Business transparency has become a hot button in the public relations world, and new media’s the driving force. Users want to be a part of product development, to understand how to use a service, and contribute to the overall experience of the product’s target community. Whether or not a company participates in this open environment is a strategic decision.

The ability for millions of people to openly express their opinions and expose injustices however creates problems for businesses. Truly a brand manager or public relations professional is responsible for a company or a brand’s reputation in all media forms. They risk brand reputation by not participating. Further, as more and more companies embrace the new media era, competition will force companies to participate openly or lose market-share.

Authors Don Tapscott and Anthony Williams thrust this trend into the limelight with their book Wikinomics. Their $9 million research project turned book goes into great detail about how online communities and group contribution through socil networks benefited businesses. The result: “While some leaders fear the heaving growth of these massive online communities, Wikinomics proves this fear is folly. Smart firms can harness collective capability and genius to spur innovation, growth, and success.�

Blogger Joe Wikert does a great job encapsulating the Wikinomics principles, “As they see it, the four keys to success are openness, peering, sharing and acting globally.� Wow, whil enot necessarily a direct hit, this is veryrelative to the whole PR 2.0 debate.

The Wikinomics principles from a communications standpoint are essential in the new media environment. As a marketing executive or a PR practitioner, I would interpret the four principles of success from a communications perspective openness, visibility, a willingness to share valuable information, and a conscious effort to embrace your entire constituency.

If businesses would embrace this approach in all of their communications efforts, much less new media, how would that work? I think it would be quite amazing. By the way, much of this theory reminds me of crisis communications principles. Hmmm.

Looking for an example, we stumbled upon Toby Bloomberg’s (Diva Marketing Blog) great interview with Simon Schneiders, CEO of BabyChums.com. This site is a classic example of the principle of Wikinomics at work, though it’d be interesting to learn more from Schneiders. In the interview, Schneiders details how Babychums.com was an idea born without focusing on commercial drive but what the market needs, the gap and embracing current technologies. The community’s target audience is the newly mothering female.18-45 with little or no experience of social networking.
Babychums is often the first entry for this target audience into social networking via Free Baby Websites. We reviewed the site and found it to be simple, using classified advertising and other discreet promotions for revenue generation. The simple, easy to use site works without a lot of help from the company. And content is driven by the community, not BabyChums.

More to be explored on Wikinomics and PR, Social media…