Communication Overtones Comments
And voila! You've been monetized as that consultant that will lead them out of the wilderness!
I think that the below is the point I agree most with,
"Why PR Professionals Don’t Use Blogs to Communicate
...there was also significant concern about the ability to control the message and fears about the lack of journalistic standards among bloggers"
Because blogging lacks the same standards of authenticity, reliability and ethics... it makes their usage a much more of a risk for the PR industry.
Furthermore, I think that the interaction with blogs via comments and email, both on corporate blogs and the blogs of others opens up many more doors of communication that requires a response, damage control and observation.
That's not an investment or risk many companies should delve into as an additional burden and its an investment that some companies would find harmful to endeavor into. Comments and blogs can warp, delegitimize and hurt the image and message many companies are trying to craft and such damage can be avoided by opting out of "the conversation."
Great post, Kami - thanks for reporting on the research. This paragraph stuck out for me:
"Bill says respondents cited lack of staff and resources, as well as a lack of a perceived need to monitor the blogosphere. They also had outdated ideas about how difficult it would be to do the job."
Setting up a Google Alert - how I found this post - is simple, free and automatic. Even if you don't jump in, shouldn't you at least know what people are saying? We build in blog monitoring as a value-added service for our PR clients.
Looking forward to checking back frequently.
Barbara Rozgonyi
This was incredibly well written. Thanks so much - very informative. I often speak to groups of puzzled PR and Marketing professionals about social media and this is why.
Dee; You really do crack me up.
Kevin; Thanks for stopping by and weighing in. I agree that there is a risk to engagement, but I also know that just because you don't deal with it, or interact head-on, doesn't mean there still isn't considerable risk to just letting the blogosphere weave its tales without your input. Actually, what I found is that the blogosphere is more forgiving of companies that engage than those that don't. It is a little page from Crisis Communications 101, and it is why we always advise our clients to come clean as soon as possible and fix the problem.
Another issue is that we really don't control or even craft the message anyway. We think we do, but our so-called "craftiness" sometimes just leads to public indictments. I am a great believer in getting back to Grunig's 4th model of communication, the only two-way model, which "uses communication to negotiate with publics,resolve conflict, and promote mutual understanding and respect between the organization and its public(s)."
How can we possibly do this if we just stick our heads in the sand?
Doug; It doesn't surprise me, this is quite a paradigm shift for most PR types, and I think many are overwhelmed. Most PRs are pretty busy and adding another thing to the mix, especially something that seems so risky, can feel pretty challenging.
Barbara; I think that we need to do more training about simple monitoring techniques. One of my colleagues is actually doing a series of postings about the basics of RSS and monitoring on the local PRSA San Antonio Byline blog. It is a great way to start getting, at least our little corner of the world, up-to-speed.
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