Mike Maney

Category: PR

  • Why Palm Fails

    Palm recently released the Palm Treo Pro to a thundering wall of silence from the masses. Why? In my opinion, because no matter how great and innovative the device is, the company has become irrelevant. Palm was the only one not talking about the iPhone over the past year. I used to be a Treo fan (I think I had the only Treos that never crashed). By putting its head down and not engaging in the only conversation its peers were engaged in, Palm faded and not even an incredibly innovative device is likely to save it.

  • Momentum for mobile open source e-mail

    After a roughly two year stint running PR for IBM’s pervasive computing/wireless business and a similar period of time working with some of the best and brightest in open source, I find posts like this one from Funambol CEO Fabrizio Capobianco encouraging:

    “I read Hal’s recent press release about Fusemail (another smart email provider who realized there is ton of money to be made in mobilizing their customers, behind the carriers) and the last sentence hit me:

    FuseMail selected Funambol’s software during the second calendar quarter of 2008, the most successful quarter in Funambol’s history. Funambol completed a company-record ten sales transactions with innovative providers of email and PIM sync around the world, including several well-known service providers, online portals, such as AOL, and mobile operators. In the second quarter, the company also closed a Series B round of $12.5M in venture capital and significantly strengthened its solution by introducing important new support for BlackBerry and the iPhone 3G.

    Kudos to Fabrizio, Hal and the rest of the Funambol team!

  • Lyons is right. Lying is wrong.

    Rule #1 in PR is don’t lie. Spin? Sure, we all do it to some extent (I’d claim spin is no longer the sole domain of PR even). But never, ever lie. The truth always comes out.

    The current Bush Administration is a prime example of this. Another is the current dustup around Apple’s PR team trying to game the press and shareholders about their CEO’s health.

    I encourage you to read the posts by former Fake Steve and current Real Dan Lyons for an inside look at how both sides are playing this game. The Fourth Estate smells blood and rather than getting out of the water (or getting a bigger boat), Apple’s PR team continues to chum the waters.

  • FTI acquires Kinesis Marketing

    Congratulations to Andreas Panayi and his colleagues at Kinesis Marketing on their new relationship with FTI (from PR Week):

    FTI Consulting has acquired digital communications firm Kinesis Marketing. The acquisition expands FD’s digital capabilities; the firm will be rebranded as FD Kinesis and will complement FD’s established design, annual report, and alternative media services unit. Kinesis has 22 employees located in Morristown, NJ and Philadelphia, as well as consultants abroad, and a national client roster.

    Andreas was one of the original driving forces in digital media way back in the pre-bubble days when he led Poppe Tyson’s interactive division.

  • HARO: It’s more than just a cool BMX bike

    When I was a kid I rode a HARO BMX bike. It was cool. Today, HARO is cool for another reason. In the spirit of helping reporters and improving the public relations profession, I encourage everyone to: Get Sourced. Get Quoted. Get Famous: http://www.helpareporter.com – Putting Journalists and Sources together, one quote at a time.

  • The Power of Many

    It was really nice to see former OSDL CEO Stuart Cohen in TIME magazine this week. Stuart and the troop at Collaborative Software Initiative are doing a lot of interesting work. Even if you aren’t involved in open source, it’s worth taking a look at how CSI is approaching software development.

  • There are no coincidences in politics

    Update: Like I said, there are no coincidences: McCain VP Meeting a Distraction from Medical Records?

    Political views aside, the “Hey, we didn’t plan for it to happen on a Friday” rationale is wearing a bit thin:

    The records dump comes as Americans head in to a three-day weekend,
    and just days after Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was diagnosed with a grave
    form of brain cancer. But Mr. Black said the campaign’s communications
    director and others have been working on the release “for weeks,” and
    is not timed to reduce the impact of whatever the records contain.

    The above statement is from senior McCain adviser Charlie Black. For anyone in PR or politics, this is clearly a case of trying to bury news over a holiday weekend when nobody is watching television or reading the paper. Let’s hope the mainstream reporters who get to glance at the 400 pages of records choose to report more in-depth findings once everyone is paying attention again next week.

  • Prepping tomorrow’s PR pros

    Twice a year I do a guest lecture at Rutgers University for a 400-level PR class led by AT&T’s former crisis communications pro, Burke “Bad News” Stinson. It’s a great class, led by one of the best pros in the business. I spend two hours providing a frank, no-BS overview of the profession: what it’s like, what they can expect, what I expect, and what they need to know.

    Each semester I’m amazed at the number of students who aren’t yet prepared for the real world of PR — students with no journalism, no PR, no new media backgrounds. Thank the Flying Spaghetti Monster they get time with Burke before being turned loose on the industry.

    So, I’m not entirely shocked to read Bill Sledzick’s piece on Media Bullseye about similar findings at Kent State. While the bulk of his post is focused on the gender gap in PR (for anyone who’s been in the profession for awhile, the existence of this gap isn’t a shocker), the bottom section highlights the challenges the industry faces in preparing tomorrow’s students to be better equipped to succeed as PR pros.

  • The secret to writing a good press release

    Years ago, as part of the vaunted AT&T Media Relations team, Jim Byrnes — one of the best media relations pros I’ve ever met — told me the secret to good press release writing: “Write for the wires. Get the news into the first two sentences and assume everything else gets cut. Write in language your grandmother can understand.”

    I’ve tried to carry Jim’s wisdom throughout my career. Jon Greer gives it another shot in the arm in a post on BNET’s Catching Flack blog:

    …there are only really two elements that define a good press release: it needs to be brief, and it needs to contain real news.

    It doesn’t matter whether it’s an old-style press release or one of the emerging social media versions. Good press releases have news and are to the point. Period.

  • I Promise to…

    In the wake of another blacklisting of PR agencies by reputable tech reporters, SHIFT PR’s Todd Defren mapped out a list of 7 laws PR pros should follow. While the rules included in Todd’s list are common practice for many in the profession, there are still too many others who need the reminder.
    1. The PR pro promises to read several weeks’ worth of previous blog
      posts and/or articles to ascertain whether their story would be a good
      fit for the blog/publication.
    2. If the PR pro ascertains that there is NOT a good fit, they will
      not pitch the blogger/reporter, and promise to push back on
      unreasonable client or management demands to do so.
    3. Before pitching the blogger/reporter, the PR pro promises to
      double-check their method of outreach. They will not only check
      externally-developed media resources like Cision but will also review
      any guidelines made publicly available by the blogger or publication.
    4. The PR pro promises to never send a press release without being
      able to demonstrate its concrete relevance to the blogger/reporter …
      and will never, ever send an attachment unless it’s been requested.
    5. As much as is possible, the PR pro will participate actively and
      transparently within the communities of-interest to their clients. The
      PR pro acknowledges that a “cold call” (in any form) – while sometimes
      unavoidable – is considerably less effective than reaching out as a
      known community member.
    6. The PR pro promises that any correspondence – whether the initial
      contact or follow-up – should contain a message customized to the
      blogger/reporter’s needs and should offer value. For example, “just
      checking to see if you got the press release” is not welcome or
      appropriate.
    7. The PR pro acknowledges that being ignored by the blogger/reporter
      is not to be considered license for harassment. It’s more likely the
      pitch was not of-interest, so any further outreach should be mindful
      that the story idea has likely been quietly rejected. If the PR pro
      must try again, they promise to do so by offering a different, more
      creative and valuable approach to their original pitch.