10 Must-Read Public Relations And Marketing Books

Hello dear public relations practitioner or to-be, been wondering what good public relations books that are good to refer to? You may read these suggestion by Ronn D. Torrosian. He is the founder of one of top PR Agency in US; 5W Public Relations.

1. “Crystallizing Public Opinion” by Edward L. Bernays:
The first book by the man considered to be the father of public relations, Bernays combined crowd psychology with the psychoanalytical ideas of his uncle, Sigmund Freud, to become the first thinker to explain how PR could thrive by managing public opinion. Amazing how true that even today his book rings true, including the statement:  "Perhaps the most significant social, political, and industrial fact about the present century is the increased attention which is paid to public opinion."

2. “How to Win Friends and Influence People” by Dale Carnegie:
This book has been called the Public Relations bible – Having sold over 15 million copies since 1st being published in 1937 as Carnegie states in the book “success is due 15 percent to professional knowledge and 85 percent to "the ability to express ideas, to assume leadership, and to arouse enthusiasm among people." It’s a classic and a great one.

3. “The Tipping Point: How Little Things Can Make a Big Difference” by Malcolm Gladwell
An enjoyable, great read which tells us how "Ideas and products and messages and behaviors spread like viruses do.” Understanding the power of audiences and to whom, and how to communicate is a core necessary value for all in PR & marketing.

4. “Thank You for Smoking” by Christopher Buckley
While the movie wasn’t great, the novel most certainly is.  The book features a Big Tobacco representative who does a great job of defending not only tobacco companies but also those who partake in the dangerous habit of using their products. Good read.

5. “Confessions of an Advertising Man” by advertising legend David Ogilvy
There are similarities between advertising and PR and understanding marketing and advertising from 1 of the greatest advertisers ever is necessary reading for all in PR.  It’s a well written clean book which breaks out his concepts tactics, and techniques and are a must-read for anyone in business – and particularly marketing and PR.

6. ”It's Not the Big That Eat the Small...It's the Fast That Eat the Slow: How to Use Speed as a Competitive Tool in Business” by Jason Jennings and Laurence Haughton.
Media moves very fast, and as a 2011 survey indicated, being a Public Relations pro is the 2nd most stressful job in America. Moving fast is core to the PR business and necessary to thrive.

7. “Reputation Rules: Strategies for Building Your Company's Most Valuable Asset” by Daniel Diermeier: This professor from the Kellogg School of Management tells us how “In our lightning-fast digital age, a company can face humiliation and possibly even ruin within seconds of a negative tweet or blog post.” Fascinating examination of understanding the importance of reputation.

8. “Spin: How to Turn the Power of the Press to Your Advantage” by Michael S. Sitrick:
Written by the founder of a major crisis PR firm, the book is an insider’s guide into the world of crisis communications.  It’s a crisis PR handbook.

9. “Game change: Obama and the Clintons, McCain and Palin, and the race of a lifetime” by John Heilemann, Mark Halperin:
"This shit would be really interesting if we weren't in the middle of it."—Barack Obama, September 2008. A fascinating insiders take pulling back the curtain – and media insight on the fascinating presidential campaign which saw Obama’s rise to be the most powerful man in the world.

10. “For Immediate Release: Shape Minds, Build Brands, and Deliver Results with Game-Changing Public Relations” by Ronn Torossian:
1st book by the owner of a top 25 PR Agency. The book details how valuable public relations is - how public relations can define brands; help companies and individuals court the press or avoid it; grow business; resolve crises quickly; improve search results on Google and so many other things.  Effective PR makes such a difference – and he have many case studies and great stories to illustrate it.


Reference: http://articles.businessinsider.com/2011-09-12/strategy/30155677_1_pr-first-book-edward-l-bernays

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Traditional Media Vs New Media

By Dalila Aimi binti Marzuki 2009748585

The important of mass media is doubtlessly acknowledged by all.  Everywhere we go, we are connected to the world through mass media. The early years saw the traditional media such as radio broadcasting and television as the most influential tools in people’s daily life.  From east to west, regardless of the age, people are affected by it. Interaction of long distance is no more a major problem since the rise of the mass media has eased the relationship between the world communities. Through radio, television and newspaper we managed to engage with the shared events from football match to royal wedding and to democratic elections. It’s like the outside world has been brought up in our home by just one click button.

As years passed by, the new media emerged with the fanfare technological of innovation. The rise of new media has increased communication between people all over the world with the growth of Internet. It has allowed people to express themselves through blogs, websites, pictures, and other user-generated media. The era of this digital and internet revolution has changed the world into one global society. Though so, cyber crises seemed to creep up on one side. Due to more channels and sources available, information is prone to be cluttered contributing to lack of accuracy.

Today, the function of new media has widening. Despite of being a fast developing communication technology, it helps our country embracing the emergence of global culture of information based system. In Malaysia, the challenges posed by new media are getting severe due to the multi-ethnic and religious society.

New media is now to be used as the magnet to gain support from the people by the political parties. The role of social media particularly the blogger becomes essential as they have wielded power to influence people. Commonly today, we can see young people tethered to their cell phones to text and access social networking sites on the street, on transportation, in school and at home. The environment of the media has changed and therefore the youth is essentially to achieve professionalism to curb confusion. To conclude, the traditional media and new media both serves vital function in today’s global world. From time to time, service improvement is needed to ensure the potential reach of the user of worldwide highly guaranteed.


Reference:
http://www.aibd.org.my/node/1226
http://www.aibd.org.my/node/1227

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Animal's Right

Since recent years, violence against animals is becoming more common. Small and cute animals such as cats, dogs and etc have been treated as their ‘punch bag’ in order to reduce of their rage. Recently, The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA) is identifying who is responsible for several tragic events that occurred on 15 cats found in a sad condition, which that they were mutilated in the Maple Ridge area. The latest incidents associated with the abuse of animals occur on March 11, 2012. The need to stop this cruelty upon animals is driven by a sense of sympathy for these poor creatures of God. As a creature of God who live together on this planet, we all should love and respect each other. Unfortunately, there are some people who do not care about our responsible to protect our Mother Earth, as well as protecting animals too. Luckily, there are some people from the organization called The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA) and the Ridge Meadows RCMP whose have joined forces to identify individuals or groups who are involved in committing atrocities against animals.

“The BC SPCA and the Ridge Meadows RCMP have been working together on this file for several months and we’ve issued pleas for information, but unfortunately we have been unable to obtain any details that would lead us to the person or persons responsible,” says Marcie Moriarty, general manager of cruelty investigations for the BC SPCA. According to Marcie, The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA) urged those people who have information about this case and could lead them towards search for those responsible for violence against animals, to come forward to help the BC SPCA to catch and then bring them to justice. The most brutal and heart-breaking stories that ever happened involving abuse of animals is the latest incident happened on March 11, when about half of the bodies of cats was found in the garden. “In many of these incidents the cats have been severed almost perfectly in half with a sharp object,” says Moriarty. That is why, Moriarty called for anyone who has information about any individual or group responsible for committing atrocities against animals that are not guilty of this, to immediately contact the The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA). If the parties involved in committing atrocities against animals are not caught, it is afraid that the other animals will be their next victim. “Anyone with information about this case is asked to please call The British Columbia Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals (BC SPCA) Constable, Eileen Drever at 604-834-7854,” they added.

In conclusion, it is our compulsory responsibility of us all to take care of the animals and not abuse them because they are also God's creatures. Let us ponder on what Allah S.W.T. has Said : “There is no crawling creature on the earth, nor a bird that flies with its two wings, but they are nations like you. We have neglected nothing in the Book. They shall all be gathered before their Lord.” (Al-An’am : Verse 38) Source: http://www.spca.bc.ca/news-and-events/news/spca-cat-investigation-maple-ridge.html

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Effective Social Media Campaign

by: Nur Naqiah binti Jalaludin 2009198131

So you want to increase sales or promote your new product or brand? Social media campaign is one of effective ways in doing so.Social media sites make great tools to engage prospects and customers as well as share content and messages about your brand. It is a great way to increase brand awareness, engage with customer, gaining long term loyalty, generate a short term boost in sales, etc. We have seen successful social media campaign that help in promoting a business or an organization as seen with social media campaign by Chester Zoo.

However, one does not simply engage into social media campaign without planning it wisely beforehand. "If you fail to plan, you plan to fail." Here are some suggested key questions that one can consider before planning for a social media campaign:
1. What is your company's marketing objective?
2. What results do you wish to achieve?
3. Who on your team will be responsible for monitoring your firm's online presence and interacting with prospects and customers?
4. How much time will this employee be able to devote exclusively to social media?
5. Which of the social networking tools are best for your business?

Organizations must also take account the consideration that social media enable two-way communication which allow customers to give feedback, receive information from the organization through various social networking sites.

Effective social media campaigns consists of these characteristics:
1. Targeted
Set of clear objectives and success criteria. Target audience must be considered based on the objective of the campaign. Set achievable objectives and target specific audience.

2. Focused
Ensure that your campaign is of the direct response variety. Campaign are not spammy and don't just promote site links. Share something interesting and not just the same message to the audience.

3. Measurable
Creating a clear objectives and defined actions will provide straightforward message to the audience and this will make a clear and measurable success of the campaign.

4. Great Content
The cornerstone of any effective social media campaign is great presented in an interesting and engaging way. Social media campaign must be well organized and consistent. Updates on site must be consistent or audience will be confused. They must also interact with audience who leave replies and comments.

5. Simple and The Right Medium For the Message
Think about the actions you want your audience to take and match the medium to the message. For a campaign to be successful, do not register on every social media site. You might not be able to control every site and this will lead to fruitless campaign.

6. Memorable
Social media site must also be user-friendly and build relationships to increase perception of value and builds loyalty. Campaign shall also be as honest as possible. Trust is very hard to earn back once lost. To create a memorable campaign, innovative value is a must-have in a social site.

7. Profitable
There are plenty of siren voices that will say you can't put a price on customer engagement.

Social media marketing takes time in terms of results. Planning and carry out the social media campaign does not take that much time but audience would not be able to change behavior overnight. If within few months, the results aren't shown, changing strategy might work.

Reference:
http://blog.hubspot.com/blog/tabid/6307/bid/29272/5-Awesome-Examples-of-Engaging-Social-Media-Campaigns.aspx
http://sem-group.net/search-engine-optimization-blog/how-social-media-influences-consumer-behavior/
http://socialmediatoday.com/index.php?q=SMC/203359
http://www.searchenginepeople.com/blog/effective-social-media-campaigns.html

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Customer Comes First

by: Nur Nadhia Sofeya binti Rosman (2009193651)

Often we heard regarding crisis faced by a brand or company. The latest case is the case of employees punching their customer at KFC outlets in i-City. Not to forget, the latest is the case with regard to a customer at Tanjung Golden Village (TGV), Sunway Pyramid has posted a video showing employees who are chatting and do not care about the customers that are queuing. How can this be happened?

It is not easy to satisfy all parties. As an employee in the customer service industry, one should be concerned about it because it is how the customer could reward the employees. In TGV Sunway scenario, the situation was actually a customer wanted to buy only one mineral water but not well-served by the employees as people were too crowded. Whereas, at the time, people are actually waiting crowdedly to go inside the cinema hall and not being lined up to buy food.

Perhaps what could have commented that this customer may feel very angry because none of the employees served him and he decided to post such video on Youtube. Is that fair? I am sure every company wants the best and trying hardly to improve their performance. It is better if a company has their so-called well-planned marketing plan and try to improve its customer service to the maximum extent so that it is rational for TGV (or any product) and the customer.

Hence, to deal with crisis or issue is not easy as ABC. It should be considered in all aspects as well as viewpoint of others and it should be planned from the beginning. Not only the case of KFC and TGV, but High 5, IKEA and others were hit by crisis that causes them to have lost a huge number of regular customers. Crisis management should not be underestimated because it involves the reputation of a volatile product or brand itself. Reference: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_rKG2TUxFW4

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Facebook: Privacy

by: Nurul Aini Abdullah (2009336539)

As for now, how many social networking accounts do you have, two, three or maybe more than four? In today’s world of globalization, internet plays an important role in our daily lives. A day without internet is like a day without food. Sometimes, you may skip your lunch or dinner, as long as you are connected to the internet. Social networking is one of the major trends in internet creation. Social networking is the grouping of individuals into specific groups, like small rural communities or a neighborhood subdivision, if you will (Social Networking, 2012). Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, Blog, hi5, MySpace, LinkedIn are examples of top social networking around the world.

Social networking is first created to market business and services between an organization and its targeted audience. But now it seems social networking has become a medium of communication between one people to one people, and one people to another. People are more prefer to choose social networking as a medium of communication is because it is cost effective, time saving and also you do not have to face that particular person – which is not a very good communication.

In every good, there will be a bad things come. It also goes to social networking. Some people may see it as a good application to use but some may not. As for Carnegie Mellon University (CMU), if you do not have a Facebook account, you are not yet consider the members of CMU. Facebook is the top social networking site that is user friendly and contains all the information needed about the user such as picture, phone number, status, birthday, current location and many more. Even though it seems to be more practical, but privacy also has to be a priority.

A pilot survey has been conducted by Tabreez Govani and Harriet Pashley to investigate the issues about student’s concern and privacy section in the Facebook. As the result, they realize about the privacy section, but they prefer to ignore it. They contented to expose their personal information. According to Facebook statistics report, there are five millions facebook account created and nearly 70% of that numbers are active account. Based on the research done, there are two broad categories why users join Facebook. First categories are because of friends recommendation and peer pressure. The other categories are relates to the usefulness of Facebook in meeting new people, keeping in touch, getting help in courses, finding old friends and making new friends.

In most cases, users were more moderate in accepting a friend request than asking other users to be their friends. The acceptance of friends in Facebook is more easy and readily than outside of Facebook whereby the name, background and what you do for living are major question before becoming a friend. Even though the acceptance of friends in Facebook is much higher than outside Facebook, but the level of trustiness of friends in Facebook is very low because you do not know who and what agenda your social friend had on you.

So, exposing the information would may harm yourself. From this research also they wanted to measure the knowledge of users in changing the private setting, what do they have to change and do they read the privacy settings before proceed with the account. Some of them may not know that Facebook can use their data as stated in their privacy policy. From the surveyed, 60% of the users do not read the privacy policy and 50% of them aware that Facebook are sharing their private data with the third parties.

Facebook are created to keep in touch with their colleges which give them the chance to share some information. Even though it may seems easier to give all the information so that it easy to others to know about yourself, but it may be dangerous for a user who have stalker or people who had a bad instinct on you. Based on the result of the research, the researcher found that majority of the students aware on how to restrict their information to different Facebook users. While there are still large numbers of students who still share their personal information such as telephone number and home address.

In United Kingdom, there is one case where a man Peter Chapman used fake Facebook profile to lure student Ashleigh Hall. Peter Chapman was sentenced to life imprisonment after he admitted kidnapping, raping and murdering a teenage children. This case has made one example for the students for not reveal personal information on Facebook. 

Source : http://www.guardian.co.uk/uk/2010/mar/08/peter-chapman-facebook-killer

http://lorrie.cranor.org/courses/fa05/tubzhlp.pdf

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Take a Look At the Animals!

A New Media Approach by Chester Zoo 

By Wan Nur Amirah bt Wan Yahaya 2009771731 (MC22S5A) 

Who would taught that a zoo needs a campaign in promoting its place since a zoo has its frequent visitors? Well, Chester Zoo did it! Chester Zoo makes use the social media in dealing with the number of the visitor as its operation has become a competitive business.

Background 
Located in Cheshire, England, Chester Zoo has become one of the largest zoo in United Kingdom and become a home to 7000 animals from different species. In order to compete with other zoos, Chester Zoo contracted KMP Digitata (www.kmp.co.uk) to build its own website with the domain name http://www.chesterzoo.org/.

The website allows the zoo’s employees from marketing department to conservative and keepers to update the content of the website. Besides updating the websites with the zoo’s latest news and information, the main objective of the website is to engage with the web audience thus performing an interactive communication approach with its visitors and potential visitors.

Besides that, the website applies a photo-sharing slot that is also linked with Flickr. According to Daring (2010), within just one year, over 2,000 images were uploaded in the website and almost 32,000 items in Flickr were tagged with ‘Chester Zoo’ which the traffic to the site has been overwhelming increased. KMP and Chester Zoo have basically taken the advantage of photo-sharing phenomena effectively that eventually leads to brand awareness through the photo-sharing publicity. Chesterzoo.org watermark is being placed on the upload pictures posted in Flickr group that helps to publicize the zoo worldwide (Daring, 2010).  

EVALUATION
By becoming part of social media, Chester Zoo is able to reach mass audience effectively since majority of people nowadays are using the internet as the medium of communication. Through linking iFlickr, a photo-sharing website where anyone can upload and tag photos, browse other photos and add comments and annotations (Educause, 2008) to Chester Zoo website, visitors could share their experience in the zoo by uploading the or simply share their experience while in the zoo. Therefore, it can be concluded that social media able to create a greater impact when it comes to publicising a product or services.

References:
Daring, Bill (2010). Public Relations Cases: International Perspective. Case Study on Take A Look At My Giraffe: Promoting Chester Zoo. 2nd Edition. Routledge: Taylow & Francis Group. Madison Avenue, New York.

http://net.educause.edu/ir/library/pdf/ELI7034.pdf. Accessed on 7 March 2012.

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