Day: November 17, 2004

 Mike Manuel looks at the role prominent corporate bloggers such as Robert Scoble and Jeremy Zawodny play in their corporations.  They are in effect evangelists. 

Of course this is nothing new.  Microsoft has employed armies of evangelists as long as they have been building software. What’s new is that those traditional evangelists are now supplemented online and potentially reaching more people in less time.

 Trevor Cook points to a talk that Jay Rosen, who is one of the foremost thinkers on journalism and online media, recently gave at a conference in Toronto.  Trevor points out that:

“Note blogging is not a replacement or substitute for mass media, it supplements and enhances the media environment by offering an alternative for people who want more on a particular subject or viewpoint than what’s currently available on TV and in newspapers.”

I think that’s a fantastic summary of where blogs fit in the media landscape.

 Meanwhile Jeremy Pepper unearthed this feature on Jonathan Cheban the NY celebrity publicist. If ever there was an article that highlighted the antithesis of my daily PR life this is it.  I’m sure for many people this lifestyle-profession is a dream come through – for me it’s the worst nightmare….

 Jupiter analyst Michael Gartenberg provides some corporate blog advice in Computerworld:

“Independent bloggers who identify their employers on their weblogs had better know what the consequences will be at work. For example, in many industries, employees may not know that there are regulatory issues that mean certain things can’t be spoken about casually. Of course, this isn’t a new problem that has just arisen with the dawn of blogging; many companies forbid employees to speak with journalists or the media about the company unless they have had media training or public relations folks are present. There’s a reason for that, and it’s important for every business to extend its policies to include guidelines on what can and can’t be said in personal weblogs.”

Thanks to everyone for the fantastic feedback both through comments and e-mail following my posts on blog relations, and the need for PR people to stand up for their profession.

Blog Relations

Probably the largest response I received to the call for ‘PR blog case studies’ were e-mails from practitioners who are relatively new to blogs.  The common theme in their e-mails was that they are desperately trying to understand the tool, how to use it, how to monitor it productively, and how to incorporate it in ongoing communications programs. 

I believe that that is a good, albeit statistically insignificant, measure of the current maturity of blogs.

We’re still at the early stages of blog relations. That was my belief and I called for blog case studies to see if maybe I was wrong.  For once I wasn’t.

Hopefully I’ll tackle the questions raised in those e-mails in the near future.

PR’s Image Problem

Jim Horton commented:

“Give up notions of regulating PR. It won’t happen in the US because of the First Amendment. It is doubtful that it will happen anytime soon in other countries.”

I completely agree.  These efforts have failed in the past so it’s unlikely they will suceed in the future.

However, I don’t think that means we should ignore the problem of PR’s image.

What’s clear is that the only way to change the misperception of PR is that individuals must take responsibility — collective responsibility.

I think Piaras Kelly has a point regarding the international code of ethics as a starting point for establishing acceptable behavior.

However, if you as a PR professional are interested in improving the profile of your profession, it is up to you to do something about it.

Only when individual practitioners take a stand, can we turn the tide of negative publicity. At the very least it might force people to re-examine their perceptions.

Footnote:

• Richard Bailey rightly points out that Gerry McCusker has a book to promote, but that doesn’t mean the message is wrong 🙂