"We do marbelous work."

Saw that this morning on my way to work. It was on the side of an old panel truck. Someone had tried to remove the words, or else the company is long gone? Afterall, you can't take continued success for granite, right?

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Here at AgencyNext we are big fans of the Wordpress platform. So, from time to time, I like to point out interesting and useful plugins. Bloggers, check out Sphere Related Content. 

A click on the Sphere icon opens up a new AJAX window with a few related posts from other bloggers talking about the linked topic and a set of related articles from the blogosphere and news sites. Of course, I really like the fact that the plugin does not weigh down the main page with dynamically downloaded content until the supplemental content is requested by a user.

The Sphere Related Content plug-in displays an icon link at the end of your blog posts. When a reader clicks on the icon link, Sphere finds blog posts and media articles related to your content. See it in action on over 1 billion article pages on popular media sites and blogs like the WSJ, New York Times, TechCrunch and Real Clear Politics. Our plug-in works best on English language blog posts and topics that are being actively discussed in the blogosphere.

Try it out below. 

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Yesterday Lisa LaMotta's piece on PR as "The Single Greatest Marketing Tool" appeared in Forbes. I've been reading variations of this article for thirty years. For twenty years I lived it. But it surprises me to see it again, in this era of social media, when traditional PR is fighting for its survival and the mainstream media which traditional PR serves is undergoing radical change.

And, while the headline implies PR is great, still — an assertion with which I wholeheartedly disagree — read the copy closely. The piece opens with the number of media hits Google and Amazon.com have received in the last 30 days. A more relevant stat would be to examine the media hits of any small and medium-sized privately-held company spending an average sum on traditional PR.

You'll also come upon lines like this in the piece:

There are now some 200,000 PR "specialists" in the U.S… Sadly, most aren't very good at what they do…

PR types often promise more than they can deliver, so manage your expectations…

Some firms trot out senior executives at initial meetings only to stick less-experienced staffers on smaller accounts…

Make sure you meet the people who will be doing the actual work…

Average monthly fees for an established U.S. shop are about $10,000, according to a recent survey of 100 firms around the country with revenues over $3 million.

The more things change, the more they stay the same. I guess $120,000 a year doesn't buy much in the way of traditional advertising, but then again, people aren't doing that with as much gusto anymore either. Budgets are moving into places where results can be measured, and I mean truly, actually, realistically, honestly measured. 

Lastly, the article suggests you check with PR associations like PRSA for agency referrals. Maybe. Can't hurt. But the Public Relations Society of America probably isn't going to suggest you think about alternatives or additives to traditional PR. One source of who is good and who is not in the PR business are corporations and communications professionals happy with their current firm. An even better source would be anyone who has replaced or dovetailed their traditional PR with new social media strategies and tactics.

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