Yesterday Danny Sullivan announced on his blog that he is leaving Search Engine Watch. This was big news in the web developer and marketing communications community, but so far it has prompted little comment in the PR community. This is surprising, when you consider the impact PR, including the lowly news release, can have a search engine visibility. You would think that PR people might have paid more attention to the departure of the person whose name has been synonymous with search engine optimization strategies.

I first came across Sullivan's search engine work nearly 10 years ago while researching my master's thesis on website promotion. I sent him an email, which he promptly answered. Later we talked at some length on the phone. Here's an excerpt from what I wrote in June of 1997:

There are two reasons web promoters should know about Danny Sullivan. The first is that he simply offers the most complete guide to search engines and directories to be found anywhere. The second is that he is a good writer and reporter, and so his guide is readable, entertaining and comprehensible--even to the somewhat technologically challenged.

Sullivan was an English major at the University of California, Irvine. He became a reporter for the Orange County Register and later the Los Angeles Times. He went into web development, then used his web knowledge and reporting skills to become a search engine specialist.

In a telephone interview (June 10, 1997), Sullivan said his language skills and reporting know-how have been useful resources for his web enterprise. "You need to be comfortable with computers, too," he said. "The more you understand computers, the more successful you'll be on the web. On the other hand, it's not so much your educational background as your attitude that determines your success."

The most important attitude change people have to make when they move to the web, Sullivan explained, is to really accept that this is a new medium, requiring new thinking. "You've got to understand it's a different medium," he said. "It's not radio. It's not TV. It's not print. You need to be willing to look for new ways to do things. You always have to ask, ‘Is this going to work on the net?'"

I think the most important attitude that Danny Sullivan brought to the net is the willingness he demonstrated to share his knowledge, and his time. He wasn't in it just for the money, and as a result he made a lot of money. He takes time to talk with students and other neophytes about the net. To share the joy of being part of a thing so new that even to this day the experts are constantly having to learn new tricks.

I had the privilege of talking to some of those early pioneers when the web was still new even to them: Danny Sullivan, Eric Ward and IAOC's own Steve O'Keefe. They each took a different path, and focused on a different need: Sullivan on search engines, Eric Ward on links, and O'Keefe on book publicity. And to this day, they seem to continue to take pleasure in being learners and teachers.

I'm sure we'll see more of Danny Sullivan in the future. I'm betting his departure from the corporate world will lead him back to the entrepreneurial world where he so obviously thrived.

Don Dunnington

I have started writing a new book tentatively titled "The New Rules of Marketing and PR" and I need your help!

I'll be blogging the book on my own Web Ink Now blog as I go through the research, writing, editing, and marketing process and I invite you to follow along, to contribute to the process, to offer suggestions, and to argue with me when I get off track. The book will take about 4 months to write.

I'm writing The New Rules of Marketing and PR to show how smart organizations reach buyers through blogs, news releases, podcasting, and online media. As IAOC members know, the old rules of marketing as one-way broadcast TV-style advertising don't work on the web. The old rules of relying exclusively on mainstream media to tell your story isn't the only way to get ink on the web.

In a sense, IAOC members have already contributed to the book via the tremendous conversations around news releases. Many great ideas came from that debate. For example, when using releases to reach buyers directly I now say "news releases" instead of "press releases." That's because there was so much feedback on the term "press release" on this blog from people who equated press releases with reaching the media but news releases with reaching buyers.

Another thing that came out is that it’s not just PR that has new rules, its also marketing. On the web PR doesn't exist in a vacuum: marketing and PR are one and the same in that they are both ways to reach buyers with a message. Thank you for enlightening me!

But the greatest idea that came from the online conversation is that there is more to be said on the new rules. Much more. And not just by me. So my blog and the resulting book is a starting point for many more conversations on how to use the web to reach buyers.

The web has changed the business book model and my case is an interesting example. On the strength of my e-book The New Rules of PR and the interest in the "new rules" from thousands of people, I hired a terrific literary agent. We showed interested publishers how the e-book tested the market, gauged interest and that there is demand for more detailed information on how to reach buyers directly.

I couldn’t be happier that Wiley will be publishing the book with a late 2007 target release.  Wiley is an awesome publisher and the professionals there get the new publishing model as well as the new rules of marketing and PR. Other publishers would freak out if an author wanted to put bits of the book out for comment and solicit ideas online. 

Some of my favorite books evolved on blogs. Two that come to mind are Naked Conversations by Robert Scoble and Shel Isreal (also a Wiley book!) and The Long Tail by Chris Anderson. Great company indeed. Thanks for showing the way, guys.

Thanks for the help so far and I look forward to hearing more in the months to come.

This is important. I've continually spoken about and represented that it is nearly impossible within some organizations for the PR or communications team to adopt new tools to better serve their audiences. Let's assume for a moment that the PR team is searching for a better way...perhaps they've read about online mediarooms or blogs or wikis or podcasts...or attended a presentation about them. So they set about the task of understanding them better. Then they make a decision to buy. This decision falls within their authority, their budget and certainly their professional purview. But since this new "tool" is a WEB tool, it has to get a "signoff" from the organization's IT group.

At this point, the PR professional faces several potential scenarios. The "least" likely of which is an understanding IT representative that gets the big picture, that realizes that the PR person is struggling to do their job effectively within the current toolset offered by the organization, and that this decision to adopt is really a "communications" decision and not a "technology" decision. Like I said...that's the "least" likely scenario.

More than likely, the IT professional will condescend, road block and even insult the PR professional, who clearly doesn't understand the "grand technological scheme" set forth for the organization.

I offer up a real letter. This letter comes from a client that we were working with to implement an online mediaroom. The client was struggling to manage their media relations content because in their words, "our IT is slow and unresponsive...it takes me days to post a simple news release. They say that they're working on it, but I need a quick solution now." I've only edited the letter in places where it mention's names...there is no need to incriminate or point fingers at this organization because the sad truth is that they are not unique. I've had hundreds of conversations with IT gate-keepers over the years...this is the only occasion where I've been sent a letter.

Dear PR Dept. Head: From IT Dept. Head: 

I have reviewed the mediaroom service from XXXXX, read the reports from several IAD managers, and met with them regarding this product.  I agree with their conclusions and support their recommendation not to purchase.  There is no need for all of us to meet. 

This product is a content management system.  We have just purchased a content management system (CMS) in the XXXXX product.  This purchase was made after thorough research, numerous vendor demonstrations and the input of trained web department management and staff, as well as extensive input from staff members throughout the system.  Indeed I made certain to include staff from both the Development Office and Printing and Publications as representatives on the Web Redesign Committee from the very beginning of the process.   XXXXX has nearly every feature listed on the MediaRoom website and will provide the Development Office with the tools you need.  It also has many additional features that allow for the production of web content in a timely fashion on an attractive site. 

 

We specifically purchased a content management system that, by its very nature, allows sufficient flexibility so that every area of the company will benefit:   public service (both Central and Branches) and offices that wish to get the word out to the public on specific topics such as the Human Resources Office on volunteering or getting a job here at the company, or the Development Office on Getting Involved in whatever ways you and your staff envision.   The Mediaroom product is a specific product geared only to the area of public relations.  The entire reason for IAD's entering into the purchasing of a new CMS is to better market the company.   But we are marketing the company as a whole, not just any one office such as Development.  At one point, you mentioned that PR Newswire could just be a button under the “Get Involved” tab.  This, however, is not the issue.  The real issue is if we will have one website or two, which end up competing with one another.  The organization cannot afford to have separate and duplicative informational conduits that will confuse the public.

 X XXX already allows your staff to build its own content in whatever way you wish.  It contains sections such as a Welcome Page, Organization Overview, Event Calendar, and RSS feed that you have expressed as a need.  If the company purchased specific content management systems for every office and department in the organization, we would have in the neighborhood of 40-50 different systems.  This is why I spent seven months searching for a new Web Department Manager and Assistant Manager and why the Web Department spent about a year and a half convening a systemwide committee to research institutional needs and vendor products to determine the best match for the company.  I am confident that XXXX is that product. 

My staff and I have had extensive experience in dealing with vendors and routinely find that when they claim that there is "no need for IT intervention" this is nothing more than slick salesmanship and little basis in reality.   This is why it is so important that staff trained in both technical areas and contract negotiation are the ones who vet products that will have systemwide impact on our web presence or computer network.

 

Rolling out a new website is a huge undertaking for any organization.  The first step, after actually purchasing a CMS, is to build out a basic site -- one that says who we are.  Later, that basic site becomes the core on which to hang all the bells and whistles.  The entire process can take a couple of years.  XXXXX provides the solid foundation upon which the company will be able to accomplish that.  I must ask that you afford us the time to do that and that you participate fully in the rollout by building out your Development Office tab.  Later on, if you find an important element is lacking for your office’s needs, we will certainly be open to adding a feature. XXXX became an attractive product to us because of its flexibility and its company’s innovative nature.

The most important thing that Development Office staff can do is to begin producing the web content that you want under the new website's "Get Involved" tab.  Web Manager XXXX has been conducting demos the last few months in different company locations so that staff can be gathering content and updating information in their own individual areas.  I recently assigned all IAD managers to write a description of his/her department so that we will have this ready when it is needed.  IAD staff is willing to help you and your staff in any way possible to do that, if needed. 

 

7 months finding a web manager? 18 months reviewing vendors? Slick salesmanship and little basis in reality?

There's really very little to be said in critique of this...it is so very obvious. A PR department that is completely hamstrung by an IT group that fails to understand it's job.

 

Nuff said.   

 

 

When the new media and college athletes come into contact, it can create many problems – and not just with sites like MySpace.

 

Before Web sites, blogs and sports radio, the reporters who covered college sports were pretty much divided into two groups – those who reported the facts and those who gave opinions on what the first group reported.

 

In the newspaper business, you were either a beat reporter or a columnist. Those two groups still exist, but the dividing line is a little blurred. I co-host ACC Nation, a sports-talk show about the Atlantic Coast Conference. We often have beat writers on the show, and they are asked for both facts and opinions.

 

A year or so ago, one of our regular guests who worked at a major newspaper in the ACC area, told us that management has told her and the other beat writers that, if they were on sports-talk shows, they had to stay away from expressing opinions. It made for some awkward moments when we would ask a question and she would have to say, “I can’t comment on that.”

 

Still, there are other newspapers without such bans, and it makes one wonder if coaches, knowing that beat writers may appear on radio shows and write for their newspaper’s blog, are sometimes a little more guarded with what they say.

 

Athletes sometimes aren’t media savvy enough to realize the same thing their coaches know, and I can see how that may get them into trouble.

It’s a fine line. While our radio show relies on beat writers, I can certainly see why a newspaper wants to make sure that those writers stay clear of opinions.  

 

Media training is in desperate need of a makeover.   There is little to no attention paid to new media in these training sessions.  We are constantly hearing of horror stories about students being harassed and stalked because of their personal websites.  There is even one guy who deliberately searches on the Internet for pictures posted by athletes, showing themselves and fellow teammates participating in illegal activies (i.e.-hazing rituals, incidents involving drugs and alcohol, etc.).  The photos found are posted on his personal website, and shown to school officials. 

Most people would be saying "duh" to these athletes posting personal information.  Everyone knows that the Internet is a public information source.  Common sense, right?  I believe it is the responsibility of the University to make student-athletes aware of such incidents.  The University should include in its media training the proper way to handle posting sites, whether it be a community.webshots.com page or a blogging site.

Nowadays, a typical media training session for a collegiate athlete would include tips on answering questions, proper interview etiquette, and appropriate dress for both broadcast and print media. The training would introduce athletes into the media world: what to expect from the interviewer, how to develop a relationship with the media sources and the reasons for conducting interviews. Athletes would be helped on handling adversity through the media, and would be warned how the media has the potential can make or break reputations.

The NFL Media Relations handbooks states: “Fans judge you as a player according to how you perform on the playing field. They judge you as a person according to how you perform with the media. If the fans develop a good impression of you through the media, especially when things are not going well on the field, the benefits to you can be significant.”

This statement also applies to the intercollegiate athlete. The issue that now comes up, however, is new media.

How do we train athletes to properly use the Internet and blogging sites? Even more difficult, where do we start?

Some aspects of media training may be invalid now, with such new media issues coming to surface so rapidly.

Fans have the opportunity to become interactive with players, coaches and prospective athletes with the booming popularity of sites such as facebook.com and myspace.com . Fans also have the opportunity to harass rivals through these pages. What is appropriate content for athletes to post on these pages?

Athletes have always been viewed under a microscope. Each interview, each word, each action scrutinized by the public. With so many new media sources coming out, athletes need to be properly trained. With proper training, they can take advantage of these opportunities on the Internet, instead of being taken advantage of by the Internet. 

This week Shannon Holt leads the discussion on college athletes and the new media. While college and professional athletes often receive extensive training on dealing with print and broadcast media, Holt says little has been done to prepare young athletes to avoid the dangers waiting for them in cyberspace. She says, for example, that seemingly innocent photos and comments in online communities such as myspace.com and facebook.com can lead to serious harassment charges or NCAA rules infractions.

Shannon was a graduate student this summer in my Online PR class. Before starting her new job today at the Northeast Conference, she was a Graduate Assistant at Rowan University for the Men's and Women's Swimming teams.

She has rounded up an impressive list of participants for this week’s discussion on new media media training. It includes:

Jared Winley, PR Manager from the New York Jets

Patrick Hite and Chris Graham, co-hosts of ACC Nation, an Atlantic Coast Conference radio talk program that offers both a blog and podcasts.

Josh Centor, coordinator of new media communications and author of the Double-A Zone, the official blog of the NCAA.

Patty Raube, Assistant Athletic Director/Compliance, Rowan University

Bob McComas, Slippery Rock Sports Information Director

Amit Shukur, the Division III National SAAC Representative from Kean University

Jon Churchill, Rowan University Football Graduate Assistant

Paul Gornovski, a Sports Information Graduate Assistant

Don Dunnington