Post titles are often meant to stir up a reaction via a generalized headline that can both be true and not be true based upon some context and description.
My favorite Molotov cocktail-throwing muse, Strumpette, has condemned the PR industry to incompetence or to some genetic limitation that will forever prevent "them" from genuinely engaging in open and useful conversations with folks on behalf of client business objectives.
I say "nay!" I do not believe that condemnation. Full disclosure: I am not a PR person. I have worked in the business for 6 years and in a creative capacity (vs. media relations, one of the other cornerstones of PR). You can review my full bio and judge for yourself if I am likely to have any credibility on this issue.
The Strumpette hypothesis starts with this scenario:
"The key to CM is that a client organization is supposed to relinquish control. So the question is: what does a manager manage in a system sans management? That's where the real genius comes in. If you can't manage it, you can't measure it, i.e. you can't measure me; and if you can't measure me and are still paying me a lot of money, well trust me it must be good. If you're the head of an agency, you're seeing big green dollar signs right about now and feeling a little woozy."
Most ways of engaging with social media does mean giving up control. Which is why it is not for everybody. Many corporations cannot or shouldn't go down this path. No more shoving messages down the throats of people via gas-bag media outlets. No more carefully-crafted press release-like statements that mean as little as possible in order to avoid tripping some negative reaction.
Where is the "management" in this? Pretty often it looks like community management, where you spark conversation, offer interesting content, invite different points of view to the table to discuss/disagree and so forth. All done with a clear statement that I am so-and-so, I work for these guys, I know a lot about this but you judge for yourself. Can this help a client? Yup. there are plenty of brands that talk with their customers and build trust and loyalty (and sales).
And measurement? There already is measurement. Most of its equivalency measures so we are building on sand to begin with. But this will get better. I actually think Charlene Li at Forrester has patched together some promising measurement beginnings. Â
But the indictment continues. Here is how I would paraphrase (as inaccurately as possible, I hope) Strumpette's conclusion that PR professionals cannot engage meaningfully in the CM or the WOMM or the talky-talk or whatever:
- A PR person has too much of an agenda to participate. EVERYONE has an agenda, The trick is are you willing to reveal it with no shame? Most people (not PR people but 'people') are not and many are not even conscious of that agenda.
- Social media participants reject any hint of spin or PR and want to make their own choices based upon pure information. They reject old-school PR that paints lipstick on pigs and tries to sell you asbestos when your child is dying of cancer. Hell, I reject that crap to. Social media participants reject people who don't listen and aren't willing to put themselves out there. (as I am putting myself 'out there' in regards to Strumpette, my muse, who is right now polishing her knives....:-))
- CM/WOMM is too squishy to be measured. And TV advertising measurement makes sense? Anywho, WOMM is measurable now and it will get better over time.
- "True believers" gloss over the nasty instincts of human beings. I refute Strumpette's synopsis of our baser selves. While no angel, I get no pleasure in other's misfortune.
- "The CM mind is not aligned with the PR body.." I totally agree 100% with this. And that is why we must change. That is what we are trying to do. I have a whole get-up-on-your-chairs manifesto about PR X.0 - the next generation of public relations. It would make your heart leap, cause you to be kind to your neighbor, even want your kids to consider the business (okay, not that).
We must change. Old school PR is too stupid. But then again, I am a "true believer" in social media and perhaps hopelessly naive to PR human nature.
http://johnbell.typepad.com/weblog/2007/02/pr_can_...