How does public relations work in the blogosphere?
By Tom Foremski - March 23, 2006
I took part in a Bulldog Reporter teleconference this morning, on the subject of Blogger PR and it was a record turnout, more than 80 leading PR agencies and corporate communications organizations called in, each with maybe two dozen people or more at each location.
The panel included Shel Israel of It Seems to me, Alice Marie Marshall of Technoflak and Jeremy Pepper of Pop!PR blog. We covered a lot of ground in the ninety or so minutes and we were all agreed on most points. And that was because we all have extensive experience of being involved in the blogosphere (I prefer mediasphere).
We heard a lot of the same questions I hear wherever I go, such as: who are the influential bloggers? How do we deal with negative posts? How do we measure how we influence the influencers? And many more...
I was the only one on the panel that is working as a journalist blogger. I do not work in public relations, I am the target of public relations. And in that capacity I am happy to share what works, what doesn't, and offer some good practices for PR.
And we all agreed on one key point: the best way to find out who is influential in your sector is to get involved in the online conversations either by blogging, monitoring, or commenting.
(Please see SVW: The metrics of influence.)
Every company to some degree, is now a media company. Every company constantly publishes stories and has conversations: within its own organization, with its peers, with its communities, with its potential hires, with its customers. Make sure that those conversations are honest and truthful.
And let go of the out dated attitude of control, or the idea of controlling a message. You have no control over how the world will "tag" you or your company. The only place you have control is with yourself, and that means that you are consistent in the things that you say, the things that you converse with the world.
I love this blogging format and I love sharing what I've learned so far. And there is a tremendous amount that we are still learning, and a tremendous amount of answers that we don't yet have--and that adds to the fun part.
I will help individuals, non-profits and educational organizations become more effective communicators. And I will help PR agencies, corporations--any commercial organizations-- figure out how to tell their stories, and have honest, truthful conversations. And also how to best use these media technologies, such as blogging, RSS, and wikis, to enable direct communications.
I have no interest in spin or marketing: those are concepts that belong in the last century.
If you need me to give a talk, or come in and speak with your teams about the many questions and issues out there, then please contact the non-profit think tank, of which I am a founding fellow, at the Palo Alto based Society for New Communications Research and its founder, Jen McClure, at 650-387-8590. There is a fee for commercial organizations, which helps to fund our work with non-profits and educational institutes.
By Tom Foremski - March 23, 2006 | Permalink | Comment
| Category: PR Watch
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Comments (11)
If there is anything this world is missing, is more circular talk about how blogging is impacting PR and who in PR is blogging.
Posted: March 24, 2006 11:48 AM
There's been so much talk recently about honesty, transparency and authenticity in blogging that I am starting to get sick of it (after all, we're only human). But you add another dimension to it in your post. If we can be consistent about what we say and how we say it in our blogging conversations, then we're true to ourselves and our readership and dialogue partners. That's the best we can hope for and thrive for.
Posted: March 24, 2006 11:50 AM
Sean: the BullDog panel was strange, because it was filled with bloggers and all, except for myself, pitch other bloggers and media people. So the questions were abut how to pitch bloggers such as those on the panel, but those PR bloggers also gave tips on how to pitch other bloggers. It is not so much as circular, but inside-out :-)
Posted: March 24, 2006 1:34 PM
Thanks Tina, it always comes back to this: since we cannot control how others "Tag" us, we can only hope to be consistent in our representation of ourselvesto the world around...so that the "Tag" we want--can come to dominate the ones we don't.
Posted: March 24, 2006 1:38 PM
Tom: you confirm what lots of bloggers are talking about: it's tags we should be concerned about 'cause that's how people search (and judge!) in the future.
Posted: March 24, 2006 1:56 PM
Sean, you really see me as the type to sit around talking about blogs, or talking to other PR people on how to be smart about it? I'd hope it's the latter.
Posted: March 27, 2006 1:08 AM
Respectfully, I disagree somewhat with the tag comment (I don't do well with absolutes):
"You have no control over how the world will 'tag' you or your company. The only place you have control is with yourself, and that means that you are consistent in the things that you say, the things that you converse with the world."
You refute your own comment with your own statement. You do have control -- not total -- but a good deal of control over how you are tagged. You do control your tag, your perception, your brand, etc., by how you act and what you say.
Unless there is a conspiracy against you, people judge you by how you act and what you say. And, by you, I do mean corporate entities and individuals.
People do judge me, in part, by what I blog about (in addition to how I look, where I work, what I sound like, how I live, etc.).
Mike
Posted: March 27, 2006 5:22 AM
Mike, I can control my look, what I say, how I behave, etc. But that doesn't guarantee others will "tag" me the way I want to be tagged. There is a difference. We all carry our unique views, and often there are a wide variety of views (tags) about a person, a product, a company, a politician. We can't control those views. But we can be consistent, and hope that gets us closer to the tag that we want.
I have a piece coming up on the "C" word :-)
Posted: March 27, 2006 7:27 AM
Tom,
Good points. We can control ourselves and, as I think you noted, if we act in a consistent manner, then we have greater control over how we are preceived.
This idea of others controlling how we are tagged, perceived, branded, etc., is nothing new. It's always been that way. Just now, as times and technology changes, there are more ways for that tag to be spread -- by ourselves and by others.
While no one is perfect, if we act ethically, honestly and consistently, then our true tag -- the one we want to convey -- will predominantly come out.
My gosh, I think we might be *somewhat* in agreement on something?! ;)
Mike
Posted: March 27, 2006 8:28 AM
Jeremy: My glib point was that the general conversation about PR blogging is getting a bit tired and predictable (at least to this cranky, and in PR industry terms, old man). Nothing personal and everyone should know that you do great stuff.
I admittedly didn't listen to the teleconfrence and I'm sure that many folks benefitted from it. Yet, when a woman (we assume) can post a first and *single* blog entry about another PR blogger (see Strumpette) and everyone gets all atwitter, than, yes, I think we need to hit the refresh button.
Posted: March 27, 2006 9:12 AM
I prefer snogging.
Posted: March 30, 2006 2:36 PM