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PR
Face2Face: David Kistle, 2004-2005 IABC Chairman
PR Face2Face is a special series of interviews with the top public relations and
publicity professionals in the country, as well as with people involved in the
public relations world.
Aggregators:
the Risk and Reward
Part of any good PR person's job is to stay up on current events. Some may assume
this job is even harder with the advent of blogs. While the quantity of content
does increase...
Measuring
Blog Importance & Influence
Sigh, each new PR opportunity always seems to bring us back to one of our biggest
problems-measurement. But the posts below on aggregators and the Edelman/Intelliseek white paper remind us of the need for a broader view of ranking and rating blogs
Search
Engine Metrics… Organic Search vs. Paid Placement
Let me preface this report by citing advertisers in 2004 have spent 4 Billion
dollars on search engine marketing according to (SEMPO) the Search Engine Marketing
Professional Organization.
Press
Release Seminar: Mick Jolly of PRWeb
Press releases and how they can help your business are the topic of the next Duct
Tape Marketing teleseminar on Local Online Marketing to be held on Wednesday,
April 6.
Web
Credibility 101: Execs Shouldn't Hide Their Identities
and call center employees shouldn't supervise ad campaigns. Since this company
just contacted me by accident trying to reach either Google or Overture, now I
get to trash their website.
A
Conversation with Steve Rubel, Micro Persuasion
Steve is Vice President Client Solutions at CooperKatz, a New York PR firm, and
author of the Micro Persuasion blog. He is arguably the most prominent and influential
blogger in the PR profession either side of the Atlantic.
Using
PPC To Maximize Your Search Engine Positioning ROI
The quest for higher search engine positioning on the natural search engines is
generally the quest to increase revenue from a product or service. It is not the rankings themselves that hold any special value; it is the visitors that they bring and the resulting increase in business.
Is
"Page Not Found" Making Google Tell The World "Site Not Found"?
Search Engines are hard to tame, that's for sure. But if you can get on their
good side, search engines can be your biggest ally when it comes to generating
tons of free traffic to your business web site.
The
RSS Opportunity
Susan Mernit writing in the digital edge: The growing popularity of RSS among
information-hungry consumers is having a direct impact on publishers' audience
acquisition and Web monetization strategies. Although journalist/blogger Tom Biro
reports that 160 newspapers in the U.S. are offering RSS feeds of their content...
Blog
linking policy: Develop one today
Blogs link to one another. We all know that to be a standard, and very distinguishing
feature of the blogosphere. The problem with blog linking for most bloggers is
that of developing a personal blog linking policy.
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04.11.05
PR Face2Face: Warren
Bickford, 2005-2006 IABC Chairman
 By
Jeremy Pepper
PR Face2Face is a special series of interviews with the top public relations and
publicity professionals in the country, as well as with people involved in the
public relations world. The second part of the fifth installment is Warren Bickford,
the incoming chairman of IABC.
Warren Bickford, the incoming IABC Chairman |
Besides being the incoming IABC chairman, you are the Vice President of Gryphon
Reputation Management. How do you balance the IABC work with the account work
with family life? Where do you find that life/work balance?
I don't balance it very well. It's interesting because I have always have had
fairly demanding positions, where I am on-call 24/7/365 - that's just the nature
of the work I have done. I am used to not working standard hours. What I find
is you work some fairly long days because the daytime is client work, and then
the evening is taken with the IABC work - email, and other work-related activities.
I am fortunate that my family is very supportive, plus I have older, independent
teenagers. It just seems to work out.
The IABC Chair blog was hailed at first
as a good idea and intention, but has now come under fire. What would you change
about the IABC blog? Are you going to continue the blog? (Editor's Note: David
Kistle has already handed over the blog to incoming Bickford.)
Absolutely I will continue the blog. In the Member Speak area, I have already
noted that I do intend to pick up the blog, and you should expect to see something
within a week.
You have a lot of IABC bloggers - Allan
Jenkins, Shel Holtz, Eric
Eggertson, Neville Hobson - but
no blogroll on the IABC Chairblog. Why not just turn the IABC blog into an IABC
blogger aggregator?
Actually, no, we have not considered that, but it's not that we have not thought
of those things. We are getting the Chair Blog back up and running, and we will
link to those other blogs, but we have a lot in store for the blog.
The way I am envisioning it is that I will be the primary person, but because
I travel for both client work and IABC, I am looking at having guest bloggers.
I am in the process of putting that all together at this moment.
What is IABC? In Ragan's, David
Kistle noted that the association is moving in the right direction at the
right speed. What is the direction that you plan to take IABC in your year?
There's this myth that when the chair comes in, he or she can make wholesale decisions
and changes. We spent the last year developing a strategic plan for the next five
years.
I will be paying close attention to what is in that strategic plan, and ensuring
that the initiatives are carried out. For IABC, it is about the annual growth
strategies, the annual goals. I come in and make sure the plan has action associated
with it.
The joke about volunteer organizations is always that they are great, except
for the volunteer aspect. How does IABC combat this?
It is our greatest weakness and our greatest strength.
Combat is not the right word. We realize it's a volunteer organization, and the
senior positions are held by people with lives and jobs outside IABC. Everyone
is extremely dedicated.
Sometimes it just takes longer to get things accomplished. It's not out of a lack
of interest, but due to time constraints and obligations that we may have.
It can be frustrating at times, but it's the nature of the beast.
I'm a former IABC member that had a terrible experience - but I love Johna
Burke. I know that you are trying to grow membership, but what would you say to
someone that felt he wasted his money and would rather never join IABC again -
how do you bring me back into the fold?
Well, that's a very interesting question. I would think that because IABC continually
evolves, it is a different organization than it used to be. That trend will continue,
and I hope that we can offer something to a wide variety of people.
One of our biggest issues, when you are dealing with a membership of 13,000-plus,
is that you will have different hopes and wants from everyone. We have to be useful
and relevant to each member. If it's at the local chapter level or as a member
at large, what the association is offering has to be meaningful.
It is a continuing challenge.
When I joined IABC, I thought it was like a lobbying group - bringing more
attention to local PR practitioners to local business and press, and to try to
keep local business locally PR'ed. I was told that that's not the group's mission.
What is IABC's mission, then?
IABC is a professional association. IABC is about providing ongoing learning opportunities
for practitioners so they can be the best practitioners possible. Yes, some of
that is ensuring the broader community understands what communications is and
what it can accomplish, but primarily IABC is a professional association with
a primary mission to provide continuous learning opportunities.
I have a few students read my blog. While IABC is making a push to be on more
campuses, most students are more aware of PRSSA and PRSA - what do you say to
them to join IABC instead of PRSA?
Not sure I can say something to them. They have to make a personal decision on
what is best for them, in their particular area.
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IABC was conspicuously absent during the recent PR controversies. Why doesn't
IABC take a position on controversial issues?
Part of it is the fact that the mandate of the organization is professional development.
There has not been a tradition of commenting on communications issues, public
relations issues. That's not to say that shouldn't change, but past practice is
one reason we haven't said anything.
How do you see IABC's business model evolving now that most communicators have
a far wider range of off-line and on-line professional development opportunities
than, say, 10 to 15 years ago?
That is something that will continue to evolve. In the strategic plan, we are
looking at ways we can change. When you serve such a wide and diverse membership,
we need to find ways that people can interact with the organization.
Whether it is online, going through a chapter, or joining an online chapter -
the interactive nature of IABC - there are many ways to get members more engaged
in the organization. You will begin to see more and more tools tested to find
the best practices.
IABC needs to continue to evolve.
Read
the Rest of the Article.
About the Author:
Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder
of POP! Public Relations, a public relations
firm based in Arizona, USA.
He authors the popular Musings from
POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy's opinions and views - on public
relations, publicity and other things.
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