PRs must reshape the profession

April 23, 2009

public relations

Book review
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations:
How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR
Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge
Pearson Education, 2009. 314 pp.

The Problem: PR has slipped into complacency. Many PR practitioners still blast news releases and spam everyone with pitches. The same old tired marketing ethics and tactics.

The Opportunity: Social Media allows PRs to overhear relevant conversations. They can adopt a less-is-more, focused, and human approach to share information.

We PR people can embrace Social Media (after we’ve participated as a person and not as a marketer).

Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge wrote Putting the Public Back in Public Relations “to show you how to take advantage of the socialization of media, whether you are just starting out or you’ve been in the communications industry for years.”

Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, a PR and New Media agency. Breakenridge is president and director of communications at PFS Marketwyse.

We now have an opportunity to reshape a worn and beaten profession and transform it into something much bigger and more meaningful, they say. PR 2.0 can thrive in today’s ever-evolving and highly competitive online social climate. Although the technology is new, the principles driving the New PR movement are not foreign; they’re rooted in customer service, the social sciences, and community participation.

These conversations that we can listen to, and eventually participate in, take the form of videos, podcasts, bookmarks, blog posts and comments, tweets, pictures, reviews, meetups and events, and news aggregation. PR needs to follow the authoritative dialogue, wherever it takes place.

One of the most important tips of their book: To be a true member of the online community, you must humanize your intent and story, and learn how, where, and why to participate. By doing so, you abandon top-down engagement and embrace one-on-one interaction.

The way to succeed with New PR is to become a reliable resource of information and knowledge for those who either directly or indirectly affect your brand’s success.

Technology is important, and there will always be new tools. But even though the tools continually change, PR professionals will always start the conversation, facilitate that conversation and then, of course, monitor the conversation.

Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking platforms encourage communicators to condense our stories into a focused package that is specific to each community. This, the authors say, is how we put the PUBLIC back in Public Relations. This is how we start to reshape a 100-year-old-history that has coasted along without resistance until now.

Other tips:

Rather than creating profiles on every popular social platform and befriending everyone across the networks, first identify meaningful conversations, comprehend them, then feed that collective insight back into the organization for positive change.

Measuring the frequency and tone of conversations is the new frontier for PR and marketing, with many solutions launching even now.

Who we are today is not who we will be tomorrow. Embrace the changes outlined in this book and remain open to future learning and growth. Transcend traditional roles and exemplify the new hybrid of Public Relations professionals.

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Rubel’s ‘Five Digital Trends’ worth a careful read

February 23, 2009

Journalists and consumers are tuning out marketing and using Google as a big open book.

Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital observes that marketers have largely focused on reaching stakeholders through ‘push’ media — paid and earned media. But now that Google dominates, it’s equally important for communicators focus on ‘digital discoverability.’  Organizations and communicators must create content that people will “pull” through search engines and social networks.

In his white paper “Five Digital Trends to Watch for In 2009,” Rubel says the greatest reward will go to those who create dynamic content at a regular frequency that is discussed, remixed, and linked to by other high-quality sources online.

Organizations should build relationships with their publics by creating what Rubel calls ‘digital embassies’ and ‘digital ambassadors.’ As people spend time inside social networks, organizations must go where the people are to build relationships. But before jumping into social media, understand where your stakeholders spend time and what they do there.

Today all media is social, and all social is media, Rubel says. It used to be that journalists were on one side, bloggers on the other. No more.  Yet many, particularly in PR, still treat ordinary citizens, traditional journalism, and branded content as distinct islands of media. It’s best to see them as a contiguous archipelago connected by a bridge called Google.

With the increasing popularity of sites that aggregate content, there’s tremendous value in serving as a digital curator of quality content, just as there’s a role for museum curators who separate “art” from “junk.”

Google is much more than a search engine, Rubel says:  It’s also media. Every day people make business and life decisions based on what they find on Google. This includes consumers and journalists as well.  As a result, communicators should prioritize media targets based on their ability to influence Google search results, rather than just reach.

Many corporate blogs focus too much on their products and services. According to Forrester Research, only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them. Rubel says a better approach is to use blogs as a way to build communities that connect customers and corporate all-stars around shared passions.

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PRs as boundary spanners

January 14, 2009

Dawn Gilpin, co-author of Crisis Management in a Complex World, reflects on her upcoming course in public relations campaigns for her students at Arizona State U.  The course prospectus begins,

“The world of public relations is changing. One-way, media-driven communication is rarely the most effective means of conveying information, shaping attitudes and influencing behavior among stakeholders. Today’s PR practitioner engages in an array of ongoing conversations, and prepares campaigns based on in-depth understanding of the cultural, social, technological, and local dimensions of those conversations. Doing so may require various combinations of controlled and uncontrolled media, social media, formal presentations, events and initiatives, and other means.

“This course introduces students to the many ways in which they can identify and participate in these conversations, while providing an opportunity to synthesize and apply the theories, principles and techniques of public relations they have learned in previous courses.”
More

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Educommunicators name priorities for 2009

January 12, 2009

educommunicators

Patrick Riccards‘  poll of education communicators shows that they would like the Educommunicators organization in 2009 to spotlight communications best practices (67.1%) and discuss ways to use new media (64.6%). Responding members said the best medium for Educommunicators to engage marketing communications professionals is, by far, still email (60%).

Major challenges facing education communicators include using new technologies in a strategic way (62.4%), thinking long-term and staying on a strategic course (43.9%), and maintaining conversations with stakeholders (41.5%).

Respondents’ communications areas of expertise were media relations (59.5%), community relations (50.6%), marketing (44.3%), public affairs (38%) and research (38%).

They said the most important tools for effective communications were the right message (43.8%) and a strong network of contacts (26.3%).

Read more survey results at Educommunicators

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Catching up with social media

August 25, 2008

Brendan Cooper offers a practical and friendly guide to getting up to speed with the whole social media thang. Thanks to Richard Bailey for the link.

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An encyclopedic podcasting book

June 23, 2008

podcasting book

How to do Everything with Podcasting.
Shel Holtz with Neville Hobson.
McGraw-Hill Osborne. 2007. 360 pp.

What can podcasting do for a business? That’s the wrong question to ask, say Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson. Like any communication tool, podcasting should be applied as a solution, not as a goal in and of itself. “Podcasting ought to come up in larger discussions about ways to reach audiences, to convey particular messages, or to address specific situations and problems,” they advise.

Hobson and Holtz are internationally known business communicators, bloggers, and consultants. I learned of their work through their podcast For Immediate Release. Friendly and engaging, For Immediate Release focuses on the latest communications technologies and social media.

How to Do Everything With Podcasting aims to “provide a resource to anybody engaged with podcasting, from casual listeners to independent podcasters to businesspeople looking for a new communication channel.”

Besides detailing all the technical aspects of podcasting, Hobson and Holtz preach the gospel of strategic planning. Thinking about producing a podcast? First, address the question: What outcomes are you trying to achieve? Would it serve as a marketing vehicle, or to supplement public relations and financial communications, or to enhance customer relations, or to enhance customer support? And how will you measure the success of your efforts?

The authors emphasize that perhaps the most important is the podcast’s social aspects. They encourage building a social network around your podcast, which is as important as the software and hardware you use.

They offer many examples of podcasting done well. Purina’s Animal Advice podcast, for example, provides information pet owners can use; it does not ‘sell product.’ Stanford University podcasts offer faculty lectures, interviews, music, and sports content. Target groups include students and alums. IBM’s The Future Of …. Podcast reaches investors and features interviews with engineers, product managers, and others in the trenches—not with PR or marketing staff.

Getting people to listen is step one, the authors say. Providing content that people will listen to because it is interesting, valuable, or entertaining is step two. Step three is making sure the way you present the content reflects the value you would bring to your listeners should they shift their business from a bigger business to your business.

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2011: Trendspotting

June 20, 2008

2011: Trendspotting for the next decade.
Richard Laermer
McGraw Hill, 2008. 305 pp.

First: The difference between a trend and a fad:
A fad is a “flash in the pan that doesn’t deserve mention,” says veteran Trendspotter Richard Laermer, while a trend is “something that is just beginning to percolate—but is happening in a significant enough manner that we can see how it’s going to change us.”

If you’ve read Laermer in Huffington Post or elsewhere, you know he is funny, blazingly smart, and … well… he loves to write. Among other titles, he is the author of Native’s Guide to New York (1989), TrendSpotting (2002), Full Frontal PR (2003), and and co-author of Punk Marketing (2007). He has contributed to Public Radio’s Marketplace program and he copublishes the BadPitchBlog.

Although it’s impossible to do justice to this 300-page book and its nearly 80 essays covering every conceivable topic part in contemporary life, here’s a stab at it. . . .

Do you want practical tips?
“If you’re not thumbing through business magazines on a regular basis, checking out industry blogs … and staying informed about the world, you’ll be left behind.
“You’ve got to evolve or die.
“Be a noncliché spotter of trends so that you don’t become obsolete or, worse, stale.”

Or do you prefer Gestalt?
Picture a tree, Laermer suggests. “The roots of new trends are in technology, while the branches are finance, travel, weather, sex, education, communication techniques, gracefulness, and societal changes.
“Most trends come and go, but some recur like the seasons. Rather than stemming from the vacillations of technology and pop culture, they are rooted in deeper phenomena . . . “perennial” or “meta- trends.”

Do you want research?
Laermer’s essays cite data from the census bureau, the FDA, the World Health Organization, the Harvard Medical School, and other studies. “By 2008 the median age of the workforce is expected to rise from 38.7 to 40.7. Contributing to these trends is the new influx of ‘boomerangs’—those boomer retirees who come back to the workforce after a short time away.”

Or do you prefer personal observation?
Laermer’s encyclopedic knowledge of popular culture informs many trends he identifies.
“Teens shall remain narcissistic. Those whom I dub Generation Broke … have their parents navigating and engineering their lives. They don’t subscribe to the so-called learning via the school of hard knocks, or making the grade, or rising up the ladder, or earning one’s keep.”

How about an insider’s view on the media industry?
“When you deconstruct the news … you need to know that most information comes not from sources who proffer it because they wish to “get the story out” (or are prodded to do just that), but rather from those who are paid to make sure the world knows about their latest glory. … “News is a consumer product just like all the others: it’s created by someone, for someone, with a single goal in mind—to make a profit.”

His web site www.laermer.com offers “essays, trend advice, ways to spot trends, and blog posts. It provides links to many other useful and entertaining sites too.

General readers will find this book entertaining, funny, and thought-provoking. Practitioners of marketing and public relations will take away some new things to try.

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Book Review: Groundswell

June 17, 2008

groundswell

Groundswell:
Winning in a world transformed by social technologies
Charlene Li and John Bernoff
Harvard Business Press, 2008. 286 pp.

You and I and half of American adults are using more online tools to connect, to find information, get support, compare products, rate movies, buy from each other, or post blog entries. But most companies and institutions still don’t understand this trend, and their customers are slowly dribbling away.

Charlene Li and John Bernoff call this evolving online activity the groundswell. In this very readable book Li and Bernoff draw from extensive research to describe what the groundswell is and to offer case studies showing how organizations have readjusted their thinking to take advantage of it.

Although the groundswell trend includes social networks and related technologies, the authors say, equally important is the change in consumer behavior. People are getting more things they need from each other, and less from traditional institutions and corporations.

Listening (and becoming involved in) the groundswell should help your organization find out what your brand stands for; understand how buzz is shifting; save research money; increase research responsiveness; find the sources of influence in your market; manage PR crises; and generate new product and marketing ideas.

Li and Bernoff caution that there is no single ‘right way’ to engage with the groundswell. Depending on the objectives of your company, you’ll choose among the following options: listening, talking, energizing, supporting, or embracing your audience.

Case studies examine how Salesforce.com uses an innovation community to involve customers in the design of new products; how a French credit union made customers’ suggestions a part of how it does business; and how a Canadian grocery store uses customer ratings and review to improve its products.

An instrument that Li and Bernoff use in their work at Forrester Research is called the Social Technographics Profile. “Social” refers to the people-to-people activities in the groundswell. “Technographics” refers to Forrester Research’s way of surveying consumers—it’s similar to demographics and psychographics, but focuses on technology behaviors.

The authors define six kinds of online consumer behaviors. Learning which types best define your audience (or clients, or communities, or target groups) is the first step in any strategy you take to reach them. The Creators are those who publish a blog or article online, maintain a web page, or upload videos at least monthly. Critics post comments on blogs or forums, post ratings or reviews, or edit wikis. Collectors save URLs and tags on a social-bookmarking service, vote for sites on a service like Digg, or use RSS feed aggregators. Joiners maintain profiles on a social networking site like MySpace. Spectators consume what the rest produce. Inactives—nonparticipants—still remain.

Nearly one in five of online consumers in the US—18 percent—are Creators. This means that a significant chunk of six of your target audience, customers, community, etc., are blogging, uploading video, and maintaining Web sites, and quite possibly discussing your company. One in four are Critics, and nearly half are Spectators.

This groundswell is taking place not just on desktops and laptops. The groundswell is about to get embedded within every activity, including mobile devices.

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A campfire in cyberspace

May 19, 2008

new influencers

The New Influencers: A Marketer’s Guide to the New Social Media
Paul Gillin.
Quill Driver Books, 2007. 236 pages.

Social media is PR’s turn to shine.

Why? The fact that people are downloading media and consuming it whenever and wherever they want has disrupted mainstream media. Social media have given people (and organizations) many ways to reshape the way they share information.

No profession stands to influence social media more than public relations because PR people intuitively understand the value of relationship marketing, says Paul Gillin in The New Influencers. Social media simply offers another way to build relationships. PR pros have jumped all over social media because it plays so naturally to their strengths as relationship managers.

Gillin has reported on the impacts of technology and media for 25 years. Now a consultant, he was the founding editor-in-chief of TechTarget.com and, prior to that, editor-in-chief of Computerworld magazine. He wrote The New Influencers “to help marketers understand the changes in influence patterns that social media is creating in their customer base.” That’s crucial because the next generation of customers will want to interact with businesses in very different ways.

Gillin borrows the idea for the title the 2003 book The Influentials, which argued that 10 percent of Americans determine what the other 90 percent buy. Influence the influentials, and your product or company can reach critical mass. The new influencers exert influence by aggregating the thoughts and opinions of others whom they trust.

Some examples:

  • Eric Schwartzman, who developed the podcast On the Record … Online. Its library of episodes averages more than 20,000 downloads a month and the series has heaped credibility in iPressroom, his website that posts press releases, audio clips, and video streams.
  • Steve Rubel, whose Micro Persuasion blog is consistently in the Technorati Top 100. It’s must reading for many PR professionals.
  • Stephen Powers, who invented the site Rightlook.com, which helps people get started in the auto reconditioning business.

The leading voices in the blogosphere are not corporations, not big companies, Gillin says. They are mostly individuals or small groups. As a rule, they have little or no administrative, marketing, sales, or circulation support. Their source of influence is links and comments.

A veteran magazine man and tech enthusiast, Gillin in a good position to point out the many things that distinguish new media from old. If you’re new to social media, this book will help you make sense of it all.

I like Gillin’s analogy of the campfire, probably the oldest social venue on the planet. “The top-down style of communication that has defined mass media for 150 years is artificial, but it was the best we could do given the limitations of technology,” Gillin says. “Now technology has changed the rules, and it becomes possible to recreate the campfire in cyberspace.”

If you’re a PR person or marketing person and you want to influence the influencers, you must find them and understand what’s relevant to them, Gillin says. But be aware that influence is not easy to measure. It doesn’t lend itself to a single number, and no single search engine can provide a definitive blogger ranking. You have to consider quantitative and qualitative measures.

Gillin’s New Influencers website provides multimedia and links to several of the people his book mentions. You can listen to audio interviews with several of them, including Dan Bricklin, coauthor of VisiCalc, podcasters Doug Kaye and Eric Schwartzman, and New Media PR man David Meerman Scott.

Gillin links to several kinds of new media sites, including link blogs, small business blogs, corporate blogs, opinion blogs, enthusiast blogs, and to podcasters.

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Narrowing the public debate

May 6, 2008

In a case study published in Teachers College Record, Adam Lefstein examines implications for the way that educational researchers communicate their ideas to the general public. He raises questions about “the desirability and likely effectiveness of the currently popular strategy to maximize research influence through the promotion of ‘evidence-based’ policy.”

Examining the BBC TV program Newsnight’s reports on phonics teaching, he finds that the news program poorly served public debate by

  • narrowing the problem of educational improvement to a question of teaching method;
  • promoting a “makeover” approach to school reform; and by
  • casting the issue in the inherited yet inadequate terms of the traditional “reading wars” frame.”

“Literacy Makeover: Educational Research and the Public Interest on Prime Time.”
Teachers College Record Volume 110, Number 5, May 2008, pp. 1115-1146

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