A re-think of corporate blogging
I am beginning to think that bloggers are a little like the letter writers of the eighties and nineties – you may remember them as ‘Appalled’ from Cape Town, ‘Shocked’ from Johannesburg or ‘Disappointed, East London’. In some cases they have a point and the service had been bad, the article did have grammatical errors and the president did in fact reveal himself and a commie/capatalist. But generally I always got the feeling it was people with too much time on their hands who needed to see their letters printed as a validation of their own self worth – and are these really the kinds of people to take seriously when dealing with something as precious as your brand?
I am not saying don’t listen – certainly not – every voice deserved to be heard, just not all at equal volume. With this in mind I feel that a PRs job becomes helping clients understand what is happening online, how they are being portrayed and how to respond and it is most important that we can help them filter and priorities comments, criticisms and praise.
real world/ virtual thought
Been a bit slack on the blogging. Its a challenge really – trying to balance the real world stuff like clients, cash flow (or lack thereof), small children not sleeping through and having our floors sanded so my family had to move in with my parents for a week (don’t ask!). So basically, while I have had the time to blog – I haven’t really had anything to say.
I suppose that I could have gone on about why once one has flown the nest, one should not return for lengthily periods with spouse and child in tow. But after just one exploration of the surreal conversation that is how my folks speak to each other (and me) any readers would have felt like they were looking at the first few pages of a Pinter novel, not a PR related blog.
But I have put my mind to it this week though and I think that I may have a few things to say. Watch this space.
Blogging – a philosophy for South Africa
Blogging may not change the way South African consumers deal with businesses and brands (because less than 5 million South African are online) but this doesn’t meant that companies should just ignore its philosophy.
The Internet has created the forum for single individuals to converse, publicly, with companies. This is a powerful philosophy – especially for South Africa. Conversation between the little guy and the big powerful-in-charge-of-a-company guy is exactly what we need – especially if we can get honest, real-time conversations happening.
I was talking to Branko, editor of Maverick (www.maverick.co.za) about this today and he was talking about the need for large organisations like Transnet to talk to their 65 000 stakeholders – most of whom are not on the Internet. While it’s obvious the blogging is not the medium, it might just be the philosophy.
I don’t really have an answer to how Maria chats with her staff – well – now yet – but I am convinced that if leaders embrace the philosophy of listening and conversing then the right medium will present itself.
First and last stories
I am reading Neil Gaiman’s ‘Ananzi Boys’ at the moment. He is one of my favourite writers because he mixes complete mundane reality with magical, mythical stories that are a total gift! A recurring theme in most of his works (in my opinion) is that the first stories – stories that were told as the world of was first formed – are the basis of all the tales and stories that come after.
I have also heard that there are actually only 27 plots in the world and that all stories, whether film, book, theatre, comic etc follow one or more of these basic plots. (I have tried to track this theory to its source and failed so if anyone else has heard of it or knows where I can learn more about it please let me know.)
But all this got me to thinking about blogging, PR and journalism. How many ways of telling a story are there? And why are there so few of us who get it right? What is the secret to a great story?
Some stories are all plot and no character (Da Vinci Code) and others all character and no plot (The Rock Alphabet). Occasionally there are books which seem to have neither (anything by Maeve Binchy) and still others which have both (Shantaram) but in the end – its the telling which makes it worth listening to.
And that’s why, in the corporate world anyway, we have PR people – we are company storytellers. I like to think of myself as a truthteller but that might be a little optimistic – its still PR after all.
Late developer
Meryl K. Evans has written a Change This Manifesto (http://www.changethis.com/24.BigBlogWorld) on how to build a better business blog. Which is all good and well – and is recommended reading – its really good.
But, she does say how embarrassed she is about her first blog posting in June 2000 which says – to be honest – pretty much what my first blog says… how this is just a trial and probably no-one will read it.
Which can mean one of two things. Either I am a like minded genius to Meryl K. Evans and in six years time people will be referencing my insightful thoughts on their blogs. Or, I am really really late with this stuff.
hmmmm… which could it be?
My hope is that it means precisely nothing – just that generally people’s first blogs are self-conscious with the authors desperately needing to explain themselves.
But seriously, if you are interested in corporate blogging then check out her presentation – it’s got some good stuff.
Public and Private voices
I was talking with a client about the general state of South Africa business and once again it became clear to me that we South Africans are completely losing our grip on what is and what is not public conversation.
I blame reality TV where every self-indulgent feeling, generally ill-informed thought and self serving action is raised to the level of public interest.
The thing is, when its a bunch of sunburnt Americans on a desert island there is no real danger, but when its Vodacom and Cell C (www.itweb.co.za/sections/columnists/doubletake/vecchiatto060531.asp?S=Cellular&A=CEL&O=FRGN) in an unthought out mud-slinging match in public domain it is damaging – and not just to the brands.
It felt to me that I had stumbled in on a family spat. You know the ones – it starts out being about whose turn it is to stack the dishwasher and ends up a teary four hour session about which child is actually the parent’s favourite.
Private discussion made public reveal far more than is often anticipated, and generally all the audience remembers is the rather uncomfortable feeling that had when reading or hearing the story rather than what was really being communicated – which means the emotive attachment to the brand has been damaged.
I was so pleased to be an MTN subscriber the week after the Vodacom outage. And not just because my provider hadn’t gone down but because the level of mis-communication between technical, marketing and business development had not be revealed and I could sleep safe in total ignorance of any internal problems at MTN. Which is just the way I want it.
Calling the market
Been wondering lately if I am not being a little over exuberant about the impact of the internet of PR. Yes, it has changed the way PR people work – but not more or less so than any other sector – its still just people trying to communicate with each other to get what they want.
I suppose the question that needs to be asked is whether the nature of the conversation has changed. The statements of international PR professionals seems to suggest that it has happened. The advent of consumer generated media (CGM to three letter acronym lovers) is forcing companies to listen rather than just speak. Which is, in the end, a very good thing because it forces accountability. BUT – does that mean its going to happen in South Africa?
Will Pep Stores ever need to address a tide of bloggers complaining about prices and quality? Will Rainbow Chickens ever need ‘blogger relations’ to address animal activists complaints ? Will there be enough critical mass to make Internet voices a real threat or opportunity for our corporates? Will South African PR companies really need to know how to managed bloggers and influence (with a small i) what and how they feel about client companies.
I am not sure. Is CGM a fad – having its time in the sun in the broadband heaven that is the US? Or is it a big giant movement that in a few years time is going to make me embaressed to have written this?
Press release rebirth
Check out http://www.pr-squared.com to learn about a new press release format that has just been launched. It’s totally amazing for its simplicity and its potential. I think that South African PR professionals would need to be use this kind of release in tandem with our traditional 400 word, inverted pyramid ones while we migrate towards the level of Web literacy prevalent in the US.
What this new format shows is that the power in the conversation between companies and their audiences is moving solidly in the direction of the consumer. It is no longer enough for companies to know what they want to tell their ‘chosen’ audience. It is necessary to know what the audience wants to hear from the company – and that means everyone – not just the top 100 listed companies in South Africa or whichever other sufficiently lucrative sector of the market the business has chosen to communicate with.
In the new media or PR 2.0 space everyone is a potential participant in a conversation that includes your brand so best you get listening.
There is no obvious angle in this release. There is just factual information and a few quotes. It’s all true. There is no spin – well – not the kind that can be seen with the naked eye anyway. The art will come in pulling together the right background material, selecting the right kind of photography, coming up with quotes that don’t sound trite or arrogant or totally self-serving and giving the right online sites the first shot at the story.
Sound familiar? Ja, well, its still PR – just all dressed up with her iPod playing in her ears as she IMs on her new WI-FI enabled mobile phone.
Online Guinea Pig
Hiya,
Learnt something yesterday – blogging makes me feel vulnerable. I am not used to communicating and not having a clue as to who I am communicating to – employees, peers, clients, competitors, ex-boyfriends… the list of possible audiences is endless. AND I don’t know anything about them – why they are reading this, what frame of mind they are in and most terrifyingly, what they think.
That was learning two – I care a lot more than I thought I did about what the response to this is going to be.
There are a few ways to respond to this feeling. The first would be to stop all together but this seems a bit defeatist so that, for now, is not an option. An alternative would be to try not offend anyone but the result would be a blog so bland, that by the end of July not even my mother will be reading it so that isn’t really an option either. Leaving me only one course of action – to be dead honest so that there is never any manipulation of content which will make is much easier to defend should I ever need to.
Which leads me to my next question – what exactly is honesty? I don’t mean this is a ‘what is the true nature of god?’ way, just in an ‘if online is forever then how long do my opinions need to last?’ way.
After some thought, I have chosen for honesty in blogging to mean being totally authentic about what I think or feel at any point while retaining the right to change my mind completely should any new information come to light. Pretty much in line with my offline life and its worked okay so far – lets see what it does online.
So, final result of ruminations is this – that to feel less vulnerable I am going to be more open. All sounding a little Zen really…
I have also decided to write this blog for just one particular audience to take the pressure off trying to keep all potential readers in my head.
And the winners are … South African business people who are looking to understand this blogging/ world but don’t have the time or the inclination to be the guinea pig.
So here I am guys – your own personal online guinea pig – ready to start the conversation.
