Please accept my sincere apologies for missing out an opportunity to be with you last Thursday. But I am extremely happy that the newly win friends Hemant and Renu are really writing some amazing stuff on the blog. Some original and refreshing thoughts are being shared by every one of us on the blog. But unfortunately not many people are like us and today I want to share a small story about how to lose respect and become fool in front of 1,000 IPRB readers.

My friends who read my column regularly must be remembering my ‘Thursdays with Tushar’ of May 29, 2008 wherein I wrote about ‘How to win votes and influence people’. Last morning I received a copy of June issue of ‘Chanakya’ – a house journal of Public Relations Council of India. I was reading it and I discovered one article by Mr. Krishna B. Marianka, Chairman, Bangalore Chapter, PRCI with a headline ‘Political public relations making emphatic inroads into India’. The objective was to know more about how people are looking at political PR but within first few lines I got a real shock!

The article I was reading in ‘Chanakya’ by distinguished Krishna B. Mariyanka was totally inspired (Sorry Anu Mallik & Pritam for using your copyrighted language, but can’t help it – mentioning that it is lifted is so uninspiring!) from my article. I am uploading a scanned copy of the article for your reading pleasure. If you feel that you have read it before – don’t blame me, you can write directly to Krishna B. Mariyanka on Krishna.Mariyanka at shell.com or krishnamariyanka at yahoo.com and thank him for such wonderful originality and inspiration. This is an absolute insult to my readers.

(Click here to see a bigger image and a scanned copy of the full version of the article.)

I have nothing personal against Mr. Mariyanka and I don’t care about him. What hurts me the most is that faking has not remained limited to porn movies but it has reached our profession as well! I am sorry Mr. Krishna, I wouldn’t have written this post today and might have given you an opportunity to lift someone else’s article from my blog and print it as yours in some other magazine but I had to do this as, you didn’t even bother to respond to my private mail sent to you. Now, do you want me to print that mail here as well?

Friends, let me sum it up today’s post with just two jewels of wisdom from me. It is for you Mr. Krishna.

“If you don’t have it, you don’t have it. Stop being a pirate”

“Being original is difficult, copying and not being caught is even more difficult”

God Bless and Take care!

Hope to meet all of you my friends (Mr. Krishna not included) in my journey of life and searching its meaning.

An interesting part of our work-in-progress ‘PR agencies and PR freelancers directory’ project might be the community ratings of PR agencies. Any reader of India PR Blog can do a rating out of 5 stars on an agency or a freelancer listed on the directory. We can use the comments section to share our constructive views on any agency. That will be nice.

Have look at some of our pages (in progress):

Index of the PR agencies and PR freelancers directory

Delhi PR Agencies and PR freelancers directory

Maharashtra PR Agencies and PR freelancers directory

Tamil Nadu PR Agencies and PR freelancers directory

Chandigarh PR Agencies and PR freelancers directory

Update:
Orissa PR Agencies and PR freelancers directory

We are adding more. Keep your information on your agencies and services coming. Details on submission are here.

It was 1:45 PM and waiting in the school hall was making me very antsy. I watched with steadily rising blood pressure as couples leisurely trooped in for a school session and cursed dad for my on-time fetish and son for his ban on skipping the session option. The session eventually started an hour late and the headmaster thanked the busy parents of high school for attending. Some time later the counselor introduced the concept of the fish philosophy. I had read the book and was all ears but a co-parent nudged my shoulder..”hi! you are working right? must be so busy how come you came for a mid-day meeting?” My “no not really” smile in fact encouraged her to continue “my husband’s sooooo busy,I didn’t even insist he come.”

This time I let out a hmmm so she deflected to the parent on the other side saying, “really how can the school call meetings at 1 PM, it’s the time I’m so busy to which the other lady agreed vigorously adding “Such a problem”. The counselor meanwhile was saying, ” I know you are busy and held up Outlook current issue on do you connect with your child and said “I know we have busy lives but you all must read this article”. By now I was fuming….my friends know me to never use the word and find that I meticulously wean the habitual “busy” people out of my life…but then you would say that’s my problem. It sure is but the purpose of writing this piece is that we all should unravel this Business of being Busy .

In his book Semantic Antics , How and Why words change meaning , Sel Steinmetz says “business” used to refer to being busy, but it gradually broadened to encompass many kinds of occupations. Now it’s fair to ask why don’t take the word at face value. Busy means just that..busy …occupied , not available right now…It’s because of what the word has become…Some use it as a polite brush off, some as a shield as a not available to you to and others just to pay back in the same coin. The most intelligent, creative and busy (dictionary sense) people I know are never ever busy ! They always take calls, they always return calls they can’t take, they always revert on time and almost always have a really good reason to being “busy”, a reason you can empathize with and thus begin to respect their time next time you approach them.

The fish philosophy session was meanwhile on the 3rd value “Play” and the counselor asked “So when did you all have fun last? I whispered to myself 2.20 PM ! ..the parent sitting next to me checked her watch (it was 2:22 PM) and looked at me enquiringly…I just shrugged. Later in the one on one sessions the counselor said, ” I heard what you said.. Did you really have fun ten minutes back?..Yes of course, you were speaking of one of good books I had read..my sms showed a friend trying to frantically reach me and sending vague smileys..the ladies sitting close to me were discussing how busy they were and I found it fun to be ‘free” enough to adsorb all that was happening around despite knowing all the jobs that waited for me back on my desk. ! The counselor gave me such a warm smile I skipped on my way out..

The business of being “BUSY” has occupied my mind forever. On the company Intranet I recently started a discussion string “Volunteering needs free time or a free mind ?” and the sum total was that Busy is a mindset not a state of being..or a mental state a job (or even personal life) keeps you in. For a very long time and even now sometimes I wonder what happens to us that we managers begin throwing “busy” around. Its more important in the context of Communications and Organizational Culture that the word become an anathema. Like Mark Twain said… Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things that you didn’t do than by the ones you did do. So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails. Explore. Dream. Discover…And those people who do this i.e explore, dream, discover don’t do so on annual holidays. they do it everyday! Inspiration is all around us , in people ..with whom we are just too busy to interact with.

In the business of public relations, the media often tells us that when they have a query they need answers, we are busy but when we have a plug then we are free to pursue this single point agenda with them for days on end. There is more evidence of the misuse of the word in middle level managers. Last year I was on a compaign to get it off as many people’s daily verbal list as possible and it reflected in one of the articles on HOD skill sets where I then foolish enough to say bluntly. ” Busy is a four letter word! It keeps you away from experiencing people and events which have the capacity to make a positive impact on your professional and personal life. So don’t use it to defend your bad time management. Don’t replace “busy” with “I don’t have the bandwidth”, “I’m snowed under”. Tough job you have so stop whining - you are paid more, so you have more pressure to handle and thus more accountability too.” (you can read full article here)  That was last year. This year I’m more diplomatic primarily because habitually “busy” have very methodically been downgraded from Friends to Acquaintances to a Do I know you at all list. I have all the time in the world to do all the things I want to do…with all those who want to do it with me..

Now the epitabh (sic English) my previous blog entry received too much TRP I would say for a first one in fact led me to think maybe I should have written on a more non controversial topic instead. All that goes in the name of “breaking news” , especially nowadays when the end of life becomes the country’s soap opera, “journalism” generates some very strong emotions which showed up in the feedback.

But that apart most of the feedback tackled different portions of the blog and was generally in agreement, some comments were truly kickstarters to a thought process and Im going to tackle them in some later blogs. One colleague actually equated me in my journalist avatar to a much much senior colleague who truly was …for want of a better term …aweful kind of egoist. It is therefore correct what he said later “what hurts is to see that most of them (journos) make the generic mistake of clubbing all corporate communication professionals in one mould. Like you said there are different types of journos, similarly there are variants in CC professionals too.” Another colleague however says the exact opposite because her mentor used to say the same thing about working with journalists. A very astute colleague is pretty much agreeable with Line function bit and says she is currently heading an experimental pilot communications position which is bogged down by none of the previous process driven parts of the function anymore. Our friend Palin on the other hand is also saying the same thing but not exactly that. The point which I think is worth talking about is the scope of Corporate Communications? What pricesly are the Key Result Areas. What pricesly is the mindset..Lets talk about this in the coming days based on how many people post their curiosity on it

This post is dedicated to the movers and shakers of pubic affairs, PR’s shy first cousin. Dilip Cherian, Nira Radia, Suhel Seth, Deepak Talwar are familiar names in this industry in Delhi. There are many more that you may not know but who are just as effective. Shantanu Guha Ray talks about them all in his article ‘Forked Tongues and Artful Nudges’ in the 21st June issue of Tehelka. Go ahead, you will enjoy it…

Some time back, we announced the ‘Directory of PR agencies and PR freelancers in India’ project here at India PR Blog, and now we are ready to provide the initial listings of the agencies from Mumbai and Delhi. We thank all those who have taken the time out to send in their information. This is a work in progress and we plan to add all Indian States and many more details of agencies and freelancers soon. So here we go:

Index of the India PR agencies and PR freelancers directory page.

Maharashtra PR agencies and freelancers page.

Delhi PR agencies and freelancers page.

In order to make this project successful, we hope that those who haven’t yet send in their details do so asap. Guidelines for submission are here.

About this directory:

The directory is an endeavor to showcase the diverse talent and local know how of the various PR professionals across the country. As the India PR blog is becoming a comprehensive resource for not only PR professionals and agencies but also for corporations and organisations seeking professional information on their PR and communications requirements, this directory will serve as a ready online guide available to them free and 24/7.

We all have pitched journalists on the email and on the phone. We can also remember those times when we chatted up with journalists while on a media round and threw in a pitch. Now all these are the regular ways. I am wondering if any of us have pitched in a unique manner and have been successful at that.

Talking about this, I googled the topic a while back and found this article from Read Write Web - Five Wrong Ways to Pitch RWW and One Great Way, which seems to suggest a lot of ways of how not to pitch. The only way it thinks is okay is bundling up all your client’s information in an RSS feed and sending it to the journalist. Now while this might be working for RWW, for others, this seems as unpractical as coming up out of a geek to the normal person. I mean while a few techie PR professionals might send this to another techie journalist, the rest of the PR professionals and journalists in this country won’t be able to figure it out. Besides it doesn’t seem to serve many other purposes than keeping a journalist updated on developments.

There are no best ways to pitch a journalist. A lot of bloggers seems to love taking out their ‘how to pitch me’ sermons for PR professionals, each with his/her own individual preferences. However basic rules stand. Like spelling the journalists’/bloggers’ names right on your email salutations, researching well what he/she writes on, understanding that every journalist/ blogger is different, not giving a unsolicited phone call out of the blue, not flooding journalists’/bloggers’ inboxes with irrelevant stuff and press releases.

To take this conversation a bit further, we have written about the five key things to keep in mind while pitch a journalist, which includes the quality of the story peg, relationship with the journalist, knowing what the journalist writes on, industry knowledge, and media list. We have also written that perhaps the first half of the day is the best time of the day to pitch a journalist, because that’s the time when a journalist is mostly free. Calling in the morning has the advantage of also helping the reporter plan the day. Nothing will cheer him or her up more than an exclusive landing in the lap in the early hours itself.

Now coming back to the topic, consider the pitch methods below. What do you think? Have you done any of them succesfully? Are there more?

1. Post interaction pitch: Remember those times when a journalist is through with an interview of your client and you are generally chatting up some niceties before saying bye. Or remember those times when you and the journalist are waiting for the spokesperson, or when you are on way to the meeting the journalist. I mean all those times when the journalist is keen to know what other clients you handle and what are the new things going on. I have pitched stories at such occassions successfuly for many clients, and these are priceless moments that I never get on the phone, when you can explain evrything in detail.

2. Gtalk pitch: I notice some of our young PR colleagues today have many journalists on their Gtalk. Not so much when I was doing the client servicing actively. They chat away with these journalists like they were good friends and say they have pitched many stories succesfully from GTalk. Wonder how they did it. It’s understandable when you know a journalist personally but what I am talking about is people using GTalk as a social networking platform or as a common internet chat forum where you get to invite new people, accept invites, and then start chatting about anything in the world including pitches.

3. Twitter and Linkedin pitch: Almost same as Gtalk pitch, but out here you direct message a journalist or the blogger on Twitter or on Linkedin. I think this method depends a lot on how well you know the journalist. Note that many have written that they consider direct messaging quite intrusive and would prefer a public message update instead. You can consider the Twitpitch.

4. Blog comment pitch: When a blogger writes on a particular topic, you can leave a nice and valid input on his/her post and maybe on your service, that he/she takes notice and perhaps checks out your service. That could be a good way to start a conversation.

5. Online pitch tools and platforms: We have platforms for journalists and PR professionals like PitchWire that help both parties to manage pitches. How successful are these, I have no idea. anybody any luck?

Don’t forget to check out our top media relations tips.

We, PR pros, have an undying faith in the power of the press release. Every evening, somewhere between 3 and 4, PR execs run to the terrace and load the canons. It’s poetry in motion. With natural grace they slide a fresh press release into the barrel, swiftly point it at the target (in Delhi it’s ITO, CP, INS Building), light the fuse and take cover. BANG! The press release lands with a hiss at the desk of Mr. Business Editor, Leading Daily Times. Mission half accomplished! The infantry, heavily armed with release-loaded plastic folders, launch the assault exactly half an hour later. The team rests only after hitting each and every target.

“Nonsense,” you say? “That was years ago. We have evolved, moved on.” But why are our brothers and sisters still shooting releases. “Necessary evil,” a colleague had said conspiratorially and winked before she reached out for her Gate Pass in the snow white ToI building. For a moment I felt I was part of a secret brotherhood, surreptitiously making eye-contact with the elusive journalist, trying to extract a pledge of 10 cc (or more) of premium space for my client.

I don’t have more to say about the immortal press release. I won’t even be surprised if “Press Release 2.0” has been released(!). I suspect something like that is already in the air, secretly infecting the PR industry. But there are a few incidents about Press Release 0.0 that will forever play in my mind. There was this one time when a senior editor made good use of the press release I gave him. He thanked me and instantly used it as a paper plate for his snack – two tiny, oily samosas. It was a cruel conspiracy – the greasy patches took shape on my client’s quote I’d spent half a day on.

And there was this other journalist who used to look up from her monitor and smile sweetly when you gave her a press release. She read the first two paras (I suspect she looked at it blankly) and if it bore her, discreetly put it in the bin. Though I would be heartbroken, I felt relieved there would be one paper less to scan the next morning…

Recently I picked up a book called “Why So Stupid?” by Edward De Bono and this post is inspired by it. In fact, I wanted to write about why we stopped thinking about PR in our business but ended up writing something else courtesy a copy of a magazine landing on my desk.

Well, to be very honest I haven’t finished reading the book yet, but it seems that it would be fascinating to read through it. In the first few pages only, I disovered many things. One quote fetched my attention beyond doubt and I would like to share it with you. It helped me to put headline for today’s post as well. It reads and I write, “You can analyze the past but you have to design the future.”

Now coming back to the recently published report about “The Future of Public Relations” in one of the marketing magazines, I have few observations which I want to express for you lovely friends. While it did mention about the future of PR but the irony was that I haven’t seen any of the future leaders of PR talking about the future. I saw the same old faces trying to analyze the past without realising the present situation in many of their businesses or agencies and pretended to be designers of the future. I am sure many of you guys must have had a good laugh reading through it and some of their views must have been swallowed by many of us with a pinch of salt, some pepper and cold water.

The thinking in the industry has been stale and stopped somewhere. I was discussing the same with my wife and she said that it is happening probabbly because in earlier days leaders were born and born leaders are great thinkers, but today leaders are made, and they expect some reference as they are made like that. I think she has a point here. Most of our leaders are coming from ‘recoginition’ background and they always need a reference point to begin. The recongnition here is the worldview they have been living with since 70s and trying to impose the same upon their people. Do you have a high attrition rate - stop blaming the new generation, please. I have had the luck of meeting many of the agency heads and since I have to be politically correct here on this blog and have to remain in the industry where I belong to, I have to say a big lie that almost all of them have inspired me. (sigh!!) But, I am sure almost everyone who is reading my blog today knows ‘who is who?’ in the business and I do not have to give you any recognition or refernece point to think outside the box to arrive at any conclusion. I am sure you are smarter than me.

By the way, who am I to pass on any judgment on the industry or some of our so called leaders. After all, some of them have created the industry we are all working in now. They are the ones who are driving growth of their agencies and dipping the fees. They are the ones how are corrupting the business eco system and doing things which are not required in the name of building and maintaining relationships. They are the ones who are not willing to let their people grwo and try harder to make them feel inferior. After all, they are the ones who are drving the industry, where the accelerator is on a left hand side and brake is faulty with a gear lever lost somewhere on the way.

Why am I behaving so stupid and writing such a post? May be because I am like that only. I care for each one of us. I love what I do and it really hurts when I see my love being treated the way it is being now by many of them. SOS! Please respond, before its too late.

Take care friends and wake up! Jaago re… Jaago re… Jaago re…

PS: I wrote this heartfelt post with complete honesty and with an intention to hurt few of them in the process. If you are one of them and felt hurt, please accept my apologies and look into the mirror. Do you see the horns emerging from sides… ??!!!???

In PR agency workings, client servicing experts would talk about going out for lunches with clients and many other hi-funda things when asked about the best ways to get pally with your client. I won’t go into such advanced details, but focus on two simple day-to-day client contact mediums for an executive or a manager - the phone and the email. What’s the big deal, you’d asked.

Perhaps there’s no big deal. But given that most of the smaller agencies in India (and even some of the big ones) do not have a standardised system of client servicing manual, it’s important for the young PR professionals to know the advantages and disadvantages of both these contact mediums.

Phone -

1. Works well if the client contact is manageable and is the friendly type. You can explain issues and things in proper and in length over the phone than on email.

2. One disadvantage is that you don’t have any written record if things go wrong or the client suddenly turns around.

Email -

1. Many of us in our earlier years tend to think getting into a mobile phone chit-chat everyday with the client will break the ice and help get into a smooth client-agency relationship. Not true for some kinds of clients. If the client contact is the hard-to-please type with unreasonable expectations, make sure your correspondence is more on the mail, copied to his/her boss and yours. On every mail. Why so? Because on the phone, you are more likely to get gobbled up with no very less room for negotiations. For example, if the client contact calls in the morning and asks you to draft a case study and provide it to him/her by the end of the day, demand that she/he send you an email on that. I think most of the unreasonable client demands are done on the phone, hardly on the email. Well, I don’t have any stats to prove it though.

2. Disadvantage is that email is time consuming (writing, sending, receiving, reading), and many clients in particular sectors are not that comfortable with the emailing business.

What do you say? Any more tips. Please share on the comments.

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