I’ve heard some bloggers admit that they reach for something to say when there’s really nothing new rattling around in their heads. That may explain why Steven Poole, who usually hits the nail on the head, sometimes misfires. Those misfires were called to my attention because the June 19 issue of the Ragan Report highlighted several of the words and phrases that have made it into Poole’s book, “Unspeak,” which shares the name of his blog.

“Unspeak,” Poole says, is a “mode of speech that persuades by stealth.” It’s not exactly doublespeak. In fact, it’s more insidious because the media latches onto these phrases and lends them credibility. Examples of unspeak include “tax relief,” to which Poole responds, “Quietly pushes forth the argument that taxes, rather than a civic obligation, are instead an undue burden, a plague, a disease from which one needs relief.’”

All well and good, and Poole’s an astute observer of the media space as well as an engaging writer. But five of the eight examples that ran in the Ragan Report were terribly off the mark:

• Community-Poole suggests that this label “treats people as if they think with one hive mind.” This is so absurd it defies any rational consideration. Name me one community-other than extremist groups-that thinks with a hive mind. You cannot find a physical community in which everybody agrees; that’s why they have elections. A for other communities, does Pool genuinely suggest that all members of the gay or disabled communities agree on all things? Two minutes of research shows how nonsensical that notion is. I belong to several communities-communications, PR bloggers, podcasters, Jewish, my synagogue, even the Ragan community, and in none of these is there a hive mind. What there IS in a community is shared interest. I have no idea where Poole came up with the notion that members of a community think alike and agree on everything.
• Thought leader-Poole doesn’t like this because one person told him it means “style journalists.” I suppose anybody can call themselves a thought leader; it doesn’t make them one. Anybody can call themselves UN Secretary General, too. Why dismiss a useful label just because some people abuse it?
• Spin –Poole says this is unspeak for dishonesty. I say Poole needs to study what he’s talking about before he makes proclamations. While spin can be-and frequently is-misused, in its most basic form, it’s the same as “angle.” As a communicator, I will put different spin on a story when I communicate it to employees than I would when communicating it to, say, customers. Is that an untruth? Absolutely not. Employees NEED different information. For instance, if communicating a product recall, employees need to know what impact the recall will have on their day-to-day jobs. Should they re-prioritize their work? Customers couldn’t care less about that. There’s nothing dishonest in the idea of spin except when it’s used for dishonest purposes.
• Public relations-According to Poole, PR is “often a one-way massaging of the truth.” Again, there are bottom-feeding members of the PR community (oops, we’re all supposed to think and act alike in a community, aren’t we?) who engage in this kind of behavior; it is upon them that the spotlight shines. The tens of thousands of practitioners engaged in ethical PR never get much attention, nor does their work. But Poole dismisses them and their achievements in managing two-way, symmetrical communications.
• Human Resources-The very term implies depletion, says Poole: “…humans exist to be used up and replaced when no longer useful.” The primary definition of “resource” in the American Heritage Dictionary is, “Something that can be used for support or help,” and the example given is, “The local library is a valuable resource.” The library! Where books are borrowed and returned and nothing is “used up and replaced.” I guess even Poole can engage in the worst kind of “spin.”

Misuse of a label does not invalidate it unless the misuse becomes the common usage, which is not the case in any of the above examples. There’s nothing wrong with calling people on their appropriation of words and terms-particularly when it’s for nefarious purposes-but to suggest these terms are inherently “unspeak” is, well, an unspeakable mistake.

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Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.

As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.

I have no answers, I don’t claim to have any answers, I’m just some kid in Phoenix that is blessed to look 10 years younger than I am, has a good ability to write, and can be sociable when needed – some not-too-bad traits for PR. For the piece, I even have a nice photo of Phil Gomes on tour for Edelman, thoughts on the so-called 25 percent and if PR is changing, and other stuff along those lines.

Heck, I even gave a quote to Ragan’s newsletter about predictions for 2006. More on those thoughts on a later date, but the not-so tongue-in-cheek part of the quote was cut, where I noted that those same divisions would just be swallowed into PR as a whole, when firms realize that they do not need to separate blogging outreach from mainstream public relations.

But, yesterday I wrote about Foremski and Rubel and their posts about the coming (or shortcomings) of PR. Both wonder what PR is going to be in the future, why it is growing. I just look at it this way: the mainstream media universe is shrinking, with more and more freelancers coming out from the cuts in the media. Those freelancers are only going to be only really known by PR professionals that have relationships that are not built via blogs nor email but from good old PR, with the phone and personal, high-touch communications and not high-tech. Many thanks to Al Golin, who brought up the importance of relationships and the over-reliance of high-tech in our interview. Every one in PR should re-read the bolded line, and think it over. And, also go read Richard Edelman’s fisking of the Foremski piece – as the leader of Edelman, Richard always has good points, and this is no exception.

And, yes at the same time the media universe is expanding with bloggers and podcasters and other consumer generated media (or whatever you want to call it). Those are going to take a gentle hand to work with, a gentle high-tech and high-touch feel that is going to be a new thing for PR. PR has never been about control (ha!! – if any PR person can tell me when they have had control with the media, I’ll buy them a burger), but has been about messaging. That’s what PR should always be about – access to the message, getting the message out.

With more and more companies launching, it is no surprise that PR is in demand because companies – after their DIY PR stage – they are going to need the professionals to lead the way. That’s PR firms. Now, I read the same article in the SFBT about the growth of PR firms in the Bay (btw, one wasn’t so new, but just a new name) and just yesterday I got a “sneak” peak into news from SHIFT Communications. They are now the new AOR for The Churchill Club, an organization that does harken back to the days of the dotcom era. To me, it was a nice strategy – they know I write about PR here, they pitched it with the press release (bad, but not as bad if it were an attachment), and they answered my questions on what they are going to be doing (PR, marketing – the whole of promoting the club, events, and booking speakers). Heck, they even blog so they seem to understand that universe, but when the profile says “principal of the best damn PR firm, period” and you don’t get the joking tone that you do from the FOX Sports show, it comes off as … odd.

But, all this talk of Churchill Clubs and growing PR firms and changing PR and Web 2.0 and Social Networks makes me wonder … is PR getting caught up in the same shit as it did in the dot-com era? Can PR firms push back on clients, and say “no, that’s stupid” or are we going to do the same goose steps with bad campaigns that bring in money? One of the greater benefits I have had with blogging is that I have an even better sense of what is and what is not … a story. And, I have no problem pushing back – can firms do the same thing, or are we going to see clients raped again?

That’s the real future question for PR: did we learn from the first time around, or is this bust going to make the last one look like a walk in the park?

Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.

He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.

The conference was held at the ancient Knickerbocker hotel, where in-room broadband ran $9.95 a night. (The day is coming when hotel-wide WiFi will be free.) You even had to pay, I was told, when connecting to the WiFi in the lobby. And although the ballroom where the conference was held was just off the lobby, the signal didn’t reach that far. Thus, a number of attendees who would have liked to blog the conference were frustrated in their efforts.

Blogging the conference would have provided Ragan with a number of benefits. The links to the company from these blog postings would have given it a ton of Google juice. Readers of these blogs would have learned about the company and ultimately some would have been enticed to attend next year’s conference, or perhaps some other Ragan professional development offering. The cost of providing WiFi in the ballroom (where every session was held) would have been dramatically offset by the free publicity provided by these would-be bloggers.

IABC offers free WiFi at the trade show at its international conferences, but not in the meeting rooms where bloggers would need it to write in near-real-time about the sessions. I’m not sure what PRSA or other communication organizations do, but I’d be surprised if any made WiFi pervasively available wherever their conferences are taking place. I hope I’m surprised soon.

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.

As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.

… a 20-year veteran of communications, a top-ranked speaker and writer and a former Chairman of the Board of IABC and its Research Foundation. A native of New Orleans, Charles evacuated from that city following Hurricane Katrina and the total loss of his home and business premises. He is temporarily located in Arlington, Texas.

Our 28-minute conversation focused on Charles’ experiences from the evacuation and the challenges of communication when infrastructures including telecommunications fail – reflected in the less than optimal sound quality of our phone conversation carried out not via Skype but via a ConferenceCall.com session.

About our conversation partner:

A former chairman of the board of both IABC and its Research Foundation, Charles Pizzo is a top-rated speaker and Ragan contributor. He also serves as counsel to v-Fluence Interactive Public Relations. Pizzo has been speaking about media relations online, reputation management, and leadership, plus has written on a host of technology communication issues. He has led teleseminars for both IABC and Ragan on such topics as corporate social responsibility and cybersmearing: attacks on reputation that start online. (Bio and photo courtesy of Dallas IABC, where Charles will be a speaker at the Chapter’s Professional Development Day, Bronze Quill Awards & 35th Reunion on October 7.)

Download the conversation here (MP3, 14MB), or subscribe to the interviews RSS feed to get it and future interviews automatically. You can also subscribe to the full feed to get all FIR podcasts. (For automatic synchronization with your iPod or other digital player, you’ll also need a podcatcher such as the free iPodder, DopplerRadio or iTunes, or an RSS aggregator that supports podcasts such as FeedDemon).

Interview Segment Time Points:

• 00:21 Shel introduces the interview
• 02:41 Charles talks about his immediate experiences following evacuation from New Orleans and locating in Arlington, Texas, and what he’s left behind
• 05:51 What’s happened to Charles’ property and that of his mother
• 07:55 Writing for the Ragan Postcard blog
• 08:44 Telecommunications have collapsed, isolated from the world, records and documents lost
• 11:53 Immediately following the hurricane, text messaging was all that worked
• 12:36 No inbound cellphone service for six days
• 12:56 Surge of ‘chain email letters’ on who’s missing and who’s been found
• 13:37 Groups taking photos of damaged homes in New Orleans
• 14:14 City and government websites down because the servers are under water
• 14:38 The difficulties for Red Cross staff and volunteers
• 15:40 Four weeks on and communication channels still not coordinated
• 16:08 All overwhelming
• 16:26 Email has been effective as a communication channel
• 16:55 Continues working thanks to great help from colleagues and friends
• 19:06 Advice for planning on managing communications and related infrastructures in such a crisis; what some companies have been doing
• 23:00 Thoughts on going back to New Orleans, or not
• 24:02 The charm of New Orleans was threatened by chaos and anarchy – will people feel safe in returning? More on infrastructures
• 26:46 Didn’t expect to lose everything so left with little in the evacuation, unprepared
• 29:40 The only thing we can do is press on and rebuild – the future is what’s ahead
• 31:06 Shel with concluding comments about the interview; how you can help Charles in his search for work
• 32:04 About this podcast and where to find For Immediate Release.

Links for the individuals and organizations we discussed or mentioned in the conversation:

Charles Pizzo, IABC, New Orleans, Hurricane Katrina, Kaye Vivian, Hurricane Rita, Ragan Postcard, Gerard Braud, American Red Cross, Ragan Communications, Dallas IABC, Shell Oil.

Podsafe intro music – On A Podcast Intrumental Mix (MP3, 5Mb) by Cruisebox.

(Cross-posted from For Immediate Release, Shel’s and my podcast blog.)

Neville Hobson is the author of the popular NevilleHobson.com blog which focuses on business communication and technology.

Neville is currentlly the VP of New Marketing at Crayon. Visit Neville Hobson’s blog: NevilleHobson.com.

Ragan is, far and away, my biggest client. And I love working with them. Really. So it isn’t lightly that I’ve decided to slam them all over the place for a particularly egregious entry into the blogosphere.

Before this latest blog, Ragan hosted two blogs that aren’t bad at all. In fact, I praised Steve Crescenzo’s “Corporate Hallucinations” as one of the funnier blogs you can read. And David Murray’s blog, “The Speechwriter’s Slant,” has its moments. But “Deep Background…”

It’s tough to judge the quality of the writing on this latest Ragan blog, since as of today there are only two entries, one from August 11 and another posted August 9. They’re not bad, although the newer post just references an upcoming talk. It’s also tough to gauge the quality of the conversation, since none has yet emerged. The design of the blog is better than either Steve’s or David’s. The problem is with the author. Whoever that is.

The “about” link on the blog tells us that Deep Background “is a blog for local, state and federal government media professionals. We cover strategies, tactics, non-political issues and other practical matters that are useful to government communicators.” The author, we learn, “has been a government public information officer at the national and local level for 18 years.” Beyond that, we know nothing. The blog’s banner makes it clear that the contents of “Deep Background” are “straight from the mouth of a senior level, unidentified source.” Get it? He’s on deep background.

Except, of course, for the fact that this is a blog and anonymous blogging-especially when the blog is brought to you by a media organization-makes about as much sense as casting a vote with invisible ink. Where’s the credibility of an anonymous blogger? When readers comment, to whom are the comments directed? Neville Hobson raised this issue when he first read the complaints by an anonymous blogger about his Land Rover experience. Neville’s observation about the lack of credibility inherent in anonymity led the blogger to reveal his identity (and, lo and behold, his credibility soared).

There are rare exceptions. Even the Electronic Frontier Foundation suggested an anonymous blog for people who just have to complain about work but don’t want their bosses to identify them. But even then, if you can’t identify the company about which they’re whining, what’s the point of reading the blog? (Perhaps these anonymous bloggers fill in their friends and family so at least somebody knows who the target of their poison keyboard really is.) In general, though, anonymous blogs are a lot like character blogs. In fact, a blog like this could actually be a character blog. For all we know, it’s a Ragan staffer penning this blog, pretending to be a senior level government official with 18 years experience.

Of course, I’m preaching to the choir here, aren’t I? Anybody who reads this blog already understood the implications the instant they saw the word “anonymous.” It’ll be interesting to see if anybody actually comments to Anonymous. As for my RSS feeds, I’ll stick with Steve and David. At least I know they’re real.

Reader Comments…

Shel Holtz is principal of Holtz Communication + Technology which focuses on helping organizations apply online communication capabilities to their strategic organizational communications.

As a professional communicator, Shel also writes the blog a shel of my former self.

David Kistle, 2004-2005 IABC Chairman

David Kistle is well-known and well-respected in the public relations industry. His work has received numerous awards from the International Association of Business Communicators (IABC) and the Public Relations Society of America. Plus, David teaches the next generation of practitioners as an adjunct professor at the University of Minnesota, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

In addition to these achievements, David has built a solid reputation by fusing 25 years of experience into an incomparable understanding of communication research, public opinion, strategic planning and organizational development. Today, he heads up the Padilla Speer Beardsley research and employee communication practices, helping companies identify and develop plans that leverage their communication dollars to achieve business objectives.

The scope of David’s work is diverse. His recent efforts span from a community-based non-profit to a multi-national manufacturer operating in 15 countries across five continents. And the rest of his experience follows suit. Besides education and manufacturing, he has counseled clients in health care, consumer products, financial services, gas and electric utilities, and not-for-profit organizations.

An accredited member of IABC, David is active in all levels of the organization. He has served the association as president of IABC/Minnesota, a member of IABC’s executive board, trustee and chair of the IABC Research Foundation, and the outgoing chairman of IABC.

According to the recent Ragan Report interview with you, you are 90 percent billable at Padilla Speer Beardsley (PSB), you teach college courses at University of Minnesota, as well as having a family. Where do you find that life/work balance?

At PSB, I have been active in various organizations. John Beardsley was the president of PRSA during 1995-1996, and knows the demands of such organizations. But, the client work gets done.

As for a life/work balance, I don’t find one. The work day is as productive as possible, and I do the IABC work within the office confines – such as correspondence, phone calls – to fit into the workday.

The PSB management team is behind me, though, and that makes all the difference.

As for the schoolwork, I take care of that at night, and the nice thing about this wired world is that even when I am on the road, the laptop and connection mean I can work anywhere. I am armed with my cell phone, wireless card and Ethernet card.

But, the thing to remember is to be where you are. Focus on the here and now, not on what you need to do later.

Plus, I do make some time for my personal pursuits. While there is usually little time, and that does mean cutback on family time, I do make sure to escape and rejuvenate with the family.

When you started the IABC Chair blog, it seems like you had a good idea and intention, but didn’t realize the amount of time blogging takes. What would you change about the IABC blog, and looking back, would you do it again? (Editor’s Note: Kistle has handed over the blog to incoming IABC Chairman Warren Bickford)

An IABC staff person suggested the blog as a good way to communicate with our members, and I have to admit that I didn’t know much about blogs back then. Blogging is challenging.

The intent was to find an effective way to keep the IABC agenda activities in front of members, to create a dialogue with members. The concept was great, and since my predecessor was from South Africa, all that we were able to do was send the quarterly letter to members. The intent with the blog was to have an ongoing dialogue with members, both national and international.

But, it constantly has come up to me to decide on content. Blogging is very time intensive, and I was anticipating more interaction; instead it became more and more burden.

I love to communicate, but this is just time intensive. It’s the right idea, but if I had known at the beginning, I would have delegated the blog to be more of a community effort, and then added my own notes and thoughts. That way, it would not have been such a start-to-finish endeavor.

I understand the enthusiasm that people – like you – have for a personal blog, and the interaction and forum that blogs do provide for a greater audience. Just, the IABC Chairblog was a greater undertaking than I expected.

You have a lot of IABC bloggers – Allan Jenkins, Shel Holtz, Eric Eggertson, Neville Hobson – but no blogroll on the IABC Chairblog. Why not just turn the IABC blog into an IABC blogger aggregator?

I don’t have an opinion on that idea. What it sounds like you are suggesting is a central resource, a portal from other sites. Not sure if that would be good or bad or indifferent.

What is IABC? In Ragan’s, you noted that the association is moving in the right direction at the right speed. What is that direction?

IABC, as all associations, is there to build a community (for IABC, it is 13,000 people) who have a common interest (for IABC, it is business communications) and therefore work to put forth a common goal and idea for professional development.

With IABC, it is to be: an access point for information, with products and resource materials to grow a professional’s knowledge; professional development and skill advancement; and, to build a network of similar-minded professionals.

There is a realization that creating seminars for professional development that people are able to physically attend can now be done more efficiently with Webinars. We’re moving toward Webinars, because it is easier for our participants to access, and more affordable to deliver and receive.

The basic reasons of having an association – or being part of IABC – have not changed, but technology is changing how we work with the members.

In the first phase of IABC technology, the people in the late 80′/90′s pioneered pushing IABC into technology. They created a community, a community of people with common interests.

And, that is what IABC is about. People will find their network and create them in their own ways.

Our technology group on staff – people like Chris Hall – is thinking of ways to apply technology to our association all the time. People are reaching out to participate in online forums, Websites, Webinars, and to move that into more of an official status.

The IABC chairman job is a volunteer position. If you could do it again, would you?

Of course I would. I am proud of being the chair of IABC, and have worked very hard to be a good one. I’ve been a member of IABC since 1977, involved in that whole continuum since then. I have learned a lot, and being involved gives me an appreciation of what and who IABC is.

I know that I cannot be popular with everyone, but I have tried my hardest to not go out and be confrontational.

And, let’s be honest. We have all been beaten up by clients, coworkers, bosses at one time or another. This is just another time where everyone cannot be made happy

But, being the chair of IABC is an experience unlike being a CEO and chairman, and an experience that I would not get on the job. I serve on the board at PSB, but that is not an opportunity like this.

The joke about volunteer organizations is always that they are great, except for the volunteer aspect. How does IABC combat this?

It’s the nature of the beast. Lots of groups have volunteer boards, and I serve on other non-profit boards.

But, people belong because they care about something. Volunteers do not necessarily inhibit building consensus through agreement, but it can be difficult. It has been my experience that disagreement is better than agreement. You find the right balance and direction through the agreements and disagreements with volunteers.

To get the most out of the volunteer base, though, volunteer leaders need to be good listeners, and hear the minority voice.

What motivates volunteers? It’s not career or money. There’s something that’s motivating these people to volunteer for IABC. Effectively working with the volunteers means finding that motivation.

I’m a former IABC member that had a terrible experience, although I do love current president Johna Burke. I know that you are trying to grow membership, but what would you say to someone that felt he wasted his money and would rather never join IABC again – how do you bring me back into the fold?

That’s a difficult one – everyone has reasons for leaving an organization. As I have been involved in IABC, it is interesting to learn why people come and go. Sometimes it’s professional, sometimes it’s personal. Sometimes a career goes into a different direction, and there are other reasons why people don’t rejoin IABC

Many times, it may be because the process failed. Sometimes I hear from former and current members that the membership ended, and no one called to inform them.

Whatever they experience is legitimate; it is the same with resolving conflict. IABC merely asks the former members to give us another shot.

But, sometimes it is the right decision to not come back.

When I joined IABC, I thought it was like a lobbying group – bringing more attention to local PR practitioners to local business and press, and to try to keep local business locally PR’ed. I was told that that’s not the group’s mission. What is IABC’s mission, then?

IABC has a stated mission from its Website:

Unite the communication profession worldwide in one diverse, multifaceted organization under the banner of the International Association of Business Communicators.

But, we should also champion the profession to local businesses.

One of the things that is needed for communications is to better represent our profession to other businesses. We spent this year and part of last year developing a global code of ethics and ethics committee, to explain the ethical ways that communications works with businesses.

IABC should be more visible and relevant in the business community. This takes a lot of forms – business media outreach, which includes a media tour with the chairman in NY and/or Toronto. As far as the US media, it takes a lot of work with outreach.

While I have been IABC chair, I focused on our own town (Minneapolis), holding a thought leadership forum with the Minnesota Business Journal to connect communicators with the local business leaders.

We need to always focus on the business and international part of IABC. There does need to be more of a focus on the BC part of the IABC, which will lead us to be more recognized worldwide.

Recently, we finished a global market survey, and a few of the takeaways were that there is a universal desire to be recognized by the business community, to build greater credibility, to create career opportunities and the residual impact that the recognition will create.

IABC was conspicuously absent during the recent PR controversies. Why doesn’t IABC take a position on controversial issues?

IABC does not have a mechanism in place, or one voice that addresses ethics issues, which is why we are codifying ethics for future issues, to be able to provide a soundbite and opinion.

The code of ethics will give us a forum to give a statement, and a guideline on how to comment on issues. I have opinions in what happens in our industry – but those are my opinions – and it is inappropriate for my opinions to appear as the association’s opinion.

As for the relevance to our constituents, the recent ethics issues have been so US-focused but you have to remember that we are an international board. The commenting process is certainly something that I would like to be resolved, and it is a vigorous point of conversation.

PRSA has done a great job at recruiting the future PR people with PRSSA – how come IABC has not made as big a push onto college campuses?

We have made a push, and we’ll see more of that in the future. We have a few IABC university branches, such as James Madison University, University of Wisconsin, Eu Claire (which is affiliated with the Minnesota IABC), and the University of Wisconsin, La Crosse.

PRSSA has been around so much longer, and has that lead. We came second to college. It’s less likely for us to unseat current PRSSA chapters, so we go to campuses that do not have a chapter.

Plus, we have made efforts to get chapters on international campuses – Canada, Europe, Asia – such as the University Lugano in Switzerland.

IABC also realizes that once a student gets out of college, they are not going to be able to afford both an IABC and PRSA membership. We are discussing transition memberships – students to professionals – to help new professionals advance their careers into the world of PR and communications, while keeping them as members.

Right now, we have a smaller footprint than PRSSA, but we recognize the opportunity and are leveraging it where we can.

How do you see IABC’s business model evolving now that most communicators have a far wider range of off-line and on-line professional development opportunities than, say, 10 to 15 years ago?

As we discussed in the earlier question, more and more of IABC is going online and offering online options. It’s going to change to that, where face-to-face networking is changing.

Some past and present IABC members seem to see blogging as an important force in discussing and promoting the profession: Allan Jenkins, Shel Holtz, Neville Hobson come to mind. Richard Edelman, Jay Rosen, and Jeff Jarvis are some other communication leaders with blogs. Which blogs do you read? And do you see blogs as important to the profession?

Unless I am directed to go look at one, I do not regularly read blogs.

My take is blogs are personal soapboxes, as opposed to a business catalyst for thought in an academic sense.

I see blogs more as hype right now, than substance. If that continues, they will not remain strong. If it grows beyond vicarious strength, they will probably take.

As a business model, blogging is in the experimentation stage. Blogs address the innovative and early adopter/influencer at the front end of the bell curve. It will go either the way of the 8-track or the way of the iPod.

If blogs become a meaningful, accessible means to an end – such as building constituencies, support, and communities – then it’s a good thing.

A number of CEOs have embraced blogging, or are encouraging their managers to blog. What’s your take on Lutz’ blog at General Motors, for example?

It’s not going to be the norm where 40-50 percent of CEOs will be doing blogs themselves. Successful CEO blogs will take a staff, like those that handle correspondence, speeches.

You’ve had a year of mixed reviews. Certainly some bloggers and their readers don’t think you are having a particularly successful one. When you make your final speech as Chairman, what successes do you think you will be able to list?

I can point to several things that I am proud of, but there are two things specifically.

Think of a business, and an important part of running a business is the oversight of strategy and planning and financing – we have some outstanding processes in place. People before and after me have helped put these processes in place.

There has been an overhaul of the governance, with more clarity on roles and responsibilities.

IABC remained on track with its debt to a zero position in five years – we delivered in 2004, will do so again in 2005.

There are some disciplines in place to connect our product growth and membership growth. We are setting up what we need to, and what will support it, and the money allocation. We’ve done it before, but not in a staged way. Now, it is a planned growth strategy.

On the marketplace side, we have provided some tools and access to the information (networking, Webinars) that is more appropriate for today. With growth, the numbers are moving up, with a concentration on member retention. We are doing well in recruiting, but we need to retain the members we have. We need to reduce that loss by 10 percent, which will help us grow.

IABC will be so exciting that people will want to join.

In Seattle, at the annual leadership meeting, I was able to visit with chapter leaders around the World, and find out the issues and needs that their members are telling them. The focus of their issues has shifted from misguided processes or bad feelings of the HQ. We have worked hard to be more responsive to our chapters. From an operations stand-point, it has tightened up, and we have more to offer than ever before.

For IABC, there are huge growth opportunities overseas. The group is growing and evolving in Asia, and we have robust groups in Shanghai and Beijing.

If you could advise future chairmen about what to look out for during their tenure, that they can get the most out of it, what 3 lines of advice would you have?

My thoughts for Warren as the incoming chair are:

What are you going to do on the last day of your chairmanship? You going to kick back and relax?

The end of the line is not now. The past chairman has two important things to do: conduct the President’s performance review, and chair the nominating committee. But, I will also be there as a sounding board for the new chairman, new vice chairman and new board members.

The past chairman should stay tuned in, and provide the wisdom of going through the minefield. The past chairman has an opportunity to be the person who challenges the others – particularly the current one – but not in a way that interferes. There is a need for an advisor, and that is something that someone who has held the position can do.

I have thought of that last day, and I think I will feel more sadness than jubilance. Not because I want to be a perennial leader, but because all good things have to come to an end.

With IABC, you get more than you give. There is something fun and valuable for me that will have ended.

Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.

He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.

Ragan’s Media Relations Report (US)

Christine Kent [profnet@ckeditorial.com] URL: http://www.ragan.com

And, to tell you the truth, I’m shocked that Ragan would actively go and look for attacks on a publicist or PR person. What ever happened to journalistic objectivity?

I sent in my own response to Christine:

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As a PR person that writes on the industry for a blog – http://pop-pr.blogspot.com – and has interviewed some of the stalwarts of our PR community, my view is that public relations and publicity are two different animals, and you cannot really compare them.

Plus, I have written in the past about Ms. Lizzie Grubman, and believe that while she may had the misfortune of bad press, it appears she does do a good job for her clients.

As for your Profnet query, such a show will likely bring more young people into the industry. If you did interact with young PR students – as I do – you would know that many want to be publicists or event planners, not the more traditional fields of public relations, such as corporate communications or product or consumer public relations. Plus, what really hurt our industry was Sex & the City, where everyone thought that Samantha epitomized public relations.

Once again, let me restate that it will not make PR people look like airheads – since the show is about publicists. Quite a difference. But, seeing how MTV edits the Real World/Road Rules, they are not goig to highlight the women sitting in the office making phone calls and pitching clients, but something that will appeal to their 14 year old audience.

As for the request to be snarky, I would hope that Ragan would take the high road and not try to tear down a publicist or public relations professional. In a time where PR has real issues to deal with – Armstrong Williams paid pundit, Karen Ryan as a reporter, the LADWP billing scandal – Ms. Grubman’s televison show on MTV is the least of our worries.
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This was more of a grab at blatant self-promotion by attempting to take an easy swing at something (Grubman), rather than setting the difference between PR and Publicity straight.

Truthfully, this bothers me, and it’s not the first incidence of “attack-mode” that I have seen in the public relations or publicity blogs – yes, I know it’s the nature of PR to go for the jugular against the competition, and I have pointed out inconsistencies and issues I have seen with other firms on this blog.

But, at times, we do need to circle the wagons and defend public relations and publicity. While at the NewComm Forum, this was a pretty in-depth discussion I had with my new Texas friend from Ketchum. Which leads me to this – if you are a PR blogger that is pitched by a PR person, there are a couple ways to handle it. Snarky and Classy. There’s a reason that I look at Podboy as a PR king among men, and that’s why – he’s always a classy dude.

Jeremy Pepper is the CEO and founder of POP! Public Relations, a public relations firm based in Arizona, USA.

He authors the popular Musings from POP! Public Relations blog which offers Jeremy’s opinions and views – on public relations, publicity and other things.