@dvocable

My dear friends:

When I started writing for IPRB, I wanted to make a difference and give some gyan about PR. But as I started writing more, started thinking more and one day I realised that PR is not just about press releases, media relations and many other things, its about various issues we face on a daily basis. Communication is not about typing out a mail or speaking on phone, it is about way of life and expressing feelings. I started writing about various values of life and how does that affect us every moment of life – whether its a business or personal. Some of you have liked it – many of you have disliked it. When I took a break in between, many people was disappointed. When I started writing again, many people were agitated. I have done many things in life or might have not done anything in life – its immaterial. But, yes one thing I did, I do and I will continue to do till my last breath is to love. To love what I do. I do. To love and live every moment with that love. I do care.

But, as they say all good things should come to an end. This is the end here on IPRB but as promise is a promise and I want to live my promise, I will continue to write what I want, what I feel on my own blog, where in I am not answerable to anyone except myself. I will not stop you from reading it and I will not force you to read that either – if you are one of them who wants to be with me, please send me a mail and I will send you a link of the blog and for those, who doesnt want to be with me and want to live a happy life – please continue to do so. I am sure you will find happiness whetever you are. But yes, at any given point of time if you miss me or you want to be with me – I will not stop you. You are most welcome to walk back in my life – any moment. whenever you want. Because, as I always said. I am here – always and forever. You have to decide now. Its your choice and not mine.

I have decided that I want and I am doing just that. Thank you friends for the wonderful moments we shared on IPRB and I am sure IPRB will continue to flourish and you will continue to enjoy many wonderful posts on this blog. I am sorry if I have hurted anybody in the process. Please forgive me friends. Sorry Krishna. Sorry everyone. Take care. God Bless you.

Those who wish to read my thoughts, please send me a mail on tusharpan@gmail.com and it can be a new begining. As they said, picture abhi baaki hain mere dost…

Take care.

With lots of love.

Tushar

I always wish to hear these kind of statements from journalists….but alas, The Pursuit of Happiness continues. Friends, how many times has this statement ruined your day, your week or perhaps your month? Allow me to share a heartbreaking tale about a young aspirant who always had something to look forward to.

“There was a young man who went by the name of Jack. Everyday he attended his daily chores like going to media rounds, doing extensive media mapping, effectively sending out extremely simple reports in the approved rocket science formats, etc. One fine day, he thought that Client Goddess has finally seen all his sincerity and hard work and she herself called him up and told him exactly what he expected.

With his trembling hands, he held on to the phone. His heart filled with delight and glee on listening to the beautiful sound in which Goddess said…Wow!!! Now that’s a front page story. She explained how she expected more out of him but still ready to relieve the pressure so that he wouldn’t have to work like an ass to gain her blessings. She gave him a story idea which would work like magic with his journalist comrades (soon to be enemies). He would be able to get front page stories and play with toys and would be pioneer, a statesman in his contemporary DNA age.”

Unfortunately for our new to the club Jack, he was unable to use this magic formula for the betterment of his environment and save his world using the marvelous story idea. Jack still had to work like an ass for this story idea to please this Client Goddess.

On numerous occasions I’ve witnessed my bosses shivering on thinking of a suitable reply to be given to the client which is always eventually based on truth…”Boss, this is not a good story idea or event, I don’t see any coverage coming out of it”. But they have unfortunately inherited a phobia or to never say ‘no’ as soon as they got into the industry. The differences is that they think they have become a Ghandivadi of the PR industry by following this practice. There are so many things that we work day in and day out without even realising the amount of time and energy positioned on something which will help us derive very very special and worthy snippets. We can do something really substantial with all our time spent on these mindless, meaningless pitching and give some real PR value to our clients.

Smash!!! I love what I wrote in the above line. It’s really good, but if only we are allowed to. Anyways, being a PR professional, I am trained to carry & boast alternatives. Let me now site some typical examples which we are regularly tangled:

1. Corporate Social Responsibility: Corporates, I am aware how important it is to practice CSR. You develop good relations with all intended target audiences. It helps you to gain a good hand with the government. Investor relations are kept in good spirit as you are contributing to the society. Consumers understand that you, out of many, think about the common man and they are happy. Yes all good but doing a CSR activity every month….I mean let somebody else be the saint. The catastrophic phenomenon has been around since 4/5 years now. Let’s see some perspective with this aspect.

In a meeting the client shares with me and my boss.

Client: “…..(name not published on request)……, we are coming up with this new thing and its very environment friendly, it would aim to teach students as well. Yes I do admit that other corporate have also moved in this stride but we’ve observed they have involved less no. of students and we are involving many more. I understand the idea is not new but we plan to invest in this for five years. So we want good coverage around this”.

Observe the responses to the info shared by the client. My thoughts on the responses and comments in bracket:

“Oh that sounds of wonderful. (Without realizing it my boss has given a new meaning to the word wonderful). I don’t think we should have a problem in implementing a strategized plan on this. Although this is not a new idea (no stone is left unturned in terms of CSR ideas), we’ll still be able to derive some coverage out of it. Why isn’t it, Saurabh?”

And that’s it,,,, my world just collapses on this last statement.

Friends please excuse the sarcasm. The point I am trying to make is about always trying to explain to your clients how important it is to practice high-scale impactful CSR otherwise it’s of no use. Ideas like teaching a couple of underprivileged kids, growing a couple of trees are always good for an individualistic value appreciation but not at all meaningful from a corporate perspective. Still I do understand the unaided situation that many of us land in with persistent clients. For those kind of clients give a suggestion to club around 2-3 CSR initiatives and turn that around into a profiling opportunity. Some columns that should be able to suffice your clients and help you are:

a. The Economic Times, Career and Business life page
b. Business Standard, Social Enterprise Page.
c. The Financial Express, Corporate Voice

2. Appointments: Another one of those highly demanded properties that our respectful clients vouch for to be an easy placement. Unless it’s a CEO or a president of a big corporate, movements and appointments are hard to be placed even with amazing media relations. It would not be surprising that one of our clients asks us to get coverage on a change in its security setup.

Trying to offer and combine the appointment news with financial numbers and investment to increase the news value might surely help derive more out of the simple appointment news.

3. Product announcements: No, I don’t mean the launch of a bike, a car, a big pharma drug. I am talking about going through the horror of launching a completely advanced GSM paper. A breakthrough in the contemporary unfortunately not covered by any paper. Sometimes this also happens. The best thing to do in these situations is target the trade media. The trick might be to convince your clients for concentrating on special relationship building meetings and not seeing it though a coverage point of view. Convince him from the more futuristic view. These meetings always help in creating a pipeline for stories.

4. Advertising and marketing campaigns: Not too long ago I was asked to give a PR plan on my client’s small sponsorship in a big rock festival. Ya, I know you are thinking, this is just impossible. No client can be this unreasonable. Well, I was among you all who think in this fashion. Now I am a PR professional. Get it. What do you do in these situations? Well nothing, you can do some industry story participation on the subject but apart from that nothing.

We should all thank the afaqs, exchange4media, indiantelevision, and indiainfoline of the world who can come for our rescue in situations like these.

5. International News: Well, at least most of our clients are sensible enough not too expect anything out of these sorts. But for some select who suffer from this phobia as well I’ll try to give an alternative. It should be relatively easy to acquire a fair amount of coverage in case of a big international collaboration or a big international corporate setting up in India, but for the rest of them, work out a regular dispatch of information to the media without pushing for coverage on it. Suggest your client to be in regular touch with the media with an informative newsletter, which would also help you to monitor and be abreast of your client’s industry.

My apologies to all who religious expect this blog’s horizon to be very serious and always giving gyaans. This post is about an opinion and how we should ideally tackle all the tricky mud holes our clients create for us. I would expect some valuable additions to it as well.

This may sound like a statement from an arrogant man and believe you me; many people who do not know me well enough strongly believe that I am one such individual with lot of arrogance or ‘air in the head’ as someone said it very recently to me. This is not all; they have given me lot of such amazing adjectives which I always accept with grace and confidence.

Anyways, let me ask one basic question to all those people who do not understand the difference between attitude and arrogance. Do you think that having an attitude of winning is a crime? NO. I don’t think so. Having a winning attitude makes Dhoni what he is today. Having a winning attitude creates business leaders like Ambanis, Mittals and Tatas. It brings in the leadership quality which each one of us should have.

We can’t win businesses or become successful if we don’t have winning attitude. We all have this attitude – we all want to win and try real hard but when it comes to mentioning it upfront, we do not do it and those who do it get branded as arrogant or flamboyant. Thank you.

For me winning is about never losing, never settle for second best and try harder to get the best out of everything. You may be the best but I am better – it doesn’t mean that I am better than you. I am just bettering myself again and again and trying to become better than the best all the time. Is it a crime? NO. Improving self and learning new skills, bettering self, doing better than what you did previously are actually some really good qualities to have in a businessman or in any professional.

I will continue to demonstrate my attitude. I will continue to show it to everyone that I am a winner without mincing words. Its none of my business what you think of me – because I can think for myself. I know what I am doing right or wrong, if you have a difference perspective to it, share it with me and I will listen. I will try and understand your point of view and implement those suggestions if they are worth implementing. So, by accepting your suggestions and implementing those, if you think that I am dumber than you are, I am fine with it. By not accepting any of your suggestions and going ahead with what I thought was right and if this makes you think that I am dumber because I didn’t accept your suggestion, I am fine with it too. Does it make any difference to me? I am the same ‘dumb’ even if I accept or decline. Strange isn’t it? But true. So, why should I bother? As I said, it’s none of my business what you think of me.

Well, by now many of you must be wondering why write such post. What am I trying to prove? I don’t have to prove anything here. I just wanted to share with you my friends that having an attitude and demonstrating it is not a crime. Every one of us have an attitude, some shows it some don’t. So, I am not looking for any advice. I don’t need your attitude, I have of my own. By calling me arrogant or with any other adjective, what are you trying to prove? Aren’t you showing your own attitude that you believed that you are smarter than me and you have the right to correct me? Do I need that from you? So, when you can demonstrate your attitude, why can’t I do it for myself? THINK!

Have a great life ahead – live well and have some attitude. I know you have it, flaunt it. We need lot of it. In India we really need lot of it to come out of that colonial mindset of being servant all the time. And yes, I like the recent campaign by Dainik Bhaskar – Zidd karo, Duniya Badlo! Let’s demonstrate some attitude. If we demonstrate some attitude our industry will be much better place to work. If we demonstrate some attitude our clients would be happy and understand what they want. If we demonstrate some attitude our world would be a better place and India would be able to live healthy and terror free life.

Did I say that my wife loves me when I show attitude – when I say that I am the industry. Because, she knows what I mean when I say that. After all, it’s all a matter of attitude and she knows that I am not arrogant. I wish you a life full of attitude. Have a good life, but yes – I will have a better life. J ‘

PS: This post was dedicated to those humble people in our industry who try to tell all of us that what they have done and achieved in life. Please, I don’t need it. As I said, you may be the best, but I am better.

Client meet: the two words which mean life or death for PR professionals

Don’t take the above statement as an exaggeration of sorts. It is a fact. There are times when we reach for a client meeting well before time and the contrary when we dread going to them. I’ve seen my boss pray for not having to attend a client meet after a flop show (Of course he tried to do it in private but I saw his folded hands unfortunately). The anxiety of explaining the outcomes of an event or a release can be similar to facing God and explaining your wrong actions (the latter is still better, believe me). However listed below are a few tips, in no particular order, that PR Professionals should try to remember in case of client meets.

1. Decide the objectives for the Meeting: Set objectives before the meeting!

One should always be focused on setting the meeting objectives. If you don’t find any reasons to do this, your meeting can shift focus and you’ll end up discussing a completely different affair & reach to a ….well no conclusion. While setting the meeting objectives one should keep in mind all things he/she wants to achieve out of the meeting.

One benefit of setting objectives for the meeting is to help you plan the meeting. The more concrete your meeting objectives, the more focused your agenda will be. A second important benefit of having specific objectives for each meeting is that you have a concrete measure against which you can evaluate that meeting. Were you successful in meeting the objectives? Why or why not? Is another meeting required? Setting meeting objectives allows you to continuously improve your effective meeting process.

2. Be well informed

Yes, anther one of those cliché gyans that you come across regularly. However this is one of those rare points that is not strictly checked on irrespective of its significance. We should always be bang on with our client’s progress in the recent times. The one thing that surely impresses the client is your knowledge/ comprehension about his business along with knowledge of the industry on a whole.

3. Be Organized

A very significant etiquette in this context is to be organized when going to a client meeting. One should be equipped with a point agenda to be discussed at a client meet. It is advisable to carry recent coverage dockets and referable handouts for the meeting. This helps us PR professional in various aspects.

The most important aspect of being a perfect PR professional is our presentation qualities. This skill sets us apart not only on an individualistic but this is a certain differential which gives PR its uniqueness. The way one presents himself/herself at a meeting sets the tone or the balance of the meeting.

4. Agenda

Provide all participants with an agenda before the meeting starts. The agenda would include a brief description of the meeting objectives & a list of the topics to be covered. When you send the agenda, you should include the time, date and location of the meeting and any background information participants will need to know to hold an informed discussion on the meeting topic. What’s the most important thing you should do with your agenda? Follow it closely!

5. Be sensible, be safe

In my school days, I still remember my teacher repetitively advising me to ask as many questions as possible (although my teacher’s wish went unfulfilled, as my comprehension of her subject failed to support me), this rule however does not apply to our industry. Internally one has the complete liberty to be as naive as per our wish. However incase of a client meeting one should not speak until & unless it’s a noteworthy comment or suggestion. We set an impression on people by our comments. I am not advising anyone to go in a shell and not participate at all but just that when one does choose to participate he/she should be equipped with all the facts before addressing any topic.

6. Anticipate questions as if you anticipate crisis

The first lesson of crisis management is anticipation. There are times when client meets have to be visualized as crisis and have to be dealt with accordingly. Anticipate all possible queries and issues to be addressed in meeting. Do this exercise while going for the meeting. Yes follow this routine while on the way to the client’s office.

One should never give importance to specific meetings which only includes high officials from client side. Every meeting is equally important and one should always be prepared for them. So, we should follow this exercise for every meeting.

7. POA: Don’t conclude any meeting without deciding on the plan of action

Don’t finish any discussion in the meeting without deciding the action on it

Before leaving the meetings make sure that the client is satisfied with the discussion. Also make sure that the points or plan of action discussed is properly understood with both the parties. There should be no ambiguity with any point discussed in the meeting.

‘Time is Money’ the golden rule which I find to be coherent for our industry. We should be able to take action on the points discussed as quickly as possible. No matter how easy going or non demanding the client is documents in form of MOMs (Minutes of the meetings) should always reach to the client after every meeting.

These were the few pointers for client meetings, although debatable and certainly extendable.

Pappu wrote a mail asking for my phone number. He wanted to speak something urgently. I replied to him with a number. Pappu called. Excerpts:

“Am I speaking to Tushar? Same Tushar who writes on India PR Blog?”

“Yes.”

“So, you do exist. I thought you don’t.”

“Many people believe so. You are not the only one. Anyways, go ahead. What was so urgent?”

“Well, I know I can dance. I am a good dancer. I told my employer before I joined them that I can really dance well. And they were pretty impressed with the fact that I can dance. They felt that dancing is critical to the job I am going to perform.”

“Excellent! Well done!, so what’s the problem?”

“Listen to me completely, I told them that I know dancing, I can act as well and they felt it was an added advantage. I further told them about things I need to learn to become a complete fit in the organization. I told them about need for direction and support from the superiors and colleagues on a regular basis before I become a complete professional in the field. They promised all – because they felt that dancing is the critical to the job I am going to peform.”

“Wow! Go ahead…”

“I started dancing. Was trying to do other things as well. Initially, they liked my dancing but later on started feeling that dancing is not everything. I reminded them about the commitment they gave me about providing me proper learning experience and guidance to perform as a professional in the field. They said, you need to learn on the job. When I started showing some new dance moves & innovative steps, they said its not required. You just do what is required of you. Dancing can be one of the requirements but not everything.”

“Hmmm… so what’s the issue now?”

“the issue is that they hired me because I can dance well and now they are saying dancing is not everything and I can’t dance. So, I am confused. What should I do? Should I change the employer? I am learning things on my own but again I feel cheated. Will I be able to dance again the way I used to?

“It’s quite a common story and I am not surprised. However, I may have some solution for you. Let’s see whether you can dance the way you used to after we speak.”

I am meeting Pappu in a day or two. I am sure many Pappus can associated with this story. If you are one of those and need some help in improving your dancing or want to become good professional, please read IPRB and work with someone who understands Pappu and why he should dance the way he wants. “Naach na Jaane, Aangan Tedha” is what someone said earlier, but I came across many situations where many of the employers are creating stages, where even the brightest of Pappus can’t dance. What type of employer are you?

THINK.

Sometimes viewing pictures in rows and columns can be dull. Luckily, there are a number of services dedicated to making the photo search and viewing experience more interesting.

Check out my latest post on Mashable for 8 sites that provide a new approach to searching and looking at pictures online.

Also one that came on the comments that I would have loved to include is Tag Galaxy. Check it out.

Recently I was having a conversation with some industry colleagues. Among them was a new intern who majored from IIMC and who was not so satisfied with her first experiences with practical PR in an agency. She said she often feels like a telecaller who gives unsolicited phone calls, selling stuffs to uninterested and rude customers. Her products were stories of her clients and her customers were the journalists whom she was calling.

She continued that her professors at IIMC had warned everyone that theoretical PR and practical PR would be a bit different from each other. But what they failed to warn was these two run in parallel – never to meet.

That was bad. I thought. If the PR industry compels freshers to go out of steam in the first few months, how many bright minds are we going to lose to other industries in the coming years and how many are we actually going to groom well? I tried explaining her a few bits why she should not think of her job in that way, which I am trying to recollect here, and I am sure many can help me out here.

Let’s do a bit of analysis. PR students in the course of their studies read about Edward Bernays, Ivy Lee, and their theories, build teams and construct PR campaigns in their project work, read case studies of the best and worst of PR, and listened to all the lectures of seasoned professors. By the time they majored, they have developed high expectations and are all geared up. But what do they get?

When these students become the young PR professionals in an agency, they are suddenly the junior most of the team. They get to work on activities like making media monitoring reports, weekly reports, follow-up with journalists who often are not so supportive. Many of these activities just appear so mundane and truly things that can be done by any class 12 student. Their dreams come crashing and they think- I have to change the line.

Is this what has been happening?

But for the time being, let’s suppose indeed this is what happens typically. But then young professionals need to understand that everybody has gone through the grind and everybody needs to in order to become mature professionals.The same logic of many great marketing professionals starting out as sales people might apply here.

Often in these so called ‘mundane’ jobs, we learn the finer nuances of the art of PR and discover little secrets for ourselves that we can use for the rest of our career. For instance, if someone is making media monitoring reports for the automobile industry, by the end of six months or so, he/she would have automatically figure out a lot of information and up-to-date knowledge about what’s happening in that particular sector. Imagine doing this for other sectors. By a year or two, how many sectors can one keep abreast of? Documentation skills are also very important in the PR profession. All the monitoring and weekly reports are geared to help one with that. Following up on journalists for months will teach one how to speak in 10 seconds that can grab attention.

Then there is the complaint of theoretical and practical PR differences. Though in early years it sounds like there is a mismatch between what one has learn and what one is doing in an agency. But later on, having a sound theoretical knowledge will always prove to be advantageous. We have to take the theories as a good foundation. And when the foundation is strong, we can create anything we want and the possibilities are not limiting. So for example, when one starts doing a brainstorming and explanation of PR to clients, you know what you are talking about and is not limited to just what you have experienced in an agency.

Earlier I wrote a piece on 10 things a young PR professional should learn before finishing an internship. I think PR interns should focus on these activities and try to get the most of their internships. If they are just made to do one particular activity, they can always ask for variety.

Now that I have said all that I want to say, it looks like I have put everything on the young intern. Sounds like a crafty agency person! Let me also write this that agencies hiring interns have as much responsibility in grooming young professionals and in bringing out fine professionals for the industry. There should be some genuine intent towards this cause rather than equating interns as cost effective short-term solutions. If all agencies start doing their bit, we wouldn’t have so much attrition problem as we are having now.

There are various tools used in Public Relations to communicate with target audience like Press Conference, Press briefing, Round table discussions, Editors’ meeting, one to one interactions etc. To do all this we need to work with one parallel industry called Journalism. However, getting things done through a journalist is not so easy. Here are 22 tips on how to get sarted on how to influence journalists and maintain positive relations with them:

1. Beat Journalist: Know your beat journalist. Also find the alternative person as there are two journalists working on the same or alternative beat. Keep their contact details handy as it provides easy and quick access to them.

2. Knowledge: Make sure that you have enough knowledge of your client and also have relevant information of the respective industry. Do your homework well before pitching a story or talking to them regarding your client.

3. Deadlines: Respect their deadlines and try to provide the required inputs on time. It helps a lot to create a reputation as a responsible person. Try to understand that they are also reporting to editors and have to meet deadlines.

4. Personal Details: Try and find the personal details like likes, dislikes, education, and professional experience. It helps in knowing them better and also helps in making their profiles. Organizations nowadays are very keen in journalists’ profiles.

5. Sharing Information: One can be very close to the journalist but never share any official information off the record. Agency or the client might suffer in one way or other. Always request journalist to send a requirement mail for any query.

6. Stay in touch: Call your beat journalists at least once a day. If possible add them to your chat messengers. It gives a personal touch.

7. Meeting with Journalist: Meet with beat journalist at least once a week. It can be professional or personal meeting. Discuss various spheres of the industry they are working on. Do not force them to be in conversation if they are not interested, it might irritate them.

8. Maintain the Gap: Professionally journalists are very sensitive. They should not feel that you are unnecessarily interfering in their work. Don’t use abusive words even if they are very friendly with you.

9. Never say NO: Sometime journalists might ask you for such information which is not available at that time (or your client CANNOT share it). Never say no to them. Always ask them for sometime. Discuss with your seniors and client and then revert back. Always ask for their deadlines as it helps you to provide inputs accordingly.

10. Off the beat: Here we can have two categories:

o Journalist left your beat: When a journalist shift from your respective beat or shift from one organization to another. Be in touch with them. You never know when they might be useful for you.

o Journalist never on your beat: Sometimes we develop relations with those journalists who are never on our respective beat. There is no harm in maintaining relations with them.

11. Movements: Keep a track on their movement like shifting from one organization to another. It could be internal shifting of beats or if they are getting promoted. Try to be the first one to congrats them. Best way is to write a congratulations mail.

12. Show Gratitude: Always call up or write a thanks giving mail when they have done something for you. It shows professional ethics.

13. Read their stories: Keep on reading stories and if possible discuss it with them. It enhances your industry knowledge.

14. Timings: Respect their timings. Journalists work till late in the night. Do not disturb them when they are busy filing the stories.

15. Occasional Greetings: Do not forget to wish them on various occasions like anniversaries, festivals etc.

16. Maintain your Calm: Journalists are mostly in bad mood due to stressful deadlines. They might shout at you even if you are not at fault. Maintain you calm and try to understand the situation. Never reply back rudely.

17. Lack of Information: Do not go to them again and again if you don’t have anything to share professionally. It gives a negative impression of you as an agency and your client.

18. Journalists’ Friends: Journalist has their own official friend circle. Get yourself introduced with them. It helps in building professional network.

19. Position: Do not discriminate on journalists’ position. Even a trainee correspondent might become a senior correspondent in another organization (With a span of time).

20. Press Conference: Most of the time we meet journalist for the first time at a press conference. This is the best way to get in touch with them. Be friendly but also be professional.

21. Discussion: Discuss the current happenings in various industries. Check if they are planning any stories on the same. Also check if your clients can provide the inputs.

22. Don’t show irritation: Sometime journalists irritate people very much by demanding gifts and other items. Do not show irritation on your face.