OP-ED Contribuitor

PR's Adaptation to Technological Change

By Simona Surdu

March 20, 2011

            More than anything since the invention of the postal service, social media has revolutionized how we relate to one another.  In 2006, Forrester Research released a report called “Social Computing”, identifying a social phenomenon that has exploded since.  It’s the force of millions of people combined with the rapid evolution of new technologies. Individuals increasingly take cues from one another rather than from institutional sources like corporations, media outlets, religions, and political bodies.  So now that the public is credited for calling the shots, what does it mean for public relations?

            Famous blogger Stowe Boyd slams the traditional 3^rd party voice press release manufactured by PR people as an antiquated notion, a holdover from the days of the telegraph. “The old broadcast model” has been replaced by “participatory public relations’” changing the balance of power.  According to long-time web-content guru Gerry McGovern, “Traditionally, public relations was about honing a silvery message that communicated exactly what the organization wanted us to hear. Now we can hear all sorts of voices on the subject. It’s true democracy at work”.

            Communications professionals can no longer shape public’s perception through one-way communications, they have to engage in discussions with people and spend a lot of time listening to what they have to say.  Simply put, it is our job now to turn the force of customers connecting to our client’s advantage.

Here are the 10 commandments for public relations professionals in the Golden Era of Participation from Steve Rubel[1] SVP, Director of Insights for Edelman Digital:

1) Thou shall listen – Utilize every avenue available to you to listen actively to what your publics have to say and feed it back to the right parties.

2) Remember that all creatures great and small are holy – It doesn't matter if it's the New York Times calling on you or an individual blogger, both have power. Take them all seriously.

3) Honor thy customer – Create programs that celebrate customers and they will celebrate you.

4) Thou shall not be fake – Keep it real; don't hide behind characters and phony IDs.

5) Covet thy customers – Don’t sue your fans. You will alienate them.

6) Thou shall be open and engaging – Involve your customers in the PR process. Invite them to help you develop winning ideas and become your spokespeople.

7) Thou shall embrace blogging – It’s not a fad, it’s here to stay. Be part of it.

8) Thou shall banish corporate speak – People want to hear from you in a human voice. Don’t hind behind corporate speak. It will soon sound like ye olde English.

9) Thou shall tell the truth – If you don’t tell the truth, it will come out anyway.

10) Thou shall thinketh in 360 degrees – Ask not what you can do for your customer, but also what your customer can do for you.

And now that we got the GIST of ‘participatory public relations’ let’s get to work.  In my opinion no matter what the task, the public relations practitioner can combine an array of social technologies to generate positive impressions for the company.

            First stop: Twitter micro-blogging technology.  The speed and simplicity makes it appealing to a wide range of individuals and organizations. It allows users to share opinions quickly, organize impromptu events and keep up with trends and news alerts. From a brand building and networking standpoint, the key is not to look at micro-blogging as individual posts, but to think of the overall impressions and value that can be created over time. [2]

Twitter is the place where companies look when trying to monitor not just run-of-the-mill customer opinions ("wow Walmart super center employees are rude!") but real-time feedback on their own breaking news stories. [3]

For instance, Domino's Pizza used Twitter to engage directly with people spreading the news about a YouTube video that showed employees adding, shall we say, nonstandard ingredients to the food. By responding to the scale and intensity of the customer mood, Domino's averted what could have been a major PR disaster.

Twitter redirected users to a “Behind the pizza” user friendly interface to educate consumers about the natural ingredients they use, by combining interactive content, games and rewards (coupons) and a “Brag about it” link to Twitter and Facebook. They also created a counter YouTube “Domino’s Pizza Turnaround” where they addressed customer concerns from Twitter posts.

How’s that for combining social media technologies to engage consumers and shift attitudes?

            Second stop: blogging. Horton sees blogging as a low cost publishing tool that has the advantage of being able to broadcast company news out quickly, in a less formal way. Blogs allow for instant responses, multiple conversation threads, and a sort of accessible history of issues that can be referenced, added to and corrected at any time. This is why blogs have the potential to help the organization develop stronger relationships and brand loyalty with its customers because they represent the “human face” of the organization. Using Technocrati, a search engine designed specifically for bloggers, you can find out exactly who is discussing your topic.

A good example of “how to” on blogging is HP, who decided not to have a single corporate blog, but nearly fifty executive blogs, regulated by a straightforward blogging policy that guarantees transparency and compliance with the financial disclosure laws and regulations. One very important request: “to include name and position (in blogs and comments) and write in the first person” so that consumers can interact with a “human face” in the blogosphere. Not only these blogs generate traffic, but also they generate trust, because they help consumers make informed decisions by stimulating discussion among specialists and other buyers. The ROI of blogs also includes: getting valuable customer feed-back, heading off PR problems, avoiding support calls, and word-of-mouth value.[4]

            And finally, on a related note, I would like to zoom in on support/community forums, a social technology application replacing traditional customer support.

Technical support calls cost companies around $10-$20, adding up to billions of dollars to run call centers. Outsourcing support calls overseas lowered the costs but added to consumer’s frustrations. Web self-service can be a hit or miss, most of the times complicated questions still typically generate a phone call. 

The breakthrough came when Massachusetts General Hospital found out with Care-Pages that people were happy to support each other online, given the chance.  People are far more willing to trust each other than a company and amazingly people are willing to spend lots of time helping each other. [5]

Caterina Fake, cofounder of Flickr called it “the culture of generosity”. And what that really means for companies is that they don’t have to pay people to do it, they just pretty much have to facilitate the medium for visitors to solve their own problems, which is why support forums can save them millions of dollars.

The information in support forums is searchable online and answers can be viewed by hundreds of people who are looking for an answer on the same issue.

According to Sean McDonald, director of Dell’s global online community team, when Dell surveys people leaving the site between 20 percent and 50 percent say they got an answer to their question, which means they’re far less likely to be calling Dell’s support lines.

PR can harness the power of this participatory culture by using fan forums to build support for a cause, a public figure or a campaign.

Bottom line, right now customers are writing about your products on blogs and recruiting your commercials on YouTube. They’re defining you on Wikipedia and ganging up on you on social networking sites like Facebook, Linkedin or Twitter. Most companies see it as a threat. [6]

But in the end,  ‘If you can’t beat them join them!”

To thrive in an era of Social Computing, companies must abandon top-down management and communication tactics, weave communities into their products and services, use employees and partners as marketers, and become part of a living fabric of brand loyalists.