'Ello Gov'na

One of the huge benefits of attending a huge school like BU is the opportunity to listen and interact with some awesome communication professionals. I try to see as many speakers as possible and this semester I've been able to hear from pros like Gary Sheffer of GE, Paul Kidwell of Millennium, Steve Restivo of Wal-Mart, etc.

Today I got to hear from two communication officials in the Massachusetts Governor's office: the director of new media (loved him especially) and one of the deputy press secretaries. I'll leave out names mainly because of my following comments.

I decided to blog about this one because it was an interesting presentation. Here were some points that stuck with me:

+ The deputy press secretary came out and said, "It's good to have a beer with a reporter and just get a chance to talk off-the-record." (The original focus was on developing relationships with reporters which is without a doubt crucial to successful media relations) Later she mentioned how the following thing she was going to say was 'off-the-record' (she was paranoid about the students on laptops in the class). This struck me funny. I'm not going to lie, I didn't really agree. The past few weeks, we have been learning that nothing is 'off-the-record'. Now obviously I don't take this literally to a T, but I certainly would be careful with who I speak to off-the-record and what I say. More often than not I can see it coming back to bite you -- especially today when reporters want to get to something first. Also -- I can't imagine alcohol and 'off-the-record' talk go too well together. ;-)

+ I asked a question about how they are approaching bloggers because in my mind you can't ignore them. It seems like they're on the right track. They reach out to a certain number of bloggers who are put on their press list and receive all press releases and things like that. They also respond to inquiries they get from bloggers. The deputy press secretary was quick to point out that they don't treat them the same as reporters "because they're not held to the same standards as reporters." I can imagine some bloggers might not completely appreciate that comment.

+ Another thing that struck me rather negatively was another one of the deputy press secretary's comments. She mentioned how the new media director always wants to go ahead and be open and honest, and sometimes she has to stop him. Now I understand that sometimes you can't reveal all the government secrets. Everyone knows that. But I really wish she worded that different because a huge problem people have with government is that it's not open and transparent enough. She also then pointed out how Governor Deval Patrick really desires an open environment. As a communications person, I really hope she desires that as well.

+ One of my classmates asked a great question about whether or not they could see themselves working in government PR if they didn't agree and support the government official they worked for. I've wondered about this sometimes. They both agreed that it helps a ton that they support the Governor. The new media director did admit he tries to distance himself from that when he can.

I guess those are some of the points that stuck with me. It was really interesting to hear from two people working in government PR. It's definitely a different type of PR with it's own unique challenges.

PS: This blog fell victim to neglect once again. I've been on top of my hockey blog with an NCAA Championship and playoff hockey beginning, but this one landed on the backburner. I will make more of an effort to change that!