“You guys know how to spin anything … we should all be as good with spin as you are,” Boston Globe career columnist Penelope Trunk told the Oct. 27 luncheon of the PR Society conference in Detroit.
The skill of PR people with spin is especially useful when they switch out of PR and into another business, she said, because PR pros can easily out-spin those who are not expert at it. A resume, she noted, “is all spin.”
Penelope Trunk at the PR Society conference in Detroit.
Photo: Jack O'Dwyer |
With these and other remarks about “spin,” a murmur of protest started to spread through the audience of more than 1,500 and chair Jeff Julin interrupted Trunk to say that spin is something that PR people would never do.
PR, said Julin, is about “building relationships.” He suggested that Trunk had some view of “spin” that was other than what PR people do, a different kind of “spin.”
Trunk, who parlayed her beach volleyball skills (she was ranked No. 20 in the nation) into a first job since her boss liked volleyball, said that PR pros must make friends at their jobs and especially be friendly to the boss.
No One Promotes Someone They Hate
Urging the PR pros to throw themselves into “office politics,” she said: “No one ever promotes someone they hate.”
If co-workers are all “jerks” and you can’t relate to them, move onto another job, advised Trunk.
She is an advocate of frequent job-hopping, saying PR people should leave a job when they “stop learning.”
Noting that she has had many jobs including a job as a writer for Time-Warner (“such bad money”), she urged the PR people to “take a break” from the workplace every so often in order to think more deeply about their life situations.
Trunk, author of "The Brazen Careerist," worked in marketing for ten years in the software industry and created a career column that goes to more than 200 publications. She said everyone should have a blog that calls attention to their own “personal brand” rather than some company they are working for.
Blogging “builds relationships” and is “an amazing career tool,” she said, adding that using Twitter, which “creates conversations,” is also a must for careerists.
Bosses Must Mentor
If companies want to keep their young employees, they must mentor them, Trunk said.
“Young people don’t know what their careers will be…if you do some mentoring, they will stay with you,” she said.
Although Trunk used the word “spin” a number of times, the write-up on her speech by Tactics editor John Elsasser on the PRS web does not mention the word “spin” at all.
Craig Newmark Wants to 'Do Good'
Craig Newmark, speaker at the opening general session Oct. 26, said his goal in business is to do good for America. He noted that Craigslist is 99% free, with charges levied only in 18 cities for job ads and in New York for real estate ads. The site gets 12 billion hits a month.
Newmark said he supports worthwhile causes and named the Center for Media & Democracy headed by John Stauber as one of them. Another cause is helping veterans and their families. He likes “people who get stuff done.”
Anyone who gives PR a “bad reputation” should be exposed, said Newmark, who said he will back people who “speak truth to power.” He calls himself “a fan of Twittering.”
The company was built without advertising and with little PR. Current PR consultant is Mike Smith, of Michael Smith Business Development, Herndon, Va. |