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Seventy per cent of public relations and communications agencies cite social media as a major cause of communications crises, according to a survey conducted by Dynamic Markets, a research consulting firm.  A hundred senior PR professionals took part in the survey early this year which revealed:

• 24% said traditional media had ignited crisis situations
• 34% said bloggers had been to blame
• 24% said crises had started in online social networks
• 8% said discussions in online forums had been the root of crises

Half of all agencies had had client crisis management situations involving social media in the past 12 months.  Almost two-thirds of those said social media had exacerbated a problem.  Forty-five per cent of respondents felt that social media gave journalists easy access to disgruntled individuals which fuels crisis situations.

Yes, social media may very well fuel PR disasters (as we’ve recently seen with the Greenpeace campaign against Nestle), but as the same time they can be used to diffuse potential crisis situations. A disgruntled customers can be reached by a company just as easily as by a journalist.

To get things right in a crisis situation takes advanced planning and practice.  Organisations should assess their crisis  readiness and build social media elements into their response plans.  Ideally they’ll run simulation exercises to test their response capabilities.

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The leaders of the UK’s three main political parties have all agreed to participate in television debates in the lead up to the May election. Most pundits agree these TV events will dominate the campaign and will likely mean candidates spend less time on the hustings.

Not to worry, the Internet will pick up the slack in helping candidates communicate directly with voters across Britain. It will be a interesting blend of super-controlled mainstream media and what some see as chaotic social media. But which will be more effective getting out the vote?

The prime ministerial candidates have agreed to a complex set of guideline for the TV debate comprised of more than 70 rules which forbid, among many other things, heckling and applause from the audience. Contrast this to the uncontrolled blogosphere and you get two very different aspects of political debate.

It was a subject discussed earlier this week by a City University panel of digital and politics experts.

The use of  email and social networks in mobilising activists will be key to getting out the vote according to panelist Matthew McGregor, director at Blue State Digital, the agency that handled the Internet campaign for Barack Obama’s successful presidential bid. In his view, the TV debates will serve as a catalyst for online discussion and viewers will be voicing their responses in realtime…long before any opinion polls can be undertaken.

Google’s head of corporate communications in the UK, DJ Collins took part.  He said, “Online video and camera phones create the moments that create massive drama. And they catch politicians at their most unguarded.”  He said this is taking control away from party strategists, and he predicted that in the upcoming election, there will be candidates that will fall afoul of this.

Professor Ivor Gabor, Professor of Political Campaigning and Reporting, City University London, pointed out that campaigns tend to evolve more slowly than we think; there are few sea changing events. He explained that during the last election we saw the ‘air war’ and ‘ground war’ where the parties tried to by pass the media with a lot of direct mail and phone bank campaigning.  Social media makes fighting the ground war much easier, he said. But social media also makes it easier for the mainstream media to see what’s going on. So the air war and ground war have effectively merged.

BBC Political Editor Nick Robinson didn’t mince his words.  He said that. at its worst, the conversation about new media is self important, narcissistic tosh. “Some of the stuff I see on Twitter is far from being new. It’s like a return to some of those small print magazines that were dashed around coffee houses a hundred years ago.” However he did concede that Sarah Brown, Gordon Brown’s wife, is now one of the most influential people in politics thanks to her 1m+ Twitter followers.

Rishi Saha, a former Conservative candidate and now Head of New Media for the party was also on hand.  He likened the Obama presidential campaign to a start-up company. “It had no activists, no base, no money, nothing. They had to create something from scratch. And the Internet is the best way to scale something very quickly,” he explained. The UK parties are very different. They have two-hundred years of history, hundreds of thousands of members and firm foundations. “It’s like asking Thomas Cook to be a bit more like lastminute.com,” he said.

Another former parliamentary candidate and political blogger, Rupa Huq said that she gets the feeling that all this online mobilisation is better suited to single issues than it is to political parties. She referred to Harold Wilson’s view that a week is a long time in politics.  She said that in an age of status updates, blogfeeds and tweets, a week is really an eternity now.

So what was the overall consensus? A show of hand showed that three quarters of the people in the audience believe the TV debates will prove to be more important to the outcome of the election than any social media engagement.

Unfortunately, the people at City University don’t quite get the ’social’ bit of the piece and have not made the video of the event available on YouTube.  However you can visit their own website to view it by clicking here.

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When is comes to apportioning blame for the current economic recession, it seems that bankers are getting the lion’s share, according to a PR Week survey carried out by research company OnePoll.

In fact, 72% of survey respondants  blame irresponsible corporations and individuals for the recession and it’s investment banks that people blame first, closely followed by high street banks.

Two in five people say they no longer trust banks.  They want greater regulation of banks and disapprove of  the bonuses awarded to those within the profession.  Eighty-eight per cent of respondents say bankers don’t deserve bonuses and nearly half would like to see bonuses both capped and regulated. And as for the argument that that UK bankers will find work abroad if they can’t earn bonuses here, 60% of respondents don’t agree.

It’s not shocking that bankers get the blame; but its a bit surprising that they get almost all the blame with so little landed with politicians and policy-makers.  But then maybe politicians have had a lot more practice at managing their own reputations.

In the Isle of Man the finance industry represents a huge part of our GDP, so we all have a stake in helping  rebuild the reputation of  banking. But first bankers must help themselves by taking a proactive stance and leading the debate on industry issues.  Making their voices heard is the first step on the road to recovery.

Yesterday Chief Inspector Mark Payne of the West Midlands Police spoke to the Isle of Man Social Media Club . Following the Third Thursday meeting, he and I had a fascinating conversation about how social media is changing the police’s relationship with the media.  What follows is a blog post on the subject that Mark published a few days ago and he’s kindly allowed me to republish it here.

I tweeted about an interesting article in the Guardian last week. The thrust of the argument is that police forces are pumping out PR based press releases, which papers print unedited due to lack of resources. Police are therefore writing their own headlines, and not telling the public about crime. Using my newly acquired media monitoring skills, I noticed that this link had created a huge amount of interest, so I thought it might be useful to give people a personal insight into the relationship between the police and the media.

Firstly, it is right to state that society in general would be a worse place without journalists, both local and national. The role they perform in holding public authorities to account is crucial to a democracy, and as we have seen with the recent MP’s expenses debate, they can foster change on a grand scale. I would not want to live in a world where the media is supressed or controlled. Although nobody likes to be caught out or embarrassed by the media, it beats the alternative where public bodies do what they want without fear of exposure.

Although I now run the press office for West Midlands Police, I have spent most of my career as a Detective. I have investigated murders, rapes, serious violence, taken guns off the street and dismantled drug rings. I am therefore well placed to offer a rounded view on the police relationship to the media.

I have first hand experience of working with the media at the coal face  with varied results. For example, I used a newspaper appeal to trace a crucial witness to a murder, and I have also found the media to be really accommodating when there are important messages that we need to get out to the public. I have also found myself on numerous occasions having fairly heated disagreements with journalists when they want to publish stories that would have a detrimental impact on live investigations.

I have always struggled with the concept of a journalist insisting they want to publish a story, when the police are telling them that doing so would make it more difficult to either arrest or convict the offender. My instincts as a police officer are all about getting the bad guy locked up, whereas journalistic instincts tend to be to get the story out before another media outlet. This is often the cause of friction between police and media.

In the time that I have been in the press office (approaching 18 months) there has been a marked change in the media world. There are many fewer journalists, and less local papers. Although the media are still an important part of our communications plans, we now place greater emphasis than before on local communications, delivered by way of officers contacts in the community, newsletters, local meetings and with web based communications. This is not because we are trying to provide less information to the public, just a recognition of the changing landscape.

One of the assertions in the Guardian article is that police do not tell people about crime. I would argue that there is more information available than ever before. If you click on this link http://bit.ly/54BEsF and type in your postcode, all of the information about crime in your neighbourhood is available at the touch of a button. Even in the halcyon days to which the reporter refers, there was never this amount of information available, so it is a little unfair to suggest we are hiding crimes. What I think the article means is that we are not giving it to journalists in the way they would like to receive it.

In my current role, I have daily conversations with a wide range of journalists. They are generally easy to get along with, and we have good relationships with most local papers. There are clearly competing demands and occasional fall outs over stories, but on the whole the relationship is positive. Often queries from journalists will make us look again at an issue and ask whether we have actually done the right thing. Where we haven’t I encourage officers to say so, and put it right. This seems to me to be a quite healthy relationship, and one that I encourage.

It is not our role to fill the newspapers with stories. We will issue a press release if there is a policing purpose behind it, for example, we want public help to identify an offender, or want to warn the public about a specific crime type which they can guard against.  We will also issue press releases where there is good news to report, so that the public get a balanced view, and are not left afraid to go out at night.

The relationship between police and the media will continue to evolve. I remain optimistic that the traditions of policing and journalism can continue to co-exist for the good of everybody, and I will continue to look forward my local paper every week.

It’s a story that seems to roll on and on and I’ve been hesitant to chip in with my two pennies’ worth because so much as already been said by so many.  But here’s a summary:  for perhaps the first time in his life, it sucks to be Tiger Woods.

He’s been caught stepping out on his wife.  It seems he’s been doing it quite a lot.  From the outside, it seems his marriage is under serious threat.  It’s a mess.

But it’s not like Tiger has been dismembering teenagers in his basement.  He’s been a selfish, thoughtless cad yes, but that’s hardly unique. He’ll come back from this setback fairly easily and probably a lot sooner than predicted.

So instead of waxing lyrical about what a PR disaster this is for Tiger and his sponsors, I  thought it might be fun to devote this week’s Top 5 to Tiger in the PR blogosphere.  So here we go.

1.  In his post, here’s what newsrooms can learn from the Tiger Woods story, digital journalist  Robert Niles dissects how the story broke about the golfer’s mishap with a tree took over the news agenda throughout the Thanksgiving holiday period.  After admonishing reporters for not checking basic facts as the story of Tiger’s car accident broke, Robert goes on to encourage journalists to report the news in full.  Those reporters who covered the accident without reference to a National Enquirer’s earlier story alleging Tiger’s infidelity failed give readers the necessary context to fully understand the story.

Robert says, ” I understand that newsrooms such as the Times’ don’t want to engage in tawdry reports about celebrities’ private lives. But once they ran with the story that Woods was in serious condition, they were obligated to report that story fully. And that requires acknowledging the Enquirer report and the circumstances that led to so much speculation about a fight between the couple.”

2.  A good discussion played out on Heather Yaxley’s post, Tiger Woods and the PR Machine.  It’s interesting to see how the tone of the comments shift over time as daily revelations about Tiger’s private life continue to be exposed.   Should he comment publicly or stay quiet?

Heather says, “The media (and the public) see celebrity lives as soap opera and that’s what this really is. Why should he play the role of breaking down on Oprah and begging for fans’ forgiveness and all that other nonsense?”

3. Trevor Cook takes a different tact in his post Tiger Woods and the Marketing Problem.   He says, ” Given how desperately we want to believe in a human god, it didn’t take much peddling from Team Tiger for us to accept Woods as a modern deity.”

And concludes: ” So much of modern marketing is based around the creation of impossible, unattainable dreams. We are drawn to the images of perfection, just as powerfully we feel compelled to destroy them. It’s a fascinating dilemma.”

4. UK celebrity publicist and author Mark Borkowski blogged about how the Tiger Woods PR disaster could scare brands off sports stars for good.

He says, “Let’s get one thing straight: Tiger’s situation is no ordinary brand collapse. This is the high watermark for individual brand disintegration.”

5. Ed Lee, in Let the Spin Begin reflects on Tiger’s announcement that he’s stepping out of public life indefinitely.  He says, “What a great move from Team Woods to allow those sponsors who wanted to cut ties, to step down gracefully.”

The toughest thing about putting this list together has been to keep it to just five items.  Google Blogs lists almost 30 million mentions of Tiger.  But I enjoyed reading these five.

I read BusinessWeek’s article ‘Beware Social media Snake Oil’ with interest because it’s a subject I’ve been thinking a lot about recently.

Over the past couple of week’s I’ve run into a few people claiming to be social media consultants who, after a few minutes discussion,  reveal themselves  as having not really understood many of the fundamentals of the social web.

The article’s author Stephen Baker says, “The problem, according to a growing chorus of critics, is that many would-be guides are leading clients astray. Consultants often use buzz as their dominant currency, and success is defined more often by numbers of Twitter followers, blog mentions, or YouTube (GOOG) hits than by traditional measures, such as return on investment. This approach could sour companies on social media and the rich opportunities it represents.”

I couldn’t agree more.  It’s not too hard to set up a Facebook Fanpage or a YouTube channel.  You can be  aggressive in acquiring a large number of contacts, followers and friends.  But the truth is that counting eyeballs, hits or unique visitors doesn’t really mean that much if the actual humans behind the numbers aren’t buying, voting or behaving they way you’re trying to encourage.

So how can you avoid the snakeoil and ensure you’re getting the expertise you need?  You can start by asking a few tough questions of your social media guru.  Here’s a few suggestions to get you started.

1.  Ask about hands on experience. Do you have your own blog?  How long have you been blogging? When did you join Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter? What other social media platforms do you personally use and why?  What measurable results have you achieved in your own personal social media activity? Can I see examples?

Hopefully your consultant will have five or more years hands on experience with multiple platforms.  They’ll be able to explain how and why they use each channel and show you concrete results with plenty of  business-related examples.

2.  Ask about potential strategies and tactics. Which channels should I use? Which ones should I avoid? Why? Should social media replace my current marketing and communications activity? Will social media turn my business around? How do you measure success?

Your consultant should be able to give you some thoughtful answers that relate to helping you achieve your objectives.  You’ll want to hear about a focused strategy, not about millions of eyeballs or promises of rankings.  You’ll want to hear about social media as complementary to traditional marketing and communications channels, not as replacements.  You’ll want to hear about added value, engagement and collaboration, not a panacea or a magic bullet.

3. Ask about costs and other resource requirements. How do you structure your fees? Who within  my organisation  will be involved? Are there any other costs involved? What return on investment can I expect?

A popular misconception about social media is that it’s free.  Another is that it’s easy to be successful.  So if your consultant foresees a low price and talks a lot about automation and bots, run a mile.  If you hear the words ‘oursource’ or ‘turnkey’ think very hard before getting involved.  Social web success not only takes a long-term commitment,  it requires a change of mindset.  This is not something you can hand over to someone else to do on your behalf.  You and your team members will be involved daily.  Content development will involve people with a range of talents and expertise.  It will take time and money, outside of the consultant’s fees.  When you consider the time, skill and talent necessary for success, you’ll see that social media is not a just a  cheap alternative to advertising. But, done well it will deliver quality results in helping you  achieve your objectives.

In his BusinessWeek article, Stephen Baker advises, “Think back to the dot-com boom a decade ago. Soaring valuations were based initially on promise and hype. In early 2000, when investors started focusing on scarce profits, the market collapsed. But many companies drew the wrong conclusions. Believing the fall of a hyped market was a sign of the failed promise of the Internet, they drew back on Internet investments. This happened just as the technology was on the verge of living up to much of its promise, dominating global communications, transforming entire industries—and spawning social media.

“The best way to avoid a similar backlash today is for social media’s practitioners, including thousands of consultants, to shift the focus from promises to results. It may be the only way to convert the skeptics—and flush out the snake oil.”

I couldn’t have said it better myself.

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They say that when you laugh the world laughs with you and when you cry you cry alone.  But during these recessionary times this old adage no longer holds true. Bad news surrounds us and there are very few people and organisations are not affected in one way or another.

Being the bearer of bad news is never a pleasant task, but well-handled communications can help minimise the impact on an organisation while getting it wrong can cause permanent, even fatal, damage to a business’s reputation.

A few years ago a Manchester company, The British Amulet, group made 2,500 people redundant by text message. The message said, in part, “you are being made redundant with immediate effect”. Google the company now and you get 192 links….every single one relates to the SMS incident. This is probably not a legacy that the company directors had hoped for.

More recently, with the demise of Woolworths  we saw another high-profile example of how not to handle bad news.  The retailer’s employees found out the company was closing through the news media. You can imagine their shock and distress and how it might have effected staff morale going into the crucial Christmas season.

Here in the Isle of Man we recently saw a large finance sector organisation inform some employees of impending redundancy while others were kept in the dark.  It didn’t take long for the newspaper to get the story, and so then soon everyone knew.

Although announcing redundancies is never easy, an organisation can help members of their workforce through the upheaval and help them prepare emotionally for any turn of events.  The first priority is keeping people informed of circumstances.

It’s best to have prepared a contingency plan for communicating bad news long before it’s ever required. Good planning can’t occur at the last minute.

This is easiest if open and honest communication is already part of a company’s culture.  However, without an established framework that supports a dialogue of full disclosure, it’s easy to screw up internal communications in a crisis and actually make things worse for the company in the long run.

Next, you need to keep supervisors and managers fully informed to gain their support. They provide the human touch that an intranet can never have and will be key in providing emotional support to all workers, those leaving and, importantly, those who will remain after a round of redundancies.

Never underestimate the power of the grapevine.  It’s probably the  fastest, most powerful communication channel and it has tremendous influence. This has always been true within organisations, but online communication technologies like email and instant messaging mean that rumours can travel like wildfire, or even faster. Managing the message and communicating with a range of stakeholders at internet speed is a complex task and takes careful consideration.

Instead, many organisations are tempted by the ‘less said the better’ philosophy.  But creating an information vacuum gives rise the to grapevine and risks  losing control of the agenda and having a company’s reputation materially damaged through rumour and innuendo.

Preparing the team
One group that might need extra support when redundancies are announced is the team  involved in delivering  the message and handling the responses. These individuals often suffer incredible stress – especially when they are in the front lines with people who are losing their jobs, having their benefits or wages cut, or with anyone who is apt to have a strong emotional response to the circumstances. The  remaining employees  too suffer stress, often referred to as  “survivors’ syndrome”. They are weighed down feelings of guilt because they were spared where friends and co workers  were not.

Generally, people wanted to understand social computing better and get a handle on how their organisations can benefit.  Participants knowledge and experience of social media ranged from ‘I’ve never even looked at Facebook‘ to ‘I’ve run effective social media campaigns’.  But regardless of  the starting point, everyone learned something directly relevant to them.  Including me.

It was clear to me that now is the time:  social media is gone mainstream.

Here’s some of the Q&A from yesterday’s workshop.

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Looking to the future Tony confirmed that social media will become  key corporate communications channels in 2010.  “We talk about the Internet revolution as something that is going to happen.  But it has already happened. Research shows that adults in the UK already get 50% of their finance and business information through the Internet. Twenty per cent of people in the UK look at forums and blogs.  It’s not something for the future, he said.  “The revolution has actually hit us. So if you’re in business you need to get on LinkedIn.”

Here’s the man himself:

It’s become glaringly obvious over the past several months that those professional communicators who have a solid web development team behind them are making great strides in PR 2.0.  I’m confident that together with the excellent web team at PDMS, we’ll continue to provide our clients with the smartest communication strategies along with the excellent, usable software and support services they need to engage, collaborate and converse with individuals and communities online.

Starting in the New Year, the Strive PR team will be moving to PDMS’s new Douglas premises.

We’ll have proper launch early in the New Year to the get the conversation going.  Watch this space for news and updates about this new venture. I’m really excited!

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Image via Wikipedia

I was chuffed when earlier this week I was included in the PR Top 100 according to Edelman’s Tweetlevel.

Crowdsurfing author David Brain explains Tweetlevel on his blog: “Yet again we brutalise complex human concepts like trust, popularity, influence and engagement with our over-simplistic (but pretty bloody clever) algorithms.”

In the post’s comments, there’s a lengthy debate between digital sociologist  Brian Solus and the man behind Tweetlevel Jonny Bentwood among others.  The disagreement surrounds the accuracy and relevance of the algorithms and the definition of  ‘influence’.

But for me the debate is beside the point.  I was very pleased when I was named to the Conversation Age’s 100 PR people worth following on Twitter, a few weeks ago.  I’m equally pleased to be listed on Tweetlevel.

It’s not because it’s a measure of my popularity or worth. The reason I’m so pleased is because it’s recognition that people think the stuff I post is useful or entertaining.  Is that influence?  Maybe.

But  it makes me keep trying my best to find and post the most useful and entertaining content I can, because I feel responsible to my followers. Doing this research keeps me learning.  And that helps me do my job.

So thanks Edelman and Conversation Age for including me on your lists. I’ll keep trying.

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Cover of Bridget Jones's Diary

Remember that scene in Bridget Jones’s Diary where Daniel says, “You don’t have the faintest bloody idea of just how much trouble the company’s in.  You swan in, in your short skirt and your sexy see-through blouse and fanny around with press releases.”?

My heart sank the first time I heard that dialogue.  “That’s it,” I thought, heart sinking. “That’s exactly what people think that public relations is all about.”

I had the exact same feeling earlier when I read the Isle of Man Newspapers’ story Cost of PR in spotlight as VAT crisis takes hold.

Here’s one gem:  “David Cannan (Michael) questioned whether it was an appropriate expenditure of public money to engage external consultants to draft and publish media releases.”

Could he possibly sound more like Daniel?  My heart sinks.

Here’s another great sound bite: “Mr Cannan said departments with senior executives earning more than £60,000 a year were asking outside consultancies to draft and publish many publications – and he was pleased to hear ‘this nonsense is going to stop’.”

The article also makes reference to advertising agencies, government subsidies for Manx Radio and the government’s  media spend with Isle of Man newspapers.

So clearly, for Mr Cannan, PR professionals do spend their time fannying about with press releases.   For others, PR is a catch all term for anything remotely related to media. Also, the article focuses entirely on costs and ignores value.

This is a great same, indeed. Because now, perhaps more than ever before, the Isle of Man needs to communicate well.

Public relations professionals are experts in human and organisational communication.  The best of us provide strategic advice and services so that our clients can build positive relationships with the people they depend upon for success.

I’m not saying that the government gets excellent value for every pound spent.  I doubt this is the case.  But at least there is recognition of the value of communications expertise.

There are people all over the world who would love nothing better than to shut down ‘Isle of Man plc’ and the battle for survival will be won or lost in the court of public opinion, not in a court of law.

Right now, for the Isle of Man, the stakes couldn’t be higher nor the communications challenges more complex.

This is no time for amateurs.

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The key finding: “The project also reveals that the practice of making ‘follow-up’ calls by PR practitioners is intensely annoying and ultimately counter-productive…”

This is nothing new; I’ve heard it time and again from news professionals all over, many of whom get more than 50, 100, 200+ story pitches each and every working day.  If they took a call about each story pitch, answering the phone is all they’d ever do!

But here’s the rub. Based on my 18 years’ experience in the front line of media relations…the phone calls work.  They do. Doing a ringround within a day of issuing a news release significantly increases pick up of the story;  there is no doubt.

So what is the solution?  I do feel for our colleagues in the media, and understand how they must feel undersiege. But the results speak for themselves…making that quick call to make sure the reporter notices your story helps get coverage.

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1. When PR 2.0′s Brian Solis talks, people listen. And when he talks about news release embargoes (always favourite link bait subject), people comment and retweet.  In this longish post, he explains the mechanics of an embargo and references a lot of current thinking.  He says, “Embargoes are powerful and effective for all parties when coordinated properly and centered on information that is indeed newsworthy.”  I can’t agree.  I think issuing news under embargo is risky at best; a disaster waiting to happen at worse.

2. Matthew Stibbe names and shames those PR firms that continue to send him irrelevant news releases.  He lists 14 releases by headline along with the agencies that sent them.  It seems that 5W Public Relations likes Matthew a lot with several mentions on the list.  The post has no comments from the offending agencies however.  That’s not too surprising I guess. If they don’t read before sending, they probably aren’t listening anyway. I wonder if their clients will notice?

3. In Words of a Broken Mirror, Alina Popescu gives us her take on how to resource PR when budgets are tight. She looks at outsourcing, getting exisiting staff to look after PR and hiring an expert in-house as various options. One she’s missed out is getting an expert to coach, train and mentor existing staff members.  I’ve been spending a significant amount of time doing this lately.

4.  One objection to social media engagement that I hear often is about opening the door to public criticism.  You can understand that people get jumpy about negative feedback.  Here Mitch Joel offers six ways to consider how to handle it.

5.  Steve Rubel has posted some interesting stats on how PR people feel about news releases, overall is seems they are falling from favour.  He says, “Still press releases have their place – especially in financial situations. Also let’s not overlook the potential SEO value too.”  Agreed.  They were only ever supposed to be a story summary and door opener to help gain the interest of a journalist.  A well written news release still does the job nicely.

Katie Delahaye Paine is one of PR’s leading measurement experts. She is the founder of KDPaine & Partners and, prior to launching the firm in ’02, she was founder and president of The Delahaye Group, an industry leader in business and communication intelligence.

Katie was an initial founder of the Institute for Public Relations special commission on measurement and evaluation. She served as the US liaison to the European Standards Task Force to set international standards for media evaluation. And she’s a Research Fellow at the Society for New Communications Research.  In short, she knows her stuff.

I first became aware of Katie last year when we were both panel guests on an FIR live phone in show.  Since that time I’ve been reading her blog and have become a big fan.  I like her down to earth style of writing and, it turns out, her presentation style is much the same.

She says, “Social media measurement doesn’t require new standards or new methods, just a new mindset. How the best measurement tools today are some of the oldest. Relationship surveys, content analysis, correlations and statistical analysis have all been around for decades, and we really don’ t need much more than those.”

I couldn’t agree more. I’ve always been against measuring tactical output and believe that the focus should be on the achievement of core objectives.  All too often, companies fail to grasp this and instead want to see Advertising Value Equivalencies (AVEs) or to have detailed activity reports including every phone call made and email sent.   Sadly, all this does is take PR professionals off important work while delivering little relevant insight.

What is important is engagement.  And engagement should be defined by linking social media interaction to hard business or organisational objectives.

Here’s a personal example.  I really do love Aleksandr Orlov, founder of Compare the Meerkat. I’m a Facebook Fan and always check out new videos and other content published there.  I think the campaign is clever and entertaining.  But, I’ve never visited comparethemarket.com and have not purchased any insurance through the service.  Am I engaged?  Not if the whole idea of the campaign is to sell car insurance, that’s for sure.  Not yet anyway.

Katie makes a lot of sense because she focuses on the fundamentals of organisational communication; not the cool technology nor fun gizmos.  She was kind enough to post the slides from her talk here.  You can buy her book here.

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Chris Neil, co- chair of the cabinat  told a local reporter that he thinks the time from age 20 to 40 is busy.  “You’ve got people who are starting their careers, their families and buying their first houses. In modern times, we can get very disconnected from the community,” he said.

To add to the challenge of fundraising, there’s definitely a concern that philanthropy is not something of the new demographic, said Neil.  “The concern is that the core base of donors will retire and that base funding for charity will start dwindling away,” he said. “Unless we start now by engaging the demographic and raising awareness of what’s going on in the community, that’s going to be lost.”

This is the reason that the charity has embraced social media as a primary communications channel too. It’s use of Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and other social platforms has been extremely successful is bringing the younger demographic into the United Way fold.

If last night was anything to go by, it’s working.  Although I fall (slightly) outside the target audience in terms of age group, I brought along two 20-somethings who proclaimed Schmoozefest to be a great night out.  I look forward to finding out how much was raised.

Our recent ‘Introduction to PR’ workshops were a resounding success: both sessions sold out and we had a lot of positive feedback from the people who attended.

One thing that came through loud and clear was that people want to learn a lot more about how to use online social media at work and in their businesses. So I thought it might be helpful to create a seminar for people get to grips how to use the social Internet to improve sales, marketing and PR initiatives within their organisations.

So if you’re curious about blogs, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and how they can impact  your marketing, customer relations and public relations efforts, come out on 24 November for  half-day workshop.

We’ll look at:

• how the social Internet is changing how humans and organisations communicate and interact
• about the various social networks, tools and platforms
• about blogging and the democratisation of information
• policies and best practices in social media
• strategies and tips to get your organisation involved

We’ll use local, UK and international case studies to help you understand:

• where social media fits into your organisation
• what social networks can (and can’t) achieve
• the risks and benefits of the social Internet
• the art of online conversation

It’s a full morning workshop that will take place at a central Douglas location (TBD).  The cost is £75 per person ping us (workshops(at)strivepr(dot)com to book your place.

Image by JerrySilfwer via Flickr

Public relations is all about cocktail parties, fashion shows and lunching with ‘the press’, right?

Wrong!  Yes there is a social element to job,  but don’t underestimate the talents and skills required to be successful as a public relations professional.  First of all there are the hard skills that are fundamental.

First among these is the ability to write.

You must also:

• be a skilled researcher
• have excellent computer skills including Internet applications
• understand technical requirements and production processes, (print, broadcast and online).
• have an excellent knowledge of publishing industry and the media

Other priority hard skills include:

• photography/videography
• sound engineering/audio production
• website design/development skills
• graphic design/illustration

Softer skills are also crucial for a successful career in public relations.  These include:

• the ability to work under deadline pressure
• presentation skills
• interpersonal communication/people skills
• innate creativity
• stamina (long hours are the norm)
• organisational skills
• ability to work in a team

PR is not all parties and gala lunches; that’s for sure. But it’s a rewarding career that delivers great job satisfaction.  No two days are ever alike and you get to go places and meet people that you’d never thought you would.  Early in your career the pay can be quite low compared to other professions, but as your skills and experience develop the sky is the limit for earning potential.

<shameless plug>

If you’d like to find out more about a career in PR why not attend our Introduction to PR seminar?  In two days you’ll know if you have the right stuff.

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Throughout my career I’ve been subjected to a good deal of ribbing and teasing, some of it not too good natured, that being in PR means I tell lies for living.  I actually don’t find it too funny but know that people’s understanding of public relations comes from what they see from political spin docters and comedy shows like AbFab and Absolute Power.  Fair enough.

But now we have proof, as if it’s necessary, that public relations professionals are ethical thinkers and demonstrate similar moral development to journalists and nurses.  In fact, we come out ahead of some medical professionals and general business professionals.

The research, conducted by two of the Page Center’s Johnson Legacy Scholars, Renita Coleman and Lee Wilkins, is the first to measure empirically the moral development of working public relations professionals.  The paper, “The Moral Development of Public Relations Practitioners: A Comparison with Other Professions and Influences on Higher Quality Ethical Reasoning,” appeared in the July 2009 Journal of Public Relations Research.

So there you have it.  We are as ethical as journalists and practicing physicians.  I never had any doubt; the professionals I’ve worked with over the years have been pretty consistent in terms of professional integrity, work ethic and focus on truth and transparency.

But, convincing  people of this is an uphill battle.  Just this afternoon I interviewed a recent journalism graduate for a position at Strive PR and he told me his professors called working in PR ‘going over to the dark side’.   When media professionals are being taught at university to believe this, how can we expect to bring the industry along in their view of the modern PR profession?

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Time was, when asked this questions, I’d start to recite deadlines, copy guidelines and descriptions of newsroom teams.  But that was before the Internet changed everything.

Now print journalists are producing video reports and podcasts.  Radio and TV journalists are blogging. And then there are bloggers, who many say are a law unto themselves.

So how does today’s media work?  The only definitive answer is:  All the time.

What are the deadlines?  As soon as the story breaks. Who should we be pitching?  Depending on the story. What do journalists need to cover our news? Just about every kind of content you can lay your hands on, and add to that access, exclusivity, transparency and truth.

Simples!

Well maybe not.  In the online world, an organisation’s relationship with journalists is more now complex than ever before.  It takes time, thought and expertise to navigate the media landscape.  And as soon as you think you are finding your way, the route is bound to change.

<shameless plug>

To find out how the media relevant to your organisation works, why not come out to our one day workshop Getting to grips with PR, 06 October in Douglas Isle of Man.

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Anyone in the Isle of Man who still thinks social media is not important or that only a ‘few geeks ever pay attention to that stuff’ could learn a lesson by opening today’s newspaper, The Manx Independent. 

Page 3 is dominated by a story about a KSF depositor’s musical protest that has become a YouTube hit: Don’t bank on the Isle of Man.  In it a 68-year-old woman wears a flamboyant feather mask to sing her lament of money and faith lost in the Isle of Man.   Local radio had given heavy coverage to the video earlier this week too.  It’s been watched 1,900+ times so far. 

If your company, product or brand was the subject of such a video how would you react?  Ignore it?  Issue a writ? Comment on it?

Turn over to Page 7 and see this headline in large type: Juan’s Facebook attack on gov’t IT. A local politician has posted on Facebook a negative comment about and Isle of Man Government senior civil servant.  The story quotes the politician as saying the comments were a private matter between him and his ‘FB friends’.  But once something is published online, it’s not private anymore.  

Is this a PR blunder or a PR coup?  That remains to be seen, but the politician, cannily, used media attention in his Facebook comment as a platform to further state his case and get wider coverage of the issue at hand.

What would you do if  your employees used Facebook  to disparage a member of your team, your company or  your brand?  Would you sack them?  Would you discipline them? Would you sue them?  Would you get sued?

The bottom line is that social media is indeed relevant in the Isle of Man, as it is in most places.  You need to think about it before something bad happens.   Do you have a social media strategy?  Do you have a plan?  

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I got a call from Manx Radio here in the Isle of Man asking me if I’d come in and do an interview on the subject, and I said I’d be delighted.   The thing is once the interview got underway we spent most of the time talking about Twitter, the how-to and why-bothers of it, and about the privacy aspects of Facebook.  We ran out of time to talk about the Ofcom report. 

But I did want to explore some of the reasons why it seems the kids are deserting social networking platforms.  You see, Ofcom found a fall of almost ten percent in the number of 15 to 24 year-olds logging onto social networking sites from the internet at home.  It also reports the proportion of 25 to 34 year olds using social networking sites fell from 55 to 50% and therefore concludes these are signs that the use of social networking sites may already have peaked among younger adults.

Many pundit are supposing that youngsters are fleeing because of the huge growth, from 40 to 45%, of 35 t0 54 year-olds using online social networks. There may some truth in that, but I believe it’s not for the whole “My Dad’s on Facebook? I’m leaving!” scenario. 

You have to look at the larger tech and publishing trends to get the whole picture.   Facebook was originally launched for use among college and university students.  It’s whole premise was to let them interact and socialise online.  Facebook leveraged the superior campus networks and the whole social aspect of university life to build its user base.  The kids loved it, and it caught on like wild fire. 

Since that time Facebook has opened up to all adults to use. It’s expanded worldwide, launched advertising, branding features and every old person’s favorite…email.  Its steep path to profitability has had some bumps in the road, but progress has been steady and the company seems set to become the ‘Google’ of social networks.  As this has happened, the product development strategy has change focus dramatically since the early days.  Facebook’s appeal for younger people has become diluted as the company has focued on acquiring a more affluent demographic into its  user base.  So yes, Facebook is no longer all about life at uni. The kids don’t think it’s as much fun.

MySpace has different issues, but  that are similar in that they relate to how the company’s growth strategy is impacting the platform.  Yes, as an early entry into the market, MySpace was once the dominant social networking site and was credited with launching the careers of everyone from Lily Allen to the Arctic Monkeys to Snow Patrol.  But with the advent of Facebook, Bebo and Twitter, MySpace’s prominance in the grand scheme of things has taken a hit.  Since being bought by Murdoch’s News Corp, there has a been an exodus from the MySpace C-suite and the website is being blamed for its parent’s US$203 million loss in the fourth quarter this year.   It’s transformation from an indy and underground culture to that of mainstream publishing most certainly must be causing many teething pains and this is impacting product development.  So perhaps the kids are not as engaged as they once were.  Still, the site’s audience has increased five percent this year, according to Ofcom.

 When it comes to Twitter, well the kids were never there in the first place.  They already had the online chatter thing worked out with MSN Messenger and phone SMS messages.  So it didn’t really fulfill any need for them and wasn’t really relevant from the get-go.  They are not leaving.  They had never arrived.

So my message to all those mums, dads and grandfolks out there that think they are driving the young people away from social networks, don’t feel guilty.  It’s not you.   It’s the network platforms that are letting them down.  Don’t worry though, our young, bright sparks are out there right now figuring out the next big thing for us.

BTW: If you want to hear my Manx Radio interview that doesn’t mention any of these things, but does cover Twitter basics and how private Facebook really is, click here!

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Start by thinking about who you need to be on-side if your organisation is going to be successful.  These are the individuals and groups with whom you’ll need to develop positive relationships.  So, if you work for a retailer, you know you depend upon the good opinion of shoppers.  You’ll also need suppliers to trust you.  You may need to work with government officials too.  Then there’s your neighbours, staff members, their families, potential partners, other service providers and the list goes on.

And each of these broad groupings will likely have a number of sub groups within them, making it even more complex.  For shoppers you’ll want to look at demographic information to get a good feel for who makes up this group by examining their age, job, gender, income, interests, family status (married/single), etc. For suppliers, you’ll want to be aware of their industry norms, terms, customer base, etc.  In terms of government, think about which offices can influence your business: Customs and Excise, Income Tax, zoning, local council, national policy makers?

Getting the target audiences pinned down fundamental to a PR strategy.  It dictates the whole strategy going forward.  Yes  it takes time, and often significant resource, to gain the necessary insight, but making false assumptions to forge ahead is usually more costly in the long-run.

<shameless plug>

To find out more about how you can target your audiences with precision, why not come out to ourone-day workshop,  Getting to grips with PR, 6 October in the Isle of Man.  Click here for details.

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What is PR?  I hear that question quite often.  In fact, I ask that question often too.  Usually it’s  when I’m interviewing a candidate for a position at my public relations consultancy.  You’d be amazed at the answers.

“PR is marketing”, is a frequent answer to which I usually reply, “Well yes and no.”  Public relations is part of marketing, yes; but it’s so much more. Marketing, when done well, should be 100% focused on revenue generation.  At its heart, marketing is about getting customers to hand over money in exchange for products or services.  Period.  Public relations can play a role in facilitating the process, but that’s only a small part of what PR is.

“PR is advertising”, is another one I hear a lot. Yes, but…no, but. Advertising is usually concerned with generating sales.  In public relations we sometimes use advertising as way to raise awareness of issues and ideas (politicians do this), but it’s not something we normally do a lot.

“PR is about getting your name out there”, “PR is when you promote something”, “It’s getting events and parties organised”, “It’s sales related”. These are all answers I hear to my question.  And yes, all these things are all part of PR.

I am fond of reminding people that the R in PR stands for relations, and that’s the point.  In PR, we are focused on building positive relationships with the groups or individuals that our organisations’ success depends upon.  This can mean customers, yes.  But it can also mean employees, neighbours, legislators or investors. The list of potential relationships goes on and on, and each organisation will have its own unique priorities.

The great thing about it is that because of this variety, there are rarely two days alike in a the life of public relations professional.  After 18 years, I still find it interesting and look forward to going to work each day.

<Shameless plug>

If you think working in PR might just the job for you, consider attending my one-day workshop Getting to grips with PR, 06 October in Douglas, Isle of Man.  Click here for more info.

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It occurred to me that we might as well, at the same time, offer some help and pointers for people in business who are not PR specialists but find themselves involved in doing PR for their employer or their own business.

So please have a look at the info here and let me know if you’d like to reserve a place at either or both of these one-day workshops.

This time, people scrambled onto the internet for confirmation of the terrible news and within minutes of the story breaking, the world wide web trembled under the pressure.

Celebrity gossip website TMZ.com was among the first to confirm the news.  On 25 June at 5.20 pm (Pacific), well before the national TV networks, the site reported, ‘We’ve just learned Michael Jackson has died. He was 50. Michael suffered a cardiac arrest earlier this afternoon at his Holmby Hills home and paramedics were unable to revive him.’

The sheer volume of traffic generated by the news soon took the site down.  But the news continued to spread like wildfire via Twitter, Facebook and the blogs of fans worldwide.  The number of status updates on Facebook tripled for the first hour after MJ’s death was announced. Michael Jackson quickly trended to the top of Twitter; he featured in 90 per cent of topics of discussion during that hour.

And, 25 minutes after TMZ.com broke the news, Twitter began to creek under the surge of tweets and users saw the Fail Whale, the service’s graphic that is presented when the site is overloaded, for much of the next hour.

The Google search engine went into defensive mode, believing it was under attack as people sought news of Jackson’s death.  Users were served up warnings and malware alerts. A company spokesperson described the traffic as volcanic.

He told Zdnet.co.uk, ‘When you get huge volumes of searches, an interstitial page comes up to make sure we aren’t coming under attack. The volumes searching for Michael Jackson during the night (of his death) were such that a page did come up, and it slowed things down for a short period.’  When it came time for Michael Jackson’s funeral, social media sites had had almost two weeks to prepare for what some were calling the biggest online event in history.

Click here to read the rest of this Tech Talk column.

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One of the first things I did when I arrived on the Island in 2006 was look to try to connect with other women in business, but there was no such group, so I am very pleased to be involved with getting this up and running.   Other members of the steering committee include Cat Turner (AXA), Debs Gwinnell  (Big Fish), Dr Gloria Miller (International Business School), Heather Smallwood (Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing), Kate Lord (IoM BIC), Lisa Underwood (Department of Trade & Industry). 

The idea is  to inspire and foster entrepreneurial spirit, business capability and a sense of confidence among women of all ages on the Island.  It’s open to anyone and we’d like to see  women from a wide range of backgrounds join us.  We are going to meet up regularly and will interact online with a blog and a Facebook page too.   

IoM BIC is also launching a Women’s Enterprise Start-Up programme.  Kate Lord, project officer, said, “It’s exciting to see the thriving community of business women and female entrepreneurs across the globe, and we’d love to hear from anyone on the Isle of Man who’s interested in the Women’s Enterprise Programme, whether you’re an aspiring entrepreneur or interested in being involved in a mentorship or joint-venture capacity.”

Next week, We’re having a ‘bit of a do’ to celebrate the launch of Women in Business and everyone is invited.  It’s Tuesday 21 July at The Courthouse on Athol Street in Douglas.  Ping me if you can come.

Anyone who is interested in Twitter, Facebook, blogging, podcasting or any online social web interaction should come along. It’s very casual. Everyone buys their own lunch and we discuss what we’re doing online, what’s new, what’s cool (what’s NOT cool), etc.

The idea is to share news and information and to share what each of has learned.  It’s also really fun to get to actually meet the people we’ve been tweeting with, commenting on and reading about. 

There’s no fee to join, no forms to fill out, nothing of the sort.  Just turn up if you can, have a bite to eat and see who you meet.  You’ll definitely learn something new.  Ping me if you can come!

The programme was funded by Microsoft but was not focused on its software alone. Instead, the workshop highlighted proven best practice skills and strategies in the areas of market development and in coping in global markets.

This workshop had previously been delivered to more than 1,000 companies world-wide, and was presented by Jyoti Banerjee, director of Agitavi Research.

For someone in my line of work that means setting the necessary persistent searches to make sure I see any online mention of Venda, the e-commerce vendor in question, and what was quickly revealed to me is that no one outside the the Isle of Man is talking much about Venda.

The only recent mentions of the brand originate from here and are controversial at best and negative at worst. In this case, I’m not sure that Google Search’s first page for Venda gives an accurate reflection of the company and its services.

This experience offers an excellent insight into the importance of online reputation management.