Murphy's Law

Gary Goldhammer is absolutely correct, his criticism of my last post is justified, I should have “slept on it” before pushing the publish button, so I send my apologies to Daniel.

You can mark it down to fatigue, a knee jerk response to hyperbole. To make amends here’s a more balanced exploration of some of the more common chestnuts one reads….

Blogs are a killer app…
This is something I’ve argued against for years. Blogs are a tool. That’s it. They’re not the cure to the ills of the world, they’re not going to single handedly destroy traditional media, they’re not going to destroy PR. They are simply an easy way to publish web pages with links and great additional features like comments, trackbacks and of course RSS. Is that to say blogs are not exciting, interesting or valuable? Nope. Blogs foster a new type of conversational communication but anyone waiting for blogs to change the world will be disappointed. Chant with me: “You have no clothes on, you have no clothes on…”

PR is Dying/Dead/Doomed
I think Tom Foremski’s comment on Daniel’s second post sent me over the edge. [He wrote: “Blogging is a killer app, it is killing PR as we know it. Which is probably a good thing since the “old” PR as we know it, is full of inefficiencies and out dated practices but, it does have a business model…”] Oh Lord.

If we’re saying Web 2.0 is all about conversations and organizations getting better at communicating with their audiences, then how can the profession with all the communication skills be doomed? With all due respect, the individuals promoting this vision seem to have a limited knowledge of PR – normally reserved to e-mailed press releases, telephone pitches and press conferences. The fact that these individuals believe that’s all PR is about, means they’re simply speaking from ignorance. PR encompasses staff, investors, local communities, regulators, civil servants etc. etc. it’s not just about the media – though they remain important. It’s not just about news announcements – though they remain important. It’s a whole lot more than that.

If anyone seriously things face-to-face communication or any of the traditional PR skills such as good oral communication, good attention to detail, analytical thinking etc. aren’t relevant in the world of “Web 2.0”, they are sadly mistaken – they’re more relevant. And while some new tools, techniques and channels are emerging, they are an adjunct to our traditional tools, techniques and channels – not a replacement.

Web 2.0 = Death
Web 1.0 was all about the death of existing media, retail stores, consulting services etc. etc. [delete as applicable]. The reality is that the dot com entrepreneurs sold us a simplistic revolutionary vision (that we all bought) when the reality is that the Internet is about evolution. The proponents of Web 2.0 (with really annoying TLA’s such as MSM) are selling a similar proposition. Web 2.0 isn’t about the death of anything, it’s about extending the online experience and allowing us to do more things better. It doesn’t mean we’ll be spending the rest of our lives in our pyjamas sitting in our bedrooms staring at computer screens – well not me anyway.

PR Blogs are all about now
Most bloggers measure their success on visitors. When you post a story you track if anyone is reading, linking or commenting on the story – it’s an immediacy thing. After a while you forget about that post and move on. This immediate gratification behaviour may reflect the immaturity of blogging. Think about this…

Let’s talk just about PR for a moment. As more and more PR people come online and participate in blogging (through writing, reading, commenting or debating), a massive rich ecosystem of PR knowledge is being created. With the improvements in search technology people can find relevant information and knowledge in seconds. While keeping up with your favourite blogs will remain important, a growing volume of blog traffic will begin to come from your archives – or as our Web 2.0 proponents would say: The Long Tail.

Let’s not try and restrict PR people from blogging, instead we should be encouraging more and more PR people to participate in the blogging phenomenon so that we can all learn from each other. Yes there may be opinions we disagree with (oops) or information that might be irrelevant, but we’re still creating an amazing PR resource.

Furthermore, the more PR people who blog, the better understanding our profession will have of the tool.

So, Daniel please accept my apologies. However my advice remains the same.

Step away from the Kool Aid and think about how these tools will help you communicate more effectively on behalf of your clients and possibly increase your professional knowledge and expertise. Anything beyond that is excess.

I’ve pointed out many times before that whilst blogs have performed a fantastic public service by democratizing people’s ability to share their opinions, it’s an awful pity that more people haven’t heeded Mark Twain’s advice that it’s better to keep your mouth shut and appear ignorant than open it and remove all doubt.

That’s one of the thoughts that came to me while I was catching up on my blog reading yesterday evening. It’s interesting to see what a bit of distance can do for your perspective.

The idea that we should look at some sort of “quality control mechanism” for PR blogging is an idea looking for a lobotomy.

Really I have to wonder. Kids if you have nothing interesting to say… No let me re-state that, if you have nothing to say that makes the slightest bit of sense, or adds no value, then surely your own theory on quality rules yourself out of writing that crap in the first place… I hope you’re still with me on this.

My second thought was this. At least the poor unfortunate above had the cojones to stand over their opinion. Anonymous blogs deserve anonymity. No links, no engaging in comment wars. If you want to share your opinions then step up and show yourself, hiding your identity is the coward’s chosen path.

[Daniel: While it’s great you’re getting involved in the “conversation”, there’s an old adage that I think is appropriate: when you’re in a hole, stop digging. Step away from the spade. There are 450 PR blogs, I’d like to see 6,000. Think of the bank of PR knowledge and experience that would create. The quality of information and opinions online is self-regulating, those who have valuable insights will garner the greatest audiences and vice versa. I’d love to see some PR person regulate this blog….]

Clickable: Stuart Bruce, Mike Manuel, Eric Tatro, David Parmet, Morgan McLintic, Phil Gomes, Shel Holtz.

Postscript:
In retrospect this post was a little harsh… read the next post.

News that Jonathan Schwartz has taken over the helm at Sun is an interesting development for the world of blogging.

Here’s a CEO of a Fortune 500 who has used his blog very cleverly to build conversations, illustrate thought leadership and drive a news agenda. It’ll be interesting to see how it develops….

The Public Relations Institute of Ireland’s annual conference took place in Dublin yesterday. Attendance was up on last year and there was a nice buzz at the event.

I gave two workshops on emerging technology which were well attended and I’m glad to report that the awareness of blogging is growing nicely. There were even two bloggers in attendance (I didn’t get the addresses so if you’re both reading this do let me know!).

Funniest moment of the day was a question from a gentleman in one of the sessions which I didn’t hear properly and sounded like “You haven’t discussed how Symantec will change the web.” I assumed that Symantec must have made some sort of announcement that I missed so I asked him “Do you work for Symantec”. He replied; “No the SE-mantic Web”. I thought it was quite funny.

PS: In a 40 minute session that tries to provide context and a little insight into how emerging technologies will impact PR I didn’t get into terrible detail on anything and certainly not the Semantic web. The closest I get is RSS which I imagine will be part of the Semantic web.

A couple of weeks back I mentioned the fact that whilst Social Text’s new product sounded very interesting, living in Ireland there was no way you could go into the pub and tell people you were just writing on your Miki.

It seems more traditional products are facing similar Irish naming problems. Unilever’s Ben & Jerry’s have a new ice cream flavour out in the US called “Black and Tan”.

Although this is another exclusively Irish issue, and therefore unknown outside our rain-swept island, the term Black and Tan often has some negative historical references. [This is something I always found amusing in the US where the black and tan drink includes Guinness].

You can’t really blame Unilever, particularly as the mixed drink is widely consumed throughout the US. I’m not sure Irish consumers are that important either. What is very interesting is that this product is only available in the US, but it shows how the Interweb again creates potential issues which would have previously never arisen.

More from the Guardian.

Thought for the day: Does it scare anyone else that we’re already half way through April?

• There was an episode of “The Outer Limits” or the “Twilight Zone” where aliens landed on Earth and declared that the human race was simply an experiment that they were bringing to an end because looking at the global political situation it was clear to them that our mental and social development was too primitive and showed no signs of improvement. The world’s leaders begged for a week’s stay of execution (bear with me on this one) and in one week the aliens duly returned and the world’s political leaders declared they had finally solved all the conflicts around the world. The planet was now at peace. The aliens laughed and destroyed the planet because they meant there wasn’t *enough* conflict. This is what jumped into my mind when I read this. Is the last bit of entertainment seeping out of PR blogs? Are we facing a barren wasteland? But don’t kid yourselves boys, it was never THAT interesting.
• Speaking of aliens. PR from a different world to mine. [Neville Hobson, Andy Lark]
• And in case you don’t believe me that something strange is going on, Steve has a post that’s linked to PR 🙂
• Dear PR practitioners if you want a graphic example on the inherent difficulties in carrying out Public Relations in the world of the blog then look no further than this link. We’re moving into a time where everyone’s needs are different and failure to recognize and meet those differences can have a negative outcome. This is potentially disastrous for an industry with a long and very proud record of being unable to remember which journalist writes what. Now on top of that we’ll have to know if or how they prefer to be pitched. This ain’t going to look pretty. [Read the comments – link courtesy of Jim Horton]
• Speaking of Jim Horton. It’s a little known fact – in a PR blog universe now exceeding 450 – that Jim is one of the PR profession’s first online pioneers. His Online-PR site has been running for years and he was blogging back before you could blog. Jim always has fantastic insights into the practice. I loved his post that the difference between marketers and PR people is that marketers believe the glass is half full..
• A notable new entry into the world of PR blogging is Keith O’Brien editor of PR Week.
• Also one of the more recent members of the Lewis PR fraternity to step out from the closet, Drew Benvie has kicked off a new blog called the Social Media Report.
• The Hobson & Holtz Report #129
• Nevile Hobson has a fantastic story that illustrates the challenge of the exclusive in the modern world…
• Richard Edelman provides his perspective on the changes facing traditional media outlets. Can we please drop the “MSM” tag…
• PR is ranked as the 20th best job in the US by Money magazine. And they give out about us making up surveys…. [Thanks to Voce Nation]

[Thanks to Philip Young and of course the artist Hugh MacLeod]

• According to the guardian of all things to do with PR blogging, Constantin Basturea, there are now over 440 PR blog feeds… wow…that’s a lot of PR…
• Philip Young tracks the storm that’s accompanied Julia Hobsbawm’s Editorial Intelligence project which aims to bridge the gap between PR professionals and journalists. Stuart Bruce has some great commentary and common sense on the reaction to the project from the Guardian’s Christina Odone.
• Eric Schwartzman has released podcasts with two of the most respected people in the industry namely Harold Burson and Al Golin.
• Hugh MacLeod’sGaping Void is always sharp and always worth a visit…

[Via BL Ochman]

There’s some interesting discussion on whether PR practitioners have the capabilities (or interest) to harness the new media tools. [Ref: Richard Bailey, Drewb, Mike Manuel]

However, I can’t help thinking that maybe that’s the wrong question.

Surely the question that’s more relevant is what skills and knowledge do practitioners need to effectively communicate with their audience(s) using traditional and new media tools.

For many audiences the new wave of Web 2.0 technologies are irrelevant (at this moment in time) and of course for many audiences the opposite is true.

I think it would be wrong for practitioners to jump on every new development just because it’s new. Instead we’d be better off properly understanding how our audiences are finding and sharing information and then using that knowledge to inform our campaigns and tactics.

If your client is a Web 2.0 wannabee, you need to be all over this area, if your client sells to senior citizens that’s a completely different scenario.

We need to be pragmatic in how we bring new tools to our campaigns. That doesn’t mean slow, that means pragmatic.

At the most basic level, I think we can all agree that the vast majority of Internet users start with a search engine – but how many practitioners know about search engine optimization? In my experience between few and none.

I would agree that as a profession we’re very very slow to adopt new technology. This is a profession-wide weakness. However I’d also strongly counsel against adopting technology for technology’s sake. That is just as misguided as the former.

If PR practitioners take a pragmatic and open minded approach to the impact of Web 2.0 on their AUDIENCE, then we’ll find the right path and the right balance.

Neither of the alternatives to that approach make commercial or professional sense (in my very humble opinion).

Footnote:
As these tools and channels mature we’re seeing more interesting and complex discussions around where they fit in and how they impact reputation. For a very interesting post click over to Elizabeth Albrycht’s post.

I’ve given a number of interesting sessions this week. Two talks with students and this morning I met with a group of PR people in Dublin. Very interesting discussions.

This morning, everyone in the room had heard of blogging but only one person actually read blogs (though I’m sure they’re all reading this now..!). The count among students was less compelling with lower levels of awareness but more people reading them. There’s also a lot of interest in podcasting.

Interestingly the Bebo phenomenon -is everywhere. I believe that the website is now the #1 visited website in Ireland – bar none. Given I’m an old fart I’ve only come to that one late.

I also recounted my Miki story this morning and everyone laughed, so I can confirm it’s an Irish-only naming issue!

We’ve all read the salutary lessons on corporate naming projects. Particularly the famous examples of when certain brand-names have different meanings when translated into different languages.

There are loads of examples.

I think I’ve just spotted my first potential Web 2.0 naming mistake (well in Ireland at any rate).

I pronounce the term Wiki, as Wick-ey. In fact that’s the only way I’ve ever heard it pronounced – though I note Wikipedia does provide alternatives.

Now [via Mike Manuel] SocialText have released a Wiki for mobile devices and they’ve called it Miki.

Now that’s fine unless you pronounce that word Mick-ey. In Ireland (and I think the UK) that’s a slang term for a man’s genitals.

I certainly won’t tell anyone that I’ve been writing on my Miki….

Footnote:
Ross you’re OK it seems it’s an Irish only thing so that’s not a very big deal! There’s some funny comments below, so thanks to Kevin, Philip, Mike and Phil who made me laugh this morning.

Elliot: People can easily differentiate between the slang “Mickey” and Mickey Mouse, Mickey Mantle etc. the usage is quite different!