Clients in the wild

Last week me and Simon went to an event hosted by New Media Knowledge called Clients in the Wild, about PR and corporate blogging. It was a panel discussion with Roger Warner from Squiz and Velocity Partners, Will McInnes from Nixon McInnes, Drew Benvie from Hotwire (who looks like he’s from New Kids on the Block) and Sarah Ogden from Midnight Communications.

I’m not a PR lady; I work as a producer for a digital agency, so me and Simon (student) were totally in the minority. But, it didn’t matter, coz I did me some learning, and as I wasn’t from a PR agency I didn’t feel like I was being told off by Mr McInnes. Here’s what I discovered….. (my notes from the night)

Roger told us that PR used to be easier to understand, but it lost the plot when blogging came along. He used to do PR for IBM, but then it was a case of parties and press releases. Now the PR industry is a right pickle.

“The freedom of the press is guaranteed only to those who own one”. This saying used to be the case, but now everyone has the option of their own press and can publish whatever they like on blogs, Facebook, Twitter etc.

What has happened, says Will McInnes (in a scary voice) is disintermediation. A major role of PR (er, that would be mediation then) has vanished, or in the least has changed in a big way.

Clients are looking for control. Clients want to know how they can control what is broadcast in digital media. But the simple answer is that they can’t. We do not have the power to control digital media, but we can influence it. Clients/brands need to listen to the conversations which are taking place online, especially as now there are so many, and they need to engage with audiences.

How do you evaluate a PR campaign? How do you prove value?

A pretty big discussion started on how to measure PR success. In an evolving market, there are different ways to measure success – it’s not just about press releases. PR needs to be applied on all forms of media; press, television, blogs, websites etc. and every client has a different idea of what success looks like. This is why it’s difficult to have an industry standard. Each campaign has different goals, therefore different measurements of success. However, online activity poses much more tangible ways of measurement as it’s often easier to collect data.

What is a good communications reason for blogging?

Humanises the brand, defines a spokesperson.

Transparency – this can be beneficial, but only for some companies. Doing it for the wrong reasons can lead to big fuck-ups. However, it is better to at least attempt to do something and learn from mistakes if it all goes wrong than not to try at all. McInnes named Dell as a good example of a brand which has fucked up in the past but learned from it and used the online experience in a positive way.

Online activity should be integrated into a PR campaign and not seen as an extra box to tick. Technology is often ‘tagged’ on to PR campaigns, but this should not be the case. Clients need to look at how their businesses are set up to deal with social media. they should look at how two-way their online communications are, and aim for an integrated model. Blogs should influence the website, user interaction should influence the blog, which should influence the company.

Company blogs communicate the corporate message, but we must pay attention to all the other blogs out there which communicate many different messages about your company. Bloggers are influencers who want to share ideas in a genuine way.

Don’t do bad PR – beware of approaching bloggers in the wrong way.

Tom Coates (Yahoo) appeared on a list of top 100 bloggers. Then he got spammed to buggery by PR firms.

What is the future of PR?

Everything is changing. Reputation is everything. Companies are becoming more transparent. The media has changed, society has changed, but has PR? Will didn’t think so. Online PR companies are emerging which embrace this change, but traditional PR firms need to adapt. It should not be a case of online versus offline – the two need to be intergrated and should work together.

5 years ago a brand would have employed separate agencies for different activities, but now web/PR/marketing agencies work in collaboration as activity is much more fluid. Now digital agencies and advertising agencies are starting to do bits of PR, so PR firms really need to hurry up and get involved if they want to stick around.

Who writes the blog?

Clients may think that having a blog is a great idea, but who actually writes it? Drew didn’t reckon that corporate blogs were a very good idea for clients who wouldn’t have time to write them, as they’d end up completely pointless.

Northern Rock – there was no online voice. From the minute it started, Will said the CEO should have started a video diary and been transparent. Hourly publishing, live news, immediacy. They couldn’t control the conversation but they could have influenced it.

What is the point of social networks?

Information gathering – what are people saying about your brand?

Brands need to listen to what people are saying. Customer services phonelines can tell you one thing, but they won’t tell you that there’s a protest planned for the next day. Facebook can.

• ‘Bring back Wispa’
• ‘HSBC overdraft’ (but, someone asked, would they have still backtracked if traditional media hadn’t have picked up on the online activity?)

So information gathering is one of the key uses of social networks. If brands decide to participate officially, they need to be able to offer users something useful. They should be able to offer value to users. It’s not just about presenting brand messages – give people something they can use.

• MyStation (not yet released)
• MyCokeMusic (this is an example of one that arguably got it wrong – where is the audience?)

Facebook launches ad system, they got slammed for it. Why? Sarah suggested that the backlash is around the fact that companies are making money out of social networks, possible invasion of privacy?

Danah Boyd – carried out a social investigation into young people’s perception of online privacy.

The dangers (haha) of blogging

• Legal issues
• Loss of competitive edge – giving away ideas

But these are mere excuses. The CEOs that blog aren’t too concerned with legalities. By offering themselves up as experts and offering free advice and information (even to competitors), companies can give themselves the competitive edge. They have the opportunity to be seen as experts which can lead to increased credibility.

There were plenty of questions and audience intervention (not from little old me though) which proved how important the issues raised were to audience members present. Then the bar tab ran out.

It was a great event and I’d definately go to a Beers and Innovation session again, but they all kept talking about elephants. I don’t think I got that bit.