Barokas Public Relations ~ The Northwest's Leading Mid-size Public Relations Agency.

Hi Friends (and Edelman, Waggener Edstrom, and Weber). Barokas PR has hooked up with the smart dudes at GeekWire – http://www.geekwire.com – and brought together a great group for a mid-summer luncheon called Tech Trends and Tips. The event will feature a panel including GeekWire’s John Cook, TeachStreet Founder and CEO Dave Schappell, Madrona Venture Group Managing Director Greg Gottesman, and Voyager Capital Director Curtis Feeny. The gang assembles at the Washington Athletic Club (WAC) from 11:30am – 1pm on Tuesday, August 16th. Â Barokas PR President Ralph Fascitelli will discuss ten cost-effective ways to build revenue in a tough market. Hmmmm – I wonder if PR is one of those? Guess I’ll have to wait until the 16th.

If you’d like to join us please visit http://barokas.eventbrite.com

For another top-ten list visit the myths PR people want you to believe  http://barokas.com/myths

Hope to see you there.

Howie

Okay stroller brigade before you get your Bjorn’s in a bunch this is not an anti-baby post. But it does have to do with babies riding in first class and how one airline is risking a PR shit-storm because of their recent decision http://theweek.com/article/index/216821/should-kids-be-banned-from-flying-first-class So what’s the deal?

Malaysia Airlines recently announced that on certain – long – flights, like from Kuala Lampur to Amsterdam, Sydney, and London babies are banned from riding shot-gun, and will have to do their screaming and pooping further back in the plane. While Malaysia Air is the first to implement this policy, rumor has it that Virgin and British Airways have also kicked this idea around (kind of like that kid sitting behind me on my last flight to San Jose). What does this have to do with PR? A lot. First it’s about taking risks – in this case huge risks since moms with babes, especially new moms, are VERY vocal; the Internet has given them a huge megaphone. Next – it’s about making tough decisions that publicly may not earn your company points but will ultimately be in the best interest of your customers (or passengers as it were). Too often companies resist making tough decisions for fear they’ll alienate a subset of their customer/client base. What they fail to recognize is the old adage that “you can’t please all the people all the time.”

I applaud Malaysia Air not just because I am a victim of in-flight abuse by baby, but because I believe what they did took an incredible amount of courage.  Why should customers who pay 3X the cost of a coach ticket be subjected to a whining baby and high-maintenance parents who act as if they are the only ones who have ever reproduced? Your baby is not my problem – in fact I paid a lot to get away from you. Please quit your complaining – did you forget you were allowed to get on the plane before me?

For just one moment let’s all put our maternal and paternal defense mechanisms down. At some point you didn’t have kids, and at that point you probably didn’t think it was so cute when Junior sitting behind you was doing curls with the tray-table attached to the back of your seat, or when Missy in front of you kept creeping up over the seat and dropping her sippy cup, which her mom expected you’d return – over and over and over. Or how about “that smell” – when you know someone has a full Pamper? Babies and planes: they don’t go together. But until Mickey and Minnie start their own airline it’s a part of life we unfortunately need to endure, at least for those less fortunate folks who don’t own or timeshare a jet. Anyway, as Snoop Dog says…back to the lecture at hand.

Show me a successful business and I’ll show a company that takes risks. Companies of all flavors, from tech start-ups to well established brands can learn from what Malaysia Air did and ask themselves “what calculated risks should we be taking?” Â It’s a tough exercise that’s a lot harder than taking candy from a baby.

Finally, for you moms tempted to write me off as a kid-hater, to you I say you’re sorely mistaken. I love kids – in fact I enjoy kids more than I do a lot of adults. I just don’t want them in the same movie theatre or section of a plane where I’m seated. And since we parents love to share pictures of our kids, I thought it only appropriate to wrap this post with my babies – Zach and Jake.

Howie

We’re hiring, which means interviewing a lot of candidates to find a few exceptional people. Throughout this process something has become increasingly clear: there is a thrill-seeking spirit about people who want to do emerging technology PR. Maybe it’s the adrenaline rush that comes with the chase, finding the right reporters, creating the perfect pitch, positioning a new product just right, or the spike in endorphins when the coverage appears, or maybe it’s the feeling of knowing “I DID THIS”. Â What I’ve noticed in chatting with PR folks over the past few weeks is a distinct difference between big agency people (yes all of you fancy people servicing Microsoft) and those who represent emerging technology start-ups. The difference? Big agency folks lack a passion, a drive, a desire, often a pulse. They’ve become accustomed to “riding the escalator” instead of climbing the rock-wall. In many ways they’re like the workers in China who each day stand in their station and put the screen on the device and pass it down the line – and repeat – over and over and over again. It’s safe, stable work that doesn’t require much thought. It’s a totally different story for us thrill-seekers.

Whether it’s Bungee jumping, motorcycle riding, rock climbing, scuba diving, or any other sport that has an element of danger, a certain sort of person is drawn to these activities. Those traits are evident in technology PR folks, CEOs at start-ups, venture capitalists, and all the other players in the emerging technology ecosystem. You can see it in their eyes, the way they speak, they are SO alive. Why? Because they’re using their brains, always thinking, pushing the bounds, questioning everything, thrilled at the idea of making the next great company. Then look at people from Weber, Waggener, or Edelman; don’t they look bored? I’d be. Imagine having no excitement, no thrill of the chase or agony of the defeat. Â Just doing the same thing over and over; the safety of the assembly line.

My grandfather used to say “that’s why they make 31 flavors of ice cream” – there is something for everyone. So I suppose not all are going to be the thrill-seeking, adrenaline junkies that we emerging technology PR people are, which is probably a good thing; after all who would be there to promote the next version of Office?

Howie

When I heard the news of the Agency of the Year’s stupid, unethical, rookie ploy it reminded me of another similar move by a ship of fools, Edelman Public Relations. The firm was outed when they designed a fake grass roots campaign – also known as Astroturfing – on behalf of Microsoft trying to build support for the software giant around their troubles with the United States Department of Justice. What compels agencies to act in such a manner? Oh I know, money.

For those of you just joining our little blog I should let you know I am not a fan of most PR people; most, not all. My completely unbiased view is that the team at Barokas Public Relations are some of the best in the business and would never engage in an Astroturfing campaign, no matter how much gold was promised at the end of the rainbow. Â I also know several smaller agencies and sole PR practitioners who would be insulted if a client requested a manufactured grass roots campaign. But bigger firms cannot resist the temptation, and the hubris at such firms enable them to engage in such behavior. So what if they get exposed – what’s the punishment? Â Nothing that a little PR can’t solve.

In my previous post I mentioned that unlike other professional service businesses, PR has escaped any true certification and enforcement. Sure there is PRSA, but that’s just the fox guarding the hen house. I strongly believe if PR professionals were held to the same standard as lawyers or doctors, where the punishment was analogous to being disbarred or losing a medical license, the shenanigans from Burson-Marstellar, Edelman, and other large agencies would be greatly reduced. PRSA has a Code of Ethics but I’m pretty sure the group will not expunge Burson from its roster for what they’ve done and I’m sure they still call Edelman a friend. Want to guess why? One clue – it’s green and white, has pictures of dead Presidents prominently displayed, and comes in several denominations.

When news surfaces like this recent case from Facebook / Burson it hurts the entire PR industry. Isn’t it ironic that our industry is built around helping companies create, shape, and improve public perception? Unless meaningful change happens in the certification and enforcement of PR professionals it will continue to be the Wild West and the palpable friction between reporter and flack will remain. Sounds like it’s time for a good old fashioned PR grassroots campaign to fix this problem!

Howie

It’s that time of year again. You can feel it in the air. No…not Spring and not the start of baseball season; it’s resume time. This time every year my inbox is flooded with emails and resumes from soon to be graduates looking to get into an industry they know almost nothing about. Sure, they wrote practice press releases full of adjectives and flowery prose, and likely did an internship for a non-profit near their school. They studied theory and learned about the birth of the industry including the marvelous invention by Johannes Gutenberg in 1440 – the printing press. Remind me though, how much time did they spend on managing client expectations, dealing with mean spirited reporters, and pitching – on the phone? So armed with a backpack full of theory, allegedly honed writing skills, and a few samples of research papers, how prepared is the class of 2011 to work in the PR industry? Not at all.

Okay so I’m being a bit dramatic, but generally speaking most college grads, majoring in Communications, are not well prepared for the challenge that lies ahead. It’s certainly not like Law School or Medical School where students are put through rigorous training and certification before they can practice the craft. Unfortunately, in PR schooling there is no class on Client Cadavers where students can participate in an autopsy to determine what killed the client relationship (although the likely cause of death was lack of coverage) or participate in strategy “rounds.” There are no mock-trials, no precedent setting cases to study, no Bar to pass. All they have is a year or so of lectures given by someone who hasn’t practiced PR in years, decades maybe, and the desire to make-it in the glamorous world of PR. Well friends, this ain’t no Sex in the City. It is a tough, professional service business that regularly occupies a spot in the top 10 most stressful jobs in America.

It’s a hard job that will eat away at your soul and slowly turn you into a person different than the one you saw in the mirror this morning. You’ll need whale-thick skin and the patience of a Tibetan Monk. Most of you will not succeed and after 18 months will seek a different career. For those of you who stay in the field, or are not tossed from the field, will love it. It’ll becoming addicting – a thrill. Securing a story will be your “high.” And just like other drugs, you’ll want more. The chase is addictive, and you’ll want to raise the stakes soon after your first taste of success. To be good, really good, you can’t turn it off. You’ll laugh at the idea of work/life balance. WiFi becomes your oxygen. If you’re good, Saturday and Sunday mean nothing different than Mon-Fri. You’ll always be thinking about your clients; what can you be doing better, how can you help them beat their competition, what are you going to do tomorrow to get that elusive reporter to take your call? The PR industry is Darwinism; it is survival of the fittest. Does any of this sound like what you learned in school? Didn’t think so.

One day I’m going to teach the best PR course at the University of Washington; a veritable cornucopia of public relations’ do’s and don’ts – including time spent exposing the ugly underbelly and the dark side of this calling. But until then…all I can offer is this, to you, 2011 grads:

Be a Squeaky Wheel, dammit. Look, if the best you got is an email with lightweight thoughts, don’t even bother. Seriously why would I, or even those big, slow, expensive, bureaucratic firms like Weber or Edelman care about meeting you? You must do more than send an email saying “Hi my name is Trixie Johnson. I’m a Senior who will graduate in June from (insert name of school) and I’m looking to get into a (insert adjective here) firm like (insert name of firm) and I’m wondering if you have any entry level positions.”  Trixie, you’ll never get a job that way. There are a million of you out there. If you can’t sell yourself, how are you going to sell your client to a reporter? Through an email? Well that actually will work if you work on the Microsoft account. But if not, you’re going to have to get creative, squeaky.

Think. If you’re going to succeed in PR you must be smart and you must always be thinking 10 steps ahead (unless you work at a big agency – no forward thinking required). You should demonstrate in your first contact with an agency that you’ve taken the time to THINK about why you’d be an asset, what challenges you believe the firm has (even if you’re wrong, take a risk, show you can think) and your ideas of how you can make things better.

Tell me Something I Don’t Know. Trixie, please be interesting. Even if all you have to say is you think I’m full of shit, say something meaningful and explain your thoughts. One of the big problems with PR people is they like to be safe, and in most cases safe = boring. Being safe is a yawner and press won’t see you or hear you. Be different, be interesting, be controversial, be something.

Trixie Who? Good PR people understand how to differentiate their clients. They know that to get 30 seconds of a reporters time they need to “come out swinging” and demonstrate quickly why their client’s product/service is the “fastest, best, most affordable, only, etc” available. But before you can do this on behalf of a client, you need to master doing this for yourself. I need to know why you’re awesome Trix. I need to know why out of the 772 students graduating from the School of Communications at your university I’d be a fool to hire anyone but you. And please don’t bore me with the PRSSA stuff – everyone’s done it and it doesn’t make you any different. Â Show me you know you and you know our agency, and explain why we should be together.

You’ve worked really hard to get where you are, and as one chapter ends in your story another one is about to begin. Work your ass off to make sure this chapter is the best yet. Be a squeaky wheel – go the distance – think. If there was a ever a time to do it, it’s now. Blink and you’ll wake up 40.

Cheers.

Howie

In response to a comment from a No BS Blog reader I want to address the issue of quality vs quantity, and how agencies have fooled clients for years. It varies by agency, but overall most firms, especially the big, slow, bureaucratic, expensive (BSBE) agencies like to play tricks with clients by positioning release pick-up as coverage. Sound bad? Well it gets worse. Not only do PR firms love to tell their clients that they “got coverage on Yahoo! Finance” but they add insult to PR injury and take it a step further by telling clients how to interpret the coverage. Some of the BSBE groups use a cute little scoring mechanism like: positive, negative, neutral. Some assign point values, 1-5, etc. In the spirit of “thinking like the client” I’d be insulted if my PR team told me how I should think about an article. After all if it’s good it’s good and if it sucks, it sucks. Not that hard to tell. But let’s get back to the quality vs. quantity discussion.

In order to fully understand the quality vs. quantity conundrum you must understand what’s really at the core of this issue: fear. For most PR firms and subsequently most PR people, fear is the fuel that drives the agency engine. Fear is the reason why nearly every PR agency website feels generic, boring, or safe. Fear is why most quotes involve the words “thrilled, pleased, excited.” Fear is why the suits answer all the questions in the pitch meetings. And yes, fear is the reason PR agencies want their clients to believe that ABCnews.com, TMC Net, EIN News, MarketWatch, EarthTimes and so many others count as coverage. A picture-perfect example of the BS in PR and it happens hundreds of times, each day.

When did the PR industry begin propagating the lie that more is better? Is this something new in the last 20 years or has it been happening since the dawn of PR? Moreover, how is it the industry has been able to get away with it for so long? We work with a lot of really smart clients – people who would never look at a spreadsheet of coverage and believe that 100 placements anywhere is better than 10 very targeted stories. Apparently though, a lot of product managers and marketing veeps must be satisfied with bulk instead of relevance. I don’t get it. Maybe it’s fear rearing its ugly head again, except this time it’s fear of the board, fear of investors, fear of the CEO.

I chatted with a UW PR class a few weeks ago. Good discussion, interesting questions, and for me fascinating insight into what young PR Jedi’s think about the role they wish to occupy. We spoke at length about quality of coverage vs. noise, and even at this early stage in their PR indoctrination there is a propensity to gravitate towards “more is better”.

I’m curious – do I have it all wrong? Maybe the writer Brendan Behan was correct when he said “There’s no bad publicity except an obituary.” Â Maybe the BSBE agencies with their fancy people, fancy clothes, and fancy titles are right. Could it be? Not sure. But I’m confident when I say this blog post is neutral to negative with an overall score of 3.

Just something to think about.

Howie

I’m not a fan of big corporate PR agencies. For the most part they are paper pushing, bureaucratic groups who build their companies off the backs of corporations that already have established brands. It’s true – look at the agencies that support Microsoft, Amazon, HP, and all the other organizations who have established, well known brands. I’m mean really…how hard does an agency who represents Xbox or Microsoft’s retail stores have to work to get coverage? The answer: not at all. Or how about the people “responsible” for the launch of The Kindle? Again I ask – is there really any hard work that goes into launching this product? No. Sure there are logistics to manage, but no real media relations to drum-up stories. No scrappy, street fighting to get briefings. In fact whether it’s a new Windows powered tablet, or an HP printer, no agency and no PR person really has to put much effort into it at all; it’s like Bumper Bowling.

For those not aware of Bumper Bowling it’s this: Bumper Bowling is played on a regular bowling lane and the gutters are covered by rails to keep the ball in the lane – so every roll knocks down pins. When bowling with bumpers it is impossible to not get points on the board – even if your roll is horrible. That’s what it’s like to be part of a big team, at a big agency, covering a big product; even if their pitches suck, even if the person calling the reporter (if they call) chokes on their tongue mid-sentence and can’t answer any questions – they’ll still knock over pins. Bumper bowling. So what’s the problem? A few.

First, the companies paying for this service are being ripped-off. They are paying for a lot of people to go to a lot of meetings – many of whom don’t say anything in those meetings. They pay for the people to drive to the meetings, sit in the meetings, then have a meeting after the meeting to decide who is going to do what. And on top of that, they pay for the agency to send them an email outlining what took place in the meeting. Thousands of dollars – wasted. The next problem: the PR people in those meetings and “pitching” (aka bumper bowling) begin to feel as if they are good PR people, and why wouldn’t they? Mylie Cyrus and Justin Bieber likely think they’re good artists, when in fact most of us know they’re not artists at all. Just like Mylie and Justin, many (not all) PR folks working for the large agencies couldn’t sing/pitch their way out of a paper bag, but they don’t know that. They actually think they are skilled, capable, able-bodied PR professionals because they’ve never had a ball go in the gutter. They don’t know any better. Bumper bowling.

Last week I spoke with a Product Manager from a really, really, really big software company in Redmond. She expressed her frustration with her PR firm – or at least the team she inherited – and was unhappy that she couldn’t do anything about it. I asked her if she had spoken to the head of the PR team; she said it would be a waste of time since she felt as if she was in an arranged marriage with the firm. As disappointing as this was to hear I don’t think she’s alone. A lot of internal marketing and communications folks are stuck in these arranged marriages with PR firms they didn’t pick, don’t want to work with, and can’t do anything about. Since I’ve never been in a situation like that I can’t comment, but it’s sure nice knowing that everyone we work with actually wants to work with us. I’m curious to know how many of these arranged corporate/agency marriages exist and how many divorces would take place if the participants had a say? Something tells me there would be a lot fewer agencies the likes of Waggener Edstrom, Edelman, MWW, Weber Shandwick, Fleishman Hillard, etc.

You know what would be fun? To somehow install those Automatic Foul Detectors – the kind that ring when a foot goes over the line at the bowling alley – into big PR firms. That way every time someone on the team isn’t doing “real PR” the buzzer goes off and the points are wiped from the tracker. Now those are bowling shoes I’d not be caught dead in.

Howie

It wasn’t that long ago words like sick or friend meant something entirely different than what they do today. And while these evolved words often cause laughter at family gatherings, “Grandpa said he can’t find his thongs,” it’s not always a laughing matter. Sure a bomb used to explode, being sick was bad, and hooking-up meant getting together – socially. But were you aware that PR used to mean building relationships and actually talking to people – as in conversations – where your lips move and your fingers don’t? Word.

My big brother and I still laugh about the time, 30 years ago, when our Grandma Eve marched into the kitchen and exclaimed, “Your grandfather just pulled a real boner in the garage!” This was the first time it occurred to me that words often have multiple meanings. In our small, juvenile minds what we thought Eve meant was not at all what she was saying. She was trying to let us know that her husband just hit a shelf with his car, and all the boxes came tumbling down on the hood. Clearly this word had morphed from meaning: a blooper, a small mistake having an amusing effect.

Fast forward 30 years. A few weeks ago I overheard two kids at the airport comparing how many “friends” they had. I didn’t hear what Kid 1 said, but I heard Kid 2 claim he had over one thousand friends. Of course these aren’t real friends, they are not people he could call to ask for help, or whose home he could run away to if need be. He was talking about Facebook Friends; just another case of a bastardized word. Speaking of taking liberties with words, let’s talk about PR.

There was a time when to be “in PR” or to call oneself a PR person meant you were schooled in and skilled at the art of communication. The term PR used to connote a discipline wherein the practitioner could pitch any story (in person or on the phone), be a trade show media stalker, a toast master, and even deliver the occasional eulogy. You had to think on your feet, dance when needed, and rescue a client should they stumble. But something is happening that’s causing these traits to fade like Marty McFly’s family Polaroid and it terrifies me. What used to be a somewhat exclusive club, open only to those who could do it all, is now being infiltrated by posers who hang out at PRSA events and become fans of PR groups on Facebook. They hide behind keyboards and tweets, and do anything to avoid human contact where they might feel put on the spot or exposed. What’s happening to my beloved art? Will the next generation, the PR Johnny Come Latelies, even use a phone as part of their toolkit? Or will they feel like they’re ready to conquer the PR world after a six-month internship where they tracked coverage, then tracked coverage, and finally tracked coverage?

I’m not sure who to blame for this mess. Is it the Mega Agency that “grows” PR people like steroid injected chickens? Is it universities that gutted their communications programs? Is it a byproduct of technology? Maybe it’s all of the above. Whatever the reason, there is a generation of people coming into the field ill equipped to serve clients in a capacity beyond email or Twitter. So what can be done?

Schools, PR agencies, and corporations need to be mindful that creating great PR people requires exposure to all facets of the trade. But the responsibility rests not – solely – on those who teach and coach. PR newbies need to ask for help and demand they get the opportunity to experience the entire gamut of the PR spectrum. In other words, entry level PR people need to become all around good utility players. Perhaps one day this industry will have a real certification process and not rely on the totally worthless APR program.

At BPR we’re totally committed to carrying on the old-school PR methods that helped give legitimacy to the craft. We embrace crazy concepts like talking on the phone, personalizing notes to reporters, and even reading magazines. I hope 2011 gives rise to a new breed of PR folk and sees the restoration of what it really means to be a Spin Doctor. That’ll be something I can truly become a fan of. That will be sick.

Howie

UP – those two letters mean so much and the direction in which we want things to travel; unless the topic is lawsuits, product recalls, unemployment, crime, stalled cruise liners, weight, WikiLeaks, etc. Up has become quite the friend to the good people in PR Land too. They like to talk about up leveling the message, living up to their word, covering up the truth, fed up with sloppy journalism, shaking things up, elevating the conversation, rising above the noise, and turning up the volume. What is it about up that brings us down? We’re not happy unless positioned as leading, appearing at the top of a story, name up in lights, or having the most fans/friends/followers. There was a time when getting down (dance floor, in the weeds, ..and dirty) was desirable. But now it’s all about up. Got to get a leg-up on the competition, must up the valuation, sales have to be up, we need to up our uptime, up the number of apps, up our traffic, up our bandwidth – 3G just doesn’t cut it any longer – we must upgrade so we can up-load faster, and apparently Google needs to up their offer when knocking on Groupon’s door. They must not have used the right pick-up line – something like “Hey Groupon, nice daily deals. Are they real?”  They broke-up.

So what am I up to with this update? Just thinking about the upcoming year and what it’ll bring. Will the emphasis continue to be on up? Will quality become more important than quantity? If the numbers are lower but customer satisfaction is up, will that be up lifting? Taxes down but deficit up? Trick question. Can we up the number of truly great PR people, and eliminate the folks who simply MSU (make shit up)? It’s all up to you, if you’re up to it. Time to wake up – 2010 will be up before you know it. That’s all – I’ll shut up, my time’s up.

Howie

If you deserve more attention from the media and bloggers, your PR people need to do the same thing it takes to gain access to the Love Shack. While email is a great way to stay in front of a reporter, it’s not the way your story is going to get placed. How often do your PR people pick-up the phone and call a reporter? When they say they’ve “pitched,” ask them what that means. If it’s only an email, my advice: woo stay away fools.

Something has gone awry and I’m not sure how it happened or exactly when the turning point was. But there was a time we actually used to talk to each other; not through SMS, not via Facebook, no Tweets, no email – just real, unadulterated conversations. We didn’t say things like “I pinged him” or “I shot her a text”. We talked, we conversed, we had dialogue. It was this very topic that occupied most of the conversation I had with a few PR “old-timers” (those of us who have been in the biz 15-years +) last week. As it turns out, this problem is not isolated to just the PR world, it’s rampant across many industries. Is it a generational thing? Maybe. Is it a mindset? Perhaps. Regardless, it’s not good and it’s creating a new generation of PR lightweights.

I Like Big Butts and I Cannot Lie (Baby Got Back) was shaking up the music world, Bill Clinton was President, and me and my peeps were using media directory books and the phone to pitch stories; the year was 1992. To survive in PR you HAD to get on the phone to pitch- there was no other option. Sure, we wrote press releases and mailed them with stamps (printed, folded, stuffed, walked to mail box) but it was the call that sealed the deal. While it may not have been the most efficient way to do things by today’s standards, it worked. Newbies coming into the PR world knew quickly whether it was the right line of work for them or not. There was no “hiding” behind email, and certainly no one would ever dream of bringing their Walkman to work and wearing headphones at their desk. After all, how could you be on the phone pitching when Sir Mix A Lot was playing through your headphones (earbuds weren’t around yet)? You couldn’t and you still can’t today.

I love technology and embrace all the goodness it offers; you’d not be reading this right now if it wasn’t for technology. However, I believe that with all the good that tech brings to the PR world it has also become quite an “enabler,” and I don’t mean that in a positive sense. People who 10-years ago never would have made it in PR are posing as PR professionals now. And it’s not just the 20-somethings. Look around most PR firms or internal corp-comm departments and you’ll see it: phone not in use, music on, headphones on, manic typing. In fact, if not for cool tats, piercings, or streaks of color in the hair, it would be hard to tell the difference between a PR person and a game developer by simply walking into a room. Technology has made it too easy for people to pretend they’re doing PR.

In no way is this meant as an assault on tech or the people who use it. If anything it’s a case of hate the player – not the game. Email is great – fast, efficient, and a good way to reach a lot of people at the same time. Twitter – fantastic. Facebook – hard to imagine life without it. But while all these tools make the PR job easier, it’s the phone – pitching on the phone, having a real conversation with a reporter -that demonstrates an individual’s “chops”. Not too long ago something happened – that proverbial switch was flipped – and someone must have sent a memo to the next generation of PR people saying it’s okay to not make calls. Well – it’s not okay – and it’s not PR. Those twelve buttons on that magical device in front of you are meant to be used. Touch them – they don’t bite.