The hidden danger of blogs

There’s a very amusing article in the UK Times on the potential danger of embarrasment for babies born to parents who blog.

“So put yourself in the place of Jake, 28 days old today, whose mother, Nicola, has been keeping a diary of his birth on www.babythoughts.co.uk. Imagine a future employer or girlfriend reading the entry for Monday, April 12: ‘Ew. Jake just peed on my arm! It�s like a fountain that never ends. How can such a tiny baby have such a big bladder?’�

PR news from around the web..

 You have to love coincidences… After posting my rant on the educated consumer I spotted a story about how Internet “strategy” firm I-ology has launched an online PR service.

Trish Bear, I-ology president and CEO. “In talking with clients every day, I continue to hear the need for effective communication programs that not only help build brand awareness, but that also directly boost bottom line results. As arguably the most cost-effective marketing tool available, the addition of a public relations line of business is the perfect next step in I-ology’s commitment to our clients’ success.”

 I also spotted a very strange story in the UK’s Brand Republic.  The story concerns eBay’s appointment of a PR chief in the UK.  Why’s it strange?  Well all the color commentary is provided by the ex-PR head of one of their competitors. Unusual.

Alex Czajkowski, a former director of marketing for internet auction company, QXL, is full of praise for what is, for him, a former rival brand: ‘eBay is integral to the fabric of America, like Coke, IBM and Pepsi.

 There’s also an interesting feud going on in Canada with the man who billed 3,600 hours in a year. Now that’s efficient time management…

 

The dreaded era of the educated consumer…

The entrepreneurs of the Internet boom sold us all on a vision where we’d never again have to leave our bedrooms or even get dressed.

We all bought this vision of the total online world, when in fact if we had stepped outside the hype and remembered the lessons from history we would have realised that oftentimes new innovations take their place alongside the incumbents rather than replacing them.

So in the PR world, the Internet is now another medium which sits comfortably alongside our newpapers and magazines, our television, cable and radio.

What the Internet has done is to make the job of a PR practitioner more complex than before.  We’ve a host of new tools, thousands of new media sources and our greatest challenge yet: creating conversations with our audience.

As all the marketing disciplines have become more sophisticated, so has the consumer.  Where the Internet was heralded as a means of creating instantaneous sales (and in some cases such as books it has), consumers today expect companies to work harder for their dollars.

Think about my recent purchase of a PDA as a case in point.

In the past, I might have got a couple of brochures from some manufacturers, visited a couple of retail outlets and made a decision. Today that purchase process is far more complex.

I’ll search for all the manufacturers. I’ll go to all their sites and read their literature.  I’ll visit the relevant magazines and read the reviews, visit mailing lists, consumer opinion sites. I’ll still pop into the retail store and finally I’ll make my “educated” opinion. Then, once I’ve parted with my cash and my post-purchase cognitive dissonance sets in, I’ll re-visit my chosen vendor’s website to be reassured that I made the right decision.

That is a longer and more demanding sales cycle.

It seems to me that as the ticker price rises, the purchase process for the educated consumer becomes longer and more complex with the Internet.  That’s a real business issue.

So how is Public Relations responding to this new demanding consumer?

I think the jury’s out, but given the growing need for PR to make a direct contribution to an organization’s bottom line, it is something that every practitioner should be thinking about.

We need to understand the complex purchase process and how we can communicate more effectively during that process.

Then there’s the Cluetrain effect.

Every company needs official content, data sheets, backgrounders etc., but there is also a growing need for companies to reach out and connect with their customers. The Cluetrain declaration that markets aren’t about products or services but about conversations, is more relevant today than when it was published.

Organizations that can connect with customers in a real and meaningful way have a strong advantage over those that hide behind corporate speak.  Weblogs offer one tactic to help firms reach out, but weblogs continue to be in their infancy and as a result, firms are struggling to understand how they can be best deployed.

Trevor Cook reports that Microsoft, a company facing a challenging market, now has over 400 employee blogs. Many of these blogs are well written and do show a positive human side to Microsoft.  However, many are written by individuals who have drank a little too much Kool-Aid and are a little too fond of quoting the “great human resource benefits” at the company.

I have no concrete answers to these questions. It’s too early and I’m always suspicious of people who declare they know the code.

However here’s an exercise for you.

How well do you understand the typical purchase process for your client or employer’s product? Do you know and understand where those customers find information? Are your PR activities tailored to meet those needs? Are you trying to create conversations?

The Internet is all about communication and therefore it’s all about Public Relations. PR can play a central role in helping firms deal with the educated consumer. It’s a great opportunity.

We’re all busy, we’re all under resourced and over worked (A great illustration for the dreaded “Sharpen the Saw” metaphor).

However, sometimes it is useful to step back and look at the business problem, it could help make your PR programs more effective and a prominent contributor to the bottom line. The difficult part is that the media and the audience continues to change.  Success will require some new approaches.

 

Los Angeles PR turmoil continues…

The current snafu around Public Relations services being provided to the City of Los Angeles has taken an interesting twist, with news that Los Angeles Mayor Jame Hahn has ordered that City departments should halt any current negotiations with PR firms and if possible break existing contracts.

This follows news that Fleishman-Hillard has cancelled its existing contracts with City departments…

PR blogging continues to rise..

Mark Borkowski, one of the best known UK practitioners has kicked off a new weblog “Mark My Words” – though the blog’s “cool” navigation doesn’t quite work in Firebird/Firefox.

Mike Manuel of Voce Communications has also kicked off a new blog called “Media Guerilla” – and the navigation does work! Mike is looking at the practice of technology Public Relations. A matter close to my heart.

Update:

Two additional PR blogs….

Michael L. O’Brien on “effective marketing and communications strategies”

Commlog, a blog “devoted to the strategy and practice of communication inside organizations”, it’s published by CRA Inc.

Footnote:

Thanks to Constantin Basturea for the link.

Forget the doom and gloom and get on with it..

It’s interesting to see the reaction to the Ad Week finding on a “slump” in PR spending last year. 

There’s a saying that “one Swallow doens’t make a Summer”, and similarly one negative report on PR spending doesn’t mean the industry’s fall from grace is continuing.

PR has been through a hard and harrowing time since 2000, mirroring the harsh economic realities faced by practically every industry and profession.  Agencies that grew and expanded were hit hard and many didn’t survive the shake up.

One upshot of this decline has been the incredible rise of independent PR practitioners who are here to stay and add a new dimension to the business.

The other trend created by any downturn is the need for marketing and PR owners to justify expenditure and focus on activities that can be readily measured and demonstrated.

However, I firmly believe 2004 is the beginning of the upswing.  Economic indicators are positive and recent conversations I’ve had with a large number of agency people reinforces the feeling that things are getting a little easier.

Lou Hoffman has written an op-ed for Technology Marketing on the re-emergence of a growing number of new technology start-ups. According to his article, Venture Capital firms closed 400 funding deals in the first quarter of 2004 – worth $4.6 billion… that’s better than it’s been for quite some time.

It’s human nature that people continue to be cautious in spending and expansion, but optimism is returning. I think we need to look on the bright side.  If you compare the economic environment for Public Relations now with how it was in 2001 I’ll take today’s situation!

So chin up. Focus on how you can help your clients be successful.  Focus on delivering value and well defined services. We’re not out of the woods yet but there is a clearing in sight.

“The good news for PR professionals is that today’s entrepreneurs are taking a more sane approach to building their empires.”

Microsoft blog maven on blogs and PR

Steve Rubel over at the Micro Persuasion blog has published an interview with Robert Scoble concerning the impact of blogging on PR and journalism.

“The trick for the mainstream media is to figure out how to work with bloggers. Already some of them are doing just that. Many journalists are reading blogs to gather news. Many others are keeping blogs themselves and building ties to the community.”