Black Box Blog
I n telecom and OSS/BSS, a black box is a program that measures output against input in complex systems.
Written by Crawford PR‘s president and chief strategist, Jim Crawford, this Black Box is designed to help companies achieve a similar goal in PR. Black Box provides our candid input—based on several lifetimes of experience—for companies that want to measure and improve the performance of PR programs.
Rules of Media Engagement: How to Place Guest Content — and How Not to
As content marketing grows in popularity, more companies are building content factories that churn out blogs, videos, white papers, free online “booklets” or curated material. The idea: Create your own channel to reach customers and key influencers. But just because your followers like your content doesn’t mean it will be an automatic crossover hit with another class of audience: decision-makers on content such as editors and producers. That’s a different game entirely, and to win there — meaning, score placements...
read moreGood, Bad and Ugly Infographics – How to Tell the Difference
We all know that infographics are the in, cool thing to do. Create a simple, compelling graphic and everybody will “get” your story. Customers love them. Marketers and PR folk love them. Media love infographics — sometimes so much that they’ll use whatever image that marketing/PR teams give them. But don’t let the love fest fool you — great infographics are as rare as great blogs or great press releases, and they require the same kind of strategic decision-making. What is our story? And what is the most...
read moreFacebook: The Next Apple or the Next AOL? A Tale of Two Steves
When a company that “produces nothing” spends $1 billion to acquire a company that makes no money, should money managers fear the next bubble? As Facebook advances from Instagram splurge to IPO this week, some on Wall Street have already reached a verdict: Let the public and media furor over Facebook’s IPO reach frenzy pitch — professional and large institutional investors are staying home. What might the “smart money” know that the rest of the world could be overlooking? Perhaps it’s that when the...
read morePushback: Is Your Agency a Poodle or a Pitbull?
EXTRA! EXTRA! Medical researchers at the University of London Animal Sciences School have announced the first genetically engineered bipolar canine. Bred from a toy poodle sire and pitbull dam, the aptly named “Poo-Pit” displays split personality behavior commonly found only in primates. A lab tech described one mutt’s mood shift as follows: “Oi! ‘E wagged ‘is tail, ‘umped me leg, then bit me!” Our research team here at Crawford is checking the story to make sure it isn’t a plant by The...
read moreTech Start-Ups: Hacking the Anti-PR Syndrome
Mark Cuban created a stir in the agency world earlier this year when he blogged that start-ups should never hire a PR firm. Just not worth the time and money, quoth the Maverick, who advocates a DIY approach to PR. While that sentiment may be shared by some in the tech start-up arena, others are learning through direct experience the value of expert PR advice. At least one highly visible start-up leader’s take on the school of anti-agency rhetoric might be summed up as: “Sorry, Cuban — no cigar.” This alternate point of...
read morePR Etiquette: 7 Ways to Pitch Stories to a Computer
Newsflash! As reported in the May issue of Wired, Narrative Science, a Chicago-based specialist in artificial intelligence (AI), has trained computers to write news stories. Specializing in articles that deal with numbers — business and sports — and trained to write with appropriate color tailored to the subject, Narrative Science’s “algorithmic bullpen” spits out a new story every 30 seconds, always 100% accurate, completely unbiased, and in next to real time. A Big 10 college sports reporting firm was the first...
read moreHype Meter: The Myth of Spectrum Scarcity
Earlier this week, Public Knowledge, a DC-based group that looks out for the digital rights of American consumers, published a scholarly white paper exploring the mobile industry’s shift toward broadband caps. Since, to date, mobile operators haven’t explained how they arrive at specific bandwidth caps or what factors might change the imposed limits on monthly mobile data usage, Public Knowledge urged that companies like AT&T and Verizon provide greater transparency in pricing. That was all it took to unleash a Berserker...
read moreResult: The Only PR Metric That Counts
I learned the definition of work in my fourth grade science class. It was a simple equation. Work = the Expenditure of Energy to Achieve a Result. The example given in our “Dick and Jane” textbook: If you push against a big rock and it moves, you’ve achieved work. If the rock stays put, you’ve accomplished nothing. No result = no work. I was reminded of this distinction while poring over a colleague’s review of his first quarter performance for a client. He called upon all manner of calculations to prove the merit...
read moreAnonymous: Will Attacks on China Change Hackers’ Image?
Some years ago in a sleepy Virginia village, I ambled off Main Street into an oriental rug store. I soon found myself in conversation with the shopkeeper, a young Tibetan who was visiting from Lhasa for a year. Having long daydreamed about trekking through Tibet and the Himalayas, I was struck by my good fortune at stumbling across this friendly chap with the dark Prince Valiant bangs. I invited him home and over dinner we struck a deal: He would teach me to speak basic Tibetan if I gave him driving lessons. I’m not sure who got the...
read moreRage, Rage Against the Dying of the Light(Squared)
Those familiar with Welsh poet Dylan Thomas will recall the line from his famous work, “Do Not Go Gentle Into That Good Night” urging his father and by inference all of us to live life to the fullest — even to the point of fighting, up to the last breath, its inevitable end. To “rage against the dying of the light” may be a noble personal sentiment, but in business sometimes it’s better to go quietly. This month’s national public policy scene provides a case in point. The Federal Communications...
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