No evading social media for Public Relations

As the year comes to an end, ( Yes all my clients have already gone on leave so apart from a few parties that I will be attending, I can comfortable say that the PR year has come to an end. Well, I know one friend who has an event on 31^st, the Bacardi party.

You may choose to disagree with me on this but one area that many practitioners have struggled with this year is the impact of new media to our business, many are ill-equipped to capitalize on this new age platform because of the fear of technology.

Friends, the terrain of public relations practice is continuously shifting with new media bringing about substantial increases in stakeholder strength through facilitating communication within stakeholder groups and between different stakeholder groups. The most sort after information now pours out of digital spigots from different directions, various sources that are either genuine or not genuine. Place a goon on any computer with internet connection and the chap will have the ability to publish information for potential global consumption.

But all is not lost, the Internet  has given  public relations practitioners a unique opportunity to collect information, monitor public opinion on issues, and engage in direct dialogue with their publics about a variety of issues. When I joined one of the local agencies earlier this year straight from the telecommunication sector, I was not vastly knowledgeable with the banking sector, but nine months later, I can sit with bankers and chat about the banking trends and industry expectations.

While, we had the excuse of blaming our clients for not being keen on new media, we might not get away with blasting information out at an audience come 2014. The two-way communication social media based channel will be a tremendous opportunity for our clients to gain real-time feedback on messaging coming from their spokespeople. The hundreds of Facebook pages and twitter handles that we started for our clients have to create deeper connection with our target audience. We have to move the audience closer to a brand and soften the barrier that exists when people feel as if they’re talking to a company that views them strictly as a potential sale.

One thing I will not expect as a consumer is to be subjected to mass, non-targeted information because I believe my concerns should be addressed quickly and personally, after all social media is here to stay.

Effective use of PR; My excuses combined with Mysterious Men and Costumes

I certainly believe that we all know that Pressure is a word that is misused in our vocabulary. According to my mentor, when you start thinking of pressure, it's because you've started to think of failure or defeat. For this particular case, allow me to use work pressure as one of the reasons why my blog has been inactive for quite some time now.

My plunge back to agency continues to be interesting; I have handled tasks that my previous job couldn't have offered me the opportunity to do. As we speak am struggling to figure out how one can engage the public with a condom brand without necessarily encouraging promiscuity. One of the most ridiculous things is how i have saved my client’s name on the phone.  I wonder what will happen when i have to pick that emergency request call from them at night.

On the industry front,  Kenyan PR practitioners have started putting together their entries for the 2013 PRSK Awards ,  without a doubt 2013 is the year many of us have felt the role of our society. Apart from the insightful forums they organised they have put together the 2013 PRSK summit themed PR & Communication Management: New Challenges, New Opportunities.

This Summit will hopefully provide a forum for reviewing and redefining the potential of the profession as the country makes transformational strides and ushers in Kenya@50.

This is not my specialty but while we were (Kenyans) figuring out who had imported a whole container of bizarre items (later on it was confirmed they were Halloween costumes) some brilliant minds rolled out a marketing campaign with mysteriously clothed men and signs that have been showing up in different locations around the world. Some have been spotted on streets, mountains and even stadiums.

I hope and pray that they will not show up in Kasarani Stadium during the Gor and Ingwe Kenyan soccer derby because we will have to first figure out who paid those witches to finish our teams respectively.

            

Before i call it a day, allow me to share with you this lovely article on PR courtesy of The Star.

Why PR practitioners cannot do without mentorship

Every single day, the impact of technology on our day- to- day lives is celebrated across the globe. The global village that was created from the information super highway has always provided a platform for people to engage on basically all facets of life including seeking professional counsel from the web communities. Technology, pervasive communication and the global availability of “any information everywhere” have greatly contributed to the unfortunate death of mentorship.

Nearly ten years ago, we had a culture where peers still relied upon personal face-to-face (or voice-to-voice) real-time communications. As we graduated from college to join the labour force, we met new peers and potential mentors of varying ages. These are people who provided counsel as we tried to practise what we had spent years learning in class. While many will have varying opinions, I credit 80 percent of my success to the mentorship that was provided by the various people that I encountered in my career path; the first editor who spent a whole afternoon explaining to me what it took to get a story out of ‘nothing’, my first PR agency employer who took me through the process of developing PR plans and managing multiple exercises for our various clients and my boss in a local telecommunications company who in cultivated the art of managing both the internal and external stakeholders in the organization.

Well, what I’m trying to say is that to prosper in Public Relations as a profession, one needs mentors more that the vast online resources that our generation is fond of adopting and relying on. We need mentors because they can pass on to us practical knowledge that no book or online resource might have as well as share our collective experience gained from this misunderstood profession.

The myth world over, is that it is not what you know but who you know. Today, more than ever, people recognize the value of diversity of opinion. We also recognize that a person need not have just one mentor and that mentorship needs—and mentors—may change over time; ultimately, helping to form a group of trusted advisors.  In PR, mentorship is more or less part of the larger ecosystem of networking as it offers a platform for innovation resulting from the exchange of ideas.

As we migrate from a world driven by process to one focused on innovation and problem-solving, one needs PR mentors to provide actual case studies of both success stories and failures.

Take time off your favourite PR blog, take time off slide share, drop that new PR book that you are reading and talk to your mentor.

The PR Cry: Dear Client, Hear Me Out

Oh yee client from hell, Sticking out your head like no other,

Five minutes to five on a Friday is all you crave for,

To send me a brief with no head or tail like a centipede'

Shallow is the brief, like a millipede’s brain I can say.

While on many occasions I deliver on your brief,

All within the stipulated timelines,

You still mumble during the status meeting,
Always looking for a status quo on your brand positioning.

I have reminded you about my role which is not a call,

A consultant whom you pay dearly to offer counsel,

Not to hang banners around but to help you burn the rot in your brand.

When all is well, you stick to your lane seeing nothing but your glory,

Any glorification to your agency is via an informal phone call,

When we falter, you scream out on your keyboards.
Crafting emails longer than your usual briefs.

But then again, probably you pay us to make you shine,

On that you forget that on many occasions, we have more experience than you.

Dealing with brands that have bigger budgets than yours.

Not that we hate you Mr. /Mrs. Client,
 If only we could stick to the plans we prepare,

Plans that would leave your brand a winner, with no scene in the media.

Many a times you make us commit journalistic sins,

Like plugging your brand fifteen times on the press release,

All in the spirit of pushing for brand visibility.

Not forgetting those face me photos that you pose for,

As if in deep memory of the face-me matatus,

Dear Client who fears no tears, even if from the young PR Executives.

Even with our silence dear client, we will still offer counsel.

As long as your ego is massaged.

Corporate reputation and corporate responsibility are inseparable

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) remains a misunderstood and sometimes controversial issue in the corporate world. Many at times, CSR has led to the cancellation of communications contracts with agencies. Internally, CSR team managers and Foundation Heads have always battled with their marketing counterparts to show who adds value to the organization.

When asked about why they engage in CSR, many organizations have cited interesting reasons for this engagement including, marketplace pressure, brand value, and risk management.

After a long chat with Carole Kimutai, the editor the Management magazine, and also a blogger about this issue, she bestowed some editorial powers upon me to engage their readers on this highly misunderstood Public Relations facet.

I will allow you to read part of the article below, for the rest, walk into any mall and get the latest issue of Management Magazine

Flex Your Muscles; The Grass Is Still Very Green For Public Relations In Kenya.

This week saw the entry of yet another PR agency in the market. One of the veteran practitioners in the industry, Desiree Gomes launched Engage Burson-Marsteller Kenya. She is one of the pillars that made Gina Din Corporate Communications - a force to reckon with in the industry and her entry into the market will create ripples. Engage Burson-Marstellar comes barely under one year after the launch of RedHouse Group, an integrated marketing communications outfit that is revolutionizing the widely misunderstood Public Relations profession.

 

PR Quacks Be Warned, PRSK Unveils The Noose

The Public Relations Society of Kenya AGM was held two week ago here in Nairobi. While the numbers of the practitioners had increased compared to previous years, the practitioners themselves did not turn up in large numbers for this special annual meeting. Well, I understand many of them had evening events bearing in mind that the event was held on a convenient day for cocktails here in Kenya.

 For those who did not attend, this meeting was a tipping point for the PR profession in Kenya, after years of struggle; we finally amended our constitution and institutionalized the profession. Wait …. From now on it will not just be about popping into any institution that offer courses in PR and stepping out as a PR guru but it will be about undergoing a standardized practice based process to become a certified PR practitioner. With those amends, the door was shut for all those quacks who thought PR was about knowing a few influential friends and being close to the media.

It will now take you a minimum of ten years of continuous practice to reach the echelons of the PR profession in Kenya.  One is expected to attend PRSK certified trainings and workshops, maintain your registration status all through while supporting the society’s activities .One must also submit relevant industry papers for review by a certified PRSK examiners body that will be constituted in the course of the year.

 At least for me, the Chairlady was candid enough to tell me that blogs, webzines and online submissions will also be recognized. The mention of breakfast forums with industry stakeholder also raised my hopes of becoming a fellow in a decade’s time. Am confident because the thought of hot coffee and tea while discussing a profession am passionate about makes the certification process reasonable.

Well, below is the breakdown of what it will take to become a successful PR practitioner in Kenya. 

The
practitioners Test

I know we can do it, after all lawyers and accountants  have done it with LSK and ICPAK respectively.

Quick Brand Visibility Opportunities For Your PR Clients

As the budget was being read yesterday, I also decided to review the various activities that our PR clients had engaged in since the beginning of the year. You all remember that corporates especially Public Relations and Marketing arm lost the whole of Q1 2013 because everyone was on a ‘wait and see” mode as the country warmed up to the general elections. Due the post- election violence that we had experienced as a country in 2007, no one was willing to take the risk and invest in their brand campaign before the elections.

Despite the fact that we went ahead and elected Kenya’s 4th president UhuruKenyatta peacefully, the exercise was marred with concerns from one of the presidential candidates and thus the process of going through the supreme court for their ruling seized the better part of Q2 with many organizations watching from a distance as the political elite transformed our supreme court into a legalese class for the common mwananchi.

Kenya Sevens Rugby in action

I’m sure you are still wondering what I’m blogging about. Well, I am just trying to justify why I think 80% of the companies in Kenya are yet to fully utilize their PR budgets for the first five months of this year.

In order to help you meet your PR KPIs for the year, below are a few publicity opportunities you can snap to get your brand visibility.

 Our Sevens Rugby team left the country one week ago to participate in the Rugby 7s World Cup that will be held on the last three days of this month. If its previous performance is anything to go by, the team is likely perform well and by the time it gets back, the whole country will be talking about our rugby prowess. So get your company ready and prepare yourselves to be at the airport to receive the team when it comes back. While at it, ask your CEO to announce the sponsorship of the junior rugby team.  You better do this now because Unilever has already flexed its muscle.

Ingwe Fans during the recent derby .

If you have been following the international soccer scene, I’m sure you already know that all the major leagues across the globe ended and thus the only conversations we are having is about the transfer window  and the World Cup qualifies which are not very exciting apart from a few matches in South America and Europe. Well, worry not; the Confederation Cup will be kicking off this Sunday .This tourney will be pitting continental champions against each other. The African flag bearer will be the Super Eagles from populous Nigeria. Many Kenyans will be following this tournament not because of Nigeria alone but also the Samba Boys from the football nation- Brazil. So with your pending budget get your key clients and media and take them to K1 for the soccer moment. Trust you me, you will find your brand on the social pages and fast rising entertainment blogs.

Lastly, still on matters football, our local league will be returning to action next month, I know Tusker is the key sponsors while Zuku and MultiChoice have been wresting about AFC Leopards. Don’t get your brand into these battles; just plan your activities around the stadiums that will be hosting the matches especially where Kogallo and Ingwe are involved the numbers will be huge because even the remote control fans have to come to the stadium to watch their favourite teams. The activities that can quickly be organized around the stadium is approaching the bar and restaurants around the stadiums for a partnership. In Nairobi you have Kuche Kuche and Poolside beyond the city, Mombasa, Nakuru, Kisii and Mumias are perfect brand visibility grounds.

Now, go ahead and propose this to your clients and bosses but be sure to invest your budget where the brand will reap.

Social Media : The New friend of Public Relations

Barely a week after discussing  with a friend , Michael Owora on the challenges I was having with regular blogging, he sent me an email notifying me that I was to make a presentation on the role of social media in fostering  Public Relation. 

Basically, my role was to define what PR 2.0 was, its impact on our profession and how one could use it to enhance the organisation’s communications strategy.

You can follow the presentation below.

                                   

Well, despite the negative comments that have been mentioned in various boardrooms about social media, I firmly believe that Social Media is a friend to PR. All you need to do is to figure out how you can leverage on this platform

All said and done, I picked a few examples of success stories(both local & international) on the brands that have leveraged on social media

Writers block unmasked

After ranting about how I was struggling to create content for my blog regularly, a friend whom I had met in one of the many events organised by BAKE ;the Kenyan bloggers forum responded to my blog with some nice counsel that I thought you should read.

Incidentally, I am not the only one who suffers from this blogging fatigue; James Murua an ardent blogger echoed my sentiments. potentash explained several reasons that could be causing my writers block. She mentioned  that the subject matter that I had been writing on had probably become boring **** that am not sure bearing in mind that I spent three hours talking about PR and Social media in a PRSK forum last week.

She however made an attempt to solve my problem by mentioning several forums that she had been deriving the inspiration to regularly blog.

Follow this link Writers block unmasked and see how my irregular blogging woes were solved.

Let’s face it blogging is a chore

It is now close to two months since I posted a blog, all this time I have had great ideas, I have several drafts on my desktop but I have had no drive to finish the posts. I recently allocated one hour every Sunday for a blog but two weeks down the lane no blog had been delivered.

Hard at work figuring out what to blog about.

From last week I tried doing a  paragraph per day but still I could not hack it, probably to tired after the agency  bustle , or too uninspired, or two much work from clients—the other day I actually found myself blaming one of the telcos for my limited number of blogs. I convinced myself that their fluctuating internet service was the reason my blog had become dormant.

But what exactly, am I suffering from? I still afford to sneak into facebook, I can comfortably post fifty tweets per day, in short, I have enough time to blog. So the only viable excuses would either be my streamlined thoughts on PR centered articles only or lack of inspiration. This two excuses have probably contributed to the unfinished drafts, a frustrated wanna-be blogger and a dead blog awaiting burial in one of the Kenyan cemeteries, thank God majority of the cemeteries around Nairobi are full.

How do I break out from this chains of not blogging, what’s inspiration do I need, are their spirits that I need to exorcise to renew my blogging energy?

Next time, think deeply about your Giveaways

After collecting so many T-shirts in a couple of events over the years, I decided to audit what each and every giveaway I have and what value they are giving to the brands engraved /printed on them. Well, the ugly truth is that 80% of the T-shirts are specialized pajamas and the only time the brands are visible is when I wake up from a horror dream.

For a good cause.

While giveaways are one of the best channels to target brand visibility, as PR pros, we miss out on this opportunity by assuming key factors to be considered when choosing any channel of communication.

But what should one consider when choosing giveaways?

The number one element to consider when planning for giveaways is how to tie it into your business so that it generates the most publicity. Anybody can give away a T-shirt, but if your PR client is a roofing company, how exactly does giving away a T-shirt tie into repairing roofs? On the other hand, holding a mini contest during the event and giving away a free roof to the person that sends you the picture of the neediest house, is a great way to generate publicity and content for your brand. Not to mention, your client will provide a much-needed service, and probably garner attention from local media, real estate agents, and contractors who can throw him more work.

If you are responsible for PR for a restaurant, how about holding a contest to let customers name a new menu item? The winner could receive a free lunch for four. Or if you are the PRO representing a telecommunications service provider, instead of that costly diary, you should give the media one of your data products i.e. modem for them to experience your super speeds. Giveaways like that, that tie in with your business, draw attention to your company, engage customers, and get your product into their hands all at the same time.

Finally, as you are dishing out your well branded giveaways, make a point to note the laws governing you on the same; this includes the media houses’ policy regarding gifts, any regulations from the Betting, Licensing & Control Board and even the Public Relations Society of Kenya code of conduct

A well meaning event with lovely giveaways can always easily backfire horribly because the client did not understand all the legal ramifications of that simple raffle they did to give out a high end phone.

Communication lessons learnt from the 2013 Kenya Elections

The highly charged political atmosphere in which politicians traversed the country canvassing for votes is coming to an end soon. The country is waiting with bated breath for the Supreme Court to either nullify the election of Uhuru Kenyatta as President or uphold his proclamation as the winner by the IEBC, paving the way for his swearing in at a glittering ceremony in early April.

We all know that you make it in politics by largely interacting with people especially the sanguines. You won't succeed if you can't make yourself understood, don't know how to pay attention to what others think, and don't care about the dialogue that underlies our democracy.

The just concluded elections provided key lessons on communication.

When I say "communication", I mean it in the broadest sense: formal and informal; one-on-one and before a mass audience; in writing, in speeches and in discussion; with small, friendly groups of admirers and in front of larger, not-always-friendly crowds; on television, on the radio, on the Web, and in print; in the formal setting of the House or Parliamentary committees and sitting at a formica-topped luncheonette table over coffee and doughnuts.

       The Protagonist : President-Elect Uhuru Kenyatta (l) and Prime Minister  Raila Odinga

 Sometimes politicians have a chance to spend time choosing their words while being advised by their spin doctors, but more often they have to speak off the cuff, weighing the import of their words even as they say them. Some people are born with this ability, but for lots of us it's a skill we learn with practice, and it's invaluable to a politician. For Kenya’s scenario the only time our presidential candidates had time to prepare their communications salvos was during the two national debates.

When the presidential candidates were gallivanting countrywide they never knew what environment they were going to face apart from when they were visiting their ‘strongholds’ — (a word that was trending for the past two weeks) 

And the truth that I gathered from those rallies is that most audiences are less interested in hearing a speech; all they need is the speech being delivered in a way that seems fresh and spur-of-the-moment. They prefer dialogue with their candidates rather than a set speech. The more enthusiastic and energetic candidates who spoke with conviction emerged victorious. After all, if you don't believe what you're saying, your audience won't.

All said and done, I can comfortably say that to be a successful politician, one has to learn how to calibrate what you say to the medium you're using: you'll be much more convincing on television if you speak conversationally than if you come across as angry or impassioned; but before a crowd, speaking conversationally will just put the audience to sleep. 

Young PR Speak Being a good politician means being a good conversationalist, not simply scoring a few rhetorical points and then going home. . 

Managing your communiqué during the coming General elections

It is four days to Kenya’s first General Elections under the new constitution and many multi-nationals, corporates, Small and Medium sized companies and even individuals are working tirelessly to develop crisis communication strategies in readiness to this historic event. Consumers have been advised to shop in plenty since most retail stores will be closed during the electioneering period. One might question why but the last time Kenya held its General Elections in 2007, the day to day running of businesses were disrupted and many Kenyans lost their lives attributed to the 2007/08 Post-Election violence brought about by the disputed presidential results.

In this regard, Kenyans and the business community are taking precautionary measures through ensuring that they come up with impactful crisis management plans to counter any eventualities.

Crisis communications are tricky situations that require careful navigation. If you foresee a crisis, it is good PR practice that you manage how you will break the news to the world. Being proactive and breaking the news to media with your key messages in place and your spokespeople delivering the information can help mitigate damage and risk.The sure-fire way to escalate your business’s crisis situation is to be caught flat-footed — or, in a PR crisis, with both feet in your mouth.

A crisis communication strategy is not always the ultimate weapon against a crisis, no matter how many weeks you’ve spent analyzing the weak points in your security system, setting up a standby call centre to address customers in case of the system, calling your friendly media to maintain the relationship- all your efforts are wasted without a proper holding statement ready for release.

Each holding statement is unique for a particular business, but the basic principles are the same. The holding statement must address the crisis head-on and without any doublespeak, acknowledge that something wrong is going on, offer immediate information, and resolve to address the media and public again once all the facts have been collected.   And, most importantly, you must show sincerity, genuine concern and appreciation for the crisis situation.

Apply this general approach when your business needs to speak, and you will buy the precious time necessary for a more coordinated, concentrated response to any problem factors that may arise.

And with that let me embark on preparing the holding statements for the coming general elections where either Uhuru Kenyatta or Raila Odinga will be Kenya's 4^th president.

Kenyan Elections; the right time for a Brand clean up exercise.

The thought of receiving bad publicity has always been the worst fear for any PR practitioner .We live and work dreading the day we will wake up in the morning and find our brands languishing in bad press.

But on many occasions we release some news knowing that we will receive bad press for it and we can do nothing about it. When your client decides that they are reducing on their head count, all a spin master can do is to try and sugarcoat the whole exercise by calling it a “restructuring process that is aimed at re engineering the brand route to success” Ha-ha!! You are simple firing people because you cannot afford that wage bill.

Kenya Presidential Debate

Coming back home, it is clear that the first quarter will see the politicians dominating our dailies (see my previous blog) while many  of the PR practitioners are cursing the editors for denying them an opportunity to boast their brand’s AVE, I see this period as an opportunity to do a lot of ‘house cleaning’ as a brand. This is the right time to carry out all the activities that would easily have generated bad publicity.

Incase your client is planning to carry out a restricting exxcersice, sorry I meant planning to fire people, this is the right time to do so because it will not only generate little interest in the media but it also a time where you can evade sensitive stakeholders like unions (FKE & COTU) because they are all focused on aligning themselves with the next government.

Recently, a local Telco successfully revised their mobile money rates, but because all and sundry were busy finding out who their next governor would be they literally survived a customer’s uproar. To me, that’s a clear case of a would-be PR crisis being executed well and in a timely manner.

My interaction with many crisis PR teams have revealed that marketers tend over-estimate the negative impact of bad publicity on their target audience. So this is the time to convince them to drop that shitty product that they have feared to pull out of the shelves ,after all most people do not have the attention span or inclination to pay close attention to the details until after they elect the new President, Governor, Senator, Women Representative, Member of Parliament and County Representative respectively.

Young PR Kenya speak: If the attention that was accorded to the Kenyan presidential debate is anything to go by, then any corporate can ‘escape with murder’ because we are all immersed in politics  

If you can’t analyse your audience, don’t talk to them

One of the most gullible species in the world is a species called Nairobians. They oscillate between ten degrees of praises and seventy degrees of trashing any other species with which they may have had an altercation.

Just the other day, the two Jubilee contestants  for the gubernatorial and senatorial seats Waititu and Sonko respectively, were seen as the worst mistake that The National Alliance (TNA) was about to make in the upcoming general elections.

But, wait!! The two candidates are currently flying high after performing extremely well against their elitist competitors on NTV and Citizen TV.

While many will fault the middle class for being gullible, let me be quick to point out that the two candidates have mastered an art of communication that many communication experts always ignore.

Sonko and Waititu have done their research well and thus they understand their target audience.

Understanding one's audience is one of the most important elements of effective communication. Audience analysis can help you gain valuable insight about your listeners, which helps you to choose and develop a relevant, meaningful topic. It also helps you to create a communication strategy that is tailored effectively to your audience.

Your communiqué should be filled with the right tone, remember the helmet joke that CORD’s Nairobi gubernatorial aspirant Evans Kidero hurled at Waititu? The tone used to deliver that joke resulted to an evening that CORD supporters could not fathom.  Kidero had the right content but his style of delivery was wanting. If this was a media one-on-one interview Kidero would have beaten Waititu hands down.

When Waititu faced Kidero and told him that one of his intentions when he becomes the governor was to protect slum dwellers from land grabbers, I nearly flipped channels ... but Waititu was literally ‘touching the hearts’ of over 70% of Nairobi County. While Kidero was clearly enumerating his agenda for Nairobi County citing developed cities around the world he was essentially just communicating with 30 % of the county’s population.

There are three main areas to consider when analyzing your audience: demographics, dispositions and knowledge of the topic. For each of these areas, there are a set of questions you need to ask yourself so as to stimulate you to think about your audience. The age and socio- economic status of your audience will always affect your listeners' attitudes, expectations and opinions about you and your political agenda.