J.D. Salinger + PR = A Study of (Anti) Social Media

J.D. Salinger was indeed the bizzaro factor for public relations.

A man of great writing talent, he was able to capture his reader's attention and make them want more. All with words. (We as PR folks should be envious!).

Authors want to sell books, have them fly off the shelves and get royalties. Then, the logical step is to write more based on the success of that first novel. The passion to write is contagious. For Salinger, the art of writing and the personal satisfaction it brought him was why he was doing what he did.

Early on Salinger followed that course of PR recognition, but hit a major tsunami when Shirley Blaney, a high school student wrote an interview with him and put in some personal info in The Daily Eagle. J.D. took the proverbial scissors and severed himself from the world.

As a man in reclusion, he wielded a lot of power what could be said about him. It was impossible to adapt any of his work, put his image on a T-shirt or do anything commercial. HE seemed to control the press. Witness the only interview he gave in the early 80s and from what details I have, it was a short one with The New York Times.  Mr. Salinger was quick with the lawsuit too, protecting his name, image, and writings.  As a matter of fact, he was rarely photographed and this picture that accompanies this blog is one of the few that are found on an Internet search.

Yet, the Salinger mystique built an empire of fans who just craved, craved, craved - and never caved. Every word he wrote was coveted. When you don't hear from someone for a long time, especially one who had prominence and the limelight, the natural inclination is "Out of sight, out of mind." Here it worked the opposite.

From a PR draw, it was a reverse vacuum. The more reclusive, the more we wanted to know.  In an ironic twist, Facebook has a fan site.  Social media meets an anti-social icon.

Interestingly, we can tie a link here to the newly launched iPad.  (Besides that poignant part of iPad being born and J.D. dying) Steve Jobs has created a product line, the i-EVERYTHING and after the initial launch to market, draws a cult following with users, fans asking the predictable, "What's next?"  The response that comes back is an unexpected product.  I'll leave the bells and whistles for the iPad for the techies, but what I saw of it is extremely cool. Much like Salinger's writings.

In the mean time, iPad is embracing social media - the launch was covered live by many tech blogs.  Salinger, when he made a rare appearance somewhere, was relegated to one line, often in the past.

So, what can we learn from J.D. Salinger's mystique and apply it to PR?  Simple. Keep your audience and fans hungry.  Be accomodating and keep your offering relevant and in the limelight.  And, most important, communicate to your client that without engagement, you will lose fans and customers.

Salinger was the lone exception to the rule, and he pulled it off flawlessly.  Let's take notice over the next few days what develops around the mystique of Salinger.  Will there be people close to him "spilling the beans" or will it be another story shrouded in mystery?

Either way, we want to know!

It ALL Comes Down to the Kicker (or) Tell The Story NO ONE is Telling

Yesterday two exciting football playoff games graced CBS and FOX and like millions of diehard Americans, my iris and pupils were Krazy-glued to the TV. 

The hype coming into the two games all centered on the following:

• Quarterbacks:  Favre, Favre, Favre – Age, ability, going against his favorite team growing up.  Peyton – Best QB Ever? Sanchez – Rookie QB following the path of Broadway Joe.  Brees – stellar year for a team whose region was decimated by Katrina
• Running Backs, Wide Receivers:  Peterson. Bush. Addai – All Unstoppable.
• Teams: Colts, Saints, ALMOST undefeated.  Jets – Happy and lucky to be there.
• Coach:  Rex Ryan making the playoffs (and beyond?) in his first year at the helm.

These story lines plus countless others are good, but time and again, the position that gets overlooked because it is not sexy to the media is the kicker.

You can see where I am going with this.

In the Saints-Vikings game, the score see-sawed and went into sudden death. The plays on the ground and in the air failed to produce a score for both teams.  When the Saints were in field goal range, they brought in Garrett Hartley.

Who?

Yes.  You read it correctly, Garrett Hartley.  An undrafted guy who wound up getting picked up by the Broncos, essentially for the practice squad, then subsequently cut.  And it didn’t stop there.  Earlier this year, he was given a 4 game suspension for utilization of a banned substance.  That put the kibosh on his starting job and it wound up going to the aged John Carney.  Fast forward and Hartley gets his first opportunity 12 games into the season.

Yesterday, Hartley kicks four routine points after touchdowns -- merely doing his job.  Then, the dynamics of the game changes with the opportunity to win.  He’s called upon with 40 yards, separating heroism and being a goat (sadly, Favre got that award with the errant pass in the 4^th Quarter with a few seconds remaining).  Hartley plies his craft and the pigskin sails through the uprights.  Saints win.

Now, prior to the game, Hartley’s name, if mentioned at all was in passing.  Yet, he was an integral member of the team that was overlooked.  If any reporter sat down and spoke with the kickers instead of going after the glamour stories that everyone was covering, they would have been thought of as a genius with keen insight.

We often have the same conundrum in PR.  Trying to tell the obvious story is easy.  Looking for a nuance that isn’t obvious, yet palatable to the media is the hard part.  When we find it, and they bite, we are on to something and that is the key to success.  Sometimes it is pure luck, but good PR requires GREAT thinking.

So, take the extra time when working on a pitch or an idea for a client.  Take a 360-degree approach and then take another 360-degree approach to the idea you came up with.  A good tangent is better than a run-of-the-mill story.  If you can get the media target or analyst to admit (usually to themselves), “why didn’t I think of that?” – then you have done your homework.

Remember, as PR professionals, we are always 40+ yards away attempting to get our good story beyond the uprights of our intended media target.  Our clients know we score the points and when it comes down to pressure and skill to craft a good story.

Kick away!  (But with accuracy).

Silents & Social - Leaping the Hurdle of Communication

The names Dorothy Janis, Barbara Kent, and Mickey Rooney may not ring a bell to most of the people today (save for Mssr. Rooney) but these three folks are the last surviving stars from the silent movie era.

It dawned on me how Hollywood, towards the end of the Roaring 20s, was going through what PR is today - the transformation or upheaval from one known and accepted form to a radically different one. One purported to be better, yet, for the most part, untested. And, may I add, with many skeptics.

Our field of PR has the same growth pangs. Go back to the beginning of the 90s and take a look. What did we pitch? Newspapers, magazines, trades and broadcast. Online wasn't even in the picture and the words Social and Media probably never even sat next to each other in a sentence.

Hollywood was plagued with talkies that failed because the actor's voices were "funny," "didn't fit their on screen image," or just sounded stilted. Many careers were jettisoned from star to obscurity when their natural voices replaced the omnipresent title card. Crossing over, this trend continues today. We all heard something to the effect of 300+ newspapers and countless magazines ceased -- uh, went "silent" -- in the last year. Most met their demise for lack of advertising revenue, not lack of popularity. (Mark Penn cites in Microtrends that an audience of 1% is one that can generate $).

Social Media is today's version of the "talkie." But, I won't make any assumptions about it being awkward. Innovators, pundits and believers such as Chris Brogan, Mashable, Jeremy Owyang, Josh Bernoff (and since we are citing Hollywood, Tara Settembre's "When Tara Met Blog") have conveyed the merits, nuances and opened audiences from the professional and personal level for all readers. News is disseminated a lot different than even five years ago - INSTANTLY! It has become the in vogue way to communicate. It's fun, interactive, instant and to the point.

We are at a crossroads now where learning, practicing and actively participating in social media is now a must rather than a luxury. While sound movies replaced the silents, all forms of media since were complements vs. replacements. The TV was supposed to replace the radio. Now there is cable and satellite radio - and we all know how TV expanded. Sidestepping here for a second, Alexander Graham Bell's phone now is mobile and can access the Internet. OH, and you can also access the many social media vehicles while on the go. We morph, we hurdle and on to the next..,as it becomes part of the accepted mix.

Analogous to movies being streamed to your desktop, you don't have to walk down to the corner store and get your paper to find out what happened yesterday. Everything is instant. We may have cut out the paper boy down at the corner who yelled "EXTRA, EXTRA, Read all about it..." but we still have an insatiable quest and thirst for news.

Social media has cleared the hurdle faster than the silent/talkie transition period. We Twitter. We Facebook, We Connect. What's next? I don't know, but I know I'll like it.

I am wondering what it would be like to have Dorothy, Barbara and Mickey in the same room as our social media experts. (Future topic..Flappers Meet Generation X)...?