Dear Lionel....

Astroturfing is a legitimate gamble for all sorts of organisations. It is a process designed to create a populist movement by using a contrived appearance of of popular support.

Throughout history it has been one of the methods for creating political momentum and it has a history of disaster.

What happens is that when the population finds that it has been mislead, duped or drawn into something they later regret, they are very angry.

Joseph Goebbels used astroturfing (in a 20^the Century form) to create the impression of widespread support for the Nazi party in Germany with considerable success.

I guess that companies and organisations (even political candidates) and campaigners don't really like to be associated with the Nazis when they use this silly, and potentially dangerous approach at persuasion. Bet your life, I will make the comparison.

I hope that Richard Bailey's points are taken to heart by the CIPR. In fact one would expect a comment from the Chairman of the Ethics Committee to make a clear statement sometime in the future.

It may be that the CIPR's Chief Officer is dismissive of social media but the President whose travelogue is of the genre might wish to assist the President Elect representations to the Hansard Society project looking at the role of lobbying organisations in the British political system to have Atroturfing on the agenda.

As for the rest of us, there is a simple rule. Do PR and if you are a member of any of the professional association in the UK, expect to be chucked out on you ear if you use Astroturfing because a lot of us are watching, for the sake of the profession.

Just for fun

This has nothing to do with PR.

We have a litter of puppies and they are learning new tricks all the time.
This little one is looking forward to the next World Cup.

Enjoy

To Plan or How to Plan

There is a dichotomy in management which we face in planning and management of Internet mediated Public Relations.

In planning and management of Internet mediated Public Relations (99% of all practice in Internet mediated in some form) we need to understand these problems in order that a well formed Corporate PR strategy can be developed.

From the ideas such as Drucker's 'Management by Objectives' to CIPR definition of Public Relations as the “ planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain goodwill and mutual understanding between an organisation and its publics” there is an assumption that planning as a core management discipline will be SMART, that is, Specific, Measurable, Agreed, Realistic, and Time-Specific. We start at the beginning and work through to the conclusion, evaluate our effort and file away as 'finished'.

On the other hand there is a view of “radical transparency” which is a management method where nearly all decision making is carried out publicly. All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, the decisions about the decision making process itself, and all final decisions, are made publicly and remain publicly archived.

"“The case for corporate transparency is compelling. With perfect corporate transparency, everyone within a company has access to relevant information. Management accurately represents the drivers of the business. Annual budgeting is replaced with a system of continuous planning supported by a collaborative process. Every manager knows exactly how his or her decisions affect other aspects of the company. There is visibility into how external changes impact internal matters. And the organization is able to predict precisely how the market will respond to various activities."”

Corporate Transparency makes organisations efficient. It means that information that can be trusted and available to people who need it when they need it in an environment where they can act on it will be more efficient that one where gate keepers restrict access.

Corporate Transparency and Internet Transparency are different.

The Internet facilitates transparency, it is one of its great features. We use it a lot. Organisations are transparent online in many ways.

In every sector, public, private, not for profit, organisations make their supply chain available to vendors to take advantage of enhanced production scheduling and just in time deliveries. The employment of the best practitioners in the world in design and development may mean using an expert half way round the world requiring open and transparent interaction. To produce goods and services we use contractors and expose our needs and aspirations to them on line. Then there is process information, interaction with eGovernement Internet enabled regulators and public utilities, There are recruitment and employment policies, markets, product distribution, pricing, and customer care all to be made clear, all using multiple channels for communication and in a mashup of digital data, plain conversations and all manner of other digital techniques in-between.

Much of this information is open and in the public domain, some is password protected or encrypted.

In addition policies are made public, it saves having to deal with every enquire with paper, post and people.

Internet Transparency also means our competitors, and a vast array of stakeholders can find out a great deal. In some cases, being open means that critics have ready answers and in social media, criticism is often answered by ordinary people who point to corporate content that makes policies and practice clear. In addition, all information is (almost) eventually available to everyone online.

This means that Internet transparency has the power to be disruptive.

Internet transparency interrupts the plan.

This changes the nature of Public Relations planning.

It means that monitoring and evaluation have to be a continuous part of all activities at every stage of the plan and the plan itself needs to be constructed to allow for change as an organic part of the process.

There has to be a response mechanism in the PR plan than will allow fundamental change even to the extent of changing the aims of the organisation.

The extent to which this is evident can be seen by example. BP, stopped being a company that provided oil based fuel and became a company that is about finding, producing and marketing the natural energy resources on which the modern world depends. It embraced competing technologies and diversified into renewables. It tells its shareholder that returns will not be maximised but optimised to 'underpin growth by a focus on performance, particularly on returns, investing at a rate appropriate for long term growth'.

Rick Wagoner CEO of General Motors does not head up an auto maker which ' remains committed to leading not only from a business standpoint, but economically, socially and environmentally as well'.

These are titanic shifts for major corporations in less than a decade.

The shift did not come because of government pressures but because their operations could be juxtaposed with economic, environmental, social and political counterpoint on a global scale and affecting all their key stakeholder groups.

Internet disruption is gaining pace. Evidence of how it changes organisations ranges from the IMF to retailing.

In the relationship management model (and by that I do not mean relationship management as interpreted by Steve Mackey at Deakin University, Australia. My interpretation is more fundamental) there is a dynamic in which there is constant shifting appreciationiation of values mutually held between the organisation (a nexus of relationships) and its constituency.

It makes planning and management very dynamic.

Picture: Gilera Nexus 500

Colin Farrinton's comment

I thought that, because of the diminutive storm in the tiny teacup about Colin Farrinton's comment in Profile Extra (that most of us read online), I should reproduce his comments today here. He said:

“As always writing personally, I was amazed by some of the comments received on my ‘Profile’ piece – although they do show the power of ‘hard copy’!

Blogging is simply a form of vanity publishing. No wonder most content is instantly forgettable. And does that which survive really have a beneficial impact on society, on political discourse, giving a voice to those who genuinely can’t be heard as some proponents claim? Bearing in mind the use made by French middle-class students to protect their subsidies and the anti-John Kerry campaigns last year this seems very idealistic and blinkered to me.

Even the commercial impacts seem to be overstated - I’ve seen the same cases quoted over and over again.

That is not to say of course that public relations people shouldn’t be aware and be trained on the impact of blogging. And it’s a great medium in the right hands for grabbing attention as Tony is doing. But it’s time to take a realistic view (and keep a sense of proportion) on the power of this communication medium.”

Thank you Colin. Insightful as always.

I thought that one might have a closer look. Just for fun!

Source

Point by point analysis (just click the links):

Some comments from The Economist view of blogs and corporate reputation

Some vanity publishing at The Times

Instantly forgetable content.

Social benefits

Political discourse has many sides.

One Marines view

John Kerry's got Blog Juice at last

The commercial case for a web site (where would you invest?)

A realistic view?

Picture: Colin Farrington

Concepts: impact / Blogging / Colin / Extra / Farrinton's

Colin Farrington
Chartered Institute of Public Relations

Emily, the Digital Native

Emily is a “digital native”, one who has never known a world without instant communication. Her mother, Christine is a “digital immigrant”, still coming to terms with a culture ruled by the ring of a mobile and e-mails, reports The Times. Though 55-year-old Christine happily shops online and e-mails friends, at heart she’s still in the old world. “Children today are multitasking left, right and centre — downloading tracks, uploading photos, sending e-mails. It’s nonstop,” she says. “They find sitting down and reading, even watching TV, too slow and boring. I can’t imagine many kids indulging in one particular hobby, such as birdwatching, like they used to.”

As The Times points out, last month, Lord Saatchi, virtually declared the death of traditional advertising — because digital technology is changing the way people absorb information. The digital native’s brain is physically different as a result of the digital input it has received growing up, he claims (The reason TV advertising is unsuccessful with digital natives is because they are in what he refers to as a state of 'constant partial attention'). This has implications for PR practice. How we present information online and off-line to attract attention in a multi-tasking world is a big deal.

The media reports parents still fear that children who spend hours using computers will end up 'nerdy zombies with the attention span of a gnat'. There is, apparently, a view that 'cyberspace is full of junk and computer games are packed with mindless violence'. I suggest such writers go to their local school to find out the truth. Nintendo requires endless concentration.

To evangelists of the digital age such as Marc Prensky, picked out for the Times article presumably because he says on his web site that he is an “internationally acclaimed speaker, writer, consultant, and designer in the critical areas of education and learning” (sounds like Marketing speak to me) an American consultant and author, modern interactive computer games are “deep, complex experiences” that challenge the intellect far more than, say, passively watching Big Brother. Socialising through chat rooms and online forums, he argues, both requires its own etiquette and overcomes old prejudices: it doesn’t matter nearly so much what you look like. But in 'Alone Together' the extent of some social interactions in online games is questioned and there are limits as to how far you can extend the argument. The author Steven Johnson pursues the argument in his book Everything Bad Is Good for You that online interaction has educational benefits. Far from popular culture dumbing down, he says, much of it has become more challenging; he points to the intricate, multi-layered plots of modern TV series such as The Sopranos or 24, compared with the linear plots of programmes 30 years ago.

Does this mean that the Public Relations practitioner who having once gained the interest (not the same as attention) of constituents can find reward in the complex? My view is yes because it enhances the opportunities for common values to be sought and found.

“A few people have demonstrated that computer games can improve some aspects of attention, such as the ability to quickly count objects at the periphery of your vision,” says computational neuroscientist Dr Anders Sandberg, who is researching cognitive enhancement at Oxford. “Is this a different way of thinking? Well, a little bit. Being instantly able to itemise objects is probably a useful skill in this world. Some evidence suggests people are becoming more visual than verbal.”

For more research into human/computer interactions, there is a Special Interest Group that is worth following.

The sheer mass of visual, auditory and verbal information is forcing digital natives to make choices that those who grew up with only books and television did not. At one time, there was a view that this would be the limiting factor for the Internet but two things have changed in the last five years. The first is that people have learned to multi-task and we have learned to make snap decisions. Implications for the practitioner are that the key information has to be present on the landing page. This does not, as Lord Saatchi proclaims, mean that attention is only archived by reducing everything to a single word. People can do much more that absorb a single word in a millisecond. But it does mean that Dr Reginald Watts is right to follow semiotics as an important future activity for PR practitioners.

“Younger people sift more and filter more,” says Helen Petrie, a professor of human-computer interaction at the University of York. “We have more information to deal with, and we pay less attention to particular bits of information, so it may appear attention spans are shorter.” She also notes that the brevity of text messaging is spreading to e-mails and other communication, rewriting English with simpler spelling in the process. Though this may appear rude to traditionalists, it’s merely sensible to digital natives. “But I don’t think attention spans are diminishing per se,” Petrie says. “If we find something that is engaging, then our attention span is just as long as it has always been. I bet you during the England-Sweden World Cup game people’s attention span wasn’t any shorter than it might have been before.” We can take from this that if Public Relations activity engages constituents, they will pay attention.

The question, then, is how do digital natives learn to discriminate, and what determines the things that interest them? Parents who hope skills and boundaries are instilled at school may be fighting a losing battle. According to Prensky, the reason why some children today do not pay attention in school is that they find traditional teaching methods dull compared with their digital experiences. Instead, parameters are increasingly set by “wiki-thinking”, peer groups exchanging ideas through digital networks. Just as the online encyclopaedia Wikipedia has been built from the collective knowledge of thousands of contributors, so digital natives draw on the experience and advice of online communities to shape their interests and boundaries. A telling symptom is blogging. Where once schoolchildren and students confided only in their diaries, now they write blogs or entries on Bebo or MySpace.com — where anyone can see and comment on them. While I have some doubts about the collective wisdom of the collective commons. It is a dangerous place to be. There is merit in having a digital footprint and response to the 'Digital Footprint'.

“My parents are as au fait with the internet as I am.” says Nathan Midgley of the TheFishCanSing research consultancy, “but what they are not used to doing is upgrading. “People of my generation are much more used to the turnover of gadgetry. Other generations are left out of the loop in the way it is speeding up.”

Will this lead to greater intelligence? Some might argue that is already happening. In what known as the Flynn Effect, underlying IQ scores have been rising for years.

For PR practice this may mean that we have to adjust our thinking, relationship management and even our understanding of brand values every decade or so because the population is getting really clever.

Picture: Geek art

Concepts: digital / people / attention /

A Week in Cyberspace.

The 2005 tsunami appeal prompted the biggest outpouring of public generosity ever witnessed in the UK. Niall Cook, "More than ever before people want to engage with the world around them and charities now have the technology available to make those connections." From the Guardian.

The UK Foreign & Commonwealth Office is out of touch with the reality ( The Register) of the net

Prescott and blogs from the Guardian. “If John Prescott really barely knew what a blog was it seems odd he put his name to a "Prescott Express" battlebus blog during the 2005 general election.

So, he was a blogger during the election, and now isn't sure what a blog is and he is about to be put in charge of the nation while tony Blair holidays in Italy.

Lily Allen, daughter of comedian Keith Allen, has topped the UK singles chart with her summery hit, Smile, says I like Music. Shakira, who also scored her first UK number one single last week with Hips Don't Lie was knocked off the top spot by Lily, after Lily's song entered the chart last week at number 13, but on download sales only. This week 21 year old Lily who's internet fan base has helped spread the word about her talent, celebrated news that her glorious little song reaching number one on stage at T in the Park. It's an exciting time for Lily as her debut alubm, Alright, Still follows shortly on July 17th. For one with such tiny feet her digital footprint is leaving a golden trail in the sand

Roy Greenslade in the Guardian is trying to show why newspapers are doomed.

“I'm simply trying to show my colleagues in print - especially those who revel in regarding themelves as inky dinosaurs - that they cannot hope to compete with the speed and efficiency of the net in communicating facts AND opinions. The idea that newspapers will survive because they're better at providing comment and analysis is nonsense. Nor do we need papers to set the agenda.”

Whither Press Releases

I think that all PR practitioners should follow the discussion about the future of press releases.

It would not surprise me the hear some practitioners wonder what I am talking about.

But the press release has changes a lot in the last five years. It has morphed from the typewriter and duplicator to the PC and email. It is now a web post and PDF. In less than ten years the change has been significant and it will continue to morph and change.

There is a considerable issue here. Let us suppose a press release is issued to a web site. It will be picked up by a search engine in due course. If it is sent to an online distribution service, it will be picked up by some people and search engines faster. Its circulation will be immediate and by the time the presses role it will be long in the tooth.

So, what is the purpose of a press release?

A press release has a role where the content is/can be reproduced in a different channel for communication. This is not a futuristic point, it happens now and to most press releases. The range of channels available is very wide. Online right now I show 14 channels and these in addition to press radio and television.

In some instances the route for press release content is from release to newspaper/journal via an editor/journalist. But it could also be from press release to PRNewswire to Google and via RSS feed to intranet or MySpace.

There is a second role. It is to tempt the receiver to find out more. The receiver can, if the release is online anywhere, call the PR person. This normally is a call from a journalists to the PR person.

Part of this conversation will be to look for alternative or additional information. Some of this information will be online.

But there is another enquirer. This is the search engine and search bot. They look for more information to add to the story. For example a hyperlink to the company web site, company name or a brief description of the company. Goole routinely shows the range of publication that cover the story about the company.

What happens if the enquiry is not from a journalist? It could be from a blogger ot podcaster or anyone else for that matter. If, the answer from the PR department is to deal only with traditional press, where does the citizen go?

Added content created for the media on Wiki's or iJot can offer considerable depth of information and this can be enriched with video or voice in vid/vodcast and podcast comment. In fact the production of a press release may now need vast collateral support to make it available and useful to the people and technologies that will receive it.

Typically a journalists will call for story confirmation and to eke out some unique added angle of spin for the story.

Distributing a press release with backgrounders is common practice (although using wiki's or podcasts is not so common yet). Thus the purpose of the press release is to feed services that can use the content in a range of technologies. Traditionally for a printing press. But now the medium can be as diverse as one-to-one Instant Messaging; one-to-many Google News or many-to-one RSS.

The key to a successful press release will be its inherent capability to offer content and construction for purpose. The target might be a journalist an also it may be for a search engine or an SMS alert technology. This is why the future of the nature of the press release is an important discussion.

I work in the UK and the actualitie is the noticeable relationship based round a telephone and 100 word emails with the press release being a statement of record rather than a news announcement. The un-noticed PR engagement is online. Most practitioners in the UK see some of this activity, most do nothing to affect it and of those that do, the range of channels they seek to affect is very limited.

There is nothing wrong in this. We are in a state of transition. The technologies are taking over much of the human side of Press Release production, distribution, reponce and publication. Is PR for cyborgs?

But I can see a day (quite soon) when computers take the content of a press `release and mix and match similar and associated comment to form stories and editors only make final adjustments (Web 2.0 mashup software). Then the whole deal will change.

In the meantime it is worth following the press release debate.

Picture: Darkwold's Design Cyborg

Podcasting PM

The Internet is sooooo slow at creating new communications channels. Its official according to Tony Blair.

The UK Prime Minister, Tony Blair suggested that "In 100 years time another Prime Minister may be using even better technology to get across what newspapers do which is inform people about events and launch some fantastic campaigns that make a real difference to people's lives."

The PM has recorded a podcast for his local paper The Northern Echo in what is believed to be a first for a Prime Minister for the paper serving his constituency of Sedgefield. It was recorded to mark the launch of the paper's new podcasting site. You can listen to his broadcast here.

Perhaps, in less than 100 years Tory leader, David Cameron will hold a political rally in Second Life which will be an even better technology in only a few weeks.

As another Labour Prime Minster, Harold Wilson, put it 'A week in politics is a long time”.

Picture: BBC

Counting the online readers of B2B media

How important is monitoring Internet versions of online publications? How important is the Internet to B2B PR practitioners?

Well, and it is a sign of the times, business-to-business publications are to have combined print and digital edition circulation ABCs figures in the next auditing period.

The ABC Council reached the decision after consultation with the ABC Business Press Specialist Committee and follows the move in June 2004 where publishers could include digital editions on separate certificates from their print figure.

What this means is that stories submitted to B2B publications need to be Search Engine Optimised, online monitoring is essential, levering value from on-line coverage is the next step to provide that muti-touch, multi media experience.

Perhaps there is more about this to help practitioners deal with it here? Or maybe not!

Picture: IAB

A new manifesto

It may now be time to look at the direction of the Chartered Institute of Public Relations. I declare an interest. I am a Fellow.

What do these things have in common: Ships, Metalled Roads, Canals, Newspapers, Railways, Cars, Lorries, Aeroplanes, Radio, Telephone and Television? All are forms of communication and all brought great wealth. Without them, modern man is poor and deprived.

If I add a new range of channels that makes the foregoing more productive and that have a direct impact on a majority of citizens and an indirect impact on all citizens. It would be an economic colossus. It is the Internet.

Not just web sites, email, SMS, Instant Messenger, blogs, podcasts, wikis and MUDS ( Second Life to most) but all the enabling capabilities, and strategic significance. It is many channels for communication and the infrastructure as well. It is core to PR practice as this podcast explians.

The big issues are then about Richness (e.g.Net Neutrality), Reach (e.g. the absence of Internet access for the disadvantaged), Speed (e.g. affecting practitioners because the half life of news decreasing all the time), Transparency (e.g. which is affecting corporate trust – try the podcast here), Porosity (as an issue affecting internal communication), Agency (e.g. because it affects the value of corporate assets ).

Richness, Reach, Speed, Transparency, Porosity and Agency are the five core issues for the CIPR in an Internet mediated era.

Big issues all, for an Institute involved in communication, and perhaps more significant than a travelogue.

These are not just the issues for the President or his successor, they go to the heart of decision making and the professional advice given to those who make decisions that affect the organisation and both the wider PR industry and associated professions.

There is a desperate need for an authoritative voice for all the relationship management sectors.

But such is a strategic decison.

In the meantime...

There is a new CIPR Market Report is an expensive (£840) document (ever heard of transparency - I guess a lot of this stuff will be availble online for free soon if it has any real value). It talks of Blogging and Podcasting... I wonder if it looks beyond the tools to the strategies relevant for inclusion of social media in Public Relations - including relationship management - (the high value-add stuff) or are we still in the agentry business?

What about the economic contribution of PR. The range of practice and skills of members is different to the survey now used by the Institute and was by no means inclusive (for example, it missed out big chunks of events management). It under-values the PR industry by factors. Pretty profound research huh! Time to get a grip on who this institution represents and what they contribute.

The nature of the job is changing. It has to change because the PR value chain is changing. There is a need to re-focus the direction of the industry.

New discoveries are affecting how we understand communication and relationships. It is important for the professional industry to monitor developments that affect practice and keep members up to date.

The budgets for online work are growing and are demanding. They require response to aid members. The skill base needs to be more widely exploited.

There is a need for a new Manifesto for the Institute to meet the demands of a new era.

PS... If you really want to know how importnat Net Neutrality is have alook here!

What is Colin Farrington on about

Simon Collister expresses some of the frustrations that certainly this Fellow of the Institute has felt for some time with the CIPR 's present understanding of cyberspace.

I offered to to run member courses and discover that I am not on the list of trainers. The sum total of CIPR Social Media contributions is the freshly squeezed twenty minute talks.

I offered to update the CIPR/PRCA Internet Commission (Which I chaired in 1999/2000) work. Not needed.

Before the CIPR presidents blog was launched I commented in person and on-line on the need for a strategy.

When launched I made some comments about how one might imagine the footwork behind the scenes.

Last week, I suggested ways that such an institution might approach new media.

The answer to Simon's post is that there are people involved in the CIPR who have to understand that, as with the Web (which I invited members to address at the IPR Annual Conference in 1995) , the Chartered Institute members are about to miss a major opportunity. The rest of the PR industry is less reticent.

For CIPR I suspect:

Suddenly, the president started a blog.The proverbial golf course conversation had persuaded him that this was a spiffing idea.It went against all the tenets of Public Relations. It did not serve the aims of the organisation other than to offer ..........

Colin, Anne, It is time to talk to some people who do 'get it' People like Anne Gregory, Mark Adams, Alison Clark, Roy Lipski and Simon Collister.

In Place of Ads

Here are alternatives to advertsing as we know it.

Blogs are known for their ability to enhance the range of values attributed to brands.

This added richness offers more values out there to attract more people with convergent values.

People in the right frame of mind, context and emotional state.

The values can come from the richness of concepts that permeate texts. These might be tags created by humans or that could be generated by software.

I have a tag generating machine (see picture)

Today Peter Robinson included the emotional element.

'Imagine a computer that could pick the right emotional moment to sell you something," says Peter Robinson, of Cambridge University in the Herald today.

"Imagine a future where websites and mobile phones could read our mind and react to our moods."
It sounds like Orwellian fiction but this week, Robinson, a professor of computer technology, unveiled a prototype for just such a "mind-reading" machine. The first emotionally aware computer is on trial at the Royal Society Festival of Science in London.

Two Tier Internet

The Manchester Evening News has started to get interested as well.

It reports:

PROPOSALS in America to create a two-tier internet with higher charges for a faster service could spread to Britain.

The US company AT&T is lobbying politicians to allow fast and slow services for traffic, including email. If the move is accepted, British internet service providers such as BT may follow.

All data moving around the net is treated equally and moves at the same speed, whether it is a personal blog or the website of a multinational.

But with the quantity of traffic soaring, there are fears the network could become clogged. US service providers want to be able to charge customers to give their data priority.

Mobile Power

The number of internet users in Japan accessing the web from mobile phones exceeded those using it from PCs in 2005, according to a government report published today.

At the end of the year there were 69.2 million people using the internet from mobile devices, compared to 66 million conventional PC users, the Ministry of Information and Communications' annual Information and Communications in Japan white paper said. Of these two user groups, 48.6 million use both a mobile device and a conventional PC, it said, giving Japan a total internet population of 85.3 million users. That's equivalent to two in every three people in the country.

Royal Bank of Scotland, Wifi, CSR and Net Neutrality

The Royal Bank of Scotland is experimenting with Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) for wifi based credit and debit card verification. An aerial in the card sends the data to a RFID reader at the retail store and payment is then credited to the store.

The cynic in me would believe the credit transfer from bank to retailer might take days not milliseconds - this is, after all, a bank.

This contactless debit card will replace cash for low-value payments with the hopes of moving Scotland to a "cashless society". What a great wizz.

As this will be a great way for the bank to make money I would hope that the RBS Corporate Social Responsibility contribution will be to make wifi free in all participating stores and locations as well.

Or they can go one further to offer city-wide wifi and spread the capability to the disadvantaged location and their often struggling local, often small, shop keepers.

Imagine the brand benefits of being the vendor of free, high capacity broadband to everyone in Glasgow's Gorbals or London's East End.

The French have a different view on Information and Communications Technologies than most. New legislation passed last week could force Apple to make its iPod music player and iTunes Music Store compatible with those from rivals such as Microsoft and Sony. An earlier version of the legislation drew fierce criticism from Apple as "state-sponsored piracy" because it would have required companies to share details of their digital rights management technologies.

The law as passed still demands interoperability except where permission is held by Apple from the rights holders such as musicians and record labels.

This is state imposed disinternmediation of Intellectual Property. Not the first but certainly significant.

It should make AT&T, BT and the other big pipe companies think hard. If the same principle were to apply to net neutrality, they will have a big problem preventing content flowing through their networks without sharing the capacity with everyone..... Such as a Bank wifi networks for example....

Picture: Ken Bushe A Glasgow Street Scene

Getting social media strategies right 2.0

In developing the strategies for online activities, one can look for examples.

I was struck by the attempt by one organisations, (a not for profit industry association). It has an excellent public web site and its members password protected access to a vast array of content essential for effective practice.

It provides email services to members to alert them to up coming events, industry developments, issues, changes in law relating to practice and a range of papers.

Suddenly, the president started a blog.

The proverbial golf course conversation had persuaded him that this was a spiffing idea.

It went against all the tenets of Public Relations. It did not serve the aims of the organisation other than to offer a profile to the president, involve him in a heap of work and, inevitably, the content was sporadic and light weight.

Vision and aims

• The aims of the institution is to be the leading authority and representative of its profession in the UK and a leading light and exampler worldwide.
  
• It has a need to demonstrate its understanding of the issues and interests of its profession and their relevance to legislators, regulators and other institutions.

Backgrounder

• The Institution is a democratic institution with an executive and a representative council, professional standards committee, education arm, regional branches and special interest groups.
• The interests of these groups are of interest to the membership and as well the specific groups involved.
• It is newsworthy from time to time and its initiatives often have wide implications for members, other institutions and interested parties.
• Only about half of practitioners are member of this institution.
• It has a churn of membership that is unhelpful and seems to have reached a ceiling in it potential to expand.
• Unlike the similar counterparts in associated professions, its voice and influence is comparatively small.
• It has capability to influence industry affairs, enforce ethical practice, influence legislators, gain recognition of its profession in stand alone industry courses in Universities and its ability to attract sponsors in the corridors of power in the legislature and
• Its training programmes and meetings are well attended but few attract the really big hitters in the profession and some areas of practice are not too sure of the value they get.
• Practitioners a long way from London get much less by way of services, partly because there is a London centric bias and partly because of distance issues and partly because of the cost of servicing remote outposts.
• Online its Internet footprint is not huge.

Stakeholders

Yes the stakeholder base includes:

• London and regional member
• World leading experts members
• Latent and aware prospective members, past members and people considering entrance into the profession.
• In addition it has stakeholders such as its global counterparts, akin and associated professional organisations and professional institutions in other sectors too.
• It has governmental publics at the centre and in the regions
• It has issues based publics with common and competing aims and objectives.
• In education and some specialist areas of practice there are other publics.
• Notably, as for all professions there are detractors. In this instance these are vocal and their criticism goes to the heart of members practice and then, of course there is fringe and rouge group with the pretence of being members.

And so the list goes on.

Very diverse and very important stakeholders and the need to be able to asses the relative significance of such publics is quite critical.

Objectives

What then should the Public Relations objectives be? This is, after all a well founded, well informed, reasonable wealthy, well meaning institution servicing and representing over half of the practitioners in the country.

On the basis of the foregoing, would it be 'start a blog'?
Of course not!

The need to lever the value inherent in the organisation is blatantly obvious. Its assets in terms of democracy, organisation, members, knowledge and authority can go a lot further if it opens up and levers value through enhanced transparency.

There can only be one over riding objective.

It has to be the nexus of professional practice.

Strategically this translates into an organisation that provides the means of connection; it needs to be involved in a connected series or group of interests and it should aim to be at the the core or centre of its profession and associated professional institutions.

It needs a plan that extends beyond the annual tenure of a single President but perhaps not more than a couple of years. There has to be a time element to this effort.
The extent to which this is already archived needs to be evaluated to provide a benchmark by which measurable objectives can be set.

Strategy

The strategy can now be articulated.

Within this strategy the institution's assets need to be exposed with the development of messages for each of its stakeholders delivered through channels for communication that, in themselves, serve the objectives and strategic ambition.

It does not take a brilliant mind to realise that the Internet is going to be pivotal. Indeed, for a democratic organisation shining a light into the decision making corners of the Institution is essential and social media has a significant role here in opening up the democratic process.

The Public Relations practitioner, involved in this process might like to examine a range of tactical approaches. Not being privy to the inner workings of this Institution, it is not reasonable for me to propose tactics. I can list a number that may be considered.

Tactical ideas

The first is an RSS feed on the key pages of the Institution's web site. In addition, it should make available to members a free RSS reader and could extend this facility to other institution members and leading lights (perhaps also adding their web sites to the feed before delivery using one of the RSS fed conversion services)

If the organisation is the nexus of professional practice, the president should be the figurehead at the pinnacle. His public statements will need to reflect the most important issue and he should take a statesman like posture. Long term, authoritative, representative of the best and, form time to time damning of the worst.
Certainly not a blog. It is too frequent, to personal and too tactical. Perhaps a monthly podcast to members. Occasionally a no holds bared podcast interview by a leading journalist. Sometimes a joint podcast with counterparts of other leading institutions. Such podcasts to be made available in broadcast quality for distribution worldwide to off-line, online, media both for online and broadcast distribution.

There would have to be a capability for members and, separately, the public, to comment on the content with an authoritative and considered response.

Podcasts with associated wiki's of the executive and council meetings are essential. Easy to do and including the working papers, comments and considerations broadcast to members. With wikis, it is possible to comment and to see how the executive develops responses to issues.
An alternative would be a Second Life gallery (like the House of Commons) to observe proceedings and may be interactive chat to council members during voice/video streamed meetings.

The special interests groups should also have wiki's to develop plans accept papers, comment and criticise with regular Skypcast interactive meetings (may be even in Second Life meetings – or both).

Each of the Interest groups could have member blogs to open up their considerations to the range of institutions they interact with.

There is a case for joint, closed (i.e. Only available to members of the institutions – think global here folks - involved) blogs for members with common interests. Perhaps with an editor providing external reports to all members and public institutions.

In making statements, the Institution needs to target them. They should be issued as press releases (a record of fact) but also posted/pitched to community sites and facilities (from flikr to industry leading bloggers).

On the big issues, issue specific web sites with their own blogs and options for live interaction during meetings and virtual conferences (Skypecast, chat, IM).

News alerts should be available via SMS with the option to see a short statement by a spokesperson on cellular video.

Members like to be involved with members. Virtual networking is a thought and gathering member with common interests such as students, heads of practitioner firms, specialist interest groups would be essential. This needs to be across a wide range of platforms from chat aided Skype conferences to Second Life with associated wiki's included.

An expert wiki is, of course essential, how else might one find expertise or practitioners and much better than typical member lists on the institution's data base because it allows the practitioner to add to his/her entry in the member's (virtual) membership handbook.

Now.... I am not suggesting that traditional newsletters, conferences and meetings should be abandoned. I am suggesting that there should be training to help members understand and use the technologies and I am suggesting that in doing these things that the membership will quite suddenly become social media aware... and is here lies the big opportunity - the members and the institution become very visible and authoritative

Yes... I am warming to this... and getting sore fingers so added contributions will be really cool.

• Can you think of other cool applications for this brain storm of tactical capabilities?
• Can you think of an institution that might like to use such a plan?
• Can we create a template for such institutions?
  

Picture: The Virtual Gallery, by Stephen Peters

Getting social media strategies right.

For some time now we have seen high profile companies open up blogs. Many are just sticking thier neck out.

Some have a large number of internal blogs and make great play about it.

What, one may wonder are the strategies that lie behind this move into social media? It is more than fashion?

The fact is that organisations have an Internet presence.

• They have control over part of it if they have a web site.

• They have influence over part of it because they use email, instant messaging and can acquire hyperlinks from portals and directories and because they interact with organisations that create content on line such as newspapers radio and television.

• They have involvement in some of it when they engage the social media like blogs, usenet, discussion lists and chat.

• But there is a huge part of the Internet presence of organisations where the organisation has no influence. It is the range of web sites, blogs, Usenet, wiki's that talk about the organisation, its aims, ambitions, policies brands and products without interaction with the organisation.

The Internet affects organisations. They cannot escape involvement. For some the web site creates enquiries, sales and interactions that have to be dealt with. Be it email, information from a database, fulfilment or a phone call, the acts of the online constituency will create circumstances which demand attention. Investment in people and procedures because of an online presence is inevitable.

What this means is that most organisations are to some extent involved in online social interactions.

Inevitably, this will cause organisations to think about how the existing investment and online asset can be enhanced and the rise and rise of blogs has focused the mind on what to do next.

For many the first answer is to respond to blogs or write blogs. This shot from the hip is fun only if the organisation wants to get into trouble and grin sheepishly when it all goes wrong.

There is another way. It is to use the practice of public relations which means there is a need for a plan.

For most such a plan will follow a well worn path.

The planner will review the vision of the organisation and explore its current aims. A review of the organisation's constituency, the stakeholders and publics to identify relationships and perception will be critical. It is this landscaping that will allow the organisation to identify how it can create, sustain, maintain and develop relationships in the interest of the organisation. Among these considerations will be the relationships that are influenced by the Internet.

There is, as we know no distinction between Public Relations and online relationships. Public relations is mediated by the Internet as much as internal relations, and board meetings.
This review will by now be shaping Public Relations objectives.

What we see, as we cast our view round the landscape, are a range of relationship disciplines. These will encompass corporate affairs, internal affairs, press, radio, television broadcast media relations, Online media and media online relations, community affairs, web (site) based community relations (both owned sites and third party sites), Corporate Social Responsibility, blog and Usenet relations, Podcast and videocast audiences, email and IM audience relations, Investor relations and all those domains of public relations that makes this profession so interesting.

The extent to which publics (stakeholders) are touched by these disciplines will be cause for further analysis and objectives will be set for each.

We know that, the days when messages targeted for one public could differ from messages for a second public are long gone. Sure the messages need to be highly focused for each public but all publics can see all messages. Control of messages has changed a lot in the last five years.
With such objectives, there is a vast array of communications tools that can be considered for relationship management which can make strategy development quite complex. Knowing what we want to archive for each stakeholder group, development of a coherent methodology for achievement within the timescale inherent in the objectives will be a challenge.

To optimise the outcomes for objectives will, almost inevitably need a multi-touch approach using communications channels tactically.

Development of tactics almost always requires planning against timescales for delivery and delivery times have changed out of all recognition. For example, today, a press release issues in the morning will be in the hands of active publics long before the newsprint version is available to newspaper readers.

All this suggests there is a lot of work to be done before a tactical decision to use a blog can be made by an organisation.

Picture: High Profile Studio

Standing up to minorities with social media

I have just met the mother of Laurie Pycroft (and I quote from the case study in the Social Affairs Unit web site) - a sixteen-year-old from Swindon – who was so appalled by the antics of the animal rights extremists campaigning against the Oxford University animal lab that he decided to stand up to them. Here he tells the story of the founding of Pro-Test - an organisation which is campaigning in support of the Oxford University animal lab.

Here is a case of activism that really caught the public imagination and which put some backbone into both the government and legislature.

Yesterday, The Boston Globe reports how this young man has created a considerable backlash and the story continues.

What is noticeable about this campaign is that it was driven by social media and while not 'classic' in the Public Relations planning and management sense is a social media classic in its own right.

While we see Mega Corps in deep trouble over minority activities on a daily basis, a young man has shown them the way.

From this case study, it is not too difficult to identify the methodological approach.

In this case the landscaping was more social than scientific but testing opinion and building a community, moving from the virtual to the real world and building a community (including a media community) is out of the text book.

Picture: Pravda

Good Research

Public Relations needs good research about the relevance, cost and value of Public Relations tactics.

Using Blogs as a corporate tactic, bearing in minds that this is part of a wider strategy, needs good advice and research and Joe Wikert's recent post alerted me to the work of Dr. Nora Ganim Barnes of the University of Massachusetts Dartmouth recently published this report about blogging and what it entails.

Picture: Fusion Advertising

Blogs Improved Credibility

For BA and Cadbury, here is the news....

New Communications Review report that Cymfony has reported preliminary findings from its survey, Corporate Blogs: Best Practices, which it is has been conducting in partnership with Porter Novelli, According to the early findings, 78% of businesses say their blogs have met their initial goals, citing increased media coverage, improved credibility, increased website traffic and lead generation. Fifty-nine percent of respondents said they started blogs because they felt a need to participate in the medium, while 41% were addressing a specific need. And despite their success, 65% feel they don't get enough interaction on their blog.

The discussion in For Immediate Release covered the point rather well, I thought.


And just to aid practitioners who seek to plan for crisis, the Alison Clark issues management chart is available here:


Picture: Tansport Cafe

Thought on Values and Relationships

I want to take the thinking in 'Towards Relationship Management' recently published in the Journal of Communications Management a few stages further.

In relationships management we see that relationships occur when explicit tokens are recognised by actors because they have an understanding of the values associated with the token.

For example, you recognise a rose as a plant, and flower and also recognise it as a social token associated with romance etc. The rose is the token, its description and associations are values.

We know that people associate different values with tokens. A rose grower may have a completely different set of values for a rose compared to a love-lorn student.

Where two people recognise tokens and also have the same or similar values for the token, they are attracted to each other and, as for people so too for organisations and people and organisations.

Some things are metaphors for values. For example, a coin is a metaphor for wealth.

All assets are metaphors for values.

If we imagine an asset, we might imagine our home. Is it the solid tangible asset we believe it to be?

I don't think so. It is a meta pore for a lot of values such as a licence to hold land, a shelter, technologies for making bricks and skills in building and a place to have a social life. It is range of responsibilities such as household costs, cleaning and maintenance. These are the bunch of values that go to make up the so called 'tangible asset'. Your tangible home is really a bunch of intangible values that come together so you can go home to bed.

There are millions of tokens and they have even more values.

My thinking is going this way: As values come together in a nexus of relationships, they form things we understand (both tangible and intangible).

In human terms, we know that people seek out like values that they have in common.

Thus we see a landscape of intangible values forming a terrain of perceived tangible and intangible relationships.

This has interesting consequences for governments and corporations, economies and social constructs.

It is a line of thought that needs deeper research.

Picture: SurealLandscape

PR 1.0 R.I.P

I saw this posts in Crispy News from Dan Geenfield in which he makes this point “Have we reached the point of collapsing the distinction between traditional PR and its new media offspring or mutations (depending on your perspective)? Has PR 2.0 become the new PR 1.0? ....... We are still grappling with the pros and cons of blogging, while we continue doing our day job of generating MSM media, keeping our bosses and clients happy and having a life outside of work.”

What strikes me about New Media is how it adds value.”

I commented on his blog but it is worth considering further.

We invest a lot in press releases.

I was looking at how stories move round the media to update my lecture on Internet moderated PR and it is becoming quite obvious that press releases, one online, move through a range of communications channels such as news agency reports, news aggregators, search engine lists, online newspapers and blogs. It struck me that Radio, TV and print follow through but often hours, days or weeks later.

The eFootprint is significant even for simple activities such as press relations. It is my view that such activity adds to the value of organisations. They add to the 'Digital self'. This is a concept that I explore in some depth here and which identifies how online Public Relations makes a considerable contribution to the value of companies and other organisations.

New Media as added content and coverage in a blog or blogs offers additional deep briefing which enhances a stories potency and offers journalists (including citizen journalists), added opportunities to spin extra content and context (and a wiki to proved even more content is better still). Cross posting adds Google Juice, tagging prompts wider coverage and an RSS feed on the release, blog, wiki, web pages means that some people will come back for more because it is a subject of interest.

Podcasts about releases from authorities in their subject also adds legitimacy and trust.

This means that, in practice, the job of pitching a press story does not stop with a conversation and press release to a journalist. We have many more channels through which we can pitch. Some are indirect (a newspaper) and others are direct (a blog post).

For all these reasons, it seems that the, already significant, investment in a press release is not fully realised without the contribution new media makes.

For something like a doubling of cost, there is the opportunity for many times the benefit.

New Media is a competitive and commercial necessity. If we do not use new media, are we letting the client down? Or, to answer Dan's question, is that we have to use channels for communication. PR 1.0 is dead unless we are prepared to undervalue the client's story.

Picture: PC by Paul

Blogs - a bridge between Academia and Practitioner

For half a century there has been a divide between Public Relations practitioners and their academic counterparts.

One of the effects of PR blogs has been that both sides have begun to hold a conversation. I cite this example from Walter Carl. We are also seeing PR students blogging and are bringing the knowledge they gain from the schools into the practice domain and even more powerful, we are seeing practitioners being critical (in the best sense of the word) of practice evidenced in comment and contribution which brings both research and best practice to the notice of the profession.

There is a long way to go but I see this as being one of the most valuable contributions that Social Media can make to the profession.

Right now, we need more academics commenting publicly and being engaged in the profession that sustains them. We also need practitioners to demand more of academia.

What are the benefits?

The first is that the bloggersphere is part of Continuous Professional Development, is global and open.

Second is that best practice is evident and transparent and worst practice is exposed.

These interactions also show the wide diversity of practice and will accelerate transition from 40 years of press agentry bondage.

Finally, PR practice can reach out to other areas of professional and academic excellence and research and can adopt the best available for the benefit of its members and clients.

A pretty good deal I think.....

Picture: Digital Bridge

The financial logic for Internet presence

For a long time I have been arguing that it is logical to include Internet assets on the ballance sheet.
Sarting at this post and following the links at the bottom of each post takes you through a complete lecture on the subject.
It shows why we need to pay ever more attention to our on-line presence.

It is a pearl awaiting discovery.






Picture: Pearl Oasis

Employees snoop

A long time ago I Chaired, the CIPR/PRCA Internet Commission which talked about the five elements that are the nature of the Internet.

Porosity was one.

Today we find out, from a report in The Register that corporate snooping is rife. It is the smallest step from there for information to get into the public domian online.

Nearly a quarter (22 per cent) of UK employees admit to having illegally accessed sensitive data such as salary details from their firms employer's IT systems. More than half (54 per cent) of 2,200 adults polled during a YouGov survey said they'd forgo any scruples to do the same, given half a chance, according to a Microsoft sponsored survey that points to a culture of internal snooping and casual identity theft in offices across Britain.

Wiki's and blogs for E-Bay

IT World reports that EBay is beefing up community-building capabilities on its online auction site to include support for blogs, a new wiki for members to share information and new types of alerts for users to stay on top of sales, the company announced on Wednesday.

The eBay Wiki will let anyone post and edit articles on topics of interest to eBay users. The site, www.ebaywiki.com, looks a lot like a blog, including the capability for visitors to post comments about articles. But unlike a blog, anyone can alter the content of existing posts.

Visitors can browse headlines based on categories including eBay policies, seller tools and specialty sites. Many of the articles posted on the site so far are how-to type articles that might help users learn about how eBay works. JotSpot Inc., a Wiki technology and hosting company, powers the eBay Wiki.

In addition to the wiki, eBay is also now hosting blogs for users. EBay enthusiasts can create blogs that will appear on the blogs.ebay.com Web site. Bloggers can post photos, allow others to comment on their postings and enable RSS (Really Simple Syndication).

The blog site is arranged in two columns: one lists all of the latest postings across all of the blogs and the other links to individual blogs by title. So far, many of the bloggers appear to be written by eBay sellers hoping to draw attention to items for sale.

Nielsen BuzzMetrics supply evaluation data

BuzzMetrics announced today that it is providing TechRepublic weekly data from its index of online consumer discussions about products and services for one of the site's most popular services, the Peer Product Reviews.

The data are culled from millions of public comments, reviews and opinions from thousands of consumer forums, discussions, Usenet groups and blogs, and are automatically structured into two charts that are integrated into the TechRepublic reviews -- the "Buzz Score" and "Slant Score."

The "Buzz Score" measures the volume of online consumer discussion, based on the number of consumer-generated posts in blogs, Internet forums, online discussions and Usenet newsgroups, about each product reviewed. The "Slant Score" tracks the percentage of positive posts for each product among online discussions. Each chart is featured along with commentary from TechRepublic's members, as well as links to discussions, whitepapers and articles about each product.

Nielsen BuzzMetrics' publisher market applications provide data that can be used by advertisers to make informed decisions about when and where to advertise and by media companies interested in the added dimension of consumer-generated media and "buzz." The applications also include category- and issue-specific blog data from the company's BlogPulse.com search engine and analysis portal.