PR Connections

My best friend O. spent the past couple of days with me. I hadn’t seen her in years, and it was a complete joy to have her all to myself for a few days.

The only thing that (I thought) spoiled the perfect joy of these few days is that I caught a cold and had a sore throat.

Interesting how, when my throat hurts, I think twice about what I want to say, and only speak what’s necessary.

My body’s pain avoidance mechanism prompted me to be very conservative in using my voice. I have a feeling that made me a better friend.

I listened more, thought more, and offered what I hope were thoughtful responses.

I’m starved for company and conversation, and like many lonely people, when I have a friendly audience, I tend to talk a lot. My urge to talk, to express myself, takes over me. But this time, my sore throat kept me in check. I didn’t offer “me, too” stories in response to my friend’s experiences. I didn’t jump in and offer uncooked opinions and reactions. I spoke only when the need to say something was greater than the pain in my throat.

As I was reflecting upon the experience, it dawned on my that speaking should hurt. Communication is a two-way street, but we spend most of our time and effort in one lane: we talk. We send messages and spend too little time listening in receiving.

In college, we teach speech (public speaking), but we don’t teach listening.

In public relations, we are quick to issue messages, and slow to take in everything we should be listening to.

What would you be like if speaking hurt? Would your relationships be any different?

What would PR be like?

[06.26.08 update] See also Chris Brogan’s post Five Tools I Use for Listening (OK, it’s meant to promote Radian 6 and their twebinar, but still, useful information).

Tags: Uncategorized // 2 Comments »

“Yet I believe that school should be a safe place, the way home is supposed to be. A place where you belong, where you can grow and express yourself freely, where you know and care for the other people and are known and cared for by them, a place where people come before information and ideas. School needs to comprehend the relationship between the subject matter and the lives of students, between teaching and the lives of teachers, between school and home.” (J. Tompkins, A Life in School, p. 127)

“Fear is what prevents the flowering of the mind.” (Krishnamurthi)

(Thank you, Cheryl, for pointing out these quotations to me

How much of what you do, or what the people who work for you do, is motivated by fear?

Tags: education, for educators, for students // 1 Comment »

Loved this post by Geoff Livingston on unorthodox ways to woo bloggers - so I thought I’d pass it on. Not sure the ways are so unorthodox, because ultimately all the strategies translate into engagement. I guess what makes the approach unorthodox is that you engage with a blogger only because you’re representing a client, not because you are personally interested in the topic.

Tags: ethics, social media // Add Comment »

Once again, the PR blogosphere was aflame with the age-old war between journalism and PR. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, here’s a collection of links about the pissing match. I tried to stay out of it, because I’m losing patience for people who lose patience and make their rage public. But the best thing to have come out of it might be this comment by an UGA student, published on the Bad Pitch Blog. And also this comment that talks about how difficult it might be for entry-level PR people to persuade their bosses to do the right thing.

So here are an educator’s random thoughts about this issue:

• OK, we do teach students about pitching the right way, but we also need to teach them upward persuasion - that is, how to persuade & educate their superiors, how to earn power, credibility, and influence in the workplace. This book on gaining influence in public relations might be a good read for students.
• Many people who practice PR today weren’t trained in PR in college, because many (most) college PR programs are relatively new. This might partially explain the problem.
• Self-flagellation by PR people who bash themselves and their profession isn’t necessarily constructive. I believe in self-examination and self-critique, but I wonder if we don’t contribute to (further) lowering the profession’s reputation by engaging in over-eager criticism of PR.
• I wonder if journalism’s power high is still justified. Yes, PR needs journalists, but let’s face it, self-publishing and SEO are changing the power dynamics. Last time I checked, journalism as a field was in a bit more trouble than PR.
• This “war” between journalism and PR is an age-old discourse that keeps resurfacing now and again, and the same arguments keep being exchanged, again and again. Many people are learning, many PR practices are changing, but don’t worry, this won’t be over any time soon. But I do expect it will lose some currency as it becomes old news. It’s possible that soon enough every PR agency out there will be black-listed on a wiki, and then, what?

So, are you disappointed that I don’t have a solution?

The fighting is the way to the solution.

Just like in an old marriage, or any other system, the partners do a constant dance of adapting to each other. And they often step on each other’s feet. Fighting plays the necessary part of negotiating roles and a working relationship. It’s natural. It’s old. As things change, it will keep happening. There will never be a perfect balance between journalism and PR. It’s theoretically impossible. This relationship, like all others, is and will be in continuous flux. We’ll keep going back and forth trying to adapt to each other and find ways to coexist. The arguments are natural, healthy, and unavoidable. But, can we manage the rage?

Tags: education // 2 Comments »

This semester, I won the teaching evaluations lottery. It got me thinking about what makes a good teacher. It’s really an elusive concept. Some semesters I’m the best teacher ever, others I’m… not.

I always try to reach out and relate to students as people. I genuinely care about them and invest a lot, mentally and emotionally, in these people who, for one semester, are my responsibility. I approach teaching with awe and care, because ultimately, what I am doing, is messing with their minds. For one semester, they sit there and we talk, and I’m supposed to guide, direct, have the answers, be right. They open their minds to me and I get to mess with them. Scary.

Messing with their minds is what many of you in the strategic communication professions (PR, marketing, etc.) do. Granted, your audience is more skeptical than mine, but every time you communicate, whether it is to an audience of 10 or 10 million people, there is a chance you are messing with their minds.

You get to teach them new ideas & beliefs, influence attitudes and opinions, and change behavior. You can influence your publics on an individual level (yey! Mary bought my brand of… insert product here) and you can influence the overall culture (think about how the Mastercard priceless commercials have become part of everyday culture here in the U.S.). That’s what I call messing with their minds.

Communicating involves a huge responsibility, because when you communicate, you get to mess with people’s minds.

Are you aware of that responsibility? Do you reflect upon it?

The easy test I apply is: What if they believe me? What if, out of 10 (or 10 million) people, there are a few who 100% believe me? Who do as I say? If my communication is successful, and they believe me and do as I say, will their lives be any better? Will the world be any better? Am I, knowingly, causing any harm? What if my communication is really changing someone/something in the world? Am I comfortable with the direction of that change?

I don’t claim I’m always successful (at communicating, or at applying the above ethics test) and I can’t claim that all ethical responsibility is on one side. Yes, people should take care of themselves and protect their own minds against my messing with them. Yet I can’t help but reflect on my responsibility as a teacher and communicator.

Thank you for (not) allowing me to mess with your mind. What are your thoughts?

Tags: education, ethics // Add Comment »

In a recent column in the National Communication Association’s newsletter, NCA president Dr. Arthur Bochner writes about institutional depression – a systemic sadness, loneliness and hopelessness that affects many academics. He blames institutional depression on the lack of communication and community among academics in the humanities, whose work and rewards systems encourage individual performance. Academics don’t feel a sense of belonging to a group or community, and left to their own devices, like many other mammals, flirt with depression.

You’d think that the ivory tower is alive with sparkling, stimulating conversation. You’d hope. Well it is, but mostly in the classroom.

I then read Jane Tompkins’ riveting memoir, A Life in School: What the Teacher Learned. A personal account of her experiences as a student, scholar, and academic. A courageous, naked disclosure of her psychological journey from insecurity, depression, craving for acceptance to what seems like peace. A peace she couldn’t find in academia, so she retired early from a tenured professorship in English at Duke University.

I read the book in one sitting, and I think it should be mandatory reading for all academics and university administrators.

That’s because although we live a privileged life in academia (hey, we’re paid to sit, talk, read, and write), it can also be a miserable life. No one takes care of our souls. Tompkins claims no one takes care of our students’ souls, either. Within the university, we’re not people. We’re minds.

So what can be done to improve quality of life in academia? Tompkins’ solution was to create opportunities for building community. She tried. She failed.

She realized the main reason why community isn’t happening is because we’re too busy. We run all the time. We work all the time. We need to be accomplishing something all the time. There’s no time for leisurely conversation and relationship building. (Want to know more about how that can kill you? Read my favorite non-fiction book, American Mania.)

As some of you know, for personal family reasons but or maybe for no reason at all, I’ve been doing my own flirting with depression lately. The recent SNCR conference has given my spirits a huge boost, because it was alive and a-twittering with sparkling, stimulating conversation.

So I’ve decided to try for myself and others Tompkins’ idea of building community and have proposed starting a summer book club at Clemson. First reading on the list: Jane Tompkins’ A Life in School.

After a 3-day approval process, my call was forwarded to people in Clemson’s College of Architecture, Arts, and Humanities. A few people have responded. If you are in the area, are reading this, and would like to be part of the book club, please contact me.

I hope it will be a safe place for friendly and stimulating conversations, not a battle of egos. The next books on my reading list are:

Unaccustomed Earth, Jhumpa Lahiri
The Septembers of Shiraz, Dalia Sofer

… but I’m open to suggestions.

If you’re not in the Clemson area, tell me:

How is/was your life in school?

Did school take care of both of your mind and soul? Did you feel treated like a whole person? Should school even do that?

Tags: education // 1 Comment »

I just came back from SNCR’s New Communications Forum, a conference I thoroughly enjoyed. There was a lot of talk about PR 2.0, 3.0, new strategies, new tactics, new tools, and a cultural revolution in the way we (should) practice the strategic communication professions (PR, marketing, advertising, etc.). You are all familiar with the tenets of this cultural revolution from books such as the Cluetrain Manifesto, Join the Conversation, Naked conversations, and the blogs of many social media-savvy professionals (see blogroll).

The conversations indicate an evolution, if not a revolution of PR from media relations to relationship management. PR isn’t/shouldn’t be only about making noise, raising awareness, and counting eyeballs. It should be about relationships. Fine. So how are companies supposed to do this? THE answer is: LISTEN.

Listening means setting up search alerts and monitoring everything that’s said about your organization online (on blogs, twitter, flickr, facebook, etc.).

So once you find out what people say about you, what do you do? You respond. You correct misperceptions. You clarify misunderstandings. You show the poor bastards you were right, after all.

But what if you were wrong?

Listening without authentic openness to change is not enough. It’s not PR 2.0. It’s just audience research, a tool used in what we boring academics call scientific persuasion.

The more you listen, the better you know what makes your audience tick, the better able you are to persuade them. Ca-ching!

Nope, this is not PR 2.0. It’s PR 1.0 on several small channels instead of a few large ones.

PR 2.0 involves not only listening, but being open to make organizational changes as a result of naked conversations (known in academic circles as dialogue). This is what relationships are about. Partners in a relationship change to adapt to each other.

Why?

Because ultimately PR is not about listening, not about conversations, not about relationships. What’s the point of listening? Why do you engage in conversation? Why build relationships? What’s the end goal?

No, it’s not brand awareness. It’s not increased sales. It’s not improved reputation.

PR is (OK, should be, or can be) about optimizing your organization’s survival in its environment.

Think about it: Your organization operates in a complex society. Its survival and operations influence and are influenced by a large number of audiences (aka stakeholders). For all to survive and thrive, they need to be constantly adapting to each other. I think that’s called nimbleness.

Is it fair or even wise for the organization to be attempting to constantly change its environment through persuasion, but not be open to changing itself?

We know what happens to organisms that don’t adapt to their environments.

So it’s PR’s role to facilitate the mutual adaptation of organization and its environment. This is why naked conversations and relationships are important.

Now, don’t quote on me on that. All I’ve done is explain a major PR theory. One that has thought of PR 1.0, 2.0, 3.0, and 4.0 since 1984. If you want to cite someone, start with Grunig, J. E., & Hunt, T. (1984). Managing public relations. New York: Holt Rinehart and Winston.

P.S.
The reason why Dell is the model for PR 2.0 is because they follow listening with real changes in the organization’s products and processes, not just talk-back.

P.P.S.

[Edit:] Geoff Livingston’s post this morning about his experience with JetBlue provides a clear illustration to my theoretical point.

Tags: research, social media // 8 Comments »

Closing keynote: Elisa Camahort Page, BlogHer

BlogHer network survey + U.S. representative female online users.

Key findings:

blogs are mainstream

• 53% of US online women read blogs
• statistically the same as IM, photo sharing, etc.

blogs are addictive

• regardless of age, once engaged, blogging is daily part of life
• over 20% of blogosphere participants spend less time consuming traditional media
• 3 categories: readers/lurkers; active publishers/commenters; readers/commenters

blogs are trusted

• for new information
• for advice & recommendations
• for making purchase decisions

What do women find in blogs? They are experiencing the unique, transformational power of blogging. Blogs are changing the way we:

• survive - e.g. Postpartum Progress, Diabetes Mine
  
• age - e.g. My Mom’s Blog (at 81, possibly the oldest blogger)
• make a living - e.g. Simply Recipes
• participate - e.g. CNN YouTube debates, h2otown, Hurricane Disaster Direct Relief, DonorsChoose, etc.

Blogs empower people. Do companies empower people?

People don’t trust institutions, they trust each other. What are companies doing to be trustworthy?

Tags: social media // 1 Comment »

SNCR Research presentation

Patterns of influence are changing, and this has a fundamental impact on the PR profession.

Research goals: examine the PR landscape to observe how PR uses social media; to define influencers; to examine how PR creates relationships in social media.

Research methods: survey of nearly 300 PR & marketing professionals, case studies

Survey results

• Most effective channels: blogs, online video, social media
• Value of social media to PR: growing or core to PR function
• Most important metrics: enhancement of relationships with key audiences, of reputation, awareness
• Measurement behaviors: only half of PR practitioners measure the efforts to communicate with new influencers
• Who are the new influencers? Publishers or relevant & quality content that appears in search enginges - but did not look as much at number of comments a blog post gets
• Influence in online communities & social networks: frequency of participation & posting, name recognition
• Evaluating effectiveness of social media initiatives: search engine rankings, number of unique visitors, audience awareness

ROI of listening: American Red Cross case study

American Red Cross started monitoring blog posts and responding.

Results:

• corrected a lot of misinformation and misperceptions
• identified conversation trends: people blog about their blood donation experience & what type of cookie they got :); most people have positive opinions of the Red Cross
• raised level of social media awareness internally by sharing social media monitoring data within the organization

5-step listening process:

1. search technorati, twitter, facebook, youtube & flickr - save all relevant content
2. aggregate data in an internal e-mail report
3. respond - use personal judgment to decide what posts to respond to
4. bookmark and tag all relevant content in del.icio.us account. Save it for later reference and long-term tracking
5. issue monthly report

Metrics:

• blog search engines: technorati & others
• internal feedback: it helps other Red Cross employees do their jobs better, feel connected to their publics, and understand social media
• external feedback: bloggers appreciate responses

Challenges:

• major culture shift
• fear
• hard to measure
• organizational firewall: only social media employee has access to social media sites

Successes:

• created internal value: everyone values the feedback
• laid groundwork for future social media campaigns
• made case for integrating social media into all communications
• Red Cross IP shows up in blog visitor analytics, bloggers react positively to knowing Red Cross is listening

Emerson case study - B2B (Jim Cahill)

Services are about people and building belief of trust, competence, commitment, creativity - which brochures cannot do. Emerson needed to market its expertise, not products. Needed to get the experts closer to the customers.

Businesses seeking services started with search engines. So decided to start a blog.

Internal approval process:

Approval process took 2 years. Took Steve Rubel’s advice to “show it, not talk it” and started a blog internally. Had to fight fear. Created worst case scenarios to anticipate what could happen if start blog.

Finally, started www.EmersonProcessXperts.com. Also use RSS feed reader to monitor relevant blogs and respond 2-3 times a week.

Measurement:

• the blog gets more hits than many regional websites
• sales inquiries
• media inquiries
• media calls to interview experts who blog - resulted in trade magazine article

[all SNCR coverage cross-posted from New Communications Review]

Tags: social media // 2 Comments »

SNCR Research Presentation

Paul Gillin begins with a profile of Consumerist:

• 18 million monthly visitors
• 30-40 daily articles
• no fact checking
• full-time staff of 7
• 500 references in WSJ and NYT
• more than 34,000 references on Digg

Ripoff Report is a similar websites. These sites are the new “kings” of customer advocacy - recently featured in Business Week cover story.

Consumers have found that they get more results if they complain through these channels rather than contacting the company directly. These websites, along with the attention they get from both mainstream media and digg, point to new dynamics in customer care and brand reputation. Old tactics no longer work. Stories can spin out of control and become storms in a matter of hours. The worst thing you can do: Send in the legal team.

Customer service has moved from a private, one-to-one communication with a disgruntled and unhappy customer service representative to the public domain.

Julia Ochinero, Nuance - a company working, among others, to improve customer self-service technologies. The phone remains the preferred customer service channel and people prefer talking to a live representative rather than an automated system.

Customer care interaction has become a marketing opportunity - a way of differentiating products.

Paul Gillin presents the results of a 400-respondent survey about consumer opinion and complaints websites.

Key findings:

• customer care impacts purchase decisions and brand impressions
• experiences expressed in social media influence purchase decisions
• consumers use social media to protect others
• one posting by one consumer can trigger a storm of posts on same topic
• consumers feel one person can influence many about a product - but are companies listening?

• 35% use social media to research products often & always
• verbatim comments show a sense of responsibility to leave feedback on shopping sites - people like to recommend good experiences to others
• 84% take customer care reputation into consideration in purchase decisions - peer reviews more valued than professional reviews
• Verbatim: “I ALWAYS research online any purchase over $300.”
• Sources of information: search engines, online rating systems, discussion forums, blogs, company websites: “Social media sites that aggregate ratings like Yelp or TripAdvisor have the most impact. I’m more likely to listen to the combined opinion of 25 people over the rantings  of one angry customer”
• 75% agreed they choose companies/brands based on other customers’ experiences
• Most respondents had NO response from companies on online complaints

John Cass presents two case studies:

Comcast on twitter

Mike Arrington from TechCrunch twittered his poor experience with Comcast. The Comcast customer service exec. happened to notice, intervened and solved the problem. This incident triggered Comcast twitter outreach program: 5-7 people monitor and conduct outreach on twitter.

Comcast had been monitoring blogs, but Comcast feels twiter is proving to be more direct and quicker to respond than blogs.

Dell case study

If you’re not familiar with it, please review the notes from the Dell Conversation post.

Dell has provided a useful model of how companies can use blog monitoring to identify customer issues and respond to them online.

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