Brad Marley's Blog

What can Dexter teach us about public relations?

When you become a parent, your life becomes exponentially more exciting.

Take me and my wife, for example.

The highlight of our day is watching Dexter after we put our daughter to bed. (We don't want her exposed to the F word at such an early age.) And watching a show that makes you feel sympathy for a serial killer can cause your brain to go to places it shouldn't, like where Dexter can teach public relations practitioners to be better at, well, their practice.

Rule #1: Adhere to 'The Code'. The code of ethics, of course. Just like Dexter has a specific code he follows when choosing his victims, we must follow an ethical code when we go about our day-to-day business. You don't want to be one of those professionals who thinks nobody will notice if they, I don't know, misrepresent themselves for one little story. Bad things will happen, man. Bad things.

Rule #2: Pay attention to the spatter. When Dexter tests the blood spatter pattern caused by a candlestick being forced into a victim's head, the result is a nonsensical pattern that only makes sense to a trained professional. When you're crafting an e-mail pitch for a large swath of journalists, make sure there is a method to your madness. The results of a mail merge catastrophe can be deadly, and nobody wants to clean up that mess.

Rule #3: Be meticulous. When Dexter kills one of his victims, he makes sure his "kill room" is covered from floor to ceiling in plastic so none of the evidence leaks out, and he can, essentially, take the room with him when he disposes of the body.  In public relations, nothing is worse than being a sloppy professional. Spell check will only get you so far. Even if it's something as simple as an e-mail to your colleague about a meeting, take the time to check for spelling and grammatical errors. Our words are what make us successful. Don't disregard them.

Rule #4: Begin a relationship. One way to throw off the scent, if you're a serial killer, is to have a public relationship, since we all know that's like at the opposite end of the psychopath spectrum. Same goes in PR. Kind of. While we do write strategy, create campaigns and brainstorm possibilities, coverage is the name of the game. So, striking up relationships with reporters is a no-brainer. Without them, we don't have a career, so it's imperative that we deliver what we promise. The quickest way to burning that relationship bridge is if they view you as unreliable. Take the time to nurture it, then add water on a regular basis and watch it grow.

Rule #5: Don't allow yourself to get caught. This is the most important rule of all -- for both serial killers and PR practitioners -- and it ties in with Rule #1. The account manager who thinks it's okay to pay people to write positive reviews for his or her client's product and post them on-line, or the account supervisor who gathers a stable of Tweeters to draft favorable "tweets" about his client, will always be caught. Yes, there is a time and a place for new tactics, but take a minute to think about what you're doing before you do it. If the majority says it goes against some societal or professional norm, it probably does.

An ode to Wired Magazine: Issue 17.09

I guess it's only fitting that a magazine focused on the impact of technology on culture, the economy, and politics, has figured out a way to avoid (or slow down) a trip to print publication purgatory.

Using inventive ideas like hiding puzzles within the pages, or urging readers to find a missing reporter in the real world (who, I might add, contributed a story on losing one's identity), Wired Magazine has taken the idea that people have more fun when they're interacting with something, and parlayed it into a successful print run.

All magazines should take a cue from this strategy. It's one thing to read how fast Usain Bolt runs the 100 meters. It would be quite another to watch a video of the reporter running the same distance to understand how far we lag behind.

But rather than continue to wax on about the most recent issue, here's a haiku that I drafted just for you.

Journalist on lam
Craigslist founder will not change
Digitized Fab Four

If that doesn't cause you to run to your nearest newsstand and pick up the latest issue -- before both the newsstand and magazine are extinct -- I don't know what will.

Blogging tip #1: Don't lie to your readers.

I don't have the Blogger's Handbook handy, but I would be willing to bet there's a chapter on being true to your readers.

Seven months into my blogging adventure, I'm come to realize that, without a doubt, lying to the people who read your writing on a regular basis is a great way to stop them from reading.

I recently came across an entry from one of the bloggers whom I subscribe to encouraging his audience to join in the discussion of his post topic by leaving a comment that explained their favorite part of the blogging process.  In turn, he wanted to celebrate our blogs, so he promised to comment on an entry of our choosing.  Oh, yeah - he wouldn't post new entries until he followed through.  You know, to keep himself in check.

It's been two weeks.  No comments.  Plenty of new posts.  Bad taste in at least one newbie blogger's mouth.

Oh, well.  He must have gotten busy, or something.

One less blog to read, I say.

The Detroit Free Press didn't make up story about U of M.

I had a few final thoughts I wanted to add after my recent posts around the allegations against the University of Michigan football team, mainly that Michael Rosenberg was just doing his job, same as if I picked up my phone and called a reporter with a story idea or my wife inserted a pic line (I hope I'm spelling that correctly) into her patient.

But then the Detroit Free Press addressed them and, well, there's really nothing left to add.

If Michigan lost to Western Michigan last Saturday, I suspect this issue would have grown to epic proportions in Ann Arbor and beyond, but winning tends to sooth the savage beast.  I guess we'll have to wait until after next weekend's game against Notre Dame to pick up the story where we left off. (Kidding.)

Anyway, here's the Free Press' explanation of how this story came to be.  Worth a read, no matter which camp you are ensconced in.

Weekly Grab Bag of Links - September 4, 2009

This week's burning question: Can Brad draft this week's links post before his laptop battery dies?

Let's find out.

• As Daddy Bloggers Attract Readers, Marketers Follow(NYTimes.com) - There is a concerted effort in our industry to reach out to niche audiences, and that includes the phenomenon that is Mommy bloggers.  Might have to add their parental counterparts to the list.

• When moving in with your parents can land a book deal (Los Angeles Times) - The guy behind @shitmydadsays is one of the more entertaining Twitterers out there because it's all true.  This article on the Los Angeles Times' technology blog is how that feed came to be.

• 5 Pieces of Junk That Turned Out to Be Invaluable Artifacts (Cracked.com) - Sort of like the guy who bought a rocking chair at a garage sale only to find out on "Antique Roadshow" that it was originally owned by Whistler's mom, this article is about the discovery of five items that were mistaken for junk, but turned out to be anything but.

Look at that - 13 percent of my battery to spare.  Just enough to check my e-mail.

As always, you can find all of my links on my Delicious page.

Why We Need (a form of) Newspapers

The recent allegations against University of Michigan football coach Rich Rodriguez provide a great example of why we need newspapers and journalism, in one form or another, to survive.  

MGoBlog, which bills itself as "a somewhat comprehensive Michigan sports blog," has been following the story closely these past few days as more information about the investigation comes to light. (If you have not been paying attention, blogs are kind of popular.)

But we can't expect -- and the blogger doesn't try to indicate otherwise -- that a blog written by an alumnus of the University of Michigan would be objective. It would be like a Christian blogger reacting to new evidence that Jesus Christ didn't exist: their words only serve to lather up the faithful.

Journalists, on the other hand, abide by a professional code of ethics that states "public enlightenment is the forerunner of justice and the foundation of democracy."  It is their job to find the truth and report to the public.  

And that truth can sometimes manifest itself as players on a college football team who were fed up with a program that, in their minds, is breaking NCAA rules.

It doesn't matter who the coach is, which school it is, or what their record is.  If journalists are given information that the public deserves to know and, after thorough research, is deemed legit, they are obligated to report it. 

We may not like it, and we may not agree with it, but without it, we would all just be preaching to the choir, and how interesting would that be?

University of Michigan scandal brings out public's mistrust of media.

I cannot stay quiet on this issue.

In light of the recent investigation by the Detroit Free Press into the University of Michigan football program's alleged NCAA rules violations concerning off-season workouts and in-season demands, a lot of people are completely skirting the real issue by chalking this up to lax editorial standards.

Some have promised to never read the Detroit Free Press again; others have decided this is a case of a newspaper throwing something against the wall to see if it sticks.

Essentially, those looking at the world through maize-colored glasses are appalled that a reporter would investigate a potential story, and are quick to dismiss this as another example of shoddy newspaper work.

Breaking news: That is what reporters and newspapers do.  They report.

This is real news.  Six sources that seem to corroborate each other is legit.  There is no escaping that fact. 

Yet, this underscores the main concern: somewhere along the way, we got this thought in our heads that newspapers only exist to out-sensationalize each other in order to sell the most copies; that newspapers are no longer trustworthy and should be taken out to the woodshed.

In the rush to keep up with blogs and wikis, spelling errors and erroneous quotes have muddled our thinking into the impression that we'd be better off without newspapers.

Really?

Without newspapers, Kwame Kilpatrick is still in office.

Without newspapers, Richard Nixon successfully covers up the Watergate scandal.

Without newspapers, Kenneth Lay gets away with millions.

I'm not saying we need to save the newspaper as we know it. It can still evolve and serve a purpose.  And in the grand scheme of things, a football scandal is unimportant.

But the day we stop entrusting these watchdogs to keep watch over our cities and root out corruption is the day we, as a society, give up.