The first was this interview with Yann Martel by The Guardian‘s Stephen Moss, who admits that his first move is to ‘rather rudely insist that the young woman who is steering him round the UK and Ireland on the publicity tour for his new novel, Beatrice and Virgil, absent herself from the room while we talk.’

Ahem. I’m guessing Stephen Moss is a tad old school, shall we say, in terms of his views on PR folks? I think I might perhaps counter with the notion that anyone smart enough to get a more than one million dollar advance from a publisher in this day and age can probably figure out how to take a taxi by himself and get to an appointed meeting in a hotel, especially in a country where his own mother tongue is spoken. And that, therefore, the young woman’s role might have been just a bit more than merely that of courier/chaperone.

But then I saw this article from the fine folks at Knight Science Journalism Tracker at MIT, in which the suggestion was made that disclosure is necessary when a public information officer (who fills the role of a corporate communications or public relations person) sits in on an interview – and that the situation should be avoided at all costs to avoid having the interview ‘influenced.’

I’m both mystified and saddened by this suggestion. The single biggest complaint PR people hear from journalists – both mainstream and bloggers – is that they’re not appropriately ‘pitched’ – in other words, not enough time and care has been taken by the PR person before approaching a journalist. Bloggers complain that PR people don’t read their blogs and journalists complain that they too have been inappropriately targeted.

Sitting in on interviews with clients is a learning experience for a PR person in many ways. Ultimately it ends up being a learning experience for the client as well. My presence in interviews is as discreet as it can be, given that I’m actually there and haven’t yet mastered invisibility. In fact, I usually take notes, because it’s part of my job to assess my client’s actual performance and to determine if more media training or coaching is required. It would never occur to me to intervene in an interview after the ground rules have been established (and sometimes they do need to be). I can, however, be helpful in a variety of ways once the interview’s done, by providing additional prepared background information (you know, like the interviewee’s bio, correct spelling of name, exact title, etc.), and by ensuring journalists can meet their deadlines by getting supplementary material like photos sent directly to their editors if necessary. I can also help the journalist by finding them someone else to interview if they need to consult an independent third party expert.

Do I influence the interview? In one way, I can definitively answer, Certainly not. I am not the spokesperson. On the other hand, my – and my colleagues’ –  influence is necessary prior to the actual interview. My job is to ensure I provide and deliver a spokesperson who’s ready, willing and able to answer the questions the journalist poses – and who can do so in a timely fashion to ensure the journalist’s deadlines are met. I’ve been to enough briefings with enough new clients to know that no journalist has time to listen to an hour-long dissertation so mired in random detail that the journalist has probably forgotten the question by the time the answer is obliquely approached. Fun though conversational segues are in real life, this is business, both for the client and for the journalist.

I’d also add that many times, as I’m ‘steering’ clients around to interviews, my role is to sense their mood, help them overcome their apprehensions, and get them into the right frame of mind to provide a focused interview. Some clients are too low key, too low energy in that hour or so before the actual interview and need to be psyched up. Others come close to hyper-ventilating, and need to be reassured – or, if I’m confident they actually know their stuff – distracted from the prospect of the interview, so that by the time we arrive and the interview actually happens, they’re ready to put their best foot forward. It’s very similar to the frame of mind in which you want to be when you arrive at a job interview. As opposed to rain-soaked, fly undone, with windblown hair and 10 minutes late, you know.

I once sat in on an interview and did have a question for the journalist later on. Not actually being the soul of tact, my question went something like, ‘That was a really non-linear approach to an interview – your questions were all over the map – what’s up with that?’ The journalist explained it was a technique he used to get more spontaneous answers from subjects. Which is fine with me – I infinitely prefer lateral thinkers. But it’s something many of the software and other engineers and scientists with whom I worked might find disconcerting – which means they’ll need a heads up if I arrange an interview for them with that particular journalist.

When the interview’s over, the client gets some frank but constructive feedback on their performance. Sometimes they get their knuckles rapped, not so much for what they’ve said during the interview but for the way they’ve treated the journalist. ‘So who watches this show anyway, housewives?’ and ‘Thanks to the five of you who bothered to dial in for this teleconference’ were two remarks that earned clients a few performance-enhancing tips from me for the next round.

But let me ask some of you journalists, bloggers, and PR folks out there: what’s your view on this issue? Frankly I think it’s one of the most important services I can provide to a client.

I would have loved to attend, but Chicago’s a long way to go for an afternoon, and given the uncertainties of winter travel from YVR, I decided to live vicariously and hope the presentations were filmed for future consumption

I really like the goal-oriented approach outlined by Stan Joosten, Director of Holistic Consumer Communications for Proctor & Gamble. It’s a classic example of strategy-in-action, as opposed to a tactics-based approach to communications.  

His presentation focused on three key points: 

• know your brand
• empower your brand fans
• replace or augment market research.

Organizations that have been around as long as P&G have been on the branding treadmill for decades now. They’ve devoted incredible human and monetary resources to creating and promoting their brands. In fact, P&G became the US’s largest advertiser in 2005. Imagine having revenues of $4.61 billion, let alone that kind of money to spend on advertising – it’s rather mind-boggling.

Regardless of where you land on the PR versus advertising spectrum though, it’s important to recognize that traditional advertising accomplishes none of the goals Joosten has outlined. I will contend that all market research is skewed, in one way or another – and I don’t think you need to be a statistical expert to know that instinctively. I’ve done market research myself on a couple of occasions, on the phone and in person. After less than 10 hours you start to realize there’s a particular type of person who consents to participate – with or without inducements – in focus groups and surveys. (They tend to be the same sort of people who hold doors open and who still say ‘excuse me’ before pushing past people at the grocery store.) But all the folks who refuse to answer surveys and are unwilling to be part of focus groups still use soap, wash their clothes, clean their bathtubs – and make purchasing decisions each and every day.

So in order to know your brand, you have to listen not only to the branding experts who’ve created the brand and listed what they hope its attributes will be, you have to listen – and be willing to hear – what your brand really is.

That can sometimes be a painful experience when you’re in a highly competitive market. The former market leader in radios probably doesn’t want to hear the cellphones it’s poured millions into creating and marketing are considered clunky, ugly, expensive, and totally unhip – but when it ends up a distant third in the cellphone manufacturing market, not listening to the message would be a big mistake – as would failing to do some course correction so it can compete on at least one front.

But of the three goals Joosten outlined, perhaps the most revolutionary – and the most necessary –  is the middle one: empower your brand fans. People listen to other people. They listen especially hard to other people they trust. Whether those people are mainstream media (who can at least be trusted to be familiar with the competition), media 2.0 (the bloggers who rarely have anything to gain by waxing enthusiastic about the products they like), or Mrs. McGillicuddy down the block who has three boys all in soccer and has a deeply vested interest in getting grass stains out of clothing, doesn’t matter. And by empowering your brand champions, you can exponentially increase the audience you reach.

How do you empower them? Connect with them. Ask for feedback. Make it easy for them to get in touch with you. Use social media as well as more traditional forms of communication. Think of Twitter, Facebook, and your corporate blog as other versions of the toll-free phone line, and be every bit as human and as genuine in your interactions via social media as your customer service reps are trained to be. And then reap the corporate rewards (including the savings in market research and advertising spend!).

Frank Eliason, tweeting as @comcast cares, has often been cited as a model of how corporations can use social media. Reading the article, I understand why – Eliason ‘gets it’ – he knows Twitter is a tool he’s added to his arsenal. And he’s not saying it’s the only tool in his toolbox.

Despite the acclaim, Eliason stresses that Twitter is not a replacement for phone and e-mail help. “This is just one way people have gotten to know us,” says Eliason. “It’s a little more personal. More back-and-forth discussions, and it’s less formal. And it gives immediacy to interactions.”

It’s another way to listen, learn, problem solve, and retain customers. Comcast will still be answering its phones, responding to email and snail mail, updating its web site, and doing all the things successful businesses have always done.

I’ve created a substantial body of links here on using Twitter for business – check them out if you’re interested. You’ll also find some non-Twitter links. Still fascinating, though.

Update: another Business Week article on how various CEOs are using Twitter, this one by Douglas MacMillan.

I wouldn’t say this was the world’s best video, but it does make a few good points.

1. Writing well is the single most important foundation skill for PR practitioners.
2. Knowing your client’s business (which includes knowing what’s going on in your client’s industry and in the business world in general) is the single greatest value add you get when you hire a PR firm or public relations professional.
3. Love the line about needing a ‘spine or a backbone to tell clients what they need to hear.’ This is about managing expectations: ‘tell them some things that they may not want to hear.’

Managing expectations can be either a pleasant or an unpleasant task, depending on what your client’s expectations are. If it’s front-page/top story mainstream media coverage, the client is a local start-up with a web site, and you’ve realized, by following mainstream and social media for years that the tide is turning and journalists have become bored with topic (as happened during the dotcom bust), you need to manage the client’s expectations downwards and remind them that PR is a process, and good results don’t happen instantaneously.

If it’s a client who assures you that this isn’t a good day/week/month/year to get media coverage, expectations may need to be managed upwards. There are still slow news days. You don’t know whether you’re going to be successful unless – and until – you try. Public relations professionals read, view, analyze, and interact with media all the time. Let me blunt here: if you hire someone to put a new roof on your house, do you micromanage your roofer? Instead of micromanaging your public relations consultant and contradicting them at every turn based on your sporadic reading/viewing of local media, take the time to find a consultant you trust. And then trust them to know what they’re doing.

Here’s a great paragraph from Inmedia Public Relations:

…[T]he role of advocate is more than simply conveying our clients’ stories to the outlets that matter. We must also be willing to impress upon clients the agendas, or the simple realities, of the markets we are trying to reach on their behalf. What elements of their story must we have to effectively attract and retain the attention of the media we are targeting? What works? What doesn’t? How is the way the client wants to approach things more of a hindrance than a help to our efforts? To adequately serve our clients, we must deliver frank and honest counsel that sometimes includes feedback from the marketplace that may be painful to hear.

And finally, my response to one of GG Johnston’s 2009 PR predictions. The Denver consultant said:

The debate will rage on about whether or not PR firms can participate in online conversations on behalf of their clients. Would we call and pretend to actually be our clients in one-on-one conversations on the phone? No, certainly not. So, why would we pretend to actually be our clients on blogs, micro-blogs and forums? The answer is, we wouldn’t.

To which I replied:

In the same way we have to media train our clients, we need to provide them with social media training and alert them to social media opportunities they’re not aware of/not maximizing. It’s really no different than creating an editorial calendar and pitching mainstream media – we never did the interviews for clients either, did we?

Although the blogosphere zeitgeist is Opinions ‘R’ Us (I sometimes think my next blog should be called ‘No Thought Left Unexpressed’), I will confess that I felt rather guilty when he told me that several folks at Vancity had seen my post over the weekend and that there had been some internal debate about it. I never meant to make you work on your days off, people, nor was I hoping to see (or hear) of any heads rolling. I’m merely a fan of The Tudors, I don’t actually think I’m Henry VIII.

What was truly refreshing about the conversation was that it was not a mea culpa on Bill’s part, but rather that it was an exchange of information and viewpoints and an acknowledgement that despite our best efforts, we cannot always either provide – or receive – a customer service experience that works for both parties, no matter how hard we try.

I was very impressed by the openness of the conversation, by Bill’s active listening skills, and I was delighted to hear that the points I’d identified were of concern to the organization and that my blog post had brought them to the forefront of internal discussions, that Vancity is looking for solutions, and that their approach to finding those solutions includes seeking input not only from their existing customers but from potential customers as well.

In the same way that people who don’t vote don’t really have any right to criticize the government they were too apathetic to elect, when you’re asked, as a member of a community or stakeholder group, to engage in a dialogue, you need to take advantage of that opportunity. Things may well not change as a result of your expressing your opinion – you can’t please all of the people any of the time. But the promise of this new century is the incredible richness and variety of opportunities to listen widely, to learn continually, to be heard by an unprecedented number of people, and to act quickly to right wrongs (or smooth ruffled feathers).

Full marks to Vancity and to Bill Corbett. I’m not a member yet. But I’m not ruling it out in the future any more, after one unfortunate experience. In fact, I have a lot of confidence, based on the things Bill told me they were debating on how to make banking with Vancity easier, more accessible, and more targeted to its different customer groups, that the issues I raised in my previous post will be addressed.

So – thanks for listening. I feel validated as a person, a blogger and as an entrepreneur.

When No Spin PR wanted to open a business bank account, Vancity was its first choice. Fees for small business bank accounts at Vancity are low (at time of writing, late November 2008, you can still open a small business bank account there with monthly fees of only $6 and up to eight free transactions per month). There is, of course, the $50 membership fee to become a member of the credit union, but that’s a one-time cost, and in keeping with Vancity’s slogan “We all profit” I was willing to invest this relatively modest sum.

Until I actually tried to open an account, that is.

There was a toss-away line on the Vancity web site about needing to make an appointment to open a business bank account. I downloaded and printed all nine pages of forms and found the documentation on my business registration necessary to open the account. When I finally got some time (and in anticipation of receiving a cheque or two made out to No Spin PR), I went back to the web site to get the phone number for my local branch. I couldn’t find it. The address (which I already knew, since I walk and drive past it on average six times a week) for my local branch was on the web site, but not the phone number. There was, instead, a general phone number.

So I called the general number around 10AM Thursday morning (November 27, 2008). I was on hold. I was on hold for about 20 minutes before my phone dropped service, and I had to call back and get into the hold queue yet again. Perhaps this is a good time to mention that other local companies, like Shaw, my internet service and cable television provider, have this nifty little thing set up on their phone system so you can leave your number and a customer service representative calls you back. The technology exists, in other words, and I for one really appreciate not having to listen to someone else’s musical choices while waiting for service.

I was on hold even longer for my second call – about 25 minutes. When I finally got through to someone I was able to confirm that yes, indeed, I did need to make an appointment to open a business bank account. I pointed out to the (very pleasant) customer service guy that I needed the branch phone number in order to do this, and I couldn’t find it on their web site. Oh no, he said, while apologizing for the unusually high volume of calls that had led to my being on hold for 45 minutes, we don’t publish the branch numbers on our web site because people would call their local branch numbers for their balances and they’re not supposed to, they’re supposed to call this number for that service. What I hear you saying, Vancity, is that your customers – erm – members – aren’t very bright. The conversation is pleasant, even though I’m a little startled to be informed it’s Friday and given the local branch hours for Friday. I know I slept late on Thursday morning, but I didn’t realize I’d lost an entire day. Some merriment ensues when I make this statement, and I am reassured that it is, in fact, Thursday in Metro Vancouver.

Armed with the number of my local branch, I make the call and request an appointment to open a business bank account. Would you prefer a morning or afternoon appointment? I’m asked. Afternoon, I say, do you have any appointments this afternoon? No, I’m told, Friday morning at 11:30 is the first appointment I could give you. Fine, I say, thinking I can juggle all the other things I need to do (like get my car’s front headlight fixed, which means driving to the repair shop in the few precious daylight hours we get at this time of year in this hemisphere) and still make this appointment.

I have a moment or two of satisfaction after making the appointment. Opening a business bank account is one of those irritating, one-time only chores that, while necessary, has little to do with my day-to-day operations but is a task that, since it requires my signature, only I can do. I can’t delegate or outsource this, but it’s time consuming and not a whole lot of fun, although I’m hoping that during our meeting I’ll lay the groundwork of establishing a good relationship with a banker, which can never hurt, especially when it’s your banker.

The moment doesn’t last long. Less than five minutes after I’ve made the appointment, my phone rings and it’s Vancity. Friday won’t work as the person will be on vacation. Would I like to come in Tuesday morning or Wednesday morning instead? Well no, actually, I wouldn’t – I have an appointment with a potential strategic partner on Tuesday morning and yet another dental appointment on Wednesday morning. That’s part of why, when asked if I preferred a morning or an afternoon appointment, I said ‘afternoon.’ I announced, rather snottily, that I’d open my account with Coast Capital instead, another local credit union with hilarious commercials, a no-fee policy for many of its accounts, and a small business account package that’s highly competitive with Vancity’s best offer.

So what’s wrong with this whole scenario?

Vancity’s been getting praise among the marketing communications and social media marketing communities for the last few years for its innovative products and campaigns, the number of visitors it gets to its various web sites and the ‘stickiness’ of those sites (amount of time spent on site). It’s positioned itself as the credit union that cares about community. Despite the dubious appeal of its ads (this one is particularly tasteless, I find, on a whole lot of levels: smug, unattractive people, and a message I can only interpret as the individual equivalent of the oft-slammed concept of big polluters buying carbon offsets), Vancity has continued to pour money into social and traditional media advertising campaigns instead of investing its money where it is obviously most needed: in its staff, in staff training, and in technological infrastructure.

There’s only one person per branch who can open business bank accounts? You need to invest in a little cross-training there, Vancity. You think your members will willingly wait 45 minutes on hold? Don’t count on it. Get a call-back system that works. You think social media is the way to go? Until you understand that big, feel-good campaigns don’t mean a thing if you’re not walking the walk as well as talking the talk, until you understand that you can’t neglect your core business at the expense of creating ersatz pat-yourself-on-the-back social media sites and ads, I’m afraid I can’t support you and I don’t want to be a member of a club that isn’t trying very hard to get me to join.

I did succeed in opening a business bank account this week. I dropped in to a ‘regular’ bank on Thursday afternoon, a branch where I have a chequing account with a balance of less than $100. I was able to speak to a financial adviser there (after no more than a five-minute wait in the lobby, where I was able to read The Globe and Mail) and make an appointment with him for the next morning.

By noon on Friday I’d made my initial deposit, received my access card, and been given half a dozen cheques for the No Spin PR account. I also had my hand shaken four times, was smiled at, had all my questions answered, was thanked for my business, and was given support and encouragement regarding my business goals. Oh, and I found out I have a stellar credit rating. Way to give back, HSBC. The extra $3 or so I’m going to pay you every month in banking charges is money well spent. And ‘the world’s local bank’ is a slogan I can get behind, particularly when your actions match your tagline.

Achieving a work/life balance that makes me happy is still an elusive thing, but I’m secretly quite thrilled that I think I have the formula.

This may sound odd, but I’m still a little bitter about the fact that digital camera technology wasn’t as easy when I worked for Bruce Power as it was even a year later when I moved to BC in 2002.

I used to gaze out my home office window and watch the apple tree in the empty lot next to me through the seasons. It was beautiful in all four of them, whether weighted down with snow or adorned with thousands of the palest pink blossoms.

Kincardine is known for its beautiful sunsets (cynics would say that’s because of the hole in the ozone layer above Lake Huron resulting from industrial emissions from Michigan and other eastern US states). I didn’t manage to get a single photo of one of them, and in general, for a variety of reasons, I had neither the time nor the ability to really enjoy living in a small town or in a rural setting. Except for some wonderful expotitions to antique stores (another series of photo opps for which I would now kill), I wasn’t up for much other than exploring the countryside by car on the weekends. If I couldn’t get my act together to buy the elm chest of drawers with its bonnet and ribbon drawers and get it refinished, I could at least have photographed it.

And photographing it would have taken me into another zone, leaving me ready to reenter the fray once again on Monday morning. That’s why, after far too many years as a workaholic, I’ve decided to restrict my client hours to 9AM to 5PM Monday to Thursday and 9AM to noon on Fridays.

There’s flexibility in there, of course, by pre-arrangement or if I’m providing crisis communications. But generally I intend to limit my client availability to those hours and my work week to about 30 hours. That means more Friday afternoons at Tinseltown, where I can sit in the dark and weep my way through Passchendaele. It also means more photography, more quilting, more reading, and more IRL polishing of my social skills.

All of which make me both a better person and a better consultant.

I’m thinking of my weekends as weekend workshops these days. Sometimes the ‘to do’ list will be completely abandoned and spontaneity will rule. That’ll mean I can catch up on a rather ambitious reading list. It’s a shocking long list. The only one I’m going to finish this weekend is Gabor Mate’s In the Realm of Hungry Ghosts, because it’s overdue at the library. Groundswell will have to wait.

But at other times I’ll actually get out there. Today’s expedition is to the craft fair at Royal & Third in New Westminster, Christmas Magic at the Manor. I’ll let you know what I couldn’t live without.

Update: Cachet Co. Catering‘s lavender shortbread was to kill for, not just to die for. Now I’m addicted.