David Weinberger, a man very knowledgable about markets being conversations (see Cluetrain) refers to a client of his:
Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman PR, pegs his latest post to a description of G. Washington in McCullough's 1776. It's awkward for me to talk about this because I consult to Edelman PR (Richard has never even hinted that I should talk about his blog,...Nevertheless: at his blog you can see an established PR firm honestly wrestling with the big change in context the Web is bringing about. If you've worked in PR - I did inside corporations for 10 years - you know that the Web excites every inappropriate PR instinct. To traditional PR folks, the Web looks like an opportunity for doing near-zero-cost one-to-one marketing, abusing the Net's anonymity to manipulate market conversations. In that context, Richard's current post is all the more to be appreciated, since it acknowledges important limits and scouts for new directions that don't disrupt the Web's ecology.
From Richard's post itself:
First, we are having a conversation, not pitching a story to a reporter. Weinberger is adamant that bloggers "don't want content from PR people nor do we want you to give us access to your clients---unless you are willing to enter our space as a conversationalist."Second, we need to act appropriately. "The blog world is ours--tread lightly," Weinberger says. He believes that the blogosphere is the great public space, where equality, transparency, and access are the rules of the game. It is just not acceptable to invent front organizations, to enter chat rooms anonymously or to pay for play.
Third, we ought to commit ourselves to continuous learning. The Web is about continuous change. I just heard from Weinberger about Delicious, a mechanism to see what other people have tagged to organize their bookmarks on-line. This type of social research could lead us to more informed conversations with bloggers.
Fourth, we should offer content with substance as well as humor. Let the ad agencies and internet firms post the riotous videos of grandmothers punching out teenagers for bad behavior. Our content should contain facts, links to other sites offering both sides of an issue for complete context and sources of our information.
Fifth, we can aim for an educated consumer. As my friend and colleague Mitch Markson observed last week, "What is a consumer's responsibility in this new world of consumer generated information?" The tendency at present among too many consumers is to be narrow and deep, incredibly smart about a few topics, reliant on others for expertise outside of core capabilities. We need to find the points of common interest, that draw a broad range of people into the conversation.
We are now in a time when we must counsel our clients to give up some measure of control to achieve credibility. We are moving beyond a model where some own the content and others read it. Social networks are deciding what is important. We have serious responsibilities as well as opportunities in this evolving world.
Give up control to achieve credibility - what a wonderful phrase. And its a wonderful opportunity to start a conversation with the world about your products.
That's what I want to help people to do; to conect in conversations via this new technology and enable engagement and learning. Who wants to play?
Posted by Paul Goodison at July 6, 2005 05:04 PM | TrackBack