I just went through rebirth of www.ktvz.com so … I still wish one day to turn this idea of a “truly public reltaions” set of principles/guides into a book/sideline.

This morning, I spent 15 minutes on a “free consultancy” to a nice local lady trying to make a big project happen in a short amount of time. One suggestion: Get a Website up, pronto. I suggest Squarespace, still one of the easiest full-featured Website-creation tools I’ve found, and thus, I remember to go check it out.

If I just put a little time into this thing, I believe it would pay big dividends. But there’s never enough time, of course.

Squarespace keeps getting better, and I haven’t used it to the extent I should to promote my vision of truly personal public relations, and how the Net makes that possible.

But thanks for visiting, and please make any comments you feel could spark discussion. Folks are still visiting here - the points and ideas are just as valid as they were a year or two ago, if not moreso - and I still want to help others make better use of the Internet for communicating what they, their groups and their businesses are up to.

So drop me a line, or make a post! I’d be most appreciative.

I still have the vision/dream in my head of a book/consultancy/etc. on the whole issue of "the New PR," but let’s get real - my hands are full! And gloriously so. So feel free to ask me specific questions, go the forum here and post a note to get a discussion going - whatever.

And thanks for visiting!

And in the world of self-publishing tools like iUniverse  there’s ways just as easy as Squarespace (though not as inexpensive;-) to create a book that you think will help people. I’m smack-dab in the middle between vanity "family history," see my name in print of a book, and having any illusions about best-sellerdom.

I think it can be a combined vision/mind-opening look at the Net’s tools and how to better use them for communications, and a nuts-and-bolts news-release primer.

Your thoughts, input and suggestions are VERY welcome, and most appreciated.

Secondly, the original name - Please Release Me! - is less stuffy, and makes folks laugh. A nice way to greet folks, before you get into all the heavy lifting. Exactly my intentions here, as well as in a possible book by the same name.

I still want to encompass the good and bad about press releases. People do desperately need reference points when it comes to informing the public, through the media, about what they are up to.

But that is not the exciting thing! The truly revolutionary, not evolutionary, thing about online PR is that it FINALLY breaks through the “big lie” of traditional PR - that it’s not about a relationship with the public, but with the media, currying favor with those that get those stories in Time or Business Week or the National Semiconductor Poobah’s Trade Rag.

There will always be a need for that type of “old-line” PR. The real challenge of 21st Century communication is how to bypass the traditional media and communicate directly with your customers/members/prospects. To make full use of the personal-connection power of e-mail, Websites (and yes, RSS feeds, blogs, podcasting and whatever comes next) to build a relationship that hitherto was simply impossible, but can be so much more lucrative and rewarding, in every sense of those words.

I just did a Google on the ‘New PR’ term and as I expected, it’s been used a bit. But it seems, from what I’m seeing, that the direction is a bit skewed. Of course the traditional PR firm’s role has changed as the world and online media have changed.

But my efforts are not about using e-mail to communicate with an editor or reporter or publisher. That’s using a new tool in the same old boring, ineffective, hit-or-miss way (can you imagine the flood of e-mail, fax and other information that floats into every newsroom these days?) No, if there’s one thing the “more than half the folks online have broadband now” Brave New World makes possible (even imperative) is the whole prospect of disintermediation.

We’ve all heard how little of our brain’s resources we use, day to day. Let us not do the same with the mostly untapped resources we now have online. We can either move the “Dear Insert Your Name Here” junk-dreck to a new medium, or we can truly tap into what this medium makes possible.

Shall we explore together?

But two weeks ago, I made about as extreme a move in media (without having to move, physically) one could make: from the “write until you drop,” infinite news hole of a Website, to the backtimed, “two minutes is an eternity” land of television.

Some would call that backwards. I call it a new challenge, with a bigger audience, and a chance to explore new territory. I’m jazzed.

This will no doubt change my perspective on things (I’m the new assistant news director at KTVZ), but as for the point of this Website, it really doesn’t change things. I’m still seeing lots of press releases, good bad and … well, not so bad.

A good press release is a good press release, for any form of media. Sure, much less of it can be used in a minute-long TV news segment, but you don’t want to pre-write the segment (or article) anyway - you want to entice the editor/reporter to write a story. Spoon-feed a tasty tidbit or two and let them fill in the blanks - do their job.

My brain is still wrapping itself around my new duties (haven’t touched a camera yet, much less the fancy video-editing system), but … to no surprise, one major rule is that the Clock Rules in TV (and radio, of course). There’s always more to say than time to say it, but then again … it’s not about words, is it? It’s about powerful, telling images. When it’s at its best.

You can’t get that out of a news release, but the best sure can provide a sense of where those images will come from, and whet a reporter’s appetite.

Sure, there’s a daily Beast to be fed, and it’s not all powerful and there’s fluff and, yes, the dreaded “happy talk.” But my new boss talks of the power TV holds, beyond any other medium - you get to know these people who come into your living room every night, for better or worse (oh am I not looking forward to being on camera;-)

But magic can happen, I’ve already had a taste of it. And I’m anxious, and ready, for more.

Many individuals and organizations in both the public and private sector are not taking advantage of the glorious opportunities the Internet provides. They are still crafting “press releases” and trying to woo the interest of cynical, time-constrained editors to please give their product, event, group or what have you some of the precious news hole in their “dead-trees” print publications.

How 20th Century!

I was again reminded late last week, as I easily found a press release on the federal Dept. of Health and Human Services  Website, how such opportunities are blown. Indeed, they had a quick link to the ability to receive their press releases by e-mail. But I really wonder how many folks out there aren’t even thinking of the glorious DIRECT marketing opportunities the Net provides.

For example: HHS is a vast organization that deals with a lot of issues of vital concern to Americans. It doesn’t put out a huge amount of press releases, but a fair sum. How much better would it be if the public and the press (many of the same goals/interests in information gathering!) could check off the boxes and say what topics they are interested in receiving regular updates about? (Instead, the e-mail sign-up for HHS led to a page of Listserv commands of the kind the Geeks of the ’90s loved, but were indecipherable to most mere mortals.)

That’s it. That’s my grand discovery. Press releases directed solely to the media should become a very minor part of any forward-thinking organization’s effort to inform the public.

By now, a vast majority of the public is looking for information directly from YOU! Not spoonfed in the media. And while they grouse of the infernal amount of spam out there, what a wonderful chance to provide the information these folks are interested in. Sometimes, it seems the only time a company does that right is when you buy their product and they sign you up for coupons or the like - the low-end, “Buy Me Today!” end of marketing.

I doubt most members of the public care when American Conglomerate Inc. picks Bob Jones for its board of directors or appoints a new Western VP of Sales, Marketing and Buck-Passing. (Though that should be one of the check-off options, of course.)

But making that personal link between your group or firm and the folks who belong or simply are interested in it can yield benefits we’ve just scratched the surface of. It’s a golden opportunity to tell those interested in what you do what you’re up to, directly, immediately and not as 2 paragraphs in a trade journal only read by your competitors.

Opens the mind to some exciting possibilities, doesn’t it? And all it takes is the tools we already have, plus relatively little programming time. Of course, opening that avenue of dialogue is a 2-way street, and you never know could come in return. But as high-maintenance as the questions and comments might be, it’s a valuable dialogue that far too many who believe they “get” the Web really don’t get. But they should.

Oh, and the other thing governments and large businesses don’t get, quite simply, is the need to CENTRALIZE that communication with the public. It should NOT take me five years to sign up for all the state/federal agencies, individually, and the information I (as press or public) want. It should be ONE stop, directly off the main page, kept fresh as new products/topics/initiatives enter and exit the radar screen.

It’s overdue, folks, and I’ll be happy to trumpet anyone who shows me they’re doing it.

Got one a couple days ago from a state agency here in Oregon, that obviously got it from another source, because peppered through it, where there’s supposed to be a city or state’s name, it was (CITY, STATE) and (DESCRIBE EVENT) and (TIME) and (LOCATION), etc.

At first I had to laugh, then I thought, “Oww. Poor Press-Release Sender.” As they say in some of the … thinner comedies out there, right after a particuarly painful event: “That’s gotta hurt.”

Of course you wouldn’t. But … stuff happens. It’s just especially painful when the ouch comes even before the first words of your release. (Sorry, Jon, I couldn’t resist )

Some press releases, for sure, tell us far more than we want/need to hear (getting to a third page is a big clue). But far more often, there’s simply too little information to invite us into the subject - a terse recitation of what’s happening where, when and a contact for more info (if one has time to make the call).

One local organization that usually sets a great balance between too little info and too much is the Deschutes Public Library System . Their event heads-up releases are almost always just one page, and yet they add 2-3 grafs (paragraphs) about the speaker’s background, and even a comment or two from the speaker on the topic. Add an inviting lead (first sentence), and you have more than an event/calendar item, you have a brief that can stand alone in any local newspaper or publication, and actually INVITES the reader to show up and participate.

Nifty!