issues of unwanted pitches, I don’t think journalists should categorize all public relations professionals in the same boat. There are firms that pride themselves on practicing public relations the correct way by pursuing a relationship first, then business, and that all starts by doing exactly what you say in your article, DO YOUR HOMEWORK first!

A colleague of mine here at Arment Dietrich Inc. received kudos recently from a journalist who works for Newsday, explaining how much she appreciates being approached the correct way by building a relationship first and developing that relationship into a productive pitch for a publication and client win-win situation. There are good public relations professionals out there; we need to praise them too!

Maybe not for the reasons one might think, considering he is an NFL coach of a very popular team in one of the largest cities in the good ole’ US of A.  Sure, there is that important fact that he coached the Bears to a Super Bowl, and he won the Associated Press NFL Coach of the Year Award and there are some pretty decent stats attached to his tenure thus far with the Bears.  But no, that’s not what impresses me.

The first time Mr. Smith got my attention was while I was driving to work on a Monday morning (my 30 minute commute allowed for just-enough radio time), listening to a post-game press conference from the previous day’s Bears game.  I’m not even sure if the Bears won or lost—it doesn’t matter to this story.

Coach Smith had only been with the Bears for a year or so; still somewhat unknown, untested and unproven.  For the most part, sports reporters are smart, articulate and appreciate the nuances of a good game, thus, are able to ask the excellent questions that engage their audiences.  However; on occasion, there might be a reporter or two who asks a REALLY DUMB question. During this particular press conference, Mr. Smith certainly was asked some of those REALLY SMART questions that he expounded on intelligently and with just enough detail that keeps the listener tuned, wanting to hear more. Then of course there were some of the REALLY TOUGH questions.  The ones where a coach with less finesse might stumble, avoid or even blow up during his response.  Not our Lovie—he answers calmly, deliberately, using excellent vocabulary, not a touch of defensiveness in his voice, not a single inflection that might show he is anything other than calm, cool, collected and extremely well-spoken.

Then what happens when he gets one of those REALLY DUMB questions? The exact same thing!  It is amazing that even I, someone who is not a football fanatic, has her jaw drop when a supposedly professional journalist asks a question so stupid that a) the radio station didn’t edit it out and b) that they still have a job. OK, so I can’t remember now what the exact question was but we’ve all heard them.  And, we’ve all heard some really bad responses or seen some really bad reactions. But have you seen Coach Smith when he gets one of those ridiculous questions.  He is so smooth, so articulate that he actually makes the listener forget about the stupid question and hang on to his every word because he uses the opportunity to say something he wants to get on the table and in a blink, he has avoided a potentially embarrassing situation that could have sidetracked the interview. 

Pure class. 

Sure, a good PR coach could train almost anyone to react appropriately to bad (and even good) interview questions but this is one coach who needs no coaching.    

Dear Jet Airways,

I just read an article from the SFist covering your news release about Mayor Gavin Newsom and his wife, Jennifer Siebel, riding your airline to go wherever he was going – quite frankly it doesn’t matter. Your two-sentence news release, followed by an even longer boiler plate totting your brand, is an embarrassing attempt to convert a non-newsworthy advertisement into believable text. What’s worse, it makes public relations practitioners and their work with relevant, informative news releases, look like incompetent morons who are so out of touch with their audience they can’t even deliver worthwhile, information. I’m glad SFist called you out and posted your nonsense for all to see!

In a tribute to the short, pathetic nature of your news release, I’m going to end my rant here.

Christine

However, there is one major characteristic no other candidate can touch on Obama. Obama might be the most down to earth and regular guy a presidential race has encountered, and Obama can thank his right hand man for that. Former Duke basketball and football star, Reggie Love is Obama’s body man, he knows what “the boss,” as he calls Obama, likes to eat, drink, and even his sleep schedule. But most importantly, Love assists Obama in the social world, whether it’s playing basketball with locals in the state they are in, or up loading his iPod with pop music younger crowds are listening to these days.

“So I’ve gotten pretty fond of Jay-Z,” says Obama. “He’s broadened my horizons in the hip-hop world.”