Hoosier PRSA Blog

In memoriam: Beth Wood, 58, lecturer at Indiana University

An excerpt from the IU School of Journalism web site:

The Indiana University School of Journalism community will gather Thursday, Nov. 19, for a Celebration of Life in honor of senior lecturer Beth Wood, who died Saturday afternoon from complications of treatment for lung cancer.

Faculty, staff, students and friends are welcome to attend this informal gathering any time from 6-8 p.m. at the Fountain Square Ballroom, 101 W. Kirkwood Ave., Bloomington.

Wood, 58, taught public relations at the graduate and undergraduate levels. In 2004, she helped launch the IU chapter of the Public Relations Student Society of America and led it to become the seventh-largest student chapter in the world. In 2008, she led the successful effort for Indiana University to become one of only 20 universities to receive certification from the Public Relations Society of America. 

Read the complete story: http://journalism.indiana.edu/news/school-mourns-loss-of-beth-wood/

Ghost Blogging As A Public Relations Tool

Squidoo is a wealth of information. Today I read a nice treatment on the utility of ghost blogging. It's a practice that's cause some to decry the ethics of such writing -- warning us that communication blurs and transparency becomes opaque. Who's writing what?

But ghost blogging is no different than a public relations professional penning a bylined article for a CEO. David Kirkpatrick a fiction writer and journalist has published in newspapers and magazines. His work includes web content, ghost fiction writing, and short fiction. His take is apropos for the debate among PR professionals and others in Indianapolis.

"The death of any blog is a lack of activity," writes Kirkpatrick. "All too often corporate blogs are created with the best of intentions only to be allowed to wither on the vine, so to speak, from lack of activity and regular posts."

His point is echoed by others. Lindsay Manfredi writes, "I help companies piece together what they have to say. It’s not always right the first time. They approve it or I make changes to make the message clearer. It’s not rocket science, it’s a SERVICE." The notion that ghost blogging is inauthentic, unethical -- it's not real -- to Manfredi's is BS.

Which is true. "For C-level executives with a blog," Kirkpatrick argues, "a pro ghost blogger can maintain the exec's 'voice' while taking quick bits of information the executive finds interesting to craft fully realized and maximized blog posts."

Succinctly he states the benefit: "This frees the top corporate level to concentrate on what they do best -- run the company -- and still keep a steady supply of relevant and interesting posts on their blog."

The idea behind corporate blogging is not to wax poetic, but to drive conversion. From a public relations POV, driving journalists to a corporate blog for the latest news builds better media relations. The business that's using a blog to attract the media and position itself as a thought leader in a given industry, essentially becomes a mini-Rueters  or a small AP. Not all CEOs know how to write for the media, but a trained public relations professional ghost blogging for his (or her) company does -- and there's nothing unethical about that.

Nice Overview of Changes to PRSA Bylaws

I'm sure more details will be shared from PRSA in the future, but for anyone interested in an overview of some of the changes, this blog post on PRSAY by Mike Cherenson does a better job than I could do.

If I see a more detailed report, I'll post it to our blog as well. Now, the PRSA staff, lawyer and parliamentarian (who were AMAZING, BTW) will be cleaning up the language and creating templates for local chapters. As promised to you before, we'll be evaluating that template for our own Chapter's adoption consideration. If there are any volunteers who'd like to lead that effort for us, I'd love to have your assistance.

Kind regards,

Jamaison Schuler, APR

Cathy Kightlinger's Talk Of Our Town Tip Sheet

If you were unable to attend today's monthly luncheon, you missed a great Meet the Media panel with The Indianapolis Star which consisted of editors Jenny Green, Steve Berta and reporter Cathy Kightlinger. You can find some tidbits of their advice to PR pros on Twitter at http://twitter.com/HoosierPRSA.

As promised, here are Cathy's tips for her "Talk Of Our Town" column: Download Cathy Kightlinger¹s Talk of Our Town Tip Sheet

Be on the lookout for registration information for our final Meet the Media session of 2009 scheduled for December 8 and 10 at the WIBC studios. We'll take a live look-in during Steve Simpson's afternoon radio program. Space will be limited!

The Story of the Ghost

A few days ago, an Indianapolis-based freelance writer issued a post on her blog on the topic of ghostblogging. She refers to herself as a writer, ghost blogger and social media rock star. In her post, she defended the practice of ghostblogging and rejected claims that her work is unethical, inauthentic and outright lying.

I happen to agree with her and provided my two cents on the subject by commenting on her blog. Another local PR practitioner was so adamant that ghostblogging is equal to lying that she proceeded to blog about it herself and even issued a tweet that her post would render myself and this ghostblogger “speechless.” Hardly. The debate continued all day on Twitter with dozens jumping into the debate, some with humor, some with support of one side or the other, and some begging for the whole thing to stop.

The fact that there is a debate at all indicates to me that this is a gray area. It’s not as black and white as some would like to believe.

I conducted some research on the issue and rather than try to create some impassioned post myself, please see this post by Jason Falls: "The Ethics of Ghost Blogging." I agree with his thoughts on the subject 100%. I don’t think I can say it any better—especially the four bullet points at the end of his post. Another Indy-based blogger wrote an equally interesting post on the subject ("Making the Argument for Ghost Blogging. Yet Again.") that sums up my opinions on the subject well.

What do you think? And please consider, that the term "ghostblogger" isn’t the issue, the issue is writing on behalf of your clients and/or employer and the appropriate degree/relevance of disclosure that writing services were provided (at least that’s how I see it).

The Bylaws Have Passed!

After considering a number of amendments, 264 of 284 delegates voted to approve the revised Bylaws. There's much too much detail to go into here, and I'm sure PRSA will be formally communicating on the outcomes very soon.

We thought you'd might like to see your delegates in action (or posing, anyway) just to bring some of San Diego to you back in Indiana.

(2009 Assembly Delegates, L to R: Sonja Popp-Stahly, APR, Jamaison Schuler, APR, "Pritch" Pritchard, APR, and Myra Cocca, APR)

And in this shot, we're joined by (new faces, L to R) Catherine Huggins, APR, National PRSA Board Member from the East Central District, Terri Johnson, APR, Hoosier Chapter member and Educators Academy Section chair, and Michelle Lantz, APR, East Central District chair.

The Hoosier Chapter is one of the largest in the East Central district, and we are enjoying our great relationship with our district and national representatives. Michelle Lantz recently facilitated a half-day strategic planning workshop for our Hoosier Chapter board, a member benefit offered by the East Central District.

There was quite a bit of interesting (and often humorous) debate broadcast via Twitter today. If you want an inside look at some of the amendments proposed and how the votes fell, be sure to search the hash tag "#prsa09."

TTFN!

Jamaison Schuler, APR

Live from the 2009 PRSA International Conference in San Diego

As I type this, you should all be sleeping. So should I, for that matter. But it's only 10:15 p.m. on the west coast, and I'm trying to shed my home time zone. Besides, I'm gonna be here a while.

Five days in fact, and it all kicks off tomorrow with the promisingly pivotal Delegate Assembly, where your four Hoosier Chapter representatives (Bob "Pritch Pritchard, Myra Cocca, Sonja Popp-Stahly and myself -- all APR), will be joining 314 other delegates to debate as least 18 amendments to an already overhauled proposed set of bylaws. You can read more about bylaws revisions peppered throughout the national PRSA blog.

The conference officially starts Sunday and runs through Tuesday, so I'd encourage you to follow the action through Twitter by searching the hash tag #prsa09. I'll also try to post updates to the blog if I can (wireless isn't the issue here for me, it's actually power -- I have the world's worst laptop battery).

I think I can safely speak for the others when I say that we delegates appreciate the chance to represent the strong Hoosier Chapter PRSA. 

Respectfully submitted,

Jamaison Schuler, APR

PS -- there are MANY other Hoosiers here this week: students, educators, corporate, nonprofit, agency... I'm thrilled that we're all going to bring key learnings back to Indiana.

The Purpose of the News Release

Just last week, I received an email from a peer in which he proceeded to tell me what news releases are meant to do in response to an opinion I expressed. I had said that I didn’t think a quote was necessary for a particular release on which our respective clients were collaborating. 

While I didn’t really appreciate the condescending tone of his message, it did make me think – what is the purpose of the news release?

He said releases are meant to tell a story and that quotes add context to a story. I agree that quotes add context to a story, but I don’t think that’s the point of a news release.

I think the point of a news release is to provide (i.e., release) information and generate interest for a story. Hopefully the reporter will cover the story, conduct an interview and include quotes in their story to add context.

I can’t think of a time in which I had a journalist use a quote from a news release in their story. Most of the time, they are made-up, overly crafted, jargon-speak that a real human would never say.

However, maybe we’re both wrong. With the rise of social media, perhaps the purpose of the news release is to start a conversation.

What do you think is the purpose of the news release?

Still looking for a few good volunteers

I'm thrilled with the response we've gotten so far from this post in August asking for volunteers to serve in 2010. We have an amazing roster of professionals who raised their hands to make a strong chapter even better and offer richer experiences for our members.

Still, I'm looking for just a few more people to step up this year (perhaps outside your career comfort zone?) to help us in the area of public service. Reporting to our newly named Advocacy Chair Kay Millar, our public service co-chairs would be responsible for developing opportunities for Hoosier PRSA and our members flex our PR muscle to help nonprofits locally. For instance, a few years ago we assisted IPS in the Backpack Attack. And did you read about the effort by creative agenices here in Indy just last week? Couldn't/shouldn't we be doing that?

Kay will be a fabulous mentor, and this will be a great way to learn more about PRSA leadership and your local community. Interested? E-mail me at presidentelect@hoosierprsa.org or call me at 317-655-2111. Don't be shy. See this as an opportunity to expand your professional horizons!