PR 2.0 Best Practices

For the aspiring public relations practitioner, the explosion of social media presents both opportunities and threats. A plethora of tools allows job hunters to market themselves, demonstrate their credentials, create relationships with fellow aspirants and soon-to-be colleagues and establish relationships that could lead to that seemingly elusive first job.

While the competition for jobs is more fierce than ever, never have so many avenues of networking been available.

It also follows, however, that as a job searcher’s life is put on public display in ways inconceivable only a few years ago, there is infinite potential for being tripped up or causing irreparable harm to one’s reputation.

What follows is my (imperfect) understanding of some of these applications and how I would go about using them in my PR job hunt.

Social Networking: Facebook is perhaps the world’s most popular social networking site. Users can join networks organized by city, workplace, school or region. Profiles often contain photos, lists of personal interests and messages exchanged between “friends” or colleagues.

Stay On Message: Stories abound of how employers are increasingly screening the Facebook profiles of job candidates to assess their suitability. If you choose to make all or part of your profile open to public scrutiny, you should ensure that its content reinforces the message you’re trying to project to your potential boss. What does your profile say about your responsibility, maturity, ethics or trustworthiness? Are your pictures and posts compatible with commonly accepted standards of professional behaviour?

Know Who Your “Friends” Are: With your reputation at stake, you must exercise judgement when granting access to your Facebook profile. If the “friend” in question is a vague acquaintance about whom you know almost nothing or a complete stranger, he/she should be either denied an invitation or given only limited access to your information. Otherwise you’re putting potentially compromising text or graphics in their hands. In the event you dropped him/her as a “friend,” this material may well have already been saved. It’s best to err on the side of caution.

Put Your Best Face Forward: Services such as Seesmic enable users to share existing videos on the web or to create their own video directly from a webcam. Users follow others whose content is interesting to them. Treat vlogging as you would a job interview; both are visual documents. If you use this tool to say something interesting or relevant (perhaps about public relations), it’s a great way to establish some gravitas or develop a potentially beneficial network of followers. Be ready for the camera: look presentable, act personable and think about what you’re going to say before filming yourself. Refer to a script if this helps you. This is not an appropriate forum to share a dirty joke or act silly; doing so could come back to haunt you.

Write A Blog: For those hoping to break into public relations, a blog providing commentary on the profession’s latest trends and ideas is an ideal way to demonstrate your enthusiasm, knowledge and initiative. Keep the dialogue civil and thoughtful. Just as you wouldn’t badmouth a former boss in a job interview, don’t drag someone’s name through the dirt if you disagree with their comment on one of your posts. Provide links to articles, websites or applications to which you’re replying. 

Keep Your Information Relevant: LinkedIn provides a more business-oriented approach to social networking. It’s an ideal way for finding jobs, people and business opportunities recommended by someone in your contact network. As this is very much a job-hunting tool, it’s best to treat it as a resume. When providing information on your background and credentials, target it to the industry in which you wish to work. Chances are no one will care if you play soccer in your spare time or that you once cut grass for a summertime job. Research your industry thoroughly, know what qualifications/skills are in demand and tailor your profile accordingly.

Define Your Audience: Ning is another social networking platform that allows users to create networks around specific interests. These networks enable you to make connections and receive insight from seasoned pros, and to stay in touch with classmates and peers. To get the most out of your Ning group, carefully define and identify your audience according to a specific interest/field/experience. This will enable you to attract the people who will be of most interest. Creating too broad a group (ie. “communications”) defeats the purpose of having one in the first place.

Keep It Professional: Twitter is all the rage, a micro-blogging service that allows users to post updates and monitor others whose content is interesting. This is yet another tool that allows you to follow key influencers and potentially engage in industry conversation. With this in mind, users should resist the temptation to “tweet” frivolously; few will care if you’ve just returned from walking the dog or if you have a craving for fish. Restrict your posts to observations about PR issues or links to a relevant blog or article.

Social Bookmarking: A key feature of Web 2.0, this convenient service enables users to store and share web bookmarks. Del.icio.us is the most prominent site offering this benefit. Users tag each bookmark with keywords and organize them by category.

Bookmark Wisely: A regularly maintained Delicious account can serve as a critical reference point for PR-related issues, enable you to see what key influencers in your field are reading and showcase your knowledge of the industry should you show it to a recruiter. To maintain the credibility of your account, restrict it to PR topics only. If you have other interests or hobbies you wish to bookmark, create a separate Delicious account.

Stay Informed: Arguably the best tool for staying on top of the PR industry is google alert, which allows you to monitor the web for new mentions of the topic of your choice. Create searches for prominent figures in the field, popular bogs or key concepts. This way, nothing will slip by your radar.

How Satisfying is Get Satisfaction?

As a newcomer to social media, I’m acquainting myself with its various tools. With this in mind, I stumbled upon Getsatisfaction.com the other day.

It’s a free, user-friendly, uncluttered service that provides an open forum for interaction between companies, employees and customers. The ordinary visitor can pose questions to a company representative, file complaints or start a new discussion about a company of their choice. The site’s features are easy to follow and use, as is the registration process. Get Satisfaction is an excellent illustration of how the explosion of social media has created both the opportunity for, and threat of, free flowing discussion.

That being said, it’s difficult to render a definitive verdict on the site; it’s a work in progress.

It’s evident some companies have eagerly jumped on this bandwagon, while others have either resisted or remain oblivious to it. An example of the former is Twitter, a social networking service. It’s one of the site’s most active companies; there are currently over 2,400 topics for discussion, with 15 of Twitter’s employees or representatives participating in the forum. The discussion consists mostly of questions or complaints raised by customers. Twitter obviously sees the site as a chance to build and sustain relationships with its public, not only by consistently answering queries (customers generally rate the responses as useful) but by proactively providing information (the CEO recently used the site to announce that Twitter’s IM services were being temporarily shut down).

FedEx, on the other hand, is virtually non-existent on Get Satisfaction. It has hitherto opted not to assign a representative to the space. This doesn’t mean that FedEx is inattentive to its customers or an inept public relations practitioner; it consistently ranks as one of the most reputable companies in North America. Perhaps there isn’t the same need for an established business (and many of whose customers aren’t tech savvy) to engage in this type of forum as there is for Twitter.

Get Satisfaction has the potential to serve as an empowering tool for consumers (getting their voices heard) and for smaller businesses (disseminating messages to large audiences at no cost). The site’s (and those to follow) influence is likely to expand in proportion to customers’ demand for knowledge and participation in the market-place. Corporations need to be mindful of this.

It also seems certain, however, that reputation will continue to be determined by the old fashioned ability to deliver quality products and connect emotionally with  targeted audiences.

Plus ca change, plus c’est la meme chose.

The Lesson of Coffee Time

Some brands thrive, others falter. What truly sets a successful brand apart from its competitors is an ability to not only convey what it offers to its customers but to connect with an audience on an emotional level. 

Coffee Time’s ongoing difficulties in maintaining its brand underscores the imperative for every business of articulating a coherent set of values and qualties with which an audience can identify. Its failure to deliver on the promise of a quality consumer experience and to successfully navigate recent trends in the business environment (notably, the public’s growing health consciousness) has resulted in a loss of trust.

A CBC investigation probing food safety at Canada’s coffee chains in early 2007 revealed that the store had more than double the number of health and safety violations as compared to its main competitors. For every 100 health inspections, Coffee Time had 78 infractions. Reports surfaced of insufficient handwashing among staff, unprepared meat and dead flies on doughnuts.

Yummy.

Exacerbating the company’s misfortune, it was announced in January 2008 that the owner of a Coffee Time franchise at Queen and Sherbourne was arrested for allegedly selling marijuana, crack and illegal cigarettes out of the store.

Tim Hortons, on the other hand, is a study in contrasts. It has assumed the status of what Kevin Roberts, CEO of Saatchi and Saatchi Worldwide, calls a “lovemark,” a company that generates “loyalty beyond reason.” Just as “FedEx” has become synonymous with overnight delivery, so has a trip to “Tim’s” with coffee and a light snack. No greater example of the company’s grip on the public’s imagination can be found than the decision to open a store for the Canadian Forces in desolate Kandahar. As reported by Bloomberg News, Tim Hortons commands 76 per cent of the Canadian market for baked goods and 62 per cent for coffee.

Buttressing its reputation is a sophisticated and extensive communications effort. A defining characteristic of the Tim Hortons brand is transparency. In contrast with Coffee Time, its website is frequently updated and news releases are posted frequently with information on new products or involvement in local communities. Visitors can readily access Tim Hortons’ mission statement, organization charts and company structure, financial reports and extensive information on its coffee beans.

One searches in vain for these items on Coffee Time’s website.

A recovery is not out of the question for Coffee Time. Key to this would be a disciplined, open and consistent message that caters to its audience’s needs, values and interests. It needs to stop trying to replicate Tim Hortons and streamline its operations by de-emphasizing those goods in disrepute (like the tasty meat) and focusing its efforts instead on making coffee.

A consistent visual and verbal message would need to push this new focus on coffee and, above all else, address the outstanding concerns about its food safety by satisfying the public’s need for information and detailing the actions it’s taking to rectify the situation. Like Tim Hortons, Coffee Time needs to gain the public’s trust by being transparent and more forthcoming than it has hitherto.

Politics/PR 101

In attempting to familiarize myself with the unfamiliar world of public relations, I think it’s useful relating it to something with which I am familiar (that’s the last time I use that word or a variant in this post): politics. Politics, just like public relations, is the art of building and sustaining relationships with targeted audiences; this is how politicians get elected and re-elected (or how PR professionals get paid and promoted).

A Globe and Mail/CTV News poll released this past week represented a mixed bag for Prime Minister Stephen Harper. For myself, it shed light on the essentials of public relations.

On the plus side for Harper, 48 per cent of Canadians believe the country is on the right track, 11 per cent higher than those who think otherwise. To put this in perspective, over three-fourths of Americans look to the future with pessimism.

In accordance with this sentiment, 54 per cent have a very or somewhat favourable impression of Harper. Meanwhile the opposition Liberals have yet to regain their footing and inspire little enthusiasm among voters. Stephane Dion is approved by only four out of 10 Canadians, while 59 per cent express a negative opinion of him.

These are enviable numbers for a government facing the prospect of an election campaign in the fall. The same poll, however, finds the Conservatives leading the Liberals by a statistically insignificant two percentage points (32 to 30).

This has been the dominant refrain of Harper’s tenure in power. A minority government that is generally viewed as competent and has been blessed by a hobbled, lacklustre opposition has made little headway in convincing Canadians that it deserves to be re-elected, let alone granted majority status. Much ink has been spilled on this seemingly odd phenomenon.

It’s helpful thinking of Harper’s government (or any government) as a product. To thrive and prosper, a brand must offer more than a good for sale; it must also connect with an audience on an emotional level. A good brand image attracts a loyal following because a trusting consumer shops with confidence.

At the heart of Harper’s underwhelming standing in the polls is a disconnect between the message of high ethical and moral standards on which he campaigned and the impression voters have formed of him during the past two-and-a-half years. Stories abound of Harper’s aloofness and furtiveness. His ill-concealed contempt for the media, marginalization of cabinet and centralization of power in the PMO have left a lingering perception of a non-transparent leader with a nasty autocratic streak (the Toronto Star ran a damning week-long profile of these tendencies in late May).

These impressions matter. Harper would be flying high in the polls right now if his record in government was all that mattered. Yet in an age driven by the 24-hour news cycle and an overload of frivolous information, when a politician can’t even fart without having the deed posted on YouTube for millions to watch, most people base their vote on a candidate’s perceived values (sensitivity, integrity, personableness) rather than one’s platform or credentials.

As with a brand or product, so too with a prime minister.

 

The (Newest) Great PR Debate

Like every profession or discipline, public relations is subject to a wide spectrum of views and the odd civilized (we hope) skirmish. We have witnessed precisely this over the past week.

Using social media as his reference point, Brian Solis writes that public relations is something more than issuing the standard press release. When working on behalf of a client, the PR practitioner must now contend with an expanded media landscape. This entails “thinking more intelligently, differently and personally.”

Solis asserts that a new business, if it’s to survive and prosper, must cultivate relationships with bloggers, reporters and key influencers: actors that can help make or break a brand.

Loic Le Meur, entrepreneur extraordinaire, begs to differ. PR is not rocket science, he implies. A start-up CEO need not concern him/herself with journalists and bloggers; a quality product will generate its own publicity without any help from this fickle community. Build your own community and they (customers) will come.

So, who’s right?

I’m going to play fence-sitter and suggest that both are. Reading these conflicting points of view, I’m reminded of the time when President Franklin Roosevelt, the greatest statesman of the twentieth century (had to get that in somewhere), was presented with two wholly divergent drafts of the same speech. Without skipping a beat, FDR instructed his bewildered aide to “weave the two together.”

There’s much to recommend this approach in this context.

Rapid advances in technology and communications have created unparalleled opportunities for economic expansion. These same forces, however, have exposed companies to a “rumour mill” the likes of which we’ve never seen. Tech savvy consumers demand access to information and participation in the market. They’re receptive to an influential blogger, much like the reader to a reputable columnist or the viewer to a famous television personality. These voices reach audiences and can damage reputations.

Welcome to the new world.

In this sense, Le Meur strikes me as much too complacent. A PR professional should not advise a client to ignore opinion-shapers.

It’s hard to deny, however, his argument about the centrality of the product. All the relationship-building and public relations in the world won’t keep a sinking ship afloat.