Day: May 1, 2003

Of course it’s not just PR that’s been getting a hiding recently.  Within the next couple of years I am sure investment analysts will have some movies of their own to discuss.

The aftermath of the Internet stock implosion has hurt the credibility of every financial analyst whether they are culpable or not, and in many ways the impact has been far more serious than some movie-inspired character assasination.

The news that ten Wall Street firms have settled for $1.4 billion is hardly a surprise. Nor is the negative attention that the prominent analysts like Mary Meeker, Henry Blodget, Jack Grubman and Frank Quattrone are now receiving.

What is a surprise, and is a very relevant lesson for anyone working in communications, is the wealth of information investogators were able to unearth from the banks’ e-mail repositories. We’ve all known for some time that e-mail records are now one of the first ports of call for investigators in any case, but it seems the message has been lost on employees of the banks.

By way of example, here’s an e-mail from an analyst at Lehman Brothers: “well, ratings and price targets are fairly meaningless anyway…. but, yes, the `little guy’ who isn’t smart about the nuances may get misled, such is the nature of my business.”

Or this beauty: “This profession is a bad joke.”  Which is an excerpt from an e-mail exchange between two Goldman Sachs analysts cited in the Securities and Exchange Commission’s case.

These misplaced e-mails are a growing Internet phenomenon. People don’t treat e-mail as they would other communication channels.  Just take a look at the e-mails you receive every day with bad grammer and poor spelling .  Furthermore, people seem to assume e-mail is safe. A cursory visit to InternalMemos.com will give you an insight into how lazy we have become in communicating correctly.

Sensitive issues should be communicated face-to-face, not just thrown into an e-mail because it’s faster and easier.

Communicating online requires you to marry the best of the traditional communication techniques with the new tools, not just taking the easiest route. I find that phone calls are increasingly more effective than e-mail in many cases.  Like elsewhere on the Internet, there is a balance required between online and offline tools. It’s in your interest to communicate based on content.

The new batch of films which have kindly portrayed our profession in what I might charitably call an unfair light, has been well covered on this blog. 

In response, Jim Horton, who runs Online-PR.com has written a great whitepaper entitled: “Truth Fact and Perception – A Constant PR Challenge” .

It’s definetely worth a read, as is Jim’s blog.

“There is no novelty about truth, fact and perception, but there is mystery.”

Doc Searls has an interesting article in Linux Journal about how the technology advertising business is beign turned on it’s head by the success of Overture and Google

“Obviously, you can’t export Google’s type of on-line advertising to print, television and radio. But you can export the value system, and that’s exactly what’s bound to happen, among both advertisers and users. When it does–as it inevitably will–we’ll watch the end of advertising as we knew it.”