Words of Wisdom for PR people

Isn’t Twitter great for getting information quickly? And isn’t it terrible for loading your timeline with stuff that sometimes makes the heart sink?

As a Twitter fan I’ve noticed that it gets news out faster than mainstream media. Sometimes it’s accurate, too. And I love the quirky stuff, like this recent multi-reTweet.

‘AsdaEmployee: ‘What you want on the cake?’

Customer: ‘Best Wishes Suzanne’ and underneath that ‘We will miss you’.

Photo Courtesy of Claire Willis https://twitter.com/clairelou1971

Well, it amused me – and obviously a lot of others.

But there’s one thing of which I am now a bit weary: it’s those little quotes of pithy wisdom that lots of us see on a daily basis. I get so many of them that I remember none. They’ve merged in my brain into an amorphous mass of mini homilies.

You know the sort of thing: ‘The important thing is not being afraid to take a chance.’

Yes, it’s a perfectly sensible and sound bit of advice but there are thousands like it competing for attention. So far, none has motivated me to be more efficient, decisive and dynamic. Of course, that’s more to do with me than them.

So if we’re going to have quotes, let’s have more entertaining ones I say. That means celebrating the wit of geniuses like Mark Twain, Winston Churchill and Oscar Wilde. The bonus is that you can apply them to your own profession or trade.

For today let’s focus on public relations. We PR people love surveys and ‘research’. Well, they seem to do the job for clients.

In the words of Mark Twain: ‘Facts are stubborn things, but statistics are more pliable.’ Well, we’d all agree, wouldn’t we? Without them, how would newspapers fill all the gaps?

And he also advised: ‘Get your facts first, and then you can distort them as much as you please.’ Ah yes, so true. And as a last resort: ‘Honesty is the best policy – when there is money in it.’ Steady on Twainy, we can’t possibly agree to that last one.

It’s evident that Oscar Wilde was born before his time. Today, he surely wouldn’t write: ‘It is a very sad thing that nowadays there is so little useless information.’ Dear Oscar, these days we are just about drowning in it from a torrent of news releases. Count yourself lucky.

But he was wise chap in many ways, as I think when I hark back to my early PR days and his glorious quote. ‘I am not young enough to know everything.

Let’s consider news releases. It’s so annoying when our carefully crafted masterpieces of informative prose fail to make it into broadcast media, print – or even online. Sometimes you’ve just got to agree that Gandhi may have got it right. ‘I believe in equality for everyone, except reporters and photographers.’

Still, forgive, forget and move on, eh?

Aristotle, writing before the IPR got its chartered status, got it spot on about our news releases: ‘Everything has its beauty, but not everyone sees it.’

And what about that Albert Einstein, eh? Not only did he know the secret of nuclear fission, he was also clued up on what makes a damn good news release: ‘Imagination is more important than knowledge…’

Up to a point Albert, but I agree that it must help a bit.

Winston Churchill also had some advice that may be heeded PR wordsmiths:

‘Broadly speaking, the short words are the best, and the old words best of all.’

And as for grammar: ‘From now on, ending a sentence with a preposition is something up with which I will not put.’

Sir Winston also urged people to be a bit realistic. Does this sound familiar?: ‘However beautiful the strategy, you should occasionally look at the results.’

But even if you aren’t in PR, his advice applies to whatever you do: ‘Pleasure in the job puts perfection in the work.

And at this point I think my brief bit of whimsy has gone on long enough. After all: ‘By my rambling digressions I perceive myself to be growing old.’ Thank you, Benjamin Franklin.

Follow Wynford or WEPR on Twitter

I’ve just divorced my social media ‘guru’

The world seems to be awash with social media experts. They’re all over the place – and some have even been elevated to ‘guru’ status by people promoting them.

So I’d like to begin by asking: can please have the word ‘guru’ banned? It’s applied to so many people that the currency has been well and truly devalued. I believe there are now possibly more PR or social media ‘gurus’ in the world than there are people. So from now on I will only believe people are gurus if they are a bit mystic, shrouded in incense and have a very long beard.

But that’s a digression. Back to social media. It isn’t really my thing, but luckily my colleagues are very adept at it – so I’m not short of help. I get many emails from companies and individuals offering advice on how to master its mysteries. There are lots of people on my Twitter timeline who dispense wisdom on how to do it properly, win new business, unlock the secrets etc etc. Some must presumably be very good, as they seem to be making a living from it.

But there are just so many social media advisers out there, and many of them seem to Tweet about as often as they exhale. There is one who must surely be Tweeting non-stop: a bit like those unfortunate people who can never stop hiccupping. He followed me a while back and I reciprocated. I soon began to regret it.

Just about every time I logged on there he was: smiling at me, telling me how to do this or that and giving me links to articles and websites. But he seemed like a nice enough chap, and I didn’t want to unfollow him – as that would have been slightly rude. Yet some of the stuff he did seemed so pointless, like asking his thousands of followers what they were going to do that day. Well, I wasn’t going to bother to tell him. Would anyone?

Then, after a few weeks my attitude started to slide from indifference to irritation. My heart sank a little every time I entered Twitterland and was immediately confronted by this alleged guru, doing his usual stuff. And I noticed that he was repeating the same things over and over again. My Twitter experience became a bit like Groundhog Day.

My feeling ratcheted up from irritation to mild annoyance, like I was locked into virtual prison cell with this guy and forced to listen to him airing his views. And by now the last thing I wanted to do was to click on one of his links. I was determined that he wasn’t going to wear me down. Hell no, I wasn’t going to give in to all this badgering. Yet he had lots of followers; so was this about him being misunderstood by me, or my lacking any sense of perception about the world of social media?

It was particularly peeving when he suggested I should be spending my Sundays ‘strategising’ my next social media campaign, ready for a supersonic start on Monday. No, I wanted to cut the grass and read the papers and recharge my batteries. I didn’t want someone making me feel that I’m a bone idle business failure, thanks all the same.

Eventually, I toyed with a drastic step: unfollowing him. Yes, termination with semi-extreme prejudice. I thought that was probably OK really because, as a social media guru, I suppose you shouldn’t really irritate the hell out of people so much that they wish to avoid you online. That seems to defeat the purpose. It occurred to me that this was an experience that made me question his ‘guruness’. He was having a negative effect on me now. I wondered if anyone would pay any attention to him – in a good way, that is. Any anyway, with all those followers he definitely wouldn’t miss me at all.

But, despite everything, I hung on in there – locked into my Twitter fate.

Then, just the other day, my life changed. I had a tremendous stroke of luck: he had unfollowed ME. This was a joyous and memorable moment, as it now meant I could unfollow him back without feeling guilty, antisocial and sort of giving him an electronic kick in the teeth. I was free! Big Brother had gone. Probably, my inane Tweets lacking any advice on strategy, how to spend your weekends, or anything useful at all, had irritated him even more than the other way around. I don’t care.

Having just unburdened myself, I suppose I should suggest there’s a lesson in this experience, to give it a (very tiny) point. As business person, run-of-the-mill web user and non-social media expert, it made me a bit more sceptical about much of the advice that bombards me via the web and Twitter. Underneath it may all be valuable and sensible stuff, but if the Tweets annoy you to distraction, then it surely can’t work, can it? Or maybe that’s just me.

Luckily, I get some business Tweets that are relevant, don’t turn up too often, and signpost that they will say something of interest. That’s OK by me: I like them and even take a look at some, now and then. Yes, first impressions count: and that’s as true on Twitter as in my non-virtual real life world.

Wynford Emanuel, Director

Mr Grumpy’s top 10 moans on Tweetiquette

1  Some social media advisers tell you to retweet lots of news. But so many people have taken the advice that I get the same repetitive stuff clogging up my timeline. If you must do it, at least be selective. Don’t try to compete with the BBC or CNN.

2  Why retweet stuff that means nothing to anyone else? Retweeting ‘Hi Jim’, or that someone has thanked you for some unspecified help seems pointless to others. Reading it means seconds of my life are totally wasted.

3  Avoid rants that are unexplained and have no background (e.g. ‘That’s the last time I shop at X’). Half a story is no story at all. We want to know why!

4  Please don’t ask me personally for a RT of something or other, as refusal often offends – as they say about credit in my local store. If it doesn’t impress or interest, why would I? No merit, no RT.

5  Don’t tell an imaginary friend about your new product or service (e.g. ‘Hey Bill, have you seen the great offer at Y?’). It’s transparently phoney, artless, and makes you look a bit mad. It’s counter-productive, too, because now I’m determined not to buy it.

6  Homilies, epithets and classic quotations are great, but a little can go a long way (oops!). They can be overdone and get a bit wearisome, so ration them. Oscar Wilde would understand.

7  What’s all this ‘you follow me and I’ll follow you’ stuff? Why would I want to ratchet up my follower numbers by adding people who, in real life, I’d avoid like they had the Ebola virus? Thanks, but I don’t want to boast about the size of my Twitter appendage.

8  Famous people get huge followings and, for practical reasons, they follow few. Some non-famous people have the same policy, assuming the rest of us eagerly await their pearls. Please fight this conceit. Twitter is for TWO WAY communication. At least, mine is.

9  If someone has mentioned you, commented on your Tweet, or asked you a question, then it’s usually good manners to respond. Check who’s referenced @you and acknowledge him or her. After all, it’s proof that we exist (I Tweet, therefore I am).

10  Are in-jokes or coded comments really suited to open Tweets? No! You’re just telling us sad sacks that we’re excluded. It can make you look a bit of a precious smart arse, too. DMs make more sense for this chat, are more polite and may make the rest of us like you a little bit more.

11  I know I said ’10 things’, but there is an eleventh. It’s about those annoying people who Tweet about their lists of this or that. It’s been done to death. And we’re just not interested!

Wynford Emanuel, Director

You can see Wynford ignoring his own advice on Tweetiquette @WynfordE