Day: January 25, 2007

There’s a lot of enthusiasm and passion around the wave of new online media tools.

The big question is: Do we know how these tools/channels will ultimately impact mainstream communication?

I believe the answer is not yet. 

I think that even though we’re seeing glimpses, we’re still some time from understanding the full impact of these technologies.  The emerging popularity of virtual worlds/Second Life technology is an example of how it’s continually developing and changing.

These technologies may utlimately look very different to how they look today.

One interesting step on the road to maturity is looking at the benefits they may offer organizations.  Steve Rubel has a post on a new methodology that has been created by Charlene Li at Forrester for measuring the return on investment from blogs. 

In Forrester’s interviews, the most frequently mentioned benefits of corporate blogging were: greater brand visibility in mainstream media on the Web, word of mouth, improved brand perception, instantaneous consumer feedback, increased sales efficiency and fewer “customer service-driven PR blowups.”

[Please note: Contrary to rumours around the InterWeb, I was not given an exclusive first, second or third look at the report].

You can read Charlene’s comments on the model here.

It’s good to see some analysis on blogging with respect to business.  It’s not a panacea but a good start.

 

Sidebar:

For obvious reasons I rarely discuss issues regarding my employer on this blog. I don’t intend to deviate from that policy.  However, I have found the discussion from Kami, Scott and Stuart incredibly interesting – this is an additional and often overlooked element of “Web 2.0” for PR professionals representing small, medium and large organizations. It’s another example that we’re not mainstream just yet. 

Not to keep kicking the dead dog…

Shel Holtz has a post on why, from a regulatory point of view, the press release isn’t dead. That’s a strong factual argument.

So let’s add some opinion.

The press release isn’t dead because it’s a well understood informational instrument that meets all regulatory requirements.

Huh? Let me explain.

If we can agree for one moment that good communication is about your audience. 

Agreed?

Then it’s the audience that matters.

When you’re designing a web site (how twentieth century) the commn mantra is think about your audience, understand what information they want, and make damn sure they can find it in the format they want or expect.

That’s why a press release is useful – yes I know they can be spam – yes I know they can be badly written – but they provide information in a common format that, in most cases, provide the same types of information.

I’ve nothing against the social media release, no harm in it.  But I’ll be sticking to press releases for a little while yet – even if it’s for informational rather than promotional purposes.

• Keith Jackson points to an article by Ingrid Jackson (relation? no relation? undisclosed) that looks at communications around a real-world merger. Definetely worth a read.

The communications fundamentals during a merger revolve around stakeholder buy-in. But the communications requirement is much broader than this. It includes stakeholder analysis, issue identification, key messages, strategic and action planning, coordinating external and internal communications, project management, and responding tactically to often rapidly changing circumstances.

 

• Richard Bailey ponders the issue of how do we capture the essence of PR.  He comes up with the terms Ideas Management.  I’ve always maintained that one of major issues facing PR’s image is the diversity of the profession (yes contrary to some discussion elsewhere I do consider myself a professional with a profession). It’s a tough one.

 

• Edelman have released the findings of their Trust Barometer. OK let me be a little naughty here.  I don’t like to “social media release” – I much prefer the traditional format.  Sorry, I know I’m showing my age, maybe this is just a bad example but I much prefer the introductory paragraph that we all slaved over for hours and hours and framed the news. I know badly written releases are bad, but….

 

• Morgan McLintic has been interviewed by Bulldog Reporter.  This item just about scrapes into this post about real PR due to all the Second Life references 🙂 .

 

• Chris Anderson ponders the effect on the “Long Tail” on PR. Brian Solis adds his two cents. This is something I’ve written about before (here) I think it’s going to be increasingly important for companies in the long run, the challenge facing PR is how do you pitch a “Long Tail” service? I don’t agree with Mr. Anderson’s assertion of PR moving from external to internal relations because that’s making the assumption that blogs become the single point of communication for everyone – nah…

I really don’t like this new fashion for Snap previews.

What’s the value? I can see what the linked web page looks like? But I’m clicking for content not eye candy (from blogs in any case), and those pop ups are driving me mad.

Rant over