The Conversation - developing a digital strategy

Erins ePortfolio 

http://vassa02.wordpress.com/

This is part one of a story. It is the synthesis of a number of recent conversations in contributing to thinking of PR strategies.

Mary T who has worked in PR for a generation, the client, represents herself and a number of very talented people entering the realm of internet mediated public relations.

Background

Mary T suspects that very soon she will be asked to present a plan for her company to rapidly move towards being involved in the wider aspects of online public relations.

In our conversation she says she is certain she will be asked for her thoughts on social media, perhaps also the company web site and she is aware that there is more to online public relations than these very visible manifestations of the internet.

In the first discussion there are three people present: Mary, her media relations manager and an intern.

True to all forms of Public Relations Management, the team spends a considerable time defining objectives.

At present, the brief for this company (which  manufactures and licences some manufacturing and sells to wholesale, retail and direct to consumers) is, of necessity, vague. It is not uncommon for PR briefs to be a trifle vague. Most management policy making tends to emerge.

Digital impact

The initial discussion revolves round the the nature of the digital impact on business.

Digitisation of so many functions offers considerable benefits for the organisation. It empowers people, reduces cost and enhances capability to serve all stakeholders. At the same time it opens opportunity for risk which could damage reputation and,more importantly, relationships.

It comes as something of a surprise for Mary to discover that the company’s accounts were digitised before her intern was born and the first accounting computers were in operation before she was born. Her company has sophisticated order fulfilment which depends on computers that makes her a bit uneasy and so she is surprised to find out that management consultant’s Arther D Little developed the first computerized inventory control package for IBM in 1962. These are technologies that are pretty well bedded-in now.

Not only is a large part of company operations digitised it has been for a long time and there is huge experience and reliability in the systems.

Digital process and inventory is not new or or particularly frightening.

We could agree quickly that, strategically, digital risk should be added and included in PR issues and crisis management.

Outsourcing

From the network and intranet to the IT centre, there are things to worry about and none the less that IT need to cut cost - a lot. There is talk of closing the computer centre and contracting out computing ‘to the cloud’.

Of course this is a worry because so many activities are being ‘out-sourced’.

A moments thought brings this into perspective. Here am I, a consultant, an outsourced resource.

There are lots of of them each vested with very sensitive information. Lawyers, accountants, franchise manufactures using the company secret IP in production processes every day are some examples. The fact is that management processes for outsourcing already exists in the company.

They need to be brought up to date. Including an outsourced communication channel such as Facebook is a challenge. The Terms and Conditions of Service (T’s & C’s) become critical here. In some cases T’s & C’s may be too onerous or some risk has to be accepted to take advantage of the opportunities available.

What we discover is that the company already has outsourcing and contracting processes that can be used and adopted (some may need to be adapted) but within the existing management capability and management structures in the company.

This is of comfort in being able to present new forms of communication within the existing company and management framework (we laugh at the idea of delegating both implementation and budget sideways).

In terms of strategy, we have a solution which is to purposely and in a managed fashion using existing protocols use existing corporate expertise.

Internal communication

Love it or hate it, company email is the backbone for internal communication. It is fast and can get to everyone literally in an instant. Its capability is its downfall. A lot of internal email is irrelevant, personal, junk or spam and is simply ignored because it is regarded as internal spam.

There is a long history and much research to inform the practitioner.

There is a big HR/management discipline responsibility here (the corporate email policy is important and should be refreshed in the minds of employees at regular intervals) but there is also a huge PR element too.

When people find forms of communication are not helpful they find work-arounds.

• 79 per cent of people send work emails from their personal email accounts, with 1 in 5 saying they do this on a regular basis
• 71 per cent of people recognise there is an additional risk in sending work documents outside the corporate email environment, but 47 per cent think it is acceptable to send work emails and documents to personal email accounts
• 40 per cent of those asked say that if they had an unlimited mailbox at work, they would be less likely to send work emails to personal email accounts
• More than a third (36%) of incoming email to work inboxes is NOT work related
• Over 300 work-related emails are sent per person via personal accounts each year
• Generation Gmail is particularly predisposed to personal email; 52 per cent rated it as better than work email in terms of mailbox size, compared to just 29 per cent of over 55s

(source: Mimecast)

Today the ubiquitous mobile phone is  the easiest work round and modern phones give options of email, instant messaging, social networks and much more to as alternatives to company internal email.

This means there is a need to both review the company email policy at regular intervals and review the range of media that is in use. For some organisations the replacement of much email traffic with company social networks is a consideration.

In addition, because there are many instances of contractors, consultant and employees working externally, there has to be consideration of capabilities that extend beyond the physical limitations of the company, including hot desking and  home workers.

In some instanced this may mean that wifi is a better option than networks; laptops or slates are more cost effective than PC’s and, in some cases cloud solutions will be appropriate ( the Google example here Gmail – Google Apps http://bit.ly/nGGiDv includes secure instant messaging).

As the communication expert, we need to be aware of what is happening and what the alternatives may be.

Engaging  and empowering employees to not just monitor but to proactively contribute to both best practice and enhanced organisational effect through devolved responsibility is a major corporate strategy decision.

The decision has, to a large extent, been taken out of the hands of the one time dominant coalition. The mobile phone has seen to that!

This means that PR now has to take a hand with both the agreement and active support of the Board.

An open system where 1000 employees are engaged in enforcing commonly help best practice has been shown to be more powerful that one employee attempting to enforce 1000 views of best practice.

A recent high profile example was at Google.

Forbes reports:

Google engineer Steve Yegge accidentally published to the world a rant about his company’s new social network that was meant to be shared only with his Google colleagues. (Tricky sharing settings were actually not among his complaints about Plus.) Widely circulated, the devastating critique said Google Plus was “a prime example of our complete failure to understand platforms from the very highest levels of executive leadership.”

Luckily for Yegge, those highest levels of executive leadership are forgiving types. Company founder Sergey Brin told the AP this week that Yegge wasn’t fired because he had intended to only share the post with other employees.

“Amazingly, nothing bad happened to me at Google,” writes Yegge (publicly) on Google Plus, also saying the Plus team will be making some changes in reaction to some of his criticisms. “Everyone just laughed at me a lot, all the way up to the top, for having committed what must be the great-granddaddy of all Reply-All screwups in tech history.”

Yegge started the post with harsh words for his previous employer, Amazon. Yegge regrets that going public, too — as well he should. Hiring managers, understandably, frown on negative comments about a previous employer when they’re doing their social media research on a candidate.

Understanding of these issues among employees is very important.

Long ago, lecturing to 60 final year PR students in I explained that for all intents and purposed everything that goes online is there for ever and that Facebook owned all those compromising photos as well. I simply asked if they would like a future employer or their children to see the images. Within 24 hours a lot of photos vanished from Facebook entries.

Being more open and still retaining high levels of corporate security is possible and can be positively beneficial.

The advantage of having an intern present is that she offered a reality and, perhaps a naivete and reality check in her minutes of our discussions. If she had difficulty understanding our deliberations, it was reasonable that the Board would too.

Long before we had examined the external strategy needs of Mary T, we had developed some really important and grounded strategies that she could use as part of her presentation to the Board.



Next time I will reflect some of the conversations about external communication.






Sources:
Early Electronic Computers (1946-51)  http://www.computer50.org/mark1/contemporary.html Accessed October 2011
The first accounting computers http://www.historyofinformation.com/index.php?category=Accounting+%2F+Business+Machines accessed October 2011
Arthur D Little Timeline http://www.adl.com/fileadmin/timeline/timeline.html Accessed October 2011.
Mimecast report http://www.mimecast.com/News-and-views/White-papers-Reports-and-analysis/Dates/2011/3/Generation-Gmail-Report/ Accessed October 2011
Employee Internet Abuse: Risk Management Strategies and their Effectiveness. (2003)
Case, C. J. and Young, K. S.  http://www.netaddiction.com/articles/eia_strategies.pdf Accessed October 2011
Ranting Google Engineer, Still Employed, Rethinks His Amazon Bashing http://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2011/10/21/ranting-google-employee-still-employed-rethinks-his-amazon-bashing/ accessed October 2011

Dear Chief Executive

http://bit.ly/q1JNTG 

The internet is contributing 7.9% to the UK economy this year, about £11 billion.


This is up 10% since last year. It is bigger as a contributor to GDP than health, construction and transport.


The ONS report 10% of all retail sales are now conducted online. In September this amounted to  £5.5bn.


Most managers recognise the economy is at best, flat-lining and yet last month while retail sales rose, unexpectedly (by 0.6%), it was dwarfed by Online retail sales which were up 15% Year on Year. 


This is not just for the middle market buying the week's groceries. Top of the line retailers are benefiting from the web too and they are not nearly as affected by a sluggish economy.


When excluding online travel sales, e-retail sales growth in September jumped 20%.  We could do with a similar boost.


Not to be too bullish, it is realistic to imagine annual growth online in the retail sector to slow somewhat but good double digit growth will continue.


This suggests there is an opportunity here for us.


The data is clear that traditional selling outlets, that is, non internet retail sales, are in decline and to make up the shortfall online marketing is essential to maintain turnover, and probably margins.


With 35 million people already shopping online, it is not a big stretch of the imagination to believe that online selling in B2C is reflected in B2B data as well.


Organisations like Autorola are projecting sales of 220,000 cars  this year and twice that in five years. Construction Enquirer is an online magazine with a readership that would make the traditional magazines proud and 57% of businesses are reporting increased internet budgets this month.


We know that seven in ten B2B buyers start their purchase process with a query typed into Google or another search engine. Thus, right at the beginning of the purchase cycle, the internet is pivotal. B2B marketers with a social media strategy has now doubled from 32% to 64% in three months.


To get some idea of the capabilities that are part of the digital infrastructure now, the BBC has done amazing things online for the Olympics that we can learn from. But most important is that they have taken as their mantra that they will deliver content on "on whatever piece of glass" they choose". 


The range of platforms is now extensive and PC's are only one platform among many for delivering digital content. 


Mobile is critical and has even domestic implications notable in being able to offer wifi throughout or premises. 


At the same time the internet is expanding to include physical objects fitted with sensors or intelligence.


We need to find systems to manage different platforms and technologies as we increasingly need to accommodate the many different devices chosen by employees and consumers.


On the delivery side, users are adopting a wider range of channels from Facebook to Google+, mobile phone apps to storing everything in the cloud. 


This applies as much to individuals as to organisations. For the most part the adoption of these advanced technologies is hardly noticeable. The technology is so good it is not even noticeable. 


We will have to come to terms with offering digital services internally among employees as well as for an extensive range of external stakeholders.


What these data tell us is that to be competitive more than £1 in £10 has to exclusively flow from online activity. 


Better than 7.9% of turnover has to be directly attributable to the internet.


We need to be able to adopt and enhance activity on many channels with many communications platforms, including social media, throughout the organisation.


Having done that, we will be ordinary and average. To be competitive, we need to do better. The need to understand the internet at the heart of our organisation is now pressing. 


This means that all businesses, and ours in particular, need good quality digital capability too.


We also need to employ and deploy a much greater level of strategic as well as tactical expertise.




Your sincerely,


Your PR manager








Sources:
Every statement here has excellent provenance


http://news.sky.com/home/business/article/16092825
http://www.bcg.com/media/PressReleaseDetails.aspx?id=tcm:12-64183
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-15383602
http://www.brc.org.uk/brc_news_detail.asp?id=2064
http://www.imrg.org/IMRGWebSite/user/pages/homepage.aspx
http://www.clickz.com/clickz/news/2118831/luxury-retailer-saks-courts-percent?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+clickz+%28ClickZ+-+News%29&utm_content=Google+Reader
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/sporteditors/2011/07/countdown_continues_as_olympic_1.html
http://www.silicon.com/management/cio-insights/2011/10/20/psst-want-to-know-the-top-10-technologies-you-cant-afford-to-miss-next-year-39748109/?s_cid=991
http://www.am-online.com/news/2011/6/30/european-b2b-online-car-sales-set-for-rapid-growth/29230/
http://blog.pwcom.co.uk/2011/04/15/for-online-only-b2b-media-twitter-matters/
http://www.newsreach.co.uk/seo/b2b-search-success-requires-an-ongoing-commitment
http://www.circle-research.com/2011/business-ideas/b2b-marketing-sector-bounces-back-57-report-rising-budgets/
http://www.circle-research.com/b2b-barometer/

The Home Office finds out the truth about 'Social Media'

The government and police have not sought any new powers to shut social networks, the Home Office said after a meeting with industry representatives, Reports the BBC.


While one may respect the Home Secretary for her political acumen and position in government, her knowledge of the internet, including mobile internet and social media may need some help.

That Facebook, Twitter or RIM can have some material effect on communication affecting a riot is undoubted (these are platforms and channels for communication). That they are  capable of activities that will change behaviours is very doubtful. That she can upset the economy with her tinkering is probable.

In the USA and Europe, and to a lesser extent across the world, £millions has been spent on using the internet to change behaviours by companies such as Wallmart, Exon, Toyota, General Electric and Allianz, the biggest in the world. They have all tried and all failed. They are not the only organisations who have a problem with getting online users to do things.  Google proudly released Wave and dropped it. TouchPad failed because it had few of the apps that made Apple’s iPad a runaway hit. Just 48 days after Microsoft began selling the Kin, a smartphone for the younger set, the company discontinued it because of disappointing sales.

The people in the thick of it are not so good either and the Home Secretary has realised that.

Meantime, economic research tells us:

• The Internet economy now represents 7.2 percent of U.K. GDP, more than construction, transport, or utilities.
• The United Kingdom ranks first in e-commerce and exports £2.8 in e-commerce goods and services for every £1 imported
• There are 250,000 U.K. jobs in Internet companies
• Small and medium businesses that are high-Web users experience higher growth and more international sales than those that do not use the Internet
• A recent additional study tells us that sales via the internet are, by themselves, of the order of £62 billion ($103bn)

The Home Secretary also had to consider how many social network outlets there are? The ranges of protocols being used that can be brought into play to avoid censorship (FTP, WWW, Email,etc etc)? The range of platforms in use (PC, Mobile phones, gaming machines etc)?

Her knee jerk reaction to the Prime Minster's elastoplast rhetoric was potentially very damaging and would solve nothing.

It is ironic that a British Home Secretary should attempt shackle the Web, invented by a British scientist  20 years almost to the day from its launch.

The trust machine

From time to time, I get excited about a future beyond my comprehension.

Imagine a computer chip that can decide, all by itself, if your organisation is trustworthy. Not a computer, not a big system but a chip (ergo, you can put lots of them into a single 'computer'). Imagine this chip gathering all the information on and offline that will allow it to make judgements about you, your organisation, the value of your products brands and the ethic you stand by.

IBM's cognitive chips, launched this week, are part of the Systems of Neuromorphic Adaptive Plastic Scalable Electronics (SyNAPSE) project, which aims to create a system that is capable of rewiring itself as it interacts with its environment while still analyzing complex information from several sensory modalities.

The announcement this week of the new cognitive computer chips is a big step on the way.

These systems, which would not be programmed like traditional computers, will learn through experiences like humans. They will create hypotheses, find correlations, remember, and learn from their environments.

As always, the PR industry will ignore all of this as being too technical and of tomorrow and not worth investing time in today.

As ignorant as BP's Tony Hayward was of public relations, the practitioner that ignores IBM's big announcement will be as unstuck. 'I'd like my life back' will also be a closed option for organisations that don't heed an ability for a computer to judge the capability, efficacy and ethics of an organisation.

I realise this is not a subject for journalists' given the job of investment banker or discovering a Higgs Boson particle or, harder still, being a professional PR practitioner, but it is important for the rest of us.

It is important because, unlike a number of practitioners who are obviously one egg short of a dozen, modern practitioners will have to persuade the David Cameron's,  Tony Haywood's and the Metropolitan police that good PR is not predicated on someone being able to write news copy or depend on some "Other Buggers' Efforts'.

Why must we take note now?

Firstly, this is going to have an effect within five years (less time that it took Twitter to master PR). Secondly, it will have a memory that can remember what you, as a practitioner did today (as in right now). Finally its ability to combine radical organisational  transparency with the totality of the organisational environment is now assured with all the organisational consequences that entails.

No doubt, this will take me and a number of other practitioners, and hopefully, some academics, time to think through but it is a significant professional challenge.

Stepping aside from press and social media PR

The nature of public relations as the agent which provides structured concepts and understanding of mean by which ideas are exchanged and flourish is as old as humanity. It is the fundamental which distinguishes civilised man from social animal. It allows man to productively invest the majority of time in relationship building in order that social interactions can cumulatively enhance human existence.

So what does PR do?

• It acts as an agent
• By explicating structured concepts
• Making them available and pertinent using structured means
• With capabilities that extend well beyond social grooming
• In a process with relationship productivity
• Which accelerates evolution beyond biological development

The trouble is that people in PR do not recognise this high calling. It is, for many, far too grand. For some it is even hard to comprehend.

If we don’t look at the stars but look at the functions we can see the work and effects of the continuum.

The media proxy is a tool. PR in its widest sense, is ambivalent about which media it uses. We have become transfixed by the press and press relations (so called) skills. They are useful. It is helpful to have people who do it well. They are functionaries (and mostly very nice people). They are infrequently people who understand PR. They have many solutions to problems - and they are all called press relations.

In the 1960’ PR was much more about politics. It was important because its application formed the bulwark between the totalitarianism of Russion Communism and democracy.

If you look at the practitioner of a certain age like Doug Smith, Peter Walker and many more, they began life as political agents. Some became lobbyists others worked in-house and others ran agencies.

One of the skills that were needed by these practitioners was an ability to work with journalists.  But by no means the only skill.

This was an age when wars were won because we did NOT use propaganda.

Many of the issues were big and  global. A period of Cold War (and Cuban Missile Crisis) were real events. The civil rights movement, the environment, women's demands for equality, the space race and the landing on the moon, as well as the Vietnam War, Mods and Rockers and the Beatles made our lives even more psychedelic! 

For the first time in a generation we had disposable incomes, holidays and consumerism.

The forms of communication included protests and marches, the largest political youth movement in a liberal democracy (the Young Conservatives) met weekly in every constituency in the land. Trades Union committees also met weekly and held open air events in most high streets. Young Farmers was a publicity outlet for the farming industry and there were any number of such clubs from the Chamber of Commerce to the First Thursday group (young marrieds meeting once per month). People went out to meetings. The PR people of the time made sure that their client was represented at such meetings. There was, of course, the press. It reported on these happenings. Sometimes, people like me invited them to meetings or sent editor’s letters. Occasionally we wrote leaders.

Mass Television changed a lot of this.

In 1962, the Pilkington Report  recommending a 2nd BBC programme, separate BBC service for Wales and the restructuring of ITV. First transatlantic TV programmes became possible.

At the same time there was a printing revolution. The stars of Corination Street, with a viewing public of 21 million in 1962, deserved their own spotlight, human interest stories and vox pop magazines to give viewers added information and, it transpired increased interest.

In July 1962, the Sunday Times was reporting 'news' and selling 1,110,457 copies, a rise of 143,397 on the previous half-year. Women's Own, which told of the happenings in Corrie, sold 3 million copies with 120 staff.

Photocopiers, lazer printers, web offset, gravure, colour in daily newspapers,  and the ability to print fast and cheaply brought a concurrent revolution.

PR had to change and the easy, but not nearly as effective, form of PR was to use the now fast growing print media, radio and television. It was indirect but productivity was phenomenal. One article could reach every member of the First Thursday movement. Wow!

It was a communications revolution!

No one went to Young Conservative meetings any more. They were too busy watching Ena Sharples or reading Private Eye.  

The growth in the numbers of titles in the consumer and trade sectors made it quite hard to maintain share of voice in the 1970’s and so PR was directed away from community influence to printed press editorial volume (and for a time a massive burst of fly posting).

In effect, much of PR became press agentry.

And, by 1980, it had become dead easy. We had learned to manage it.

Events, case studies, features and editorial schedules gave any organisation that wanted: presence and huge share of voice.

In the background, there still were the people working to have effects on corporate relationships.

They had work to do in PR. It was manifest as social, economic, political, institutional, community, internal employees and the Board relationship development.

To fulfil the role of PR, there always was a need to have some form of public presence. Speaking to a Young Farmers branch or presenting the “Retailer of the year” award at the local Chamber of Trade Christmas bash still figured (and still do figure) in the range of communication channels used by organisations that have good PR.

So, what happens as one media vanishes and another emerges?

They tend not to vanish but they do morph.

PR people have to change.

Just as TV stopped a form of social interaction in its tracks, So too, the internet cast a cloud over press, radio and TV as the premier medium.

Just as meetings still happen (and protests and and the Chamber of Trade “Retailer of the year” awards), press radio and TV will continue and will continue to have some relevance and importance. It is yet another capability needed by PR to do its job.

Like the 1960s, the new social media ‘PR’ will be full of hype and difficult to understand and within a couple of decades will be easy.

In the background, there will still be people working to have effects on corporate relationships.

They will work and or direct PR in areas such as social media, press relations and meeting   with social, economic, political, institutional, community, internal employees and the Board. They too will use such tools as are sensible to achieve the high goal which affects the evolution of mankind.


So, is the internet different?


To my mind, the internet is different. There is a limit to the range of social media but the internet is much more fundamental.

For PR, the internet is as important as print and television and much more.

It is versatile, has many manifestation,can be part of a personal activity and can affect the world at large. Its many applications in the higher idea of public relations will make it very important.

It is different to print radio and television because it allows development at a faster rate (it is, in its own right, a self fulfilling form of PR).

So, to the question.

If you define PR as press agentry, it’s not going to give you much of a living in the future. If PR continues to act as the midwife of human development, its future is both secure and ever more significant.

In addition, for those organisations that use PR for its real purpose, their future is both assured and very exciting.