Clive Thompson of Wired wrote about the need for honesty and transparency in his article on “The See-Through CEO”. I agree with Greg that this is a pretty good piece, but I’m appalled by Clive’s sub-headline – “Fire the publicist. Go off message. Let all your employees blab and blog. In the new world of radical transparency, the path to business success is clear.”

In the interest of fellow PR professionals, I’d like to dissect it and examine the misconceptions embedded within:

• “Fire the publicist” – For too long, the term “Public Relations Professional” has been contracted to “Publicist”. This wrongly puts the focus on “Publicity” as the end-in-mind. The focus should be on “Relationships” instead. Publicity is mere “fruit” of the process, and a means to an end.

• “Go off message. Let all your employees blab and blog.” – “Messages” should explain the vision and actions of an organisation. A company that “goes off message” gives wrong and unclear impressions of the company’s vision and state of affairs. This is no good for everyone. Yes, we need to listen to the public, but after the listening is done, we have to make decisions; and our messages have to explain what the decisions are. Then we listen some more, participate in more conversations and adapt, innovate, and clearly state what we’re doing, where we are going. Leadership and clear directions are vital to the “conversation” process. I said it earlier at the end of my post on Leading Change, and I’ll say it again – the path (conversations with the public) ahead is a journey to lead, and not a walk in the dark.

• “Radical transparency” doesn’t mean “reduced accountability” (to the organization, shareholders and customers). If you prioritise blabber above action, you alarm the public and you waste their time. Yes, I’m all for “naked conversations” and “naked corporations”, but who wants a CEO to shift his businesses strategies from boardroom to bedroom? PR professionals are responsible for helping to pull that act together and make sure that CEOs listen and act in the best interest of the public and every stakeholder. CEOs and their companies must be human, personal and transparent. But Greg sums it up perfectly when he says that “being transparent doesn’t mean being stupid or sloppy.”

PR, Clive Thompsons-of-the-world, is far higher up the rungs of leadership than you perceive it to be. It is more about relationships than publicity, and more about leadership than relationships.

We PR folks get our priorities mixed up sometimes; but some of us are changing things.

And CEOs, this is not the time to “fire your publicists, go off message and let your employess blab and blog”. Even more than ever, you need the counsel of true PR professionals who understand that our chief mandate should not be “to create publicity”. We build the vital, trusted relationships that your companies depend on, and not the illusion of it.

“PR” is not a job title or “marketing strategy”. It is organisational leadership made public and personal. And today, we have the tools to do this better than ever.

Like Shift Communications and Edelman, I’m attempting to change the way a Press Release is developed. Yes, it may end up looking conceptually the same as Shift’s Social Media News Release (SMNR) or Edelman’s StoryCrafter, but the approach is entirely different.

Enter the Community Press Release.

I’m testing this on a technology conference that’s taking place tomorrow – Nexus 2007 – organized by The Digital Movement, a non-profit organization that I am a part of.

In the actual implementation, I’ve labeled it The Committeeunity Press Release. Because that’s what it is… I’m scratching out the “Committee-dictated”, top-down approach to writing the event press release, and instead, handing the task over to the Community of conference participants.

They can write the release, link their blog posts (about the event) to it, share their best photos and Podcasts of the conference, and do just about anything that they feel will best present the conference to reporters and the rest of the world. In fact, they’ll probably be more thorough in reporting on the incidental (but significant) news that my team may have missed out in the process of running the event! PLUS, there is an added layer of authenticity in a piece that’s written and checked by a Community of participants. (Think Wikipedia.)

Here’s a step-by-step guide I developed along the way (note that all this is still work in progress):

A. Set it up

1. Start the Community Press Release on a public wiki
2. Ensure that it has a short and intuitive URL (domain forwarding helps)
3. Consider password and registration requirements for participants

B. Create a framework

4. Provide a structure for the press release (because not all bloggers know what a press release looks like); and include sections like:
1. Headline/s
2. Facts (5W1H)
3. Quotes
4. Interesting events
5. Provide links to:

1. Official website/s
2. Blog posts on conference segments (consider categorizing the blog posts according to day/session/theme)
3. Photo-sharing sites where participants upload their best photos
4. Podcasts
5. Conference coverage in mainstream media (perhaps more relevant after the event)
5. Appoint a facilitator to ensure that participants are making meaningful contributions, and that technical issues are quickly resolved

C. Provide guidance

7. Provide background and essential information to start with
8. Give clear instructions on how conference attendees can participate in the Community Press Release, and how to get help/further guidance (Give them the phone number or an the IM details of the facilitator)
9. Under each section header, provide annotations

D. Call to action

10. Announce it at the start of the event and/or place signboards of the announcement
11. Encourage each attendee to be a participant in sharing their experience with the “Invisible Crowd”.
12. Some people learn more when they participate, and this will be a good incentive for participants wanting to get more out of an event!
13. Offer prizes?

E. Putting the results to use

14. Send it to reporters who ask for a press release
15. Make the URL available to everyone

Note: The Community Press Release is probably only suitable for conferences at this point of time.

What are your thoughts on the concept of a Community Press Release? Apart from events, how else do you think a Community Press Release can work?

Nexus 2007 will start in about five hours; and by the end of the day, I hope to have a Community Press Release that is succinct enough to hold a reporter’s attention at first glance. Yet it should also be comprehensive enough – with links to other sources of information and rich media – for reporters and the rest of the world out there!

Look out for the Nexus 2007 Community Press Release

Wish me luck!

The launch of Highrise – the shared contact manager I first wrote about in Media Follow-ups 2.0 – is an awesome example of brilliant PR.

Observe how creators 37signals first announced the upcoming product.

How they teased the public and satisfied their curiosity for news, with regular previews through their blog.

How they launched Highrise on their blog and accepted genuine feedback in the form of comments (both positive and negative) on the blog post.

How 37signals responded with rapid changes to Highrise‘s product packages; and how they ‘relaunched’ it. Observe the comments that follow.

To distill the lessons gleaned from this online product launch (via a corporate blog), here are five reminders to bear in mind:

1. Talk to your key stakeholders like you would to a friend
2. Let them talk back
3. Get them involved in your product design
4. Listen carefully to what they have to say
5. Act fast! (or be prepared to explain your inaction)

Granted, most companies don’t deal with web products that are somewhat easier to tweak at customers’ wimps and fancies; but the principles outlined here are timeless, and especially true in the Internet age today.

What a brilliant show by 37signals.

And what I’d like to know is this: What were the thoughts that went on in the CEO’s mind between the first criticism on the blog post and 37signal’s announcement of the ‘new, improved’ product?

Maximising the Value of Conferences and other PR Events… Virtually.

Chris Brogan wrote a very useful piece on “attending conferences without [actually] being there”. But let me explain why this is absolutely vital to PR folks who plan and manage conferences (and other events) as relationship-building measures:

• Yes, people are now “attending conferences without being there”.
• But, short of bugging the venue with video cameras, they can’t do it unless someone makes it possible/easy for them.
• And, knowing this is going to change the way you plan conferences.

Observably:

• The savvy Netizen today will find more ways to be at an event without actually being there (physically).
• Conference participants-cum-bloggers will be a vital part of the equation.
• The long tail effect dictates that worthy information gets carried as far across the globe as it is relevant, and stays alive online… forever.
• In fact, ‘second-degree audiences’ may even get a better deal because in addition to a blow-by-blow account of the conference, they get expert and mass opinion. (Not really, I’d rather be there first-hand!)
• The recent New Communications Forum in Las Vegas and the ongoing SxSW 2007 in Austin, Texas are excellent case studies.
• Content is even more important today. Audiences have greater choice over how much they choose to be engaged – it’s easier (less embarrassing) to close a browser window than to doze off in the middle of an auditorium when a speech is given. And online audiences can definitely gripe about how bad an event seems to be going!

The reason for this:
The Social Web – and Web 2.0 technologies – is increasing our ability to engage a virtual audience along with the real one. And this does a lot for your event ROI.

The possibilities are clear and the trend is apparent – to get more bang for your buck at conferences; you need to engage more participants than just those who can attend physically.

The impetus on PR:
To be truly effective, PR folks and conference organisers should think about the (potential) ‘2.0’ dimension for every PR event or conference – Can you hold a real-time webcast? Can you invite a blogger/s to blog about or create podcasts of the event? Are you making it easier for the audience (who are also bloggers) to report on what’s happening in real-time? Are you reporting it well enough through your own channels?

Here are some questions to ask before developing a conference plan:

The ‘real audience’

• Who am I inviting? Who are my ‘real’ audiences?
• What am I saying to them?

The ‘virtual dimension’

• Who are my ‘virtual’ audiences? Who did/could I not invite, but are reading and hearing about the event on blogs, podcasts and instant messaging, as the conference unfolds?
• What are they talking about?
• How will their presence be felt? How will/can they interact with the crowds?

Bridging the gap between the real conference and the virtual event

• How can we get them connected virtually? Think webcasts, podcasts and virtual tours (a concurrent Second Life version of the event?).
• How can I enrich their experience?
• How can I extend the virtual reach of the conference? Establish the right infrastructure (wireless Internet access); make URLs visible and accessible; make them easy to relay in print and by speech (it should be short and simple to read); make content immediately available and easily accessible.
• How can I get accurate feedback on the event? The feedback from the ‘real audience’ will be easy to collect (and measure) through feedback forms. But you shouldn’t ignore the feedback from the ‘invisible crowd’. This can possibly be more authentic, given that conference participants tend to be easily swayed by inherent biases found in many feedback forms. Some ways to obtain this feedback are by analyzing blog entries, comments and web traffic etc.

Having said all this, while we extol the virtues of pleasing the virtual audience; don’t neglect to give the real audience something special so that they’ll remember the conference fondly. After all, they paid for it and took the trouble to travel down!

(written for the upcoming IPRS Newsletter)

We need no more evidence that the world of Public Relations has irrevocably changed with the emergence of the Social Web phenomenon and the increasing penetration of Web 2.0 technologies.

Unfortunately, in Singapore, there is still a chasm between what we believe in and what we actually do about it. In an informal poll I conducted early this year amongst more than 50 PR agency folks (from junior staff to MDs), this belief-action gap was most startling. All but one agreed that blogs will have a profound impact on the future of business communications, yet only 34% of them blog and less than 5% are even aware of their company and clients’ corporate blogging policies. And we haven’t even begun to scratch the surface of Social Media.

Today, we are ceding control to the advertising and online marketing folks who are first to jump in with very tactical communications strategies that ignore the importance of sustained trust and relationship-building. In doing so, they jeopardise the reputation of the companies that they represent, leaving PR to deal with a clutter of distrust and cynicism online.

There are two reasons why PR is still behind the curve (as compared to advertising and online marketing) in the social media landscape:

1. ‘Digital Divide 2.0′ – even within PR agencies, a huge gap exists between those with a sound understanding of PR 2.0, and those who don’t.
2. There is an even larger gap between knowledge and action, stemming from two main factors – fear of venturing into the unknown; and the lack precedence to prove and promise substantial return on investment. PR measurement is important, but relationship is not a numbers game.

How do we bridge these gaps?
What can you do, as an agency head or account team leader, to develop PR 2.0-savvy agency teams? I recommend five ways:

1. Dedicate resources
Just last month, I met with John Bell, the MD and Executive Creative Director of 360° Digital Influence at Ogilvy PR Worldwide. He was in Asia for a meeting with the company’s regional Digital Influence teams. He also spent some time connecting with influential bloggers in the region. This speaks volumes of the emphasis that Ogilvy PR is placing on developing digital expertise all over the world. According to him, Ogilvy PR has “a global team who is expert in digital influence or digital PR, and they make training and evangelism via client engagements part of their jobs.”

2. Encourage everyone to be digital
John adds that while Ogilvy has a dedicated digital team, “the end game [must] be that everyone in the agency becomes digital.”

He has this piece of practical advice for every PR practitioner – “PR pros have to take this seriously. The business will forever be changed; maybe not tomorrow but soon. Every PR pro should have a RSS feed reader set up, a del.icio.us account and either a blog or at least a profile in a social network like LinkedIn or MySpace. Reading blogs and watching video blogs are a great start. Once the aggregator or feed reader is set up, this becomes a lot easier.”

3. Constantly clarify understanding
We must constantly clarify our understanding of PR 2.0. Many have rushed through their learning on the subject without true comprehension. They consider it an additional set of skills or tools to be acquired, without understanding that PR 2.0 is a complete paradigm shift. They fail to realise that it’s not just all about the technology; and it’s not just the Media that has changed. We have changed.

As a result of poor understanding, many remain focused on mere tactics. Their entire worldview of Social Media strategy comprises almost completely of reaching out to bloggers, and uploading award-winning TVCs on YouTube!

4. Create safe places to experiment
The Social Web can be a brutal place. Make a mistake like Edelman’s Walmart fiasco and everyone jumps on you. Say something wrong on your blog and you may be ripped to shreds. No wonder fear is the main hindrance to implementing PR 2.0 strategies.

To overcome this fear, you should create safe places where members of your team (or your clients) can experiment. An internal company blog hosted on an intranet is an excellent way to do it. Instead of having meetings in the next couple of months, use the blog (where appropriate) to make company announcements and discuss internal issues. Have members of the team respond and establish dialogue over pertinent topics.

Better yet, if you can afford the time and resources, create scenarios and have members of your team role-play online “PR situations”. Coach your team members by providing advice on the effectiveness of their actions online; and clarify their understanding of how Netizens really respond in differing situations.

Set targets, appoint “Social Media” coaches, and create an intensive training ground for the 360-degree complexities of online conversations.

Fear is a primary obstacle to innovation of “Social Media” PR strategies, and the understanding of how things work in the Social Web will dramatically reduce that fear.

5. Hire your audience
The younger tech-savvy crowd of today are possibly the only ones who truly wonder why we even use the term “new media”. They are born into Friendster, learned how to blog as a subject in school and probably never actually owned a physical photo album because Flickr manages all their photos.

So instead of looking only for “traditional” PR experience in your next hire, consider hiring those who already live and breathe Social Media. They may not know how to write a press release, but they write in “conversations”, and you never know when their blog entry may just change the world!

Conclusion
The Social Web is possibly the best thing that has ever happened to PR, and while opportunities abound, there is also much uncertainty. It is absolutely vital then, that we see the path ahead as a journey to lead, and not a walk in the dark.

In an economy where top talents are highly-prized, this is certainly a testimony to the power of corporate blogging:

James Smith, MD of publishing house Alphabet Media oversees several magazine titles and industry events. He started a corporate blog in July last year to journal the day-to-day life in his company and to share with the world what goes on in Alphabet Media – what they do and why they do it.

Just yesterday, he just found out that one of his recent hires – a bright and talented young lady – had opted to work for him (at Alphabet Media) despite having been offered a very attractive job at one of the world’s largest IT company.

And the reason for her choice?

She read the company blog, fell in love with the culture, and decided that she would rather be part of this smaller outfit than the tech giant.

As someone who loves to hear of good things happening to SMBs, I love this story. No carefully-engineered marketing campaign, no call for submission of video ads, but the fruit of simple and genuine public relations.

I forgot to ask James what his immediate thoughts were, when he discovered how his blogging had led to the hiring of a fantastic new team member. But instead of sending this question to him via e-mail, I shall leave him to share his thoughts…

Btw, I love his advice on human resources: Staff shortage? Grow your own

Here’s some of mine:

• While we talk endlessly about establishing online communities, the best community you can ever build, is the one around you.
• A corporate blog doesn’t always have to sell your product. If your company has a terrific culture, celebrate it! You’ll be surprised at the results that follow.
• Good PR starts from within.
• A blog is merely a tool after all, not a strategy.