Communika

R30.00

August 2012

communika Official publication of PRISA - The Institute for Public Relations & Communication Management (Southern Africa)

Meet the new President

Read about the conference

Learn from a social media case study

Time to stop using AVEs for measurement and evaluation

The incoming National President and Chairman of the Board is Tshepo Matseba APR. Photo by Paparazzo Photography / Madelein Carstens.

communika Established 1970

Managing Editor: Margaret Moscardi FPRISA Editor: Chris Hoare CPRP Design & Production: Partners in Publishing Advertising: Margaret Moscardi

Tel: (011) 706-3005 Email: communika@prisa.co.za Printing: Sisonke Printers

Contents The new social responsibility Trends in PR and communication Employee engagement key at Absa Still charging by the hour?

AVEs do not measure the value of PR Social media campaign wins gold Report on PRISA’s national conference Hone your skills

Communika is published quarterly by PRISA - The Institute for Public Relations and Communication Management (Southern Africa).

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International events calendar August 28, 2012 Professional Public Relations Council of Argentina, Buenos Aires.

September 20-22, 2012 EUPRERA 2012 Congress “Researching the Changing Profession of Public Relations”, Istanbul.

October 13-16, 2012 PRSA 2012 International Conference, San Francisco.

November 18-20, 2012 7th World Public Relations Forum, Melbourne.

For the full calendar or more information, please go to: www.globalalliancepr.org

Website: www.prisa.co.za ‘Talk to Tshepo’: blog.prisa.co.za or, Twitter: @1PRISA 2

communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

ProComm House, 108 Bram Fischer Drive, Ferndale PO Box 2825 Pinegowrie 2123 Johannesburg South Africa Telephone: (011) 326-1262 Fax: (011) 326-1259 Email: communika@prisa.co.za Communika magazine welcomes ideas for articles. Writers should provide a short proposal – no more than one page – including their contact details to: communika@prisa.co.za The opinions expressed in Communika are not necessarily those of PRISA or of the editor or publisher. © The Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa. All rights reserved.

Resolution: shoot photos on hi-res, and do not reduce when emailing the .jpg file. A head-and-shoulders photo, for example, should be 1 MB in size.

PRISA – THE INSTITUTE FOR PUBLIC RELATIONS AND COMMUNICATION MANAGEMENT (SOUTHERN AFRICA) Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa Section 21 company. Registration no: 2000/016388/08 Our vision: The recognised leader of the public relations and communication management profession in southern Africa.

NATIONAL PRESIDENT Chairman of the Board Tshepo Matseba APR Tshepo@prisa.co.za PRESIDENT-ELECT Solly Moeng APR Solly@prisa.co.za VICE-PRESIDENT Lungile Lose APR lose@mweb.co.za Board Members IMMEDIATE PAST PRESIDENT Prof Ronel Rensburg CPRP Ronel.rensburg@up.ac.za Accreditation Sylvia Collins APR scollins@munichre.com PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANTS’ CHAPTER Gillian Findlay APR gfindlay@worldonline.co.za GOVERNMENT COMMUNICATION Tasneem Carrim PRP Vusi Mona FINANCE Nadine Kater LEGAL Rachel Sikwane REGIONS – SOUTH AFRICA Roshnee Pillay CPRP Roshnee.pillay@ellerines.co.za

REGIONAL COMMITTEES Gauteng Roshnee Pillay CPRP Roshnee.pillay@ellerines.co.za KwaZulu-Natal Central & Pmb Philani Mabaso CPRP Philani.mabaso@amazulufc.net Free State & Northern Cape Wium Adendorff PRP wium@z2a.co.za Zululand Kevin Naidoo CPRP kevinaidoo@gmail.com Western Cape Aloysious Gowne CPRP Aloy.gowne@gmail.com Eastern Cape Brightness Mangolothi CPRP brightness.mangolothi@nmmu.ac.za Namibia Vacant AMBASSADOR-AT-LARGE Sejamothopo Motau CPRP FPRISA sejmotau@mweb.co.za EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR: PRISA Adele Paulsen adele@prisa.co.za

President’s Message

Towards sustainable reputation management How do we re-invent PRISA to stay relevant? By Tshepo Matseba APR “We have an obligation to ensure that PRISA maintains its position as one of the longest-standing professional associations in the world.”

On behalf of the PRISA Board I would like to thank you for entrusting us with the significant responsibility of leading this organisation and contributing to the enhancement of our reputation to gain trust amongst our key stakeholders. The immediate past president of PRISA, Professor Ronel Rensburg, played an important role in positioning PRISA in Africa and globally at the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management. Her sterling work will continue to influence the direction we take as an organisation, and we will continue to engage her in our journey towards positioning our profession as the pinnacle of sustainable reputation management in southern Africa.

Over the years, PRISA has played a pivotal role in southern Africa, with members in South Africa, Botswana, Madagascar, Namibia, Zambia, Swaziland, just to name a few.

Our consultancy chapter has also made strides, having some of the leading agencies in South Africa as PRISA members. In a nutshell, PRISA is in a good space – as a profession, we have earned our space in strategic discourse and this is likely to improve, particularly as organisations strive towards sustainable reputation management.

I’m excited about the challenges ahead, and I strongly believe that as a team, we can put PRISA back on the map and for us to realise our vision “to be the recognised leader of the public relations and communication management profession in southern Africa and beyond”. Remember, the realisation of this vision is the responsibility of each and every PRISA member.

The PRISA 55th conference took place without a glitch, with members attending from all over southern Africa. Robust debates on the latest trends in corporate communication and reputation management were facilitated by some of South Africa’s notable speakers from different industries. This wouldn’t have been possible without the sterling work by the executive director of PRISA, Adele Paulsen and her team.

A significant milestone was the inauguration of the PRISA presidency which included me as president, my colleagues Solly Moeng (presidentelect), Lungile Lose (vice-president) and Gillian Findlay (chairperson of PRCC), and the entire PRISA Board.

The key question is: how do we reinvent this organisation to stay relevant in a highly competitive and continuously changing socioeconomic environment?

Here are a few things that we need to implement speedily in order to fulfil our promise: • Redefine the PRISA brand essence, values, and identity • Fast-track the registration of our professional designations at the South African Qualifications Authority • Enhance benefits for our members to give them more value • Redefine our value proposition for public relations consultants • Crafting our corporate member value proposition • Crafting a superior value proposition for the academic community • Crafting a sustainable value proposition for the student community • Designing a media plan to profile PRISA in relevant media as a thought leader in strategic corporate communication • Strengthen PRISA’s presence in the digital environment (web, social media, search engine optimisation) • Conceptualise and implement a Regional Media & Communication Indaba for PRISA on a quarterly basis

• Produce PRISA’s strategic communication best practice guidelines annually.

We have an obligation to ensure that PRISA continues to add significant value to its various constituencies. Our biggest challenge is to influence national dialogue on matters pertaining to reputation management, strategic communication and sustainability. These fundamentals will see us into the future.

I would like to invite you to “LIKE” us on Facebook; follow @1PRISA on Twitter and participate in a dialogue on our blog.

Copying is bad, is it not?

In a world where ‘businesses are told to innovate or die’, copying is ‘taboo’ – it’s ‘bad for bosses’ egos’, and the gophers know that ‘praise and promotion do not go to employees who borrow from other firms.’ This from that most authoritative of business voices, The Economist, in a recent Schumpeter column.

But hang on a bit, the article has a rather odd heading: Pretty Profitable Parrots. And it goes on to say something that it itself describes as ‘almost a heresy.’ It makes this extraordinary claim: ‘In the real world, companies copy and succeed.’ It goes on to say this: ‘Firms pay insufficient attention to the art of copying.’

It even goes so far as to say this: ‘Business should celebrate imitation.’

So what gives! Well everyone’s copying says the magazine, so you may as well join in: ‘The iPod was not the first digital musical player; nor was the iPhone the first smartphone or the iPad the first tablet.’ We’re told this: ‘The pharmaceutical industry is split between inventors and imitators. Some innovators such as Pfizer have joined the copycats, starting generic-drugs businesses themselves.’ And we’re reminded that the big supermarkets regularly copy with their own-label products.

More controversially, the magazine goes on to claim that you’re more likely to succeed if you copy. ‘If innovation is such a competitive weapon, why doesn’t it translate into profitability.... history shows that imitators often end up winners...copying is not only far commoner than innovation in business, but a surer route to growth and profits...followers have lower research and development costs and less risk of failure because the product has already been market-tested.’ It tells us something that we haven’t failed to notice: ‘American firms in particular are too obsessed with innovation... Asian companies... have excelled at legal imitation.’

So, do we now forsake innovation? Of course not, what would there be to copy? The magazine is, of course, forced to recognise that innovation is necessary, and that it must be encouraged: ‘Excessive copying, of course, could be bad for society as a whole... if innovators could not get enough reward from new products because imitators were taking so much of the profit, they would spend less on developing them.’

- Hans Muhlberg

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Corporate diplomacy

Collaboration for sustainable change is the new social responsibility Making a case for ‘collaborative diplomacy’. By Dr Roger Hayes, FCIPR The founding fathers of the international ‘public relations’ industry had the highest ideals. They were seeking professional recognition, professional skills and ethics, in particular distinguishing the field from propaganda and whether self or mutual interest. This was in the 1950s, the very early days of international public relations. James Grunig, one of the original theorists and active today, recently said that ‘collaboration’ must become the major public relations idea and skill offered to organisations, if it is to rise above its negative reputation.

While there has been tremendous growth of the practice in recent years, particularly in emerging countries such as South Africa, the reputation remains dogged in reactive, tactical media relations.

The challenge and opportunity for corporations, governments and other organisations thrust into the global spotlight, spurred on by electronic communication media should be a catalyst for public relations to rethink its role and purpose – particularly in serving not just the interest of its employer, but society as a whole. It is significant that definitions of public relations always tend to emphasise the communication element, underplaying its role as a boundary spanner between the organisation’s interests and broader society. This is particularly so in emerging countries, where corporations, governments and NGOs partner together to solve issues of common interest.

As the recent PRISA conference in Johannesburg articulated, public relations needs to rise above pure advocacy to value a more symmetrical form of communication and behaviour in which collaboration becomes the major public relations idea and skills. This is all the more so in the transparent world where trust and confidence in institutions is lower and the development of globalisation, spurred on by the internet and social media has raised the stakes in communication relationships and their stakeholders. It is indeed ironic that ‘public relations’ describes what it does, yet most prefer to rename it ‘strategic communication’ or ‘reputation management’. We therefore need to identify our core values, agree our role and scope and, above all build long-term relationships based on the broader role of the organisation in its communities.

Corporations can be a force for good if they make the connection between relationships (with key stakeholders), manage reputation and behave responsibly. For this it is vital to transform your communication beyond transactional selling to helping build sustainable relationships across a broader stakeholder group. It involves greater expertise in issue management, environmental sense-making and cultural sensitivity joining the economic, political and cultural dots globally and locally.

Playing a broader role means framing the narrative beyond just a narrow self-interest. By looking at the total system holistically you are more likely to buy credibility, thus having your interests served. Privatepublic partnerships that operate in Africa require dialogue, engagement and often rapport with stakeholders outside the comfort zone. This is a major opportunity for public relations to facilitate engagement.

It seems that corporations are between a rock and a hard place.

On the one hand there is relentless pressure on them to compete and perform in real time, yet on the other there are demands for greater governance and involvement in issues beyond their traditional economic role. We are moving from command and control to connect and collaborate. Corporate responsibility though is not just about managing, reducing and avoiding risk. It is about creating opportunities – generating improved performance, making money and leaving the risks far behind. Long-term collaboration for sustainable change is the new social responsibility. It is corporate diplomacy that facilitates

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this collaboration. This involves thinking ahead, skilful analysis of the context, combined with astute networking and relationship building. Authentic CEO leaders have legitimacy and follow core values. They have a broader concept of their organisation’s role in society. In an eroding boundaries environment – between institutions and between countries – corporate diplomacy is really a process of ‘mutual adaptation’.

Public relations has enormous opportunities due to the internationalisation of the practice, more public policy work, a bigger role for business in society, new media and more complex issues requiring collaborative solutions and perhaps above all more empowered stakeholders.

However, despite these opportunities, a relatively poor reputation and skills gap, especially in the emerging countries, will only widen the credibility gap, unless education and training manages to keep up.

The predominant paradigm does not entirely account for today’s multiple voices of often multi-cultural stakeholders engaging on the issues. A new network model needs to be acknowledged. There is a need to connect public relations to the larger canvas of how organisations and their stakeholders relate in a complex, converging and sometimes conflicting global community. Perhaps a new, dynamic model of organisation, stakeholders and different kinds of relationship within this more multi-cultural, complex world could emerge. The collaborative approach, based on skills learned from diplomacy could result.

Yet, if public relations does not do what it says on the packet – namely manage relationships with public/stakeholders for the benefit of the organisation and the broader community, maybe it should be called ‘collaborative diplomacy’. Although we should all be aware that just calling it something different does not make it so….

Roger Hayes is a senior counsellor at APCOWORLDWIDE, London, a Past President and Fellow of IPRA, and a Fellow of the CIPR. He recently completed a Doctorate at Henley Business School, where he is Associate Faculty, teaching at the Johannesburg campus.

One big id It’s been our experience that some clients are inviting their digital, advertising and public relations consultancies to collaborate in working on one big idea for a brand. At other times, when we are the 360° agency of record, we are required to conceive and produce a big idea and apply it across 360°. It’s been our learning with both scenarios that what’s important is not who comes up with the big idea but rather the quality of the idea and its ability to be applied to aboveand below-the-line mediums, online public relations, offline and social spaces.

With such divergent marketing channels, we’ve found that the criterion for a big idea has changed. What makes an idea big used to be how simple and creative it was. Now, it’s how well an idea can integrate in the various spaces, and increasingly its ability to leverage the influence ecosystem to engage audiences, online influencers and create measurable change.

What’s more, big ideas in 360° spaces move fast. They need to engage consumers and other online influencers with relevant content.

A good example is a recent campaign we launched for Unilever’s VO5 hairstyling range. The campaign is called “The art of stylin’”.

The campaign encourages consumers to get creative with their

Balance of emotional and rational

Global trends in PR and communication Shift to mobile has greatest impact. By Jeremy Galbraith The major trends in public relations are finely balanced between the emotional: periods of crisis, loss of trust, the desire for personalised communication, the drive towards greater transparency, and the rational: purposeful, strategic counsel with provable, evidencebased outcomes. Here are the biggest trends I see: Mobile The biggest trend with the greatest immediate impact on communication is the shift to mobile. Global mobile traffic will soon represent 10% of all internet traffic.

Mobile is becoming so deeply embedded in our lives by offering convenience through immediacy, simplicity and context. Through mobile, each of us can receive individualised content which also points to another major trend, that of personalisation.

Personalisation or the “Youniverse” This idea of creating your own “Youniverse” (Trendwatching.com) is a perfect example of tapping into our emotional desire to be seen as unique personalities. Public relations professionals must assist companies in learning how to move from more traditional tactics in favour of smarter approaches that extend their personalisation capabilities beyond the PC. The ability to deliver relevant communication across multiple channels will transform these marketing efforts from an unwanted intrusion into a valued service.

Social Journalism Breaking news updates from anywhere in the world on social networks like Twitter appeal to readers because, unlike traditional print mediums, they are free, convenient and timely; everything that news should be. Citizen journalists post real-time photos and cover stories from a different angle than news organisations, but it’s the watchdog or advocacy role that defines a social journalist. Another factor is the network effect: using social media to communicate and collaboratively produce content. Editors are still important, but pieces are shaped by crowd dynamics and the velocity of information. Social journalism, an

dea for 360° hairstyles, and upload an image and then get their communities to vote for them. This campaign employed a mix of paid media (banners and Facebook ads), earned media (traditional press coverage and online news), owned media (company-owned website and blog) and shared media (social media, including blogs, Facebook and Twitter).

The campaign is proving to be a success that is exceeding our clients’ expectations. One of the key features of the campaign is that we gave consumers the opportunity to own the brand and made use of existing brand consumer influencers and online influencers to rally support, interest and participation.

The most valuable media in the world is the media you can’t buy, and the influence and endorsement you can’t pay for. This is why integrated big ideas that include public relations disciplines will be what most brand ambassadors will be looking for from their agencies.

PR agencies have never had the luxury of paying for their clients’ messages, which is why our public relations disciplines are at the core of our quest for an integrated big idea.

In public relations, we build engagement with enthusiasts to create credibility in multiple communities and media spheres.

– Desirée Gullan, www.gullanandgullan.com

extension of those practices, is now an essential component of any news organisation’s strategy and has changed the face of journalism.

Social Media Public relations professionals need to keep pace with this fast-evolving environment. The challenge is dealing every day with two huge data explosions: the expanding universe of ‘digital influencers’ and the massive volume of social media conversations and real-time mentions that concern your brand, industry and competition. Digital influencers have grown 30-fold in less than two years. A crucial difference with traditional media is the need for engagement. The sheer volume of mentions requires brands to prioritise: find out who matters, determine what they’re saying, how it sways others and how best to engage with them. Balancing the emotional (dialogue) with the rational (measurement of influence) is the key.

Crisis Since the advent of “always on” social media, companies have to guard their reputations even more vigilantly. Viral videos can wreak havoc on brands. Legal responses like attempting to pull videos from YouTube only inflame the situation, see Nestlé: Kit Kat versus Greenpeace.

Domino Pizza, conversely, managed to turn their 2009 social media crisis into a triumph by – rationally – spending months getting feedback from customers and developing “The Pizza Turnaround” campaign.

Sales increased by 14% in the first quarter and profits doubled. Nestlé took 50% longer to return to their pre-crisis average, due to their initial response. (Nestlé finally successfully engaged with Greenpeace.)

Evidence Based A major trend in public relations is that of measurement, at the beginning and throughout a campaign to measure impact and effectiveness. Burson-Marsteller has developed an evidence-based approach to communication with the use of research among target audiences to test messages and measure results. Digital campaigns are particularly easy to track as many social media channels like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube have their own analytics which make it possible to demonstrate the reach of these campaigns by the number of views, shares, retweets, likes, etc.

Image is All The meteoric rise of such relative newcomers as Pinterest and Tumblr to our social network environment, demonstrates the emotional power of images to tell stories in a way that is proven to be 80% more memorable than mere words. The rise of infographics also shows the capacity of visuals to break large chunks of data into digestible portions.

Transparency is King In our hyper-connected world, the trend is increasingly towards hypertransparent communication. Consumers and other stakeholders have many more channels at their disposal for exposing and discrediting companies for any lack of honesty. As difficult a concept as that is for many, transparency is the only answer and any failures in this area are punished with alarming speed and efficiency. Brands that embrace this hyper-honesty trend will reap the benefits in consumer trust.

Jeremy Galbraith is the CEO of Burson-Marsteller Europe, Middle East and Africa, a member of Burson-Marsteller’s Global Leadership Team and chair of the Global Public Affairs practice. communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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Organisational reinvention

Employee engagement for change – a singular sensation!

‘One Absa’ was the vision. By Tania Auby APR, Absa Group Communication Absa’s vision in 2010 to become the best financial services provider in South Africa required organisational reinvention, from the inside out! A fun, interactive employee engagement programme drove the vision of “One Absa” in the hearts and minds of employees.

Towards the end of 2009 Absa chief executive, Maria Ramos, redefined the Absa Group’s strategy. A previously splintered organisation embarked on a journey to become a singular sensation, and the complexity and scale of the change required to deliver it would require an integrated approach involving all levels of employees, as well as disciplined execution of an employee engagement programme.

Statistics show that 90% of strategies fail to be implemented within organisations, largely due to lack of employee engagement. So, in early 2010, Absa created an integrated culture-change engagement programme to engage employees with the new “One Absa” strategy.

This employee engagement programme kicked off on 22 February 2010, with the objectives to create one story in one integrated communication programme; to create understanding amongst all employees of the Absa big picture and to connect them to the role that they play in this; and to generate advocacy amongst and change behaviour of employees in line with “One Absa.”

The message behind this programme was that every person, business unit, cluster and support function throughout the group’s value chain was required to participate in delivering enhanced value.

The notion was not only that strength comes from unity, but also that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

The programme was rolled out in carefully planned phases, known as Ignite; Co-Create; Connect; One Absa behind One Nation; Tipping Point; Continuity and an ongoing Measurement phase.

Each phase had its own specific objectives and related executions, implemented and reinforced across various channels – printed and electronic newsletters; regular, customised TV broadcasts; live events, interactive workshops and unique engagement tools (such as “tablecloths”) to stimulate conversations within the organisation.

Cascading through all levels, it was driven and endorsed from the very top and required every Absa leader to own, believe and drive his/her part of the change journey.

The first phase, known as the Ignite phase, aimed to create awareness and buy-in amongst senior Absa leaders for the communication strategy; to equip them to cascade the messaging to their teams and to create awareness around the vital role managers would play. It put leaders squarely in the picture before the strategy

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was launched simultaneously at all Absa sites via an internal TV broadcast with specially created audio-visual material and an interactive team exercise (linking employees to the programme’s visual metaphor).

As the rollout progressed, employees were encouraged to connect with colleagues, customers and communities in meaningful ways. Absa’s social networking opportunities were explored through interactive online engagement sessions. Corporate social investment initiatives were refined and refreshed, making it easier to actively contribute.

The “customer voice” was brought into the workplace through a series of initiatives designed to remind employees to place the customer at the centre of everything they do. Employees were interviewed by “customers” on their way into work; customer complaints and compliments were reflected in group-wide electronic media; customer “cut-outs” are in every meeting room; and special TV broadcasts continued to feature customer panel discussions and interviews filmed in branches.

As soccer fever gripped the country with the 2010 soccer World Cup, One Absa behind One Nation (a mini campaign within the overall programme) offered a comprehensive menu of activities to leverage and sustain the energy of the World Cup in order to drive the business imperatives of team spirit (singing with one voice) and collaboration, while exploring the value of diversity. Soccerphonics, Makarapa & NikNak Glasses and Diski Dance workshops were hosted at all work sites, culminating in a much-publicised team country-wide Absa Diski Danceoff prior to the 2010 kick-off.

Throughout the programme, Absa generated meaningful conversations around what it meant to think, speak and act in line with the strategy, by engaging its employees with the issues “on the table” by means of a series of printed “table talkers”. Leaders were supplied with user-friendly “conversation enablers” – step-by-step guides on how to best use these table talkers, clearly defining the focus, objectives and desired outcomes for each – to aid their facilitation of these dialogue sessions.

A comprehensive measurement system was designed to run alongside the programme, with ongoing feedback enabling adaptation for maximum impact.

Through this programme, Absa employees engaged with what mattered most to the company and to themselves, finding fresh solutions to the daily challenges they face and creating an understanding of tomorrow’s possibilities, together.

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Still charging by the hour?

Fixing PR’s broken business model What do clients really value in an agency? By Judith Middleton There’s a reason I call my company a marketing and communications agency rather than a public relations agency. In all too many minds, public relations is associated with pom-pom girls and parties. Perhaps there’s some strategic value in that for consumer-facing brands; but it doesn’t work in a business-to-business environment. How can public relations push beyond this perception of frivolity?

When I ask my long-term clients what they value most about our engagement with them, there are four constant themes. We understand their industry, we deliver unquestionable return on investment, we are always available as a sounding board and we help to push them beyond what they think they know.

The value we deliver, in other words, lies largely in our ability to act as trusted partners in deep collaboration, not merely to carry out client commissions and instructions.

One of the things that makes this relationship possible is our business model. We do not charge by the hour. I would argue, in fact, that any public relations consultancy that still charges by the hour in 2012 is undermining its own value. When a client hesitates to pick up the phone to bounce an idea off you because he’s wondering how much it will add to his bill at the end of the month, neither of you is getting a good deal.

Public relations works best when it’s completely integrated into the client’s overall business strategy and objectives. Our job should be not only to develop a marketing and communication strategy, but also to keep that strategy alive, relevant and working. Without that guidance, marketing can all too easily be sidetracked into irrelevant tangents and knee-jerk reactions.

Maintaining this strategic communication focus requires a certain commercial toughness on the part of the public relations person.

Sometimes, it’s our job to point out to the client that publicising his sponsorship of his child’s sports team is not going to help his bottom line. The clients who appreciate this are the clients worth having.

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So what does the public relations consultancy need to do to achieve this relationship with its clients? First and foremost, it needs to hire staff with commercial skill and emotional maturity, as well as knowledge of specific industries. Sending in the big guns to win the account, then turning it over to juniors to manage, is a no-no. You can’t expect to be a strategic partner to your client if you’re hiring straight out of college.

Second, take a good hard look at your business model.

Are you incentivising yourself and your staff to deliver value for the client, or to max out chargeable hours and seek sales commissions from other service providers? The market has been tainted by poor quality, middlemen and overpricing – don’t add to the problem.

Third, if you are confident in your expertise and your ability to add value to the client’s business, be prepared to push back. Don’t be the yes man. Sometimes the greatest value comes out of our disagreements: it’s through the discussion that we generate new ideas and learn.

Finally, be prepared to be accountable for the client’s brand: let the buck stop with you and ensure that your client knows that. I’ve seen too many companies be preyed upon by armies of advisors, coaches and agencies, all of them working at cross purposes and none of them being prepared to take ownership of the whole.

There’s a lesson in this for clients too: hire the best, and then make them work for you. Expect them to have brains, and to apply them on your behalf. And be realistic about what public relations can deliver. No amount of fabulous public relations can paper over the cracks of bad customer service.

At its very best, the client-public relations relationship is one where the client knows his public relations person has got his back – and the public relations consultant never stops asking “what am I doing for my client that he couldn’t do better for himself?”

Judith Middleton, CEO of DUO Marketing + Communications Tel: 021 683 8223 • Email: Judith@duomarketing.co.za

Personal branding

I Inc. Be the CEO of your brand You are who other people think you are. By Kate Moodley Are you confident that the people you meet are thinking and saying the right things about you after you’ve left their company? Are they making snide comments about your bad dress taste? Are they disparaging about the car you drive, or discussing your inappropriate conversational topics? Or are they praising the way you present yourself, the way you interact with others, the way you can be relied upon to deliver on what you promise? You want people to perceive you in the best possible light, and for this reason you deserve to give yourself your own unique and impactful personal brand.

American author Tom Peters states, “You’re every bit as much a brand as Nike, Coke, Pepsi or the Body Shop. To start thinking like your own favourite brand manager, ask yourself the same questions the brand managers at Nike, Coke, Pepsi or the Body Shop ask themselves. What is it that my product or service does that makes it different?”

The reality is that you are who other people think you are. And that’s your personal brand. It is important that you make sure it’s what you want it to reflect. Donald Trump rightly states, “I wasn’t satisfied just to earn a good living, I was looking to make a statement.” Your personal brand is what other people think of you – when you’re with them, when you part company, when they discuss you when you’re not there. It is everything you represent both personally and professionally.

Your personal brand requires constant monitoring and nurturing, and it’s important to devote your time to it. In essence, the heart of personal branding is about managing and influencing how others perceive you. In addition to an offline personal brand it has become increasingly important to build a brand using the likes of Twitter, LinkedIn and Facebook. In 2011, there were over 700 million people active on Facebook, which is approximately one in every 12 people on the planet. And on any given day half of them are logged in. Are you one of them? Internet pioneer Guy Almes said, “There are three kinds of death in this world, there is heart death, there is brain death and then there is being off the network.” Therefore your online brand needs to be consistent with your offline brand and it is important that it remains professional at all times.

In identifying and exploring your personal brand it is important that it is in line with your value system. Personal branding is certainly not just about looking right; your credibility is an integral part because people want to deal with people that have brands of trust. Your personal brand should reflect your uniqueness as an individual. This is important not only because you are special and deserve to be recognised as being one-of-a-kind, but also because in today’s challenging employment market one of the only things that you can use to give yourself a compelling advantage over fellow job-seekers is the singularity of your personal brand.

Ask any scuba diver what the secret is to successful, safe and satisfying dive and they will tell you there’s one simple secret – plan the dive, and then dive the plan. It’s the same with personal branding.

In preparing your winning personal brand strategy, the first thing you need to do is to set yourself a series of relevant and specific goals aimed at giving you progressive, achievable milestones that you can use as steps in the development of your personal brand. It is important to know what you stand for.

Some branding tips: • Learn to be comfortable with promoting yourself. Selling yourself with confidence, without arrogance is a key part of your personal brand-building strategy. You don’t want to be the world’s best kept secret.

• Strive to portray yourself in the best possible way at all times. One of my favourite quotes is by Coco Chanel, who said, “Dress shabbily and they remember the dress; dress impeccably and they remember the woman.”

• Identify your strengths, the things you’re good at and the things you’re passionate about.

• Consciously work on your inter-personal communication skills. The art of good conversation, both in a formal context and in social small-talk situations, is invaluable in developing an outstanding personal brand.

• Carefully plan your online personal branding strategy.

Think about how you want to portray yourself on LinkedIn, Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites.

Building a brand is really going beyond the call of duty if you think of this event. Being honest with yourself is fundamental to developing a strong personal brand. Take stock of where you are in life and consider how you can enhance your strong points and address your weak points to achieve your ideal personal brand. Remember to keep things in perspective – nobody’s perfect and you’re only human, but that shouldn’t prevent you from striving to be the best you can be. It’s not to accept mediocrity in anything you do. Building your personal brand is undoubtedly your best investment for success and if you are not marketing yourself successfully you should start now.

Kate Moodley is an accomplished businesswoman with a number of academic qualifications including a Masters in Law in 2010. She runs her own business under the Discovery umbrella. Achievements are winning Top Business Woman and CEO’s SA’s Most Influential Women in Business and Government for Insurance, as well as FNA’s Women who are making a difference. She is author of “Be the CEO of your own Brand – I Inc”.

Time to ID those winning campaigns It’s time to start thinking about your PRISM entries. Even though the deadline for entries is some months ahead, now’s the time to identify those winning campaigns. These campaigns could be running now, or are about to start. The awards cover campaigns during 2012, as well as ongoing campaigns.

DEADLINE for entries is the third week of January 2013 and the way time is flashing by, this will be upon us before we have had time to think.

So, brief your teams to identify your winners now. communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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AVEs ‘do not measure the value of PR’

Give us the tools and we’ll measure PR ‘Cost per reach’ is the way to go, Part 1. By Lesley Schroeder-McLean The global interest in effective measurement of public relations has been partly spurred by the blurring of roles in the tightly contested advertising, public relations and marketing arena and compounded by a difficult economy.

As companies increasingly demand a tangible return on communication spend, public relations practitioners find themselves rummaging around for measurement techniques to validate the impact of their work on the bottom line.

In 2010, two hundred public relations consultancy owners and managers met in Spain to find a way forward for the global industry. This culminated in the Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles. You can google these to absorb them in depth but in short they are: 1. Goal setting and measurement are fundamental aspects of any public relations programme.

2. Media measurement requires quantity and quality (cuttings in themselves are not enough).

3. Advertising Value Equivalents (AVEs) do not measure the value of public relations.

4. Social media can and should be measured.

5. Measuring outcomes is preferred to measuring media outputs.

6. Business results can and should be measured where possible.

7. Transparency and Replicability are paramount to sound measurement.

While I do not want to linger on the AVE debate, I have found that the practice of applying AVEs is still widely prevalent because practitioners say it is the easiest way of arriving at a quantitative measure. It is important to note that the majority of Barcelona delegates rejected AVEs and agreed that it is in the best interests of the public relations industry to dispose of them as a measure of public relations effectiveness. I have long endorsed the Canadian public relations industry’s use of cost per reach1 to measure media publicity outputs i.e. how much money did the organisation spend to reach x number of readers/viewers within our targeted audiences. But in Southern Africa, AVE remains the main metric (and often the only metric) used to calculate the value of media publicity. What is particularly perturbing is the way AVEs are being multiplied at whim.

Here’s an example as silly as the practice. Let’s say a company would have paid R50 000 to advertise a new breakfast cereal in a newspaper.

However, because its public relations department successfully pitched the cereal as nutritionally enhanced and clinically-proven to reduce child obesity, it was deemed newsworthy and the space was earned without any payment. Now take this a step further by noting the impact of branding and visuals. The story was enhanced by a large colour photograph showing thin children happily tucking into the cereal so let’s multiply the AVE by three. Oh, and look! The packaging is clearly displayed so should we not multiply it by 6 or even 8? This type of reasoning results in PR agencies touting how they achieved significantly more value than an advert would have cost, and that’s lovely but what was the outcome? Did the story help move the sales needle and how do we measure that? And what if the manufacturer had to recall their product – as Kelloggs did when they pulled 28 million children’s cereal boxes from shelves following complaints of nausea and diarrhoea?

What AVE value do you apply to that? The inherent flaws of AVE as an analytic become obvious if you bring negative publicity into the equation or attempt to calculate the value of a bad news story you managed to keep OUT of the media.

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In any event, when we talk measurement we are not only talking media measurement. Savvy PR campaigners are relying less on newspapers, television and radio to win fans and influence supporters. Instead strategy is centred on growing relationships and building reputation with our stakeholders. Often we know who they are and how to reach them so it’s become less about eyeballs and ears and more about two-way conversation. In fact, in a recent PR campaign our consultancy undertook to get business people to fly rather than drive. Our audiences were so clearly identifiable that we focused entirely on face-to-face interaction, telephone calls, bulk sms and direct mail to achieve a 40% take-up within the first two months. In this campaign, media publicity was a ‘nice to have’ because it pleased the politicians and while we achieved media publicity with a reach in excess of two million over the same period, this is a measure of output. It does not indicate the outcomes: whether the publicity was ‘on message’ or whether there was direct causality between media publicity and bookings.

So how do we measure outcomes? While the Barcelona Declaration showed that there is consensus on the need to measure public relations impact on business results, we have yet to see straightforward guidelines and this is where the confusion lies with everyone clamouring for a standardised tools template. The PRSA2 Measurement Working Group is one of the initiatives addressing the lacuna of relevant analytics and analysis and audience research methods. The group advocates shifting the focus from social media volumes and clip counting to outcome measures that show how public relations drove business performance. This of course goes right back to the basic 3 7-point PR plan where we start with situational analysis, stakeholder analysis and goal setting. Thus before we even think of setting measuring criteria we need to ask: • Who do we want to affect?

• What about them do we want to affect?

• How much must they be affected for the programme to be successful?

• By when does this effect need to occur?

It is only once we have agreed on what we want to change, that we can plan the public relations intervention, the indicator of success, the data collection method and the measure. I will discuss these in the second part of the article.

Cost per reach calculation: Amount spent on generating media publicity divided by audience reach. In PR campaigns the cost per reach is usually below 30c per reach.

2 Public Relations Society of America 3 The basic 7-point PR Plan comprises: 1) Situational Analysis 2) Goals and Objectives 3) Stakeholder Analysis 4) Message Development 5) Activities 6) Measurement and Evaluation 7) Budgeting.

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Lesley Schroeder-McLean is the owner of Fuller Insight, a researchdriven communications company working mainly in the fields of pharmaceuticals, economic development and transport. She played a leading role in the Public Relations Consultants Chapter (PRCC) where she first initiated industry conversation around media measurement with colleagues Bridget von Holdt and Daniel Munslow. The resultant PRCC guidelines were fed into the global PR measurement debate which culminated in the 2010 Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles.

King III is needed

The contribution of reputation management Focus on sustainability for positive outcomes. By Kavitha Kalicharan APR “It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it,” said Warren Buffet, the third-richest man in the world.

A company’s reputation is one of the most important aspects for any organisation. If it is damaged, it stands to lose in many ways; it should thus be guarded.

Toyota had its reputation almost destroyed when it recalled thousands of vehicles with faulty brake and accelerator pedals. It took Toyota many years to build a reliable brand.

Tiger Woods recently took a fall through a sex scandal and lost contracts with Gillette, PepsiCo and Accenture.

These companies no longer want to be associated with Tiger Woods as they also have a reputation to uphold.

The best thing that a company can do is to build on the good reputation that it has. Maintaining a good reputation is hard work and is a function that should sit in the strategic approach of an organisation.

Some aspects of reputation include how the public view a company, and whether they trust the company or not. A company may produce products or offer a service to the public, but if trust is breached when delivering a product or service, there is damage to its reputation.

Another aspect of reputation includes a company’s values and ethics and whether these are aligned to people’s beliefs. A company which supports child labour, will not have a favourable reputation. Parents and activists will surely not take issues like this very lightly. One of the most important aspects of a good reputation is whether a company is socially responsible or not.

Previously, many companies operated solely as financially sustainable organisations. Over recent years, more focus has been directed towards the contributions that companies make towards communities within which they operate. Companies are now realising the value of corporate social investment (CSI) and community relations as part of their overall strategy. Investing in CSI and community relations not only benefits people in communities, but also has a positive impact on the company’s reputation.

Our environment Companies need to be aware of the impact that they have on the environment. Companies are becoming more aware of their carbon footprint and many initiatives are being introduced encouraging employees to support these causes. Vehicles are now being manufactured that are more environmentally friendly. Many companies are moving to new environment-friendly buildings. There is also more involvement in water conservation, energy conservation, campaigns such as recycling and world environment days.

Some companies have extremely green buildings. One is Nestlé South Africa’s newest premises in Bryanston. There are indigenous landscaped gardens, atriums and indoor gardens, and natural light from central atriums. The building is energy efficient and some of the features include: an intelligent lighting system with motion sensors; atriums allowing lights to dim when outside light is bright; the airconditioning plant utilises ammonia chillers to reduce electricity consumption. Companies like these are seen as responsible in that they care about the environment.

Looking at CSI and community relations over the last decade, initiatives have been introduced that challenge organisations to be more responsible. Accountability is a key factor as companies are being urged to report on how they are being socially responsible. These guidelines are available in the public domain and therefore put added pressure on organisations to follow suit.

United Nations Millennium Development Goals In September 2000, leaders of 189 countries made a declaration of eight goals. These goals are commitments that have been made by all countries to work together to fight issues that are prevalent in all countries today. The aim is for these goals to be achieved by 2015.

The Eight UN Millennium Development Goals • Eradicate Extreme Poverty and Hunger.

• Achieve Universal Primary Education.

• Promote Gender Equality and Empower Women.

• Reduce Child Mortality.

• Improve Maternal Health.

• Combat HIV/Aids, Malaria and Other Diseases.

• Ensure Environmental Sustainability.

• Global Partnership for Development.

Many companies are now choosing at least one of these goals and including this as part of the overall strategy. Companies such as SAB Miller, Nestlé South Africa, Unilver, Levi Strauss & Co, and KPMG are already aligning themselves to working towards achieving these goals.”

King III More recently, the release of the King III report has given companies guidelines and frameworks within which to operate. These guidelines relate to corporate governance and King III encourages all organisations to embrace the report and integrate it with their company’s overall strategy. This report holds management more accountable in terms of reporting. With the ever-changing trends and the new Companies Act in terms of governance, there is a need for this report.

King III emphasises sustainability King II highlighted corporate citizenship and integrated sustainability, the so-called triple bottom line, in terms of which companies needed to account not only for economic and financial issues, but also for social and environmental issues.

King III builds on this principle by emphasising sustainability.

Directors have accountability to shareholders and an obligation to all stakeholders (including shareholders) to ensure that the company’s resources are used to ensure the continuing viability of the company.

This involves not only environmental sustainability (resource management with an eye on future needs), but also issues such as social responsibility, respect for human rights, and the effective management of stakeholder relationships.

A focus on sustainability will not only positively impact a company’s risk management, but also its strategic planning processes. Governance, strategy, risk, performance and sustainability have become intrinsically linked, and directors should ensure that the company’s strategy accounts for sustainability issues. Directors also need to ensure adequate sustainability reporting to all stakeholders.

King III also points out that the economic value of a company can no longer be based on the balance sheet alone. Rather, the economic value will be impacted by a range of non-financial issues such as brand and reputation, stakeholder relations and goodwill, an evolving and forward-looking strategy, environmental sustainability, social responsibility, quality of governance, etc.

When companies become involved in CSI and community relations, the rewards are greater than imagined.

communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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Case study: Put Foot Foundation

Social media campaign wins gold at PRISM Awards Consultancies: Retroviral Digital Communications, BangersandNash.com A joint campaign by Retroviral Digital Communications and BangersandNash.com for #ShoesOnFeet won a gold award at the 2012 PRISA PRISM Awards in the ‘NGO Campaign’ category. The client was Put Foot Foundation. Below is their motivation.

Opening statement

This campaign executed between June and July 2011 is worthy of a PRISM Award because it illustrates how successful online content development strategies can amplify an offline event, create a cult following from individuals and corporates alike, while raising money for a good cause.

Team #ShoesOnFeet used blogging as a platform to increase brand awareness of an event with no legacy, and simultaneously raised 25% more (R75,000) than the collective rally target of R60,000 for the Bob’s For Good Foundation – the rally beneficiary. This money ensured 750 children would be presented with their first ever pair of new school shoes.

Statement of opportunity

• The Put Foot Rally is a new, annual social rally across seven Southern African countries. The client partnered with the Bob’s For Good Foundation, where funds were raised during the rally to ensure disadvantaged children would receive school shoes.

• We created the team name, hashtag #ShoesOnFeet to align with the campaign objectives.

• We created a successful online narrative, using the team name and hashtag to ‘bring audiences on a journey’ with a brand.

• This event gave us the opportunity to experiment with the way in which CSI is documented online, and to pioneer new tactics.

The communication objective was for increased online engagement and conversations to boost awareness of the positive elements of the Put Foot Rally, specifically the charity angle.

Research

The following key insights were determined, and beneficial for the development of our social engagement strategy: • We understand the complexities of creating a community from zero followers. It was necessary to leverage off existing platforms and personal brands to develop an interest in #ShoesOnFeet. This was especially important, considering the time constraints that we were faced with during a three-week event, with broadband limitations.

• Single communication channels cannot expect to be successful in isolation, and the reason we ensured our tactics were always supported using other blogs and Twitter/Twitpics.

• An online content/conversation calendar was required to push tailored messaging online.

We researched appropriate hooks for maximum sharing, and ways to encourage people to donate online.

Planning

Campaign objectives 1. Successfully communicate the intrinsics of the Put Foot Rally and by doing so generate online hype to create demand for the 2012 event.

2. Raise awareness of the Bob’s For Good Foundation’s fundraising efforts and use online tactics to encourage brands and individuals to donate money to the NGO. 3. Disseminate the message that it is possible to travel seamlessly between countries within Southern Africa, without the need for specialised vehicles.

Measurement criteria 1. Ensure 500K online citizens have the opportunity to see (OTS) rally content.

2. Use online communication channels to encourage 30 teams to sign up for the Put Foot Rally 2012.

3. Secure R100K worth of advertising-value-equivalent (AVE) brand exposure.

4. Use the event as a platform to raise R60,000 for the Bob’s For Good Foundation for South African school children, and deliver shoes to children in Namibia and Zambia during the rally. One pair of shoes costs R100.

Target audience and desired actions 1. LSM 6-10, South African urbanites, all ages 2. Increase traffic to PutFootRally.com 3. Get people talking about and sharing this campaign.

Message formulation Messaging was developed to create awareness around the ethos of the rally: • “The Put Foot Rally is about experiencing Southern Africa and giving back to the people” • “There are 7 million South African school children alone, without shoes”

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• “You can make a difference, even from the desk where you’re following this adventure”.

Communication channels • Blogs (combined unique readership of 50K people) BangersandNash.com Sharmantor.com Shoesonfeet.co.za • Twitter (combined following of 10K) @BangersandNash @MikeSharman • Twitpics This campaign highlights the importance of stills. Images that were tweeted ranged in unique views from 12-19K, indicating the extreme levels of engagement with the content.

Message vehicles Blog (shoesonfeet.co.za) – Facebook / Twitter / bloggers Management consultation Collaborative social media strategy sessions with Put Foot Rally and Bob’s For Good Foundation management commenced from February 2011.

We took learnings of online content development and applied them to this campaign to ensure followers were included in the adventure.

Execution

Blog as central hub of message dissemination, supported by social media • #ShoesOnFeet was branded with a hashtag so that viewers immediately knew that the mechanic was specific to Twitter.

• We set up a microsite – shoesonfeet.co.za to house details of our adventure.

• Viewers were encouraged to donate money online, to the Bob’s For Good Foundation during the rally.

• We wanted to make the content as engaging as possible; encouraged viewers to challenge us to complete tasks. In order for us to complete a challenge, online followers had to raise relevant amounts for the Bob’s For Good Foundation. In Mozambique, for example, the audience pooled R10K for us to shave our hair, ridiculously, we filmed the action – the power of the crowd and the level of engagement continued to grow.

• We utilised the momentum that had been gained, as well as the above platforms; waited until the audience was at its greatest – two days from the rally conclusion – and challenged corporates to support the #ShoesOnFeet initiative.

• Financial services company, Peresys, took the lead and challenged brands such as Standard Bank, IS, Vodacom to back the cause. This resulted in a fundraising ‘injection’ of R50K, in one day.

Evaluation

Business success • #ShoesOnFeet raised R75,000 for Bob’s For Good Foundation. The rally raised R150,000, which Old Mutual matched Rand for Rand, to take the total to R300,000 – for an unknown event.

• This meant shoes could be delivered to children in Namibia and Zambia. As a result, additional shoe drops were scheduled throughout South Africa in 2011/2012.

• 60 teams / 240 people signed up for Put Foot Rally 2012, within 28 minutes when entries opened on September 1 2011. The majority cited #ShoesOnFeet content as a reason for their interest.

• Two rallies are scheduled for 2012 because of the demand created by online communications.

“Retroviral has left me utterly speechless on more than one occasion over the past year... it’s very seldom that you see people that are so damn good at what they do and I can honestly say their impact on the success of the Put Foot Rally has been huge!”

– Daryn Hillhouse, Founder, Put Foot Rally Digital media success • Increase in visitors to www.putfootrally.com with traffic spikes between 22 June - 9 July 2011 (rally period).

• BrandsEye tracked all online mentions of the rally. Based on its report, #ShoesOnFeet generated enough mentions to ensure that 1,1 million online citizens had the opportunity to see rally content.

AVE – R255 008 (online mentions alone, excludes interviews secured on national radio) Linking success to digital media relations strategy According to the founder, the use of social media was a key component of the campaign’s success that undoubtedly helped disseminate the campaign quickly to a vast, local and international audience. It also encouraged followers to let their wallets do the talking.

“With the amount raised by BangersandNash.com and Retroviral for the Bob’s For Good Foundation, they proved that one can have the time of their life in Africa while also changing young lives with hundreds of pairs of brand new school shoes! Inspirational stuff. In 2012 they will be back with even more epic charity work!”

– Daryn Hillhouse, Founder, Put Foot Rally communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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Effective Media Planning

Case study based on Opera Africa Simply follow these six steps. By Helena van Wyk Media relations forms an integral part of a company’s strategic communication. It is therefore important that the public relations practitioner uses the company’s communication strategy as a framework for the media plan. A good communication strategy will take the company’s vision, mission and business objectives into consideration.

When compiling a media plan consider the following steps: 1) Environmental scanning 2) What are our key issues based on our key business objectives?

3) Write the media objectives 4) Identifying the target audience 5) Consider the media activity’s message and its news value 6) Media evaluation Background OPERA AFRICA is a not-for-gain opera company in Gauteng. It is funded by the National Lottery Fund, as the main sponsor. OPERA AFRICA’s main competition is the Black Tie Ensemble and Sempra Ensemble, which draw on the same group of musicians. OPERA AFRICA’s uniqueness is built on the fact that it is one of the few opera companies that has a studio. The studio’s aim is it to identify and develop new opera talent in South Africa.

Vision Opera as an expression of art flourishing in our theatres, featuring world-class South African artists in professional productions, supported by enthusiastic, informed and representative audiences.

Mission • To stage innovative professional productions, • Featuring artists with potential for major careers in opera alongside opera stars, and • Fostering a love and appreciation for opera in all communities.

Business objectives • To develop strategic partnerships in the opera industry • To develop young artists in the opera genre • To commit Opera Africa to stage creative productions • To develop indigenous operas 1. Environmental scanning It is important to consider the following questions: • What is the image projected in the media?

• What issues do the media focus on?

• How does it affect our reputation?

• Is this image in line with our strategic objectives?

There are several tools one can use to carry out the environmental scan. These include news clippings from your clipping service or you can simply Google your organisation. It is important to take ‘number of articles published’ into consideration when you do the environmental scan and also to analyse the content of the articles. You need to evaluate if the article is carrying your message, who is writing about you and ask whether it is positive, neutral or negative.

There are also tools available for measuring social media such as where you can get information about your Facebook, Twitter and blogs.

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Once you have completed the environmental scan, and have a good idea about how the organisation is portrayed or viewed by the media you can write a media plan that will be able to support the communication strategy.

For OPERA AFRICA the environmental scan informed us about who’s writing about us, the images that came up were from our previous productions as well as of the studio members. The clippings were positive as well as the blogs that mentioned our productions. It was therefore important to measure and see if the content was supporting our key strategic issues that were based on our business objectives.

2. Key strategic issues based on business objectives It is important that once the environmental scan has been done you consider this question: What are our key strategic issues based on our business objectives?

If you have answered this, only then can you start to write media objectives for your plan.

3. Writing media objectives We need to write measurable communication objectives that are linked to key strategic issues and the business objectives. In the case study: one of OPERA AFRICA’s key strategic issues is to do audience development through education. From a business perspective it is important for OPERA AFRICA to write and produce new indigenous operas. An example of a media objective is: To educate 80% of relevant target audiences about OPERA AFRICA’s new indigenous production – Ziaynkomo the forbidden fruit – between November 2011 and April 2012.

Once the media objectives are written, break down the “relevant target audiences”. You can link back to the stakeholder map used in the overall communication strategy, but the important difference is that in the case of a media plan, we need to consider what media (print and electronic) our “relevant target audiences” are using. In other words, in the media plan you will use your media to reach your “relevant target audience”.

4. Identifying target audience In order to reach our target audience through our media, you need to have a good understanding of the different media in South Africa. Your media plan is as good as your media list. It is therefore important to compile a media list that will include: • Medium’s media house e.g. AVUSA or Media 24 • Journalists, their beats and angles • Medium demographics and material requirements • Trade and Technical publications • Daily and weekly press • Online media • Radio (producer and presenter’s details) • Television (producer and presenter’s details) • Your interaction with media 5. Consider the media activity’s message and its news value When it comes to putting the media activities together, you need to ask “what makes one story more newsworthy or important than another?”

How to eliminate procrastination To be successful takes a deal of effort and willpower. To fail is the easiest thing to do: do nothing! Here are a few tips to get you to do it:

Galtung and Ruge as cited by Francois Nel (2010) identified nine factors that are likely to increase the success of your media activity (press release, interview proposal etc).

• • • • • • • •

Impact: effect on the audience Prominence: well-known people Currency: topics that are currently in the news Conflict: political conflict, war and crime Timeliness: today’s news Unusualness: out of the ordinary Proximity: events that happen physically near people Affinity: people are interested in those who share the same characteristics • Human interest: stories with a strong emotional content about ordinary people or animals who do interesting things.

However, we should not forget that good relationships with our journalists are just as important.

6. Media evaluation At the end of our media plan, it is important to evaluate if our strategic message has been communicated. You can do this by evaluating the clippings using quantitative and qualitative data analysis and AVEs. – Helena van Wyk, Specialist media consultant and lecturer

1. Organise emails: Process information quickly and turn it into actions. Start by organising your emails into various file folders. If the message needs to be actioned, move it to a ‘To-do’ file. If it is for reference, print it out immediately, file it and delete the email. If it is a meeting, move it to your calendar. Take the To-do emails and plan to action them in your diary.

2. Plan when to read emails: Plan in your diary when to check on emails. When someone emails you, they are not necessarily expecting an immediate response, rather a proficient response. If they require an urgent response they won’t have any difficulty in reaching you by any other means.

3. One task at a time: Can you focus effectively on many tasks at the same time? Productivity may decrease and quality affected. The saying is true, “You can only sit on one seat at a time”.

4. Set deadlines: When you have one particular task that you must accomplish, don’t leave it hanging. Give yourself a firm deadline that you must adhere to. When you waste time at the beginning, you will increase your stress levels as the deadline approaches.

5. Do it now: When it comes to the little things, take on a “do it now” attitude.

Stop allowing yourself to save tasks for later.

6. Break up tasks: All of us at times procrastinate due to the task being too large and in our minds insurmountable. For example, packing up boxes when we move home. Tell yourself that you’re going to pack one or two boxes per day and before you know it, the whole house is packed up and ready to be transported.

– Trevor Ketler www.ketler.co.za

Pinterest: Whose right to copyright?

There’s a risk in sharing ideas and photos on social media. By Janine Lloyd The era of social networking has changed the way we interact, consume media, advertise and express ourselves. Social media has had such a profound impact that it is hard to picture life before or without it. Like anything that has major benefits, we also need to consider the risks associated with using social media.

Take the newest social media buzz – Pinterest. On Pinterest, users can “pin” images and videos on a virtual pin board for others to see. This is a sharing of ideas and expression of creativity at its best. The obvious question here is the implication on copyright – is this “pinning” a violation of copyright laws?

The long and short answer to this is yes – reproducing someone else’s work without their permission is a violation of copyright since the copyright owner has a number of rights as provided for in the Copyright Act, No.98 of 1978 (“the Act”).

The Act provides for a number of exceptions to the general rule, one

of which is that personal or private use of a photograph is not a copyright infringement. This however does not apply to videos.

Pinterest’s Terms of Service state that users may only publish content that they have rights to publish or where the content they are publishing is subject to a copyright exception as mentioned above.

Furthermore, the indemnity clause provides that users indemnify Pinterest for any damages that Pinterest may suffer as a result of a user’s “access to or use of the Services or Pinterest Content”; “User Content”, or “breach of any of these Terms”.

Pinterest users beware of your right to copyright as something so innocent as sharing ideas and pictures may well result in massive liability claims by those who will go to the ends of the earth to protect their content.

– By Janine Lloyd, MD of Livewired PR. Nomsa@livewired.co.za communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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news

Snippets and Progressions Bridging the gap between government and agencies South Africa has over the past years produced what have now become known to be “tenderpreneurs” – people who have secured government tenders through eliciting bribes or exchanging favours with high-ranking government officials and political figures. This has dented the image and credibility of most government departments.

The need for intermediaries in government tender processes has become paramount if not crucial, in aiding to select and appoint efficient and deserving communication agencies who can do the job. The Independent Agency Search and Selection Company (IAS) is one such company that offers this service.

The IAS has an impartial selection process that does not favour clients over agencies or vice versa. It plays the role of a neutral referee serving the interests of both parties.

– Adelaide@hmcseswa.co.za

Online media is ‘main source for technology news’ • Seven out of ten also read print industry journals at least once a month • Big increase in use of tablet devices to access news Online media remains the most popular way for senior executives to source technology industry news according to the 2012 annual technology market survey conducted by Eurocom Worldwide, the Global PR Network, in association with Johannesburg based Integrated Marketing and Communications agency Watt Communications. 78% of respondents say that they mainly get their technology news fix from online media. This is some way ahead of social media (42%).

However, the third most popular source for accessing tech news is industry print journals (40%). 37% get technology news from national newspapers. A third access tech news through search.

83% of the survey respondents access digital news through laptop computers compared to 27% using traditional desktop computers. 61% access news through mobile phones. Since last year’s survey there has been almost a doubling (from 16% last year to 30%) of those using tablet devices such as an iPad to read news, with tablets overtaking

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desktops for the first time in the Eurocom Worldwide survey.

The Eurocom Worldwide technology confidence survey was conducted online by member agencies of Eurocom Worldwide during January and February 2012. A total of 318 responses were received with approximately 80% from European countries and 11% from the Americas.

– samantha@wattcommunications.co.za

Local agency joins global PR network Grapevine Communications has been selected as the first South African representative for PR Boutiques International and is the first member on the continent. PR Boutiques International is based in New York, USA, and is a global network of public relations companies with world-class skills and experience in all market sectors. The network screens and selects the best small agencies worldwide to become members.

Bill Cowen, president of PR Boutiques International, has welcomed Grapevine aboard saying, “We are happy to be affiliated with Grapevine and have such expert representation in South Africa.”

– Marie Yossava, Tel: (011) 706-9600

Appointment Heather Robinson has been appointed a communication specialist at Talk2Us. A communication development specialist, she will be working with clients on various projects, as well as helping to develop the company’s product offering. She has spent more than 18 years working in multiple sectors that rely heavily on sound communication and strategic engagement.

Highlights of her career include working as corporate affairs manager of Nestlé South Africa, followed by general manager of Reputation Institute in South Africa, and more recently in the conservation sector as head of business development for WWF South Africa.

Introducing SnapComms – with measurability The internal communication function within organisations continues to challenge communicators, as email proves to be less and less effective as a channel – it is overused and often fails to get important messages across. SnapComms offers a solution that bypasses email and provides information direct to employees’ desktops in a variety of customisable channels. Using SnapComms ensures that internal communication messages are set up so that they recur or even stay on screen until employees have seen and acted on the information. This is particularly helpful for updates that need to be read.

SnapComms has introduced the Urgent and Emergency Alerts option, which provides an additional two alerting modes over the standard SnapComms alert mode. Measurability of this nature affords communicators the opportunity to justify budgets and provides that their efforts in staff communication reach the relevant audiences, which is managed by the use of Active Directories.

– Daniel Munslow, Tel: (011) 706 8149

communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

Appointment Adelaide Ncube has been appointed as the new Senior Account Executive at HMC Seswa.

She began her public relations career at Platinum PR where she completed an internship which she won at an on-stage competition at the University of Johannesburg in 2010. Adelaide worked on the high-profile unveiling of the 2010 Fine Art Collection and facilitated the media launch of the Artists of Africa curatorial concept. These are the first art projects that were endorsed

by FIFA in its 80-year history.

“I am excited to be entering a vibrant working environment that allows me to share creative and innovative ideas with a dynamic young team. HMC Seswa’s brand is a strong one and I am proud to be able to be one of its ambassadors,” says Adelaide.

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MEASUREMENT

visit customers oardroom er within the wsflashes) Campus and

• COLLEAGUE CONNECT - online interactive survey around social networking • COMMUNITY CONNECT - Ongoing volunteerism - Collaboration with CSI to leverage activities across the Group

national conference

Report on PRISA’s 55th birthday and conference * ALR

BROADCASTS HIND ONE NATION ELECTRONIC

HOPS & WALLTALKER THE 2012 Power of Public Relations LASSES WORKSHOPS & WALLTALKER conference, which included the institute’s PS & WALLTALKER KI-DANCE EVENT 55th birthday and awards cocktail event, was

held at the Hilton Hotel, Johannesburg, on 11 and 12 June 2012.

University of Johannesburg public relations students compiled reports on the topics presented. Here is a synopsis: * ALR

By Quincy Mabunda

& OTHER CHANNELS A personal brand is made up of what people ON BRAND think of you and what you represent.

SOCIAL NETWORK

Developing one’s personal brand requires you to identify your strengths and then market and sell yourself. Personal branding is the realisation that you are the brand, so everything you do is reflective of your personal brand. A personal brand should be consistent across the board, Kate Moodley defines this by saying your brand must spread across all you do. To sum it up, personal branding is really about individuals realising that they too are brands. Then they begin to work on their own unique personal brand ION TOOLKITS – ONGOING that defines who they are and what they are EPTEMBER) about. As more and more people begin to O BE INCLUDED ALIGNED WITH ATLof CAMPAIGN realise& the immense value personal brands WN TV AD ” COMPETITION & ABSA TODAY BROADCAST there is no doubt that we will see more conscious personal brand building. So I guess all that’s left to say is, all aboard the brand wagon!

MEASUREMENT

All aboard the Brand Wagon RNAL BRANDING

New leader inaugurated at 55th birthday event * ALR

THE PRISA CHAIN of office was handed over to Tshepo Matseba, the 2012/13 president of the institute, by Prof Ronel Rensburg.

ABOVE: A toast to the new President, Tshepo Matseba, right, from PRISA board members (from left) Nadine Kater, Solly Moeng, Roshnee Pillay, Adele Paulsen, Gillian Findlay and Prof Ronel Rensburg (front).

Thank you, sponsors

ernal target markets, messaging and media.

082 728 5530 Music in Motion

Tshepo Matseba, the new President of PRISA, seen at the conference. communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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national conference Less AVE, More Performance Measurement

By Brandon de Buys

Lesley Schroeder-McLean, a specialist of The Barcelona Declaration of Measurement Principles, facilitated a practical workshop explaining measurement principles. She talked about applying practice not only on a quantitative level but in a qualitative manner too. The main message was that PRPs need to move away from using Advertising Value Equivalents (AVE) and to start measuring our work performances more critically – because using AVE is too narrow a system. AVE talks about how much publicity an organisation makes by means of a straight figure i.e. “The campaign got us R100 000 worth of publicity.”

But what does that even mean? Instead of using the limited AVE system, Lesley says “Learn to do planning, learn to do research.

You’ll almost double your income!” One of the biggest problems PRPs face is that we see ourselves as a ‘step sister’ of advertising so we set ourselves up for failure when we depend on something we cannot control.

The importance of measurement has many levels, but to simplify that, we can say, “If we do not measure, we cannot manage.” It shows professionalism, proves credibility and advances the chances of promotion.

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Global issues and trends faced by PR and communication

By Shane Scrooby

Jeremy Galbraith explained the trends today focusing on global economy, evidence based communication and crisis and issue management. Robyn de Villiers went on further to explain in more depth but focused on issues linked to SA and Africa. I got the sense that PR is bigger and wider than one thinks and that with a successful campaign one can reach audiences of mass numbers locally and internationally. Robyn also stated that mobiles play an enormous part in how messages and information is shared around the world. Social media is one of the key factors of this. With applications like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube people are being exposed to large amounts of information, good or bad, at a rate that no organisation, no matter how big, can control.

Global Trends New directions for PR

By Shane Scrooby

Offshoring and globalisation has triggered unpredictable changes in the communication sector and the communication sector is and has always been unpredictable, because everything happens so fast one can never

communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

know or predict what is going to happen next.

PR cannot survive without social media today.

As far as trust is concerned, organisations must be transparent and consultants must look at a client’s profile and not just take the work on the basis of money. They must also look at communicating better, not to lie or “spin”. This is the only way to get rid of the branding “Spin Doctors”.

Viral to PR agency Splash PR

By Bongani Masombuka

Splash PR has made relationships and a good reputation with its “Vote for Table Mountain” campaign using social media tools to get mass exposure. The angle was to “get the public of South Africa aware of what it is all about”. Four videos were uploaded on the New 7 Natural Wonders Campaign, Archbishop Desmond Tutu as Ambassador, Schools involvement and SABC News countdown which generated news. A spoof video involving Hitler was made by a member of the public and it went viral generating more interest than the official videos. This illustrates the power of people in viral communication and the danger of this being unplanned and uncontrolled.

national conference

Ferial Haffajee with Dr Essop Pahad and Monto Tshabalala. Dr Pahad discussed the power of public relations throughout the 100-year history of the ruling party in terms of brand loyalty.

Internal communication: the unsung hero

By Kgaogelo “KG” Mohlala

Internal communication has been labelled an evolving environment due to the constant need for it to be improved across all floors in the work place. Messages that are transferred internally can be some of the hardest to control in terms of wanting the message to stay consistent across all levels. This is where having an internal communication department is advantageous.

You are able to control the message to your immediate and intended market. It is very important in the sense that if you do not have everyone behind the same motto and get each individual on board then it is much more difficult to achieve your objectives. If an organisation does not have committed employees then you cannot expect them to give good customer service.

Internal communication makes sure that all employees work in a cohesive manner for the benefit of the organisation.

The law of the jungle in terms of the communication field is that the first to adapt is king, so you have to make sure that you are early adapters and that you are always ready for change in any form or size. Social media plays a huge role in terms of both internal and

Solly Moeng with Robyn de Villiers.

Media panelists: San Reddy (facilitator), Ferial Haffajee, Prof Anton Harber and Dr Philip Mtimkulu.

external communication and, in terms of your target audience one should have a balance of both the old and the new and incorporate target segmentation and not just the shot gun approach of grouping the different audiences.

PR in the green light

By Kgaogelo “KG” Mohlala

“Green PR is a sub-field of communication and it communicates the environmental and eco-friendly practices of companies”. We’re living in a generation where consumers are very conscious of the products they buy in terms of how these products will affect their environment. There are three influencing factors for being environmentally conscious, namely climate change, legislation and compliance, and finally green consumerism.

Climate change focuses on the impact pollution and carbon emissions have caused in terms of natural disasters (floods and droughts). Legislation and compliance are stipulations such as the King III report and the South African carbon tax law.

Green consumerism highlights a particular niche of consumers who only support organisations that are recognised (by a reputable third party) for being

Media panelist Vusi Mona from GCIS.

Two panels of experts The media panel addressed the future of Press Freedom in South Africa – to regulate or not? The debate was robust and informative.

See panelists above.

Advertising, direct marketing, marketing, public relations and client viewpoints were discussed by the Integrated communication panel.

>> turn to p 20

Alastair Tempest emphasising a point with Andy Rice looking on. communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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national conference >> from p 19 environmentally friendly. By reducing their global footprint companies are able to send a message to the public that they are willing to minimise the effect of human activity on the environment. The growth of green consumerism is so drastic within the market that organisations are looking for quick fixes when many do not realise that it is a gradual process which takes time and effort to earn consumer trust. Green PR is uncharted territory for many. It creates new opportunities for public relations.

Award honours ethical, socially committed leader

Thalitha Mokoka (centre), winner of the Furniture City home office desk set, with Clarissa Lyle (left) and Roshnee Pillay, both of Ellerines.

Main prize was home office furniture Prizes were drawn at the conference for accommodation vouchers for Kruger National Park and Carousel resorts for lucky delegates. The main prize, donated by Furniture City, was a complete home office furniture set of desk, bookshelves and chair. This was won by PRISA member Thalitha Mokoka of the Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (CIMA).

Bridget von Holdt was presented with a ‘Light of Leadership’ at the conference by Captain Dennis Adriao, spokesperson for the South African Police Service who won the first Ivan O’Brien Leadership Award in 2003.

PR students hone writing skills

Bridget von Holdt, managing director of Inzalo Communication, was awarded the PRISA/Ivan O’Brien Leadership Award 2012. She was recognised for 25 years of outstanding leadership as a volunteer of PRISA where she has raised the level of ethics and professional standards among South Africa’s public relations consultants. She has been the driving force behind PRISA’s prestigious PRISM Awards.

Apart from her years of PRISA volunteerism, her NGO and charity projects include: • Fundraising for SANCA Horizon in Boksburg through media relations and events. Sanca Horizon is a rehabilitation facility for alcohol and drug abuse.

• Organising the annual Nicarela Christmas Market– community project which benefits Twilight Children Hillbrow, various schools, the Soup Kitchen, the Pantry and St Giles Association, among others.

• Nelson Mandela Day, for whom von Holdt has assisted in developing a local and international awareness programme for the campaign.

Merle O’Brien initiated the PRISA/Ivan O’Brien Leadership Award in 2003 in memory of the lessons in leadership passed on by her late Father, Ivan O’Brien – once recognised as among the 25 most influential people to know in South Africa.

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communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

University of Johannesburg (UJ) second- and third-year public relations students gained practical experience during the PRISA National Conference. Front (from left): PRISA intern, Sandile Xaso with UJ third-year students Bevin Davids, Nomcebo Ngcobo and Maanda Tshikungulu.

Back (from left): UJ second-year students Bongani Masombuka, Kgaogelo “KG” Mohlala, Brandon de Buys and Quincy Mabunda.

national conference

Benita Steyn, left, joyfully accepts a President’s Award from Prof Ronel Rensburg.

Awards presented for outstanding work Prof Ronel Rensburg presented two President’s Awards at the 55th birthday celebration cocktail event which culminated her term of office as PRISA president. These awards are presented to individuals for outstanding work for the profession.

Seen with Dr Mervyn King, centre, are, from left, Tshepo Matseba, Roshnee Pillay, Victor Sibeko, Adele Paulsen, Solly Moeng and Prof Ronel Rensburg.

Benita Steyn, well-known academic, researcher and author of public relations and communication management books, was recognised for her long and outstanding contribution to the development of the profession and its body of knowledge.

Another award was presented to

Driving the PRCC INTRODUCING GILLIAN FINDLAY APR – NEW CHAIRMAN OF THE PUBLIC RELATIONS CONSULTANTS’ CHAPTER Gillian has more than 30 years’ experience in the financial and investment field. She has worked in the mining industry and in stockbroking engaged in investment analysis. She left stockbroking in 1996 to join the marketing team of an asset management company, where her role included institutional investment marketing, public relations, media relations and corporate reputation management.

In 2006, Gillian formed her own PR consultancy, Cambial Communications, specialising in marketing and communications strategies for financial services companies.

She also has extensive experience in a variety of financial media, having worked for both the Financial Mail and Finweek. She was a panellist on the weekly TV programme Diagonal Street, winning the Panellist of

the Year Award in 1989 and 1990. She is a member of the Investment Analysts’ Society of South Africa and the Economic Society of South Africa. Gillian has been a part-time lecturer in Economics; the Environment of Business; Financial Markets; and Investments at the Wits Business School since 2001. Her book “Trading in Platinum” was published in Cambridge in 1989.

Join the PRCC

The Public Relations Consultants’ Chapter of PRISA (PRCC) is a branch of PRISA which focuses specifically on the needs and requirements of public relations and communication consultancies. It exists to further the professionalism of the industry and to improve the consistency of standards.

Ultimately, our clients benefit from better quality services, greater ethics, improved

Dr Mervyn King for the inclusion of stakeholder communication in Chapter Eight of King III. This has enhanced the profession within the business sector and emphasised the importance of sustained, transparent communication.

transparency and competent practitioners.

Established in 1996, the PRCC has developed and implemented the Consultancy Management Standard, the industry’s assurance of commitment to excellence and professionalism. In addition, the prestigious PRISA PRISM awards, which recognise excellence in public relations and communication management, are held under the auspices of the PRCC. The benefits of membership include: 1. Listing on PRISA’s website with consultancy profile 2. Listing on the PRISA referrals list 3. Discounts for PRCC events 4. Access to the standard client/consultancy agreement and employment contracts for members 5. Participate in the PRISA Public Relations Consultancy Management Standards We urge all consultancies to become members of the PRCC, to join us in working towards a committed, ethical and professional industry, which fosters confidence across all stakeholders.

During 2012/13, we have lined up some interesting speakers to discuss key topics at networking events and we look forward to seeing you at them.

communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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hone your skills with ProVox

Eleven words to delete from your media releases

By Becky Gaylord The advice to avoid jargon in writing is age-old. It’s also smart.

We send media releases, blog posts, and other content aimed at particular audiences because we want people to read and grasp the information and act on it in some way. That can’t happen if they have to struggle, even a little bit, to understand the message.

Knowing we’re supposed to banish jargon is the easy part. Doing it, though, can be excruciatingly hard – especially when a deadline looms.

So, here are 11 of the worst culprits from corporate communication. In my view, these words and phrases should never appear in a media release, email, or other tool used to convey information.

Here, too, are suggestions for replacements for each one. The substitutes are not exact synonyms in many cases, but they are simple

and clear words that could work in place of the jargon, depending on the context. Next time you get stuck and can’t find a way around “mission-critical”, just take out this list and try to swop that phrase with something clearer.

1. utilise a use, show, fill, take, apply, push, work 2. end-user a client, customer, audience, shopper, buyer 3. synergy a team, powerful, effective, stronger, more, together 4. mission-critical a main, big, major, central, chief, crucial 5. win/win a good, smart, strong, clear, sound, skillful 6. value-added a worthwhile, effective, better, helpful, ahead 7. ideate a create, think, craft, whir, plan, test, solve

18-point checklist for proofreaders

By Mike Duerksen When I started my first public relations job at a local non-profit organisation, I inherited a pile of work from my predecessor. Most of it was to be done on deadline – and most of the deadlines had passed days earlier.

In sorting through mounds of archived information and old files, I found an editing checklist at the bottom of a drawer.

I don’t know who wrote it, but it remains a great reminder when it comes to writing and editing copy.

Before finalising any copy, ask yourself: Did I …

• Consider my reader’s perspective?

• State clearly the purpose of my document/ article?

• Write an interesting opening?

• Write with a “you” focus where appropriate? [This is especially important for non-profit copywriting.]

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• Write concisely?

• Avoid bureaucratic jargon?

• Use transitions within and between paragraphs?

• Use interesting headings that explain the section to follow?

• Use parallel sentence structure in sentences and lists?

• Write in active voice?

• Use action verbs?

• Make verbs agree with their subjects?

• Make pronouns agree with their antecedents?

• Check for tricky singulars (neither, either, everyone, etc.)?

• Use gender-free construction?

• Check for typographical errors?

• Double-check the opening?

• Make it visually appealing through layout and white space?

– Mike Duerksen is a communicator and copywriter. He also blogs at www.nonprofitpr.ca where a version of this story first appeared.

communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

8. operationalise a make, do, put, carry, finish, use, see, work 9. scalable a grow, expand, wide, more, big, spread, include 10. deliverables a results, value, outcome, change, effect 11. outside the box a different, bold, striking, unique, brave, exciting.

– Becky Gaylord worked as a reporter for more than 15 years in Washington, D.C., Cleveland, and Sydney, Australia, before she launched her consulting practice, Gaylordllc..

You can read Becky’s blog on http://gaylordllc. wordpress.com where a version of this story first appeared.

Check these spelling rules

By Laura Hale Brockway In English, we have words that sound the same but are spelled differently (such as “their,” “they’re,” and “there”); words with letters that have nothing to do with how the word is pronounced (“brought,” “although”); words that contain silent letters (“gnat,” “pneumonia”); and words that simply don’t follow any spelling rules.

1. “I before E except after C or when sounded as A as in neighbour and weigh”.

Words that break this rule: ancient, species, science, sufficient, society, either, foreign, leisure, protein.

2. “When two vowels go walking, the first one does the talking?” (Meaning when there are two vowels in a row, the first usually has a long sound and the second is silent.) Words that break this rule: said, through, leather, early, piece, build, guide, shoes, does, guest, break.

3. Final silent E makes the vowel say its name (such as “rat,” “rate,” “hid,” “hide”).

Words that break this rule: have, done, where, lose.

4. Plural nouns—add an “s” or an “es”. Words that break this rule: goose/geese, man/men, mouse/mice, tooth/teeth, alumnus/alumni, series, sheep, species.

5. If a word ends with an “ick” sound, spell it “ick” if it has one syllable (“trick”), and “ic” if it has two or more syllables (“sarcastic”). Words that break this rule: candlestick, seasick, nitpick.

– Laura Hale Brockway is Austin-based. Read more of her work at Impertinent Remarks.

hone your skills with ProVox

Executives are now media-wise

By Percy Morokane Air Traffic and Navigations Services (ATNS) executives attended a customised ProVox media relations workshop recently. It was very interactive and looked at various media relations issues including understanding the media, the role of media relations and their importance, impact analysis of the media messages and the preferred medium, handling the media during crises, difficult questions, difficult interviewers, strategic media relationships tied to business objectives, and reputation management of the organisation.

Our executives were excited and eager to participate in the “Practising and Preparing for Interviews” session. This exercise focused on the conduct of the interviewee during an interview, recorded and/or live. Simple behaviour traits such as fidgeting, using jargon, lying, body language, losing your temper, “no comment”, talking off-the-record, being flustered and defensive were discouraged. The golden rules such as speak with confidence, have a positive attitude and communicating in sound bites – though a little prescriptive – were simple and concise.

Freek Robinson, a well-known media personality with a career spanning more than 30 years in the industry, conducted the television interviews. He stressed the importance of being adequately prepared.

Lastly, the dress code was discussed at length. No shiny, flashy fabrics or too many accessories topped by an unnatural look. Our executives were advised to dress appropriately and to always wear solid colours, excluding white.

The main objectives of this workshop – which were attained – were to provide a solid practical grounding in all key concepts, techniques, theories and skills needed to achieve good interviews.

– Percy Morokane, External Communications, Marketing and Communications Department Air Traffic and Navigation Services Company, Tel: (011) 607 1234

Add power to your sentences – use VERBS

By Laura Hale Brockway I frequently see weak verbs coupled with nouns that are strong verbs in disguise.

Consider the following sentences: The managing editor made a recommendation to use a new style guide.

The managing editor recommended a new style guide.

In the first sentence, ‘made’ is a weak verb used with the noun ‘recommendation’. But as the second sentence demonstrates, you can simplify and strengthen the sentence by using ‘recommend’ as the verb.

Here are 17 examples of this coupling, along with the much stronger verb:

• make a decision > decide • to be expanded > expand • formulate an argument > argue • raise an objection > object • make restitution > resolve • express resentment > resent • arrive at a conclusion > conclude • make a suggestion > suggest • perform an analysis > analyse • develop a plan > plan • exercise conformity > conform • undertake a development > develop • find a solution > solve • make a revision > revise • provide clarification > clarify • give encouragement > encourage • cause a delay > delay – Laura Hale Brockway is an Austin-based writer and editor

communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012

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PRISA CPD programme 2012 August 22

Photography II

1 day

Gauteng - Pretoria

August 23 - 24

Presentation skills

2 days

Gauteng

August 27 - 28

Internal communication management

2 days

Western Cape

August 29

Crisis communication management

1 day

Western Cape

September 6 - 7

Social media

2 days

Gauteng

September 11 - 12

Professional event management

2 days

KwaZulu Natal

September 13 - 14

Professional proofreading and editing

2 days

Gauteng

September 18

Communication audit

1 day

Gauteng

September 20 - 21

Internal communication management

2 days

Free State

October 2 - 3

Principles of layout and design - publications

2 days

Gauteng - Pretoria

October 15

Communication strategy

1 day

Gauteng

October 17 - 19

Creative writing

3 days

Gauteng

October 23 - 24

Professional event management

2 days

Gauteng

October 25

Measurement and evaluation

1/2 day

Gauteng

October 26

Reputation management

1 day

Gauteng

November 8 - 9

Stakeholder engagement and management

2 days

Gauteng

November 12 - 13

Professional proofreading and editing

2 days

Gauteng

November 20

How to start your public relations career

1 day

Gauteng

www.prisa.co.za

* Subject to change

CONTACT: Ivonne Blom

Tel: 011 326 - 1262

Fax: 011 326 1259

E-mail: cpd@prisa.co.za

CPD fees 2012

A Communication Strategy workshop was held on 9 May 2012, with facilitator Jane Weaver-Jordaan (front, centre).

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communika - Official publication of PRISA • August 2012