This is a summary of our recent presentation at a PRSA Media Relations Workshop in Orange County, CA. I will be posting the summary here in three parts.
Think for just a moment about how you communicate – and how your expectations about communications have changed in the last ten years. Email? Web? Mobile phone? Tivo? iPod? Internet Radio? Think of how these are, and continue to, shift the way we work, recreate, and interact with each other.
We live in an “always-on” world, one that is increasingly dependent on networks. A good number of us – upwards to 800 million of us –view connectivity as essential as breathing. With connectivity there is a mindshift occurring away from mainstream media to the concept of “everybody” as creators of information – and we’re doing it on-the-go and in real-time, sharing, exchanging and co-creating. Our information channels are broadening from mainstream media to each other.
Perhaps to prove these points, Yahoo did an “Internet Deprivation” study last fall. The most interesting finding of all was that it was nearly impossible to find anyone willing to give up Internet connectivity for two weeks in order to participate. In the end, however, Yahoo found participants reporting feelings of depression and isolation, a sense of loss, and of being “out of the loop” without access to the Internet. The study concludes that our everyday activities are far more steeped in connectivity than we (or Yahoo) may suspect.
So, if we are all living modern lives, and we’ve adapted to communicating in modern ways, why are we going about media relations as if it hasn’t evolved in the last ten years? It stands to reason that our media relations activities need to get in sync with modern life.
The “who” the “what” and the “how” of media relations is evolving and broadening. And it starts with blogs.
Weblogs
The simplest explanation for a weblog (blog) is a personal, topical web page that is frequently updated. Personal websites are not new, but what makes blogs so powerful – and alluring – are their social nature; their organic and populist culture; and their immediacy. They have become so popular so quickly because very inexpensive or even free services make it possible for anyone to publish on the web without having to learn any technical skills or programming. Because of their comments and trackback features, blogs are interwoven among each other.
Blogs are the great equalizer, making everyone a publisher. They make us all “media.” Blogs have taken media from the cathedrals of “big media” to a communal activity. Blogs are turning media relations on its head.
Who’s Blogging?
Your colleagues, for starters. There are about 100 blogs (and growing quickly) published by PR pros. Edelman was the first of the major PR agencies, who also, by the way, was the first agency to have a web site back in the early 1990s. Richard Edelman uses the blog to discuss current PR affairs and practices. Other smaller agencies and PR consultants have been blogging since 2003, and use blogs to gain visibility or publish opinions and news affecting practitioners. They publicly discuss PR issues and educate clients via their blogs. A few agencies are starting “blogging practices” as a new service, helping clients to effectively implement blogs into their communications programs. An important point is that PR professionals are using blogs both as a way of doing business and as a type of business.
The Media. Journalists are blogging, as are more and more mainstream media publications. Blogging expands the parameters of reporting, giving journalists unlimited space to explore topics or ideas. It also allows journalists to express ideas or opinions they may not be able to in print because of space constraints or editorial structures. But, most importantly, it allows them to create a more personal relationship with “the audience.” By having a blog, journalists are inviting you into their personal space, which makes it easier to create relationships, if used properly and respected. Cyberjournalist.net maintains an international list of journalist bloggers. There are currently 340 on the list, and growing.
Corporate Executives. General Motors’ top management is blogging. Ford, Cisco, Sun, and Boeing are among corporations whose executives are blogging. They cite the primary reasons as having the ability to present their stories directly (without the media as gatekeepers), and to connect more personally with customers.
Why Are We Blogging?
Most importantly, we’re blogging because it creates a relationship between the writer and the reader. It not only invites a relationship, but, unlike websites, blogs depend on relationship to thrive.
Blogs have removed the traditional media as the gatekeepers of news and information. Blogs challenge traditional journalism because of their speed, penetration and the powerful credibility built by blogs’ social network – the network of readers organically create credibility via readership and readers have a quick ability to call out and correct any inaccuracies.
Citizen Journalism
Blogs have spawned a whole new form of media – citizen journalism. Citizen reporters help create thousands of “listening posts” around the world – and they spread news via online newspaper blogs almost instantly. They cover stories mainstream media may not, and are “on the ground” to report local news or details beyond the reach of mainstream media. Dan Gillmor, a former San Jose Mercury News columnist and author of We The Media calls these people “the former audience.”
A few examples of citizen newspapers are:
OnMyNews (South Korea)
New West (Rocky Mountains)
H2O Town (Watertown, MA)
Northwest Voice (Bakersfield, CA).
Information is now decentralized. It doesn’t come from the “center,” as in the era of traditional media, but “from the edges” - and all around - in a global distributed model. Therefore, we can’t do media relations from the center anymore either, We have to do it by encompassing the edges. Blogs and the other technologies we’re talking about here make this possible and powerful.
So with 5 million active blogs how do you begin to incorporate them into your media relations?
Identify
The first step is to identify credible blogs that complement, cover or report your areas of interest, including journalists’ blogs, individual blogs, group blogs and mainstream media blogs. Tools to assist you in finding these are:
Cyberjournalist.net
Technorati
BlogSearchEngine
BlogMatcher
BlogDigger
Blogdex
…to name a few. Once you locate credible and relevant blogs, browse through each author’s “blog roll” – a list of blogs the author reads or recommends. It is located in the left or right navigation column of most blogs. These will likely lead you to additional relevant blogs.
Read
To be successful at approaching bloggers, you must first read blogs! You will gain insight into the specific blogger’s personality, interests, relevance and readership. But more importantly you will acquire an understanding of the culture of blogs. Even traditional journalists react differently in the blogosphere. In addition, take the time to read the blogger’s profile, usually indicated in an “about me” type link. Just like you would read a journalist’s column, read the blogs you intend to get involved with – before you approach them.
Participate
Once you begin reading specific blogs, comment on posts of interest to you. Do not make these comments self-serving or client-serving! Comment as if you were speaking to the person – blogs are conversations. Follow the comments and trackback postings – get to know the people who are involved with these blogs.
Comments are not only read by the author but by other readers of the blog. Normally your comments are linked back to your blog (or web site), so people can find out who you are. This also creates visibility for you. Authors are notified when a comment is posted, and they generally watch them closely.
Not only will you learn, but you will find people who share your or your client’s interests – that is the point of blogs…sharing news, views, information, and opinions.
Incorporating blogs into your communications practice takes time. Trying to shorten the path to good “blog relations” and risking making a blunder will come back to bite you. Invest the time.
Write
Although this is not an absolute requirement of modern media relations, we highly recommend you write a blog. Of course you don’t have to have been a reporter to be a good media relations person – but putting yourself in the other guy’s shoes can’t hurt. Your blog doesn’t have to be related to your work – make it something personal or something educational for others. Make it non-public if you must, although you will be missing out on the fun and much of the lure of blogging. The point is, you will far quicker understand the culture of blogs if you dive in and try it. You will be better respected among, and more credible to, other bloggers – whether they be citizen journalists or professional journalists. And, you are less likely to make an error with a blogger that may become more public than you would wish.
Use an online service to begin blogging – they are free to very inexpensive. Here are just a few:
Typepad
MSN Spaces
Salon.com
MyBlogSite
Pitch
You don’t “pitch” blogs. It’s about engaging in conversation with the author, and offering relevant items of interest to them – at the appropriate time.
If you go to someone’s house for the first time, you don’t walk over to the refrigerator, open it, start looking around and then tell your host he/she needs more diet soda. So, the same goes for bloggers. Say hello, take time to get to know them and what they write about, comment and engage, and then ask if you can borrow the lawnmower. By that time, it comes naturally.
Remember, there is nothing secret and nothing sacred in the blogosphere. Authors are generally nice people and are open to you. But, you need to be a good guest. You are in their personal space!
About now, you are probably thinking “I’ve got to pitch my story NOW – I don’t have time for this.” So, don’t pitch this story to bloggers now – go your usual route this time. The point is, start now to understand and engage bloggers – that way you – and they – will be ready when your next NOW arrives.
Track
Of course, once you get your news out there, you want to track it through the blogosphere. Tracking will let you know who and how your news spreads. Tracking is also a way to find influential bloggers.
A few tracking tools are:
BlogPulse
Technorati
Feedster
Pubsub
Blog Your Newsroom
Turn your (or your client’s) online press center into a blog. It is an easy way to get started in the blogosphere. Plus, with the speed at which blogs are indexed by Google, Yahoo, and blog search engines, your news will be more visible, faster.
The reason blogs are indexed faster and news spreads so quickly is because of RSS – Really Simple Syndication. RSS is a medium all its own and is a “power tool” distribution and tracking channel for your news.
More about RSS next.
Heh!
Posted by: Lisa Williams | June 06, 2005 at 08:20 PM