We have spoken for some time about the rapidly evolving world of New Media, Web 2.0, Online Media, whatever you want to label it. Public Relations practitioners are wise to immerse themselves into this evolving world to garner press coverage, increase web traffic, and ultimately increase sales for clients. The PR folks at the awards podiums will be those who keep up in Internet time.

 The recent Presidential election results were heavily influenced by superior usage of New Media. As this AP story highlights, YouTube didn’t even exist in the 2004 election. Let’s go to school on the lessons learned.

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Environmental extremists do no favors for our planet when they ignore the long term human costs of going Green. There must be a balance of interests. Many felt ‘Gored to death’ by Al’s promotion of green practices while ignoring his own wasteful practices. The ethanol frenzy was rammed through Congress without taking into account the long term effect of diverting corn to fuel and the subsequent doubling of corn prices for the dinner table; neither did it take into account the damage to ocean life in the Gulf of Mexico from the increased runoff into the Mississippi river of fertilizer from our precious Iowa corn fields. The Congress for Racial Equality (CORE) recently implicated environmental energy policy as putting an undue and disproportionate burden on the poor.  

Sustainability by its very definition requires the long view. Successful Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) and Green practices, including Green PR, take into account the triple bottom line of People, Planet, Profits.  Note that people are part of this equation. Yes, it is vital to our long term sustainability as the human race that we do more NOW to protect the planet and its finite resources. Yes, investors must make a profit in our capitalist society to draw in the necessary capital to fund cleantech, alternative energy, and other green innovations. And yes, not only do people deserve clean air to breath and clean water to drink, but we (rich and poor) need to be able to afford groceries for our families, gas for our cars and heating oil in the winter. We also deserve the national security derived from energy independence. 

Government policy related to these issues must take into account the long term effects on People, as well as Planet and Profits to create a truly sustainable future.  The Pickens Plan is an example of how the government should be approaching these issues.  What do you think?

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The economic news of the day is causing worldwide anxiety. Many in Congress continue to vie for public relations benefit, trying to shift blame to someone else, anyone but themselves. The truth that we are all in this boat together and each share responsibility for the solution is a tough pill to swallow. Few politicians seem able to eat a piece of this humble pie.

To this writer it seems clear that a dose of humility among our governmental leaders is badly needed at this moment, and may I be so bold as to say some turning to a higher power for guidance at this time would be wise on everyone’s part. May I also that people of good will can in this great country collectively solve these problems. Getting past the personal need of some for positive Public Relations Spin is vital to this process and to the solution.

Here are two pieces of good news I know of today: 1)  The NCUA has to pay insurance claims for any failed credit union within seven days according to their customer hotline. 2) While the market (DJIA) is down 630 points at this hour, cleantech leader Raser Technologies’ stock is up today by more than 15%. Cool!

Do you have some good news to share?

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At PilmerPR, we’re pleased with the awards we’ve won and those with which we’ve helped clients receive broad recognition. One component of PilmerPR’s strategic public relations efforts on behalf of our clients is to seek out and apply for meaningful corporate awards. In a recent article, Darrell Zahorsky outlines some of the benefits of corporate awards as a public relations expansion tool that PilmerPR has focused on for years. In our view, awards can enable or enhance your company’s ability to:   

• Reinforce corporate direction and branding
• Attract and retain talent
• Gain competitive advantage
• Obtain low-cost publicity among editors and larger target audiences 

Conducting a campaign or enacting a strategy that you may deem to be award-worthy is only the first step. Investing time and effort to craft award entries with impact will greatly increase your chances with judges.   Although the contribution of awards to a company’s bottom line may be difficult to measure, engaging in the process may prove invaluable for your business. 

How else have you used corporate awards? What other benefits have you seen?

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We’ve been following T. Boone Pickens public relations campaign around the Pickens Plan for energy independence. On September 17^th, he joined Sean Hannity on his conservative talk show to talk about The Plan. Have a listen. Does Sean get it? I’m not convinced Hannity is a Pickens convert.  

Pickens thinks that to provide rapid relief from our dangerous dependence on foreign oil we should transition the U.S. big-rig trucking industry to domestic compressed natural gas (CNG). He says transitioning one million trucks in five years is doable and will reduce our diesel consumption by 40%. What do you think? Is the PR plan working? Do you believe Pickens?

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On Sept 11th T Boone Pickens made a strong case for energy independence from foreign oil. Utah Governor Huntsman calls energy independence the “most important issue of our time”. His plan, supported by a huge public relations campaign, to put the country’s trucking industry on domestically produced compressed natural gas (CNG) is drawing many supporters as well as some concern about conflicts of interest. Some audience members had strong concerns that tempered the overall enthusiasm of the event.  Here are the words of these people. What do you think?

 Podcast: Governor Huntsman and T. Boone Pickens

 Podcast: Audience Response

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Perhaps it is fitting that today on 9/11 I was among three to four thousand folks gathered to hear T. Boone Pickens promote his plan, ‘The Plan’, for energy independence in the  United States. This is a well funded publicity campaign if I’ve ever seen one, combining components of advertising, public affairs, press relations, lobbying, and social media to drum up support towards one million supporters signed up on ‘The Plan’ at www.pickensplan.com . Our distinguished speaker came fresh from an appearance on Jay Leno last evening where he pitched ‘The Plan’.   

Perhaps one of the greatest security threats to the U.S. is our dependence on foreign oil. Mr. Pickens’ plan is to build a bridge to alternative energy using the vast natural energy resources of North America. He discussed many things we will feature in an in-production podcast in the next couple of days. However, he specifically suggests that the quickest way to energy independence is a combination of not only immediate U.S. oil drilling, nuclear, solar, wind, geothermal, and most importantly as a scalable and immediate ‘bridge’, compressed natural gas (CNG). He especially stated that 30 percent of fuel is used in the transport industry. Therefore, he feels strongly that we should direct most of the natural gas capacity and transition effort to America’s trucking industry.  

The large audience, including me, responded very positively for the most part to the Pickens’ Plan. However, two gentlemen I interviewed before and after the presentation expressed concern for the future of Utah’s national low price of 87 cents per gallon. That compares with much higher rates of $2.89 in California, $2.69 in Arizona, and $2.89 in Washington. Their point is that Utah uniquely controls Questar’s CNG rates through the Public Utilities Commission (PUC). If Pickens acquires Questar as he has other CNG suppliers nationally, would he not seek to derail PUC regulation of price to match the rest of the nation, pocketing the profits?

I’ll be podcasting these gentlemen’s comments shortly as well.  So watch for the coming podcasts while we also go to school on one of the largest Public Relations campaigns we will see in a long time.  

Let me know what you think.

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Public Affairs staff for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, nicknamed “Mormons” or “LDS Church”, continue to work hard to correct confusion in the media. Even top tier publications are mixing up the fourth largest church in the U.S. with the Texas based FLDS polygamous sect, which is in the news recently regarding serious charges of child abuse.  

Since I’ve been a practicing member of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints for almost 30 years, and as a public relations professional by trade, I would like to see the media and public do their homework, before linking a very negative news story about an obscure Texas religious sect with the global Church of 13 million members. In direct contrast with the sad events unraveling in Texas, the Mormon Church has a reputation for abiding by the laws of the land in more than 100 countries in which the Church serves. In a global outreach to build bridges of understanding, millions of non-Mormons have directly benefited from the humanitarian efforts of the Church.  

The “Mormon” church and its membership have a rich heritage of respecting people of all faiths and I look forward to a world that does the same.

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