September 22, 2005
Great Reading at the Global PR Blog Week Blog
Here are some quotes I like from some of the new articles:
Over the past year I have become increasingly convinced that the primary function of corporate communications/public relations today is network building. By that I mean that all of our strategies and tactics need to be focused on building, extending and nurturing the entire universe of connections (by which I mean people) possible for an organization.
To put it in slightly more technical terms, I am relying on interpretations of Metcalfe’s Law and Reed’s Law. The former states that the value of the network is the approximately the square of the number of users. The latter states that when you enable connections between nodes on the network to take place, the value of the network grows exponentially. What that means for our subject is that you should be motivated to grow your network in terms of numbers of connections as well as to enable members of that network to communicate with each other as well as with your organization. Participatory communications tools like blogs are particularly well designed to help you do both of these things.
Internal blogs are not a fashion or a modern practice, they are a great idea. As we have seen, it generates an excellent resource for internal communication which impacts productivity and strengthens emerging leadership. To participate, to talk and to keep conversations through internal blogs, a unique communications perspective and experience is born.
Blogs, by themselves, have no constraints or requirements. They're just communications tools waiting to be sculpted into something useful, interesting or entertaining. And in that vein, I continue to look forward to the day when creative writers really have that moment of inspiration and start to show how story blogs can become some of the best and most engaging content in the blogosphere.
When bloggers discovered that Kryptonite’s U-shaped lock could be easily picked with a Bic ballpoint pen, the company’s sales were hit hard. Kryptonite lost an estimated $10 million is just 10 days according to Fortune magazine, a pretty big hit for a $25 million dollar company. Blogs were blamed because they posted videos of how to pick the lock and Kryptonite ignored the problem.
Something often miss about blogs is that they typically get better placement within Google and other search engines, because of the number of sites they link to and that link back to them.
Blogs being so popular has to do with the advances in technology and the fact that most of them are free to develop. They aren't one-way communications vehicles. They are about building two-way relationships. They are the perfect form of true interactive communications vs. email or a website.
People blog about issues that are not addressed well in the media. Bloggers are filling in the cracks. They are illuminating information that was previously overlooked. Bloggers fill in the cracks and are adding value to what can be a puzzle reporters are piecing together. I know many journalists, who although initially critical of blogs, have now come to truly rely on them and endorse them.
The focus of any blog posts should be on thought leadership and responding to customer enquires, companies must also monitor and respond to any blog posts out in the community. A little like the telephone when the telephone rings its important to pick up the telephone, companies are finding that when a post online is made its important to find comments about their company and respond if needed.
Not every high-level executive, however, has a power blogger within, just waiting for the opportunity to engage the market in debate and express himself or herself online. It takes a combination of personality and proficiency, of wit and wisdom, and the ability to write well, to make a blogger—CEO or otherwise—worth reading.
Blogging Is “Complementary To”—Not a “Replacement For”
Friend and his company have seen first hand the tangible benefits that occur when the CEO and the company’s mission, vision, business model, and value proposition are aligned. And, according to Friend, blogging can play a role in facilitating this authentic convergence.
When I have started my blog in early 2005, after almost one year of thinking, it was a natural choice to write in Italian. The problem was to find readers: Italy is a country where the discussion about PR has always been restricted to a minuscule group of professionals, while the rest of the industry does not seem to care at all.
