One of the hardest things for any professional to learn is how to change. Many PR professionals are taught that that in order to be effective, you need to create a picture of success. Call it spin, call it BS, or call it simply stretching the truth; but in the social media world, that marketing speak doesn’t cut it.

The Psychology of Change

Any kind of change adoption requires innovation, knowledge, persuasion, decision, implementation and confirmation. Right now PR and social media seem to be hovering around decision and implementation.

People are certainly aware that there are changes that need to be made in the PR profession, and there is certainly a lot of buzz and interest being generated. The question becomes, how willing are you to change? Whose job is it to change? The PR practitioner? The company/client? Both?

Social Media, PR and Change

The PR profession is changing, and social media is playing a big role in that. For many people, it’s about un-learning how to create spin, and learning how to be authentic. It sounds like a silly question, why should you have to teach someone how to be who they are?

Social media is about transparency and authenticity, so why is that such a challenge for many PR professionals? It’s not easy to change an industry’s mindset, especially one that seems to be so divided between the definition and relationship between PR, marketing, advertising, and even journalism.

As long as PR continues to be synonymous with media relations, then it continues to be difficult for social media to find its place among the PR professionals and marketers of the world.

The basic idea of public relations has always been to build a relationship between a company and community. PR provides companies with a cohesive voice and presence that people are able to relate to, and we as communications professionals are the ones that should be able to facilitate that relationship.

Change in Action

Over time, we have seen good and bad uses of PR, but the most successful campaigns are the ones that reach out to a specific community (consumer, product user, etc) and engage them in a way that they can’t help but participate (a call to action).

From Southwest to Dell and Coca-Cola’s Second Life campaign, some companies are finally getting it. And it’s not through spin, or false marketing (think of FEMA’s fake press conference). It’s from providing open dialogue and developing relationships with your audience.

For PR professionals to keep up with this changing conversation, they need to be open to change. Nothing can ever evolve and get better without someone starting the trend. Social media is a great tool to begin that journey. While it may be that nobody is ever really an expert, we can all take part in pushing the winds of change, and become a force of pioneers that brings the PR profession back to life.

One day, instead of being considered PR flacks and hacks who are only out for themselves, we have the potential to be considered true servants of the community, and in essence will really be providing the backbone to the relationship between our clients and audiences. And that’s a change I look forward to seeing.

Let’s face it.  Sometimes plans don’t work out.  And that’s why measurement tools are so critical.  You can do more than monitor, you can see when things aren’t working out… Before it’s too late. There’s enough time to retool the program.

Success in any campaign always revolves around mapping the value proposition to the community in a manner that they care about.  Whenever I am asked to revitalize or examine a marketing campaign or pitch that has gone awry, the failure usually lies in understanding the organization’s stakeholders (Photo credit to meadowsa). 

This very basic and classic approach to PR, marketing, communications and sales is so simple, yet for some reason it’s not easy. Breakdowns can occur in how it’s being communicated, what’s being communicated, and the actual value of the product/service. But our job must be results, so when this happens, it’s time to examine and retool the effort.

Three Step Approach

When examining a campaign — regardless of communications tactic –we usually take a three step approach:

1) Check the execution: Sometimes tactics aren’t executed correctly.  For example, if you have a blogger outreach with a 7-8 paragraph pitch, it’s not going to work.  If you have a web site without a decent call to action, it’s not going to generate additional community members or leads. Also check where communication is occurring.  Wrong place equals no results.  Essentially, examine basic blocking and tacking to ensure success.

2) Examine the value proposition: This moves from tactics to strategy. Is what’s being communicated what the company/organization cares about or what the community cares about? Do the messages overtly promote product or serve the stakeholders with valuable information?  Does the value proposition serve the community, resolve a need, or add to a general marketplace discussion? 

For example, does the information provide a reporter product details or giving him/her trend information related to his beat. Does the white paper revolve around a standards fight the company’s embroiled in, or the benefits the new technology offers the marketplace? Hard gut checks are needed.

3) Evaluate the product, service or company: If the tactics are correct, if the messaging strategy is spot on, then inevitably it comes back to the product, service or company.  Something’s not right. Perhaps it’s early in the campaign, and there’s no credibility (that goes back on you) or the product’s faulty, or past ethical challenges are hampering the company (Walmart’s Facebook campaign).

This step should not be taken lightly. It’s not ethical to save face at the expense of a company, product or service. At the same, time if there’s something really wrong, you owe it to the organization to alert them. Be sure, be factual, and have evidence.

The following podjot (2 minutes in length) runs through this process with a PR pitch.

Look folks, this is not some scholarly process. It’s just what we do at Livingston Communications.  If you have best practices to offer or additional thoughts, please let them be heard.

When the Buzz Bin cracked the top twenty thousand Technorati blogs two months ago, we made it a stated goal to break into the top twenty on the Friendly Ghost’s PR blog rankings.  Today, the new ranking came out, and we’re number 11.  Thanks to Brendan for compiling this index.

In general, I like this ranking because  it extrapolates more factors to counterbalance inconsistent data, and rewards recent performance.  That being said, you’ll find a lot of gems throughout the index so peruse the wares and enjoy. Congratulations to all of our listed friends.

Our next goal is simple: Serve our readership with great content.  Hopefully, you’ll enjoy.  Best wishes.

A recent round of discussions on several blogs debating whether or not the PR or Advertising department should be the owner of corporate social media. To be frank, neither of these sits right with me.  Social media requires a blend of PR, traditional marketing and old-fashioned relationship-building networking skills.  Enter the Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOMMA) and its growing claim that corporate social media is indeed WOMM.

I had a chat with local social media star John Bell about this very topic.  He started talking about social media and WOMM as a separate discipline (the topic came up because he’s attending this week’s conference). It should be noted that John sits on the board of WOMMA, a relatively new trade association trying to build measurement, ethics and best practice standards.

My ears perked up. John’s onto something, because as Susan Getgood likes to say, “the lines are a-blurring.“  The reason why social media doesn’t fit into either box is because it requires a blend of all these skills and more.  As such, neither PR or advertising is well suited to own social media. It might be a new animal all together.

My past experience involved several years business development for agencies like TMP Worldwide and Widmeyer.  In those roles I had to know and understand more than PR.  I learned the full gamut of marketing strategy and disciplines to represent my firms’ full offerings intelligently.

When I see excellent social media programs there’s more there. Intelligent brand strategy, compelling calls-to-action, and good salesmanship — which is the art of building long-term customer relationships (a la Dale Carnegie).

Why It’s Not PR or Advertising

By definition, PR means building goodwill between and organization and its community.  As such, social media tools naturally fall under this umbrella.  However, in general (outside of many friends&nbsp already engaging in social media), I don’t believe that the PR industry will ever get it.

The latest round of PR snafus (Andersen, etc.) nailed the coffin for me. And to be frank, anytime PR comes up the discussion always gets mired in blogger relations.  Please Note for the Record: Blogger relations makes up a very small part of social media marketing.

But PR may never escape its entrenched media relations history. In fact, most companies see other forms of social media, community development, blogs, creation of applications and videos etc. as a new independent function.  And they’re right, because PR types want to control the message and can’t function in this type of role.

Similarly advertising offers great tools, in particular brand management.  Great social media communications demonstrate a clear value proposition to communities.  In essence, communications understand that they are promising an experience to a community, and seek to back that up with valuable information that stakeholders actually care about.  Also, consider the use of RSS subscriptions, etc. as calls to action.

But at the same time, advertising, direct mail and other marketing communication forms are one-way. They are meant to compel people to buy, and do not allow for a conversation. By its very nature, advertising flies in the face of conversational marketing.

I’m not sold on WOMM as the solution for this discipline conundrum. But, I’m listening now.

Tomorrow marks the start of the Word of Mouth Marketing Summit, WOMMA’s annual event. It’s the one show that I regret missing this fall as the agenda looks like advanced social media marketing versus the usual 101 discussion. We’ll see what reports come out of Vegas.

Toby Bloomberg summarizes the risks and concerns  that many companies feel when adopting social media, and how we as consultants can answer questions and ease those fears.

Scott Monty of the Social Media Marketing Blog asks marketers how they know when an online relationship is authentic. He states that businesses and brands need to be seen as "real" and authentic, yet there are still many marketers out there who don’t get it and are searching for ways to "teach" authenticity. This is not the answer.

Marc Andreessen has been busy the past couple weeks with the launch of OpenSocial. Here he summarizes his posts on the launch, its concept, the technical aspect, and what it means to developers and users.

Glenn Gow discusses the questions behind Facebook’s advertising initiatives. He asks what the value to the member is in advertising for someone, and what the value to other users is who view advertising posted by members.

Sony proves that they are on the cutting edge of technology and social media with their new advertising campaign unveiled in Japan. The technology allows users to integrate a still image which is then enhanced to create a real animated, singing version of yourself. This could have the potential to do for the Walkman, what The Simpsonsize Me site did for the Simpsons movie.

David Vinjamuri asks whether or not the Hollywood writer’s strike will impact new media. With the advancement and adoption of citizen journalism via YouTube and a variety of other sources, will Hollywood writers soon find themselves without an audience?

Note to CMO writes a letter that comments on Seth Godin’s recent piece on branding. Stephen Denny declares that in order to be truly successful you must "know your customer, speak their language more fluently than the next guy, (and) hammer away at your competition so they have to chase you."

A few weeks ago we mentioned TechnoSailor’s post on Office Space and the lessons and relationships that are relevant to social media. This week Justin Kownacki gives another pop culture reference when he likens social media to punk rock culture. After delivering comparisons between the two, he asks a few questions, including, "will social media have this kind of longevity?" and are modern media creators just as passionate about making their voices heard?

Dear friends, Now Is Gone has been officially released today.  It’s currently available on Amazon and Bartleby Press.

Help us get started on the right track today, and make Now Is Gone number one in its category on Amazon. Our category is Computers & Internet/Business & Culture/Culture.

Also, Brian Solis and I continue our podcast series on the seven principles of community engagement uncovered in the book Now Is Gone today. Number three focuses on Message Control (16 minutes).

Thank you.

Businesses facing the changing landscape of media consumption must reckon with the increasingly two-way nature of today’s world. Two-way (a.k.a. social media, conversational media, etc.) creates massive challenges for corporations that are indoctrinated in the one-way control culture.  This inevitably causes culture shock, fear and sometimes clashes. 

Culture clash: This ad promoting local beaches did not fare so well in Turkey. Clearly, the advertiser didn’t understand its community.

Experimentation or first time “social” media initiatives by command and control cultures usually fail. Results range from falling flat to causing outright brand suicide, at least online.  Consider some of the ways one-way business cultures try to approach social media:

• Astroturfing: Lying with fake social media efforts rarely makes it in the social media world (see Astroturfing on the Dark Side of the Moon).  In the case of Walmart, the company still hasn’t recovered.
• Turning a Deaf Ear: This follows the mindset that bloggers aren’t credible “If we ignore the blogs and social networks, they’ll go away.” Dell Hell and Fed Ex are great examples of how this can really hurt a company.
• Same Old Approach:  The is the most common form of corporate misstep, and also the least talked about (low drama factor).  Same old approach involves trying to provide controlled communications — press releases, produced videos, brochure copy, etc., etc. — through social media realms.  The end result is often deaf ears with an unengaged community.

There’s so much to be gained from actively participating in social media.  Consider how dynamic IBM’s culture has become with its many, many blogs (more than 30k , including internal blogs), and microblogging, lifestream and incredible Second Life initiatives. Their culture is rapidly evolving to become two-way. Social media as a communications form certainly isn’t hurting the bottom line for Big Blue: $69.9 billion through the first 3Q 2007 compared to $65.2 billion in 2006.

Yet most companies’ cultures prevent them from truly embracing a conversational form with their markets and themselves.  For me, whenever I engage a company in discussions about social media tools, rarely do we discuss cost or tactics.  Instead, the discussion revolves around culture. Unless they can change their cultural approach to communications, and innovate to meet the medium, their tactics will fail.

Changes on the Inside

Corporate culture must change to meet the form if companies intend to be successful.  Invariably, the discussion becomes how to best engage a community (which is chapter three of Now Is Gone).  Here are some very recent examples from prospective and current client discussions:

Listen and understand. As in know what your customers care about. Hint: It’s probably not what the company cares about. Once a company understands this, they should write/create for them. Don’t waste the community’s time with corporate drivel and press releases.  Simple, right? Wrong, most companies fight this.  It’s the heart of command and control.

Be real. Messages can be introduced through social media, but you better be sure that the messages are meant to serve the community.  You cannot control people in real life, nor can you in business life. Be prepared, and even welcome feedback.

Inject some personality into the content.  That means reinventing most corporate communications departments’ polishing processes.  By the time they are done polishing, a document may be safe, on message, perfect from grammatical standpoint, and about as interesting as a dissertation on modern calculus (sorry Ike).

Hard selling should be left to car salesmen. No you cannot use social media to blatantly push your products all the time. Even Guy Kawasaki found this out on Twitter. Look, it’s OK to push now and then (consider today’s other post on Now Is Gone availability online), but be transparent, tongue in cheek, and let it go. 

Community means being a  part of, and to do that, organizations need to serve, not sell. So if you’re selling all the time, or even a healthy minority of the time, do not expect a strong community.

For more on how to engage a community, read the Seven Principles of Community Building.

The lastest marketing buzz and propaganda features the term web 3.0. Ahhhh!!!! An s.technorati search reveals 608 high authority posts using this term in the past six months.

We had a hard enough time understanding 2.0 (the movement from static to truly social technology and content). It was hard to constantly explain this horrific cliche to the masses. Then once everyone started messaging anything new as 2.0 it lost its value (image from F1 blog). 

Like Scott Baradell says 2.0 is so 2005.  So to be fresh I guess marketers and PR types have attempted to brand new technology advancement as 3.0. Why?  What’s the big paradigm shift to justify this terminology?

Propagating a new cliche — 3.0 – just seems like bad marketing to me. When I complained about the over proliferation of 2.0 it seemed appropriate to say:

“Webolution” (thank you, Michael Pranikoff for this coined word) is a process that will continue to develop, and move beyond current conceptions. Technological change will further impact us. What are they going to call the localized craze that’s sure to follow the GIS-induced geographic tie into everything user generated? It’s best to create a brand name that meets the product’s value proposition to its community?

 

It seems appropriate to say it again. Web 3.0 only confuses people, and does not explain what the actual technology does.

It’s time for some good news, pr friends. We’ve been all over the headlines lately getting a bad rap, but this week Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide signed on with the Center for Disease Control (CDC) in an effort to encourage America’s Youth. And that’s good news.

The three year $3.3 million ‘Choose Respect’ initiative is to encourage America’s youth to form healthy relationships and avoid violent dating patterns. And how do they plan to do it? Social media.

Jennifer Wayman, SVP and group director of social marketing at Ogilvy in Washington, reports in the recent PR Week that the campaign will be heavily focused on new media and social networking. She says the idea is to concentrate on the ways in which kids between the ages of 11 and 14 find and consume information.

There are several factors that make this contract exciting for all of us. One is the social media component and the fact that a part of the Department of Health and Human Services is using it. There seems to be a shift occurring when it comes to social media.

It’s good news and signifies that times are changing. And that, is the best news I’ve heard all week.

Last night friends and colleagues gathered to celebrate the much anticipated book launch of Geoff’s book, now is gone. Officially released on Monday, November 12, we decided to have a little pre-release party in Arlington. Piola was the place to be last night as 100+ guests milled about with wine, finger foods and high spirits.

The photo bloggeratti was there as well in the form of Susan Rook and yours truly. In addition, we were happy to see some of our clients there to support us as well as our social media friends.

Jim Long (Verge New Media/NBC Universal)

Chris Dorobek (FCW)

Pamela Sorensen (Pamela’s Punch)

Suzanne Coffin (Executive Biz/TNNI)

Cynthia deLorenzi, (Success in the City)

Ashley Shillingsburg (Capitol Solutions/mobilediner.com)

Dean Hua (Sachi Studio Web Design)

Alice Marshall (Presto Vivace/Technoflak)

Qui Diaz (Evange.LIST)

Jonathan Trenn (Participate)

Shashi Bellamkonda (http://www.shashi.name/)

…and many more!

We’d like to thank those who helped to organize the event as well as everyone who came out to join in the celebration, especially those who supported Geoff through the entire publishing process.

We’re all looking forward to the success of the book, and hope that it will help executives and entrepreneurs to understand the benefits of social media that we evangelize here.

Note: The Buzz Bin will resume our Thursday interview posts next week!

Team Livingston - Larissa, Geoff and Michele

The Livingston "Divas" - Michele and Larissa

Geoff giving a small "thank you" speech

Signing a few books

Just relieving some stress…