Mack the Flack

Another provincial election upset and another fail by pollsters, media pundits and political scientists who missed calling a BC Liberal majority government. It’s the second miss by the so-called experts in two provincial elections.

Mack agrees with Alberta political strategist Stephen Carter when he said the experts misread the mood of voters. “Pundits, politicians and political scientists are the holy trinity of political incompetence,” he said.

Fifty years ago Prime Minister John Diefenbaker said polls were “only useful for dogs”.

After one of the biggest come from behind upsets in Canadian political history BC Premier Christy Clark said she never believed the polls that put the NDP way ahead of her party because of what she heard from people every day of the campaign.

She had this advice to pollsters, pundits and the media. “I had a better sense because I was talking to people every day. You should try it sometime.”

Learn effective interviewing skills in the New Media Journalism program.

Mack recently interviewed a prospective student for the SFU PR program. The interview was going well; the student was bright and very keen on a career in PR until the subject of writing came up.

“I hate writing, I’m not very good at it”, confessed the student.

Mack considered this and decided not to accept her into the program.

So here’s what you need in PR:

· Love to Write – you do a bunch of it and basic grammar helps

· Thick Skin – media rejection is a rite of passage and clients are tough

· Love People – meeting them, working with them, PR is a team sport

· Love to Work – it’s not a 9 to 5 gig in our digital world

· Love Pressure – it’s a deadline-driven business

Love to write? Check out the Public Relations and New Media Journalism programs.

Mack’s neighbours are celebrating the birth of their first child. His advice to them after suggesting long car rides in the dead of night when their bundle of joy refuses to sleep, was immediately start a good education savings plan.

The cost of a four year Canadian university degree for their newborn child could be as much as $140,000 by the time she’s old enough to attend classes. So says a new report form the BMPO Wealth Institute – a bunch of bankers and economists who know about these things.

But 75% of parents, including perhaps Mack’s neighbours, aren’t aware the cost of post-secondary education has increased three times the rate of inflation, according to the report.

The current average undergraduate degree costs more than $60,000, leaving many parents and grads facing a hefty student debt. Today the average Canadian university student graduates owing $27,000 and takes 10 years to pay it off.

Pay off your student debt by learning marketable skills in Public Relations, Digital Communications and New Media Journalism.

Turns out more than 50% of Justin Bieber’s 37.3 million Twitter followers are fake.

According to website Social Bakers only 17.8 million of the 19-year old Canadian heartthrob’s followers are linked to real accounts or true “Beliebers”. This makes him the second most followed person, after Lady Gaga, on Twitter.

Mack isn’t shocked that only 47% of JB’s followers are real. Shady marketers have long used bogus Twitter accounts to spew spam messages with key phrases like “work from home”, “diet” and “make millions in real estate”. The methods may be digital but the pitches have been around for decades.

Learn legitimate digital marketing skills in the Digital Communications program.

Mack did something uncomfortable, but overdue this week.

He cancelled his last daily newspaper. There was a time, before the digital age, when Mack heard multiple early morning “thumps” as newspapers landed on his porch.

Not anymore. The final cancellation came after a week of papers collected on Mack’s porch, unread, ignored, forgotten.

Traditional newspapers across North America are restructuring and cutting staff as print ad revenues tumble and digital ads fail to make up the difference. Just this week the Toronto Star, Canada’s largest daily newspaper, announced it is cutting 44 editorial and advertising jobs after a 62% drop in fourth quarter income.

But news still happens and it is being reported by new media journalists on the screens of our phones, tablets and computers.

Learn why New Media Journalists are important.

Mack often hears “how much do PR people earn?” from students.

Thanks to a recent survey of more than 2,700 public relations industry professionals worldwide we have some answers.

The Good News – agency employees, who are overwhelmingly women, lead among those earning in the highest salary bracket.

The Bad News – men still earn more than women and women still fill the lowest paid ranks.

More than 77% of respondents to the PR Daily Salary and Job Satisfaction survey were women, a reflection of a largely female profession. About 25% of respondents earn $35,000 – $50,000, 26% make $50,000 – $75,000 and less than 1% earn more than $250,000.

While big raises in a tough global economy are remote, the work is fun and rewarding.

Says one respondent: “At its simplest, all we do is talk and write…if we take a step back, we have very little to complain about.”

Learn why PR professionals, New Media Journalists and Digital Communications specialists have fun.

News or press releases are the bread and butter of journalism, communications and public relations. Conventional thinking is the best time to distribute one is on a Tuesday between 8 and 9 am.

But in this digital 24/7 age the line between the work week and the weekend blurs. Sending a social media news release at 5 pm on a Friday or 3 am Sunday might actually get more notice.

The quick march of technology increasingly shapes our lives. But some changes took a while.

Back in 1948 a 27-year-old mechanical engineer named N. Joseph Woodland spent his spring break on Miami Beach trying to figure out a better way to track supermarket products. He stuck four fingers in the warm sand and drew a line.

Those four lines were the start of the modern bar code. Introduced in 1973 bar codes on products are now scanned more than five billion times a day.

Learn how to get the news out in the New Media Journalism, Digital Communications and Public Relations programs.

A trip to Vegas a year ago today and a cruise in just weeks have some strange significance to Mack. In today’s interconnected digital world Vegas and a cruise ship provide vivid examples of Journalism’s fascination with breaking news and the importance of public relations during a crisis.

Vegas – a man named John Alleman, the unofficial spokesperson for Vegas restaurant Heart Attack Grill, famous for its high calorie menu, including the quadruple-bypass burger, died this week after having a heart attack. Mr. Alleman, who ate at the restaurant every day and weighed 350 pounds, suffered a heart attack while waiting for a bus outside the Heart Attack Grill.

Cruise – the ordeal is over for 4,229 passengers and crew stuck for five days on a filthy, disabled Carnival cruise ship that limped into port in Mobile, Alabama last night. According to CNN the Carnival Triumph was “low on food, swelteringly hot and sewage strewn” when it reached port after a fire left the ship listing to one side and drifting without power.

Learn the techniques of effective news reporting and crisis communications in the New Media Journalism and PR programs.

Avid readers! Don’t forget to complete our survey about the non-stop aspects of social media in the PR practitioners life.

You can find the link to the fairly short survey at our PR 24/7 blog or at the direct survey link

Thanks for participating!

Mack noticed a snappy new Microsoft internet Explorer ad online the other day (Watch it on YouTube Here) that recalls the cultural icons of a ’90s childhood.

It got him thinking about the icons of his uh, younger, adulthood that have come and gone. First there was Kodak film with its nice bright colours, then the sweet heaven of Hostess Twinkies, and now Atari, the latest once great icon to slip away.

Atari Corp’s US arm, a pioneering video game maker who created classics such as Pong, Asteroids and Centipede announced earlier this month that it will seek bankruptcy. It’s the latest indignity for the 40 year old company, whose last video game hit was released well before the birth of today’s gamers.

At its peak it was one of the wealthiest and fastest growing technology firms in the world. Something Apple and Facebook should keep in mind in this fast-paced digital world.

Learn how to keep current in PR, New Media Journalism and Digital Communications.