v-Fluence Blog

Observations from Communications 2.0

I attended a conference last week here in New York entitled, “Communications 2.0:  The Future of Public Relations.”  The subject of the conference was online media (including but not limited to:  blogs, vlogs, podcasts, social networking sites, wikis, SEO, optimized press releases, etc.).  As an employee of a company that works daily in this medium, I was a bit baffled by the conference’s title:  “the future of public relations.”  Anyone in the PR profession who picks up a newspaper – or, for that matter, queries Google News – ought to know that the influence of online media on public opinion is considerable here and now.

I quickly forgave the event’s title when I saw the roster of speakers.  Some of the brightest minds in the biz were on hand, including Edelman’s Steve Rubel and Ogilvy’s John Bell (who hails from my own alma mater).   

After an entertaining presentation by Andrew Barron, the creator of Rocketboom.com (a daily Webcast that provides an eclectic mix of news and – quote - “delightful” content)1. , a panel discussion quickly turned to the exponential growth of the blogosphere and the public relations risks and opportunities associated with this trend.  One emerging consideration for PR professionals is the challenge of facilitating engagement between clients and online content creators, the panel noted.  Many bloggers have earned a reputation for being defiantly independent and are not typically interested in merely promoting a product or policy online.  Because of this, it was generally agreed that the industry must learn to show sincere consideration for bloggers’ individualism, creativity and points of view , as well as offer the blogging community incentives that appeal to these traits.2.  What’s more, the communications professional must discard the fear that a blogger may muddle its message and instead, replace it with the hope that a blogger will interpret that message in a mutually-beneficial way.3.

Companies that fail to effectively monitor and engage bloggers do so to their potential detriment.  As Rubel said, “customers have always been in control,” which is true in the collective sense:  In the past, if your customers were generally unhappy with your product, they might boycott.  If a large portion of your constituents were unhappy with your policy, they might protest.  However, the increased ability of the general public to air its grievances in a variety of online mediums is remarkable. Today, what is changing is the ease with which your customers or audience can initiate a boycott or launch a protest.

At the same time, we have the unique ability to monitor and make sense of those activities, which is why I sort of cringed when one of the panelists said, a bit dismissively, “It’s easier for us to think we have a crisis.”  It might be true that some in our profession may hastily (over)react when they find that they, or one their clients, are being ‘dissed’ online.   But I’d like to offer two other assertions that, I think, are a little more suitable.  The first points to a liability and the second points to an asset:

• It’s easier for us to ACTUALLY HAVE a crisis.
• It’s easier for us to KNOW we have a crisis.

There are several real world examples that illustrate my first bullet point:

1. a home-made anti-Comcast video that shows a repair technician who was placed on hold for an hour actually falling asleep on the couch of his customer, which was highlighted on the ABC’s 20/20 last weekend;
2. an online contest by Chevrolet that allowed the online public to create ads for the new ,Tahoe which ended in disaster (I was told that these ads permeated the search results for Chevy Tahoe, which would be very visible to prospective Tahoe  buyers);
3. Vincent Ferrari’s recorded call with an AOL customer service representative who pestered him for trying to cancel his service.  This content was then featured on his Webcast, resulting in coverage on NBC’s Today Show and ultimately archived on YouTube for all to see.  As a result, Comcast fired the technician, Chevy pulled the plug on the online contest and AOL canned the rep.  But the damage had been done.   Indeed, the blogosphere isn’t just there for the taking; it’s also there for the breaking.  Either way – as our slogan states – it starts online.

Finally, it’s easier to know we have a crisis.   Monitoring user-generated media can be an effective way of assessing public opinion and consumer attitudes, as well as identifying related offline activity.  As a profession, we should be able to anticipate, monitor, identify, analyze and rapidly respond to the types of crises listed above.   This is an area of opportunity for our profession, and it should be regarded as such.  The future of public relations… is now.

1. Andrew made an interesting observation about the correlation between a medium’s screen size, the distance at which it’s actually viewed and the attention span of its audience.  (e.g.: A movie screen is the largest screen is viewed at the farthest distance for the longest period of time, followed by the television, the computer screen and down to a mobile PDA, being the smallest screen viewed at the closest distance for typically the shortest period of time).  This observation likely guided his decision to stick to a three-minute timeframe for his daily Webcasts.
2. Blogger-only press conferences are great for this, or any kind of exclusive information that lets them “scoop” their nemeses in the mainstream media.
3. We often discuss hopes and fears in this industry.  In light of this new media (or even a new media paradigm), it may be time we turn the mirror upon ourselves.

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