Monday, June 26, 2006
HC+T Update: June 2006
HC+T Update: June 2006
HC+T Update
June 2006
- What CSR means to the average person isn’t what you might think
- Live-blogging a shareholder’s meeting
- What’s next for blogebrities? Paparazzi?
- Hiring companies may want to acquire your blog along with you
- Technorati tests microformat search
- I’m hitting the road for a two-day workshop on new media
- RSS vs. Email: The first phase of new technology
- Tangible consequences of PR’s image problem
- Two webinars on tap
- Site of the month
- HC+T update
- Boilerplate and subscription information
As usual, this issue represents mostly material I’ve written for my blog over the past month. You can find the blog at http://blog.holtz.com. And don’t forget, you should seriously consider switching from the email subscription to the RSS feed. Just add the following URL to your RSS news reader: http://blog.holtz.com/index.php/update/rss_2.0/.
What CSR means to the average person isn’t what you might think
A few weeks ago, I was in Washington, D.C. to moderate the ”Beyond Blogging 2006“ symposium sponsored by Fleishman Hillard. I got in a few days early and had a couple meetings at Fleishman’s DC offices, where I met Tony Colandro. Among other things, Tony has been working on a major study Fleishman commissioned to get a handle on how people perceive the notion of corporate social responsibility (CSR). He shared an executive summary of the study, conducted by the National Consumers League, that was eye-opening, to say the least.
I was embargoed from reporting on the study until it was released, which occurred today with nicely-placed coverage in the New York Times.
Just what did the study reveal?
If you ask most people working in corporations who have an interest in the company’s reputation, the answers come quickly with a bit of a derisive lift of the eyebrow, as in, “How can you not know this?” It’s a matter of how the company treats the environment, how much money it donates to charitable causes, how good a neighbor it is in the communities where it maintains facilities.
If that’s what you think most people consider CSR, you’d be wrong. According to the study, 27% of the respondents said they assessed CSR based on how well the organization demonstrated its commitment to the well being of its employees. In case you’re staring at the screen about to utter, “Whaaaaa..?” let me reiterate. How well a company treats its employees is the number one factor that leads others to rate the company’s corporate social responsibility. Only 3% said corporate donations were the key indicator.
Tony told me he was just as surprised.
Businesses frequently invest a considerable amount in promoting their charitable giving. The Times article cites the Journal of Philanthropy that “highlights several companies that have made marketing alliances with nonprofit groups, dedicating a percentage of sales of certain products to a specific charity or agreeing to support a specific program or project.” The only problem is, with only 3% of respondents citing donations as the most important sign of CSR, you have to wonder how much good it’s doing from a reputational standpoint—especially for companies that have a less-than-sterling reputation for how they treat their own workers.
This study should be a big deal among human resources and employee communications professionals, who can now make a stronger case for more resources. It should also make some companies that have been dismissing employee concerns rethink their philosophies. (Did anybody hear me say “Wal*Mart?”)
Why would companies’ leaders be so interested in what constitutes CSR in the minds of their publics? The knowledge that a lot of people make decisions about whom to do business with based on the organization’s perceived CSR. There are even stock funds based on investing in socially responsible companies.
As for how companies are doing, far more respondents gave business low scores than high ones in rating their CSR.
The study results are so compelling that Fleishman Hillard has launched a blog on the topic at http://fhcsr.typepad.com/csr_blog/. The first post to the blog covers the survey results; comments are turned on. The blog should be worth watching, both in terms of the kinds of commentary Fleishman posts to it and the kinds of comments it receives.
2. Live-blogging a shareholder’s meeting
I have live-blogged a couple of events, including the first and second New Communications Forums this year and last. Live-blogging conferences has gotten to be a fairly routine thing these days, making it easy for those who can’t be there to get updates on who said what in pretty close to real time.
As live-blogging from conferences continues to spread in both application and popularity, it was only a matter of time before the practice spread to events other than conferences. Today, Wal-Mart is the focus of a live-blogging effort taking place from its annual shareholders meeting. Blogging Stocks, an AOL property, is live-blogging as the meeting unfolds via webcast.
The post begins, “What’s in store for today? We’ll be on it, so keep your finger poised over that “Refresh” button on your browser, as we’ll be updating this post in real-time as the webcast rolls on.”
Each update begins with a time code, as in this entry:
“8:57am -— the fourth resolution is now up, and this one involves the publication of a comprehensive sustainability report, which would include the stewardship of Wal-Mart across almost every area of the business: labor, suppliers, logistics, expansion, subsidies, political contributions, employee pay and injury rates, and corporate procedures…among others. Wow, that would be a full library of reports if you ask me.”
The entries stop with an observation that the Q&A is about to begin: “but I’m not sure if that will be webcast or not. If it is, we’ll be here.”
Wal-Mart may have wanted to restrict the webcast to all the positive rah-rah that the company orchestrated, including (according to the blog report) a performance by American Idol winner Taylor Hicks and speeches from executives. And, in this instance, the webcast was probably the only way to live-blog the shareholders meeting, since it’s not likely that WiFi was available in the Bud Walton Arena on the University of Arkansas campus, where the meeting is being held. I suppose anyone with a high-speed PC card would be able to blog the meeting on-site. Even if computers weren’t permitted in the Arena (and I don’t know that they weren’t), a cell phone is all anyone would really need.
I’m also not sure if this is the first time a shareholder’s meeting has been blogged—it’s just the first one of which I’m aware. But since it’s likely to become more common, companies might as well accommodate it, provide WiFi, and invite live blogging of their shareholder meetings.
3. What’s next for blogebrities? Paparazzi?
I have to admit, I’ve never heard of Joel Cheesman. Evidently, though, he’s well-known among Human Resources types. Cheesman blogs as Cheezhead and is CEO of a couple recruiting companies. His blog bio pegs him as “one of the Internet’s most famous and widely-read blogger on emerging recruitment issues in the world.”
While Cheesman could use an editor (how many of you immediately rewrote that awful sentence?), he’s enough of a celebrity to command $7,000 to promote a company at the upcoming gathering of the Society of Human Resources Management. Cheesman listed himself on eBay, offering a variety of benefits to the highest bid to sponsor his presence at the conference. The winning bid—$7,101—was ponied up by JobCentral. In return, the employment network gets Cheesman wearing a t-shirt bearing their logo, a mention on all of Cheesman’s podcasts from the conference, a banner ad on Cheesman’s blog, and a variety of other benefits.
In pitching the sponsorship on eBay, Cheesman included screen shots of his blog’s stats from Alexa. Cheesman’s stats are about three times better than mine, but nowhere near as good as Steve Rubel’s. Which leads me to the inevitable question: What would a company like Bacons bid in an eBay auction to win the chance to sponsor Steve at a PRSA conference?
Not that anyone could pay Steve enough to parade around PRSA in a t-shirt bearing the winner’s name, or put their banner on his blog, or write a post about the sponsorship, or do any of the other things Cheesman has done. It just raises the question about whether being an A-lister—or a “blogebrity”—has testimonial or spokesperson value. Among all the lists covering the ways bloggers can make money, one I haven’t seen is, “Sell your blogebrity status to the highest bidder.”
From Rubel’s ranking we can move up the scale and speculate about Jeff Jarvis appearing on a TV commercial for one of Dell Computers’ competitors or Om Malik in a magazine ad touting a NetGear or Linksys wireless router. Again, such sellout opportunities could well be far beneath Jarvis and Malik; but it’s intriguing to ponder whether some (like those who get homepage attention on Technorati) have ascended to the level where their mere blogginess has monetary value.
As for me, there’s no way I’d become a pitchman for a company at the IABC conference for $7,101. Make it $25,000 and we’ll talk.
4. Hiring companies may want to acquire your blog along with you
Rex Hammock congratulates Terry Heaton for his new gig at Audience Research and Development of Dallas. What caught my eye, though, was Hammock’s observation that Heaton’s blog would move with him. Heaton himself notes, “(ARD’s) Jerry (Gumbert) and I have agreed that I will continue blogging.”
This seems to represent something of a trend. David Jones is continuing to author the PR blog he started while at Thornley Fallis after moving to Fleishman Hillard (Canada); Jones also is continuing his Inside PR podcastwith co-host Terry Fallis. Jeremy Pepper’s excellent and provocative POP! PR blog rolls on now that he’s working for Weber Shandwick. Chris Clarke’s Student PR blog is now Student PR @ Work (Clarke was snatched up by Thornley Fallis after graduation.) Erin Caldwell, another student PR blogger, was grabbed by Edelman Worldwide; she now writes as part of the group blog, Forward.
All of which has me wondering if hiring organizations—particularly PR agencies—view the candidate’s blog as an asset they are acquiring along with the employee. Certainly the blogs in each of these cases played a part in the hiring decision: The combination of visible writing skills and understanding of social media are attractive qualities. (The whole “hired-for-blogging” thing has been reported to death.) And certainly the new-hire is the target. I can’t imagine a company ever hiring a blogger, then ending the employment arrangement while hanging onto the blog. But does Weber Shandwick, for instance, view POP! PR Jots as something tangible they got along with Jeremy?
Jeremy’s blog—while not a Weber Shandwick property—attaches itself to the Weber Shandwick brand as a matter of course: Jeremy works for WS, Jeremy has a blog, the blog is therefore affiliated, even if informally, with WS. Thus, Jeremy’s pithy observations reflect upon Weber Shandwick. The folks who hired Jeremy surely knew this and saw that as beneficial. The same holds true for Fleishman Hillard, Thornley Fallis, and Edelman Worldwide.
Practitioners seeking employment should consequently keep in mind that their blogs may be more than just an enhancement to their resume. They could be part of the package, an asset the company wants them to bring with them to the job.
5. Technorati tests microformat search
The more services I see roll out that aggregate content from “the edge,” the more convinced I become that this represents a considerable shift in publishing models that will become more and more common. The idea, if it’s new to you, is simple. Rather than send your content to someone else to publish—such as a classified ad in a newspaper—you publish it on your own site and tag it appropriately so sites that aggregate such content can add it to their listings.
There is a growing number of examples, from classified ad aggregator Edgeio to the Memeorandum series of sites that collect news from around the web, aggregate it, and rank it based on popularity.
But the entry of Technorati, the 800-pound gorilla of blog search, into the edge-content arena may signify that the concept is about to grow in terms of both visibility and use.
On its Kitchen test site, Technorati has introduced the ability to search for microformat content, specifically events, contacts, and reviews. In order to get an event listed as a search result—which presents its findings chronologically—all you have to do is publish the event on your own site or blog using the correct microformating, as in this example.
Technorati—which is already out there scouring blogs—would identify this an event using the hcalendar microformat, and list it; try it yourself at http://kitchen.technorati.com—just click the “events” tab and type in the name of your nearest big city.
The syntax for microformats is pretty simple, and I can’t imagine why organizations wouldn’t start including them for all their events and contacts to increase visibility. And the more I think about the whole “edge” concept, the more potential I see for intranets. More on that later, after I’ve had a chance to turn it over in my mind a bit.
In the meantime, Technorati has also launched Pingerati. According to the site:
“Pingerati receives updates of pages with Microformat data in, and passes them on to services that are interested in indexing them. With the growth of services that publish and index microformats, there is a need to connect the publishers with the indexers. The ‘ping to update’ model has worked well with weblogs, but is not ideal for other kinds of pages that may contain microformats.”
Hat tip to Stowe Boyd, who also likes the idea:
“This is a great example of supporting the edge activities of individuals with core infrastructure. Partnering with companies like EVDB and Upcoming.org, Technorati is taking another step forward in supporting the critical principle of individuals controlling their own information.”
6. I’m hitting the road for a two-day workshop on new media
I’ll be on the road in October and November with a new two-day workshop titled, “Connecting with the Wired World.” In this workshop, I’ll cover how to…
- Reach your many and varied audiences through better and smarter online writing techniques
- Develop audio, video and animated content that will engage your audiences as never before—and reach new ones
- Monitor what customers, competitors, employees, activists and others are saying about you online and in the blogosphere—and be ready to influence the discussion
- Sell the concepts of blogs, podcasting and other social media tools to a management skeptical of new tools and technologies
- Engage your audiences in an online conversation—and mitigate the risks inherent in participatory communications
I’ll relate this to intranets, blogs, wikis, social media sites, social bookmarking and tagging, citizen and open-source media, and RSS.
Here’s the lineup:
- 10/05-06: San Francisco
- 10/23-24: New York
- 10/26-27: Washington, DC
- 10/30-31: Chicago
- 11/02-03: Atlanta
- 11/13-14: Toronto, ONT, Canada
7. RSS vs. Email: The first phase of new technology
On Monday, Micro Persuasion blogger Steve Rubel posted ”35 ways you can use RSS today.” The list of links to offbeat feeds (like tracking drunk athletes) prompted numerous comments, most of which either listed other interesting feeds or pointed to similar lists. Neville Hobson applauded the list, calling its contents “terrific examples of how to think about RSS—a tool that enables you to get news and information about things that interest you, automatically and with very little effort.”
Over at Performancing.com, however, Brian Clark had a different take. In a post titled, ”How NOT to sell RSS,” Clark sniffs, “Now, tell me — couldn’t you rewrite that headline to read: ‘35 Ways People Used Email in 1998 (And Still Do Today)’?” Clark makes a couple points while noting that RSS is hardly the first online opt-in mechanism:
- People like getting content by email
- People don’t understand why they should switch to RSS
- People don’t like change
The only way to sell RSS, Clark says, is to tell people why it’s better than email. Worse, he says, selling RSS isn’t much different than asking folks in 1995 if they’d like to get content via HTTP.
Clark makes some good points, but he’s wrong about a few things and, from where I sit, his points don’t invalidate Steve’s list. The main thing to keep in mind is that every new technology gets its start doing things the old technology did. Television, for example, initially broadcast radio shows; it was some time before innovators (Edward R. Murrow, Paddy Chayevsky, and the like) began thinking about things television could do that hadn’t been done before. The computer itself was initially a glorified typewriter and calculator. Those who built the first PCs did not envision it as a communication tool. The fact that TV first broadcast visual radio and the PC first gained steam with VisiCalc and PCWrite didn’t keep people from migrating from the old technology to the new. The migration was, however, gradual, so I’m not concerned that RSS has not yet enjoyed widespread adoption. As people begin to understand the benefits of RSS, they’ll begin to use it, particularly as it gets easier and easier.
Once Internet Explorer 7 rolls out, for example, with its built-in RSS functionality, a lot of folks will begin using it without necessarily understanding what RSS is and how it functions. (As a speaker at the New Communications Forum noted earlier this year, a lot of people use email without knowing what SMTP is.)
The uptake of RSS will occur, to some degree, because of things about which Clark is mistaken. First, people don’t like email. Clark cites a Nielsen-Norman study that found people develop tighter bonds with email newsletters than cold RSS feeds. Back in 2004, however, a study by Relemal determined that seven out of eight people believe subscribing to an opt-in e-mail list will result in more spam. And 83% have said they avoid subscribing to a list when they don’t trust the publisher, while 78% said they just don’t always believe a company’s official privacy statement…all of which makes feeds a more desirable option.
There is other research that confirms a declining trust in email, exacerbated by spam filters’ tendency to produce false positives, floods of unwanted CC’d messages from co-workers, messages that quote every preceding message in the thread, and well-meaning friends who forward ancient chain letters, causes, and jokes. But there’s another consideration: my 17-year-old daughter’s generation. They simply don’t use email, opting for tools they find more efficient. RSS is…well…more efficient than email for opt-in lists.
Clark also makes a very common mistake when he insists that people don’t like change. People love change. They longfor a change of scenery, a change of pace, a life-changing experience. People change jobs, change homes, change cars, change fashion styles. What people don’t like is being changed. Nobody’s forcing RSS on anybody; people are taking it up because it’s an improvement over email, and as it becomes easier and as the RSS label recedes into the background (which Clark endorses), that uptake will gain steam. After all, in 1995 you would have been hard-pressed to find a typewriter in anybody’s office, even though word processors just did what typewriters did.
And what will people do initially with RSS feeds? The same things they were doing with email, of course. That’s just the way technology adoption works. Clark’s position that selling RSS requires explaining its advantages over RSS is important, but once you’re sold, you need something to subscribe to. For all those people who are new to feeds and looking to find out what’s available out there, lists like Rubel’s are entirely worthwhile and a completely useful way to sell RSS.
One last point: I’m not sure Steve was selling RSS to potential subscribers as much as he was showing communicators the kinds of things they could implement on behalf of their companies and clients. For those of us who would create feeds, it is important to know what they are and how they work, and lists like this can give the brain a jump-start.
8. Tangible consequences of PR’s image problem
Kansas City Councilwoman Becky Nace isn’t happy that the city is spending $2 million on fees to four public relations agencies. She wonders if that money couldn’t have been better spent elsewhere, and she’s making noise about it. Nace’s dismay that a city would actually spend money on PR echoes the concerns of other civic leaders who have expressed similar outrage over their own cities hiring PR help.
Fortunately, in covering Nace’s criticism, The Kansas City Star has take the trouble to figure out just exactly what these agencies have been hired to do. An examination of their work reveals that some city initiatives just wouldn’t succeed without professional communication efforts supporting them. For example, one of the tasks was arranging public meetings to educate the public on a massive sewer and stormwater replacement project that could be the largest public works effort in Kansas City’s history. The head of the water services agency insisted it was important to get the word out, but there’s more to it than that. One of the agencies’ tasks is to assemble panels with diverse memberships to meet frequently to decide which wastewater technologies are best suited to their neighborhoods.
In other words, the agencies are charging $100 to $150 per hour to create community understand, dialogue, participation, involvement, and support for a project that otherwise could devolve into a public brouhaha (just ask the people behind Boston’s Big Dig). That’s the kind of work that PR people do that goes largely unrecognized while unethical behaviors employed by the minority of practitioners get all the attention. If Kansas City had the resources internally, they wouldn’t have to hire agencies. But work like this tends to be project-based. Ms. Nace doesn’t understand, though, noting that when she dies, she wants to be reincarnated as a consultant so she can earn $150 an hour.
A related Kansas City project is trying to motivate residents to construct “rain gardens” to help manage the city’s rainwater runoff. It’s a PR effort that has led 71 residents to construct and register such gardens so far, and more to build them without registering them.
I’m impressed that the Star researched the PR efforts and reported on their goals rather than simply report Councilwoman Nace’s objections, which is the approach most media take to such statements by public officials. We in the PR profession need to do a better job of spotlighting the positive work we do that is so much more than the what the public perceives: spinmeisters trying to get the public to drink our clients’ Kool-Aid.
To clarify: any client has the right to question a bill. Any client has the right to question the work an agency (or any other supplier or vendor) performs. My issue with Councilwoman Nace—and the other local politicians whose dismissal of PR I have reported in the past—is that they start with the assumption that PR can’t possibly have any value; the tone is, “We’re spending money on PR? Isn’t there something worthwhile we could be spending our money on instead?”
The problem is not with Councilwoman Nace, who responded based on a popular but inaccurate view of what PR is and what it does. The problem is with a public relations industry that has been unable to educate people like her about the value PR can bring to an organization, institution, even a city. (Even the local newspaper—usually one of the first to slam PR—found there was worth in the agencies’ efforts.) That’s why I concluded, “We in the PR profession need to do a better job of spotlighting the positive work we do that is so much more than the what the public perceives: spinmeisters trying to get the public to drink our clients’ Kool-Aid.”
9. upcoming webinar
Two new Webinars are slated for August.
First, beginning August 7, we’ll repeat Steve Crescenzo’s incredibly popular Webinar, “Writing for Employees.” This is the fifth go-around for this Webinar, which has attracted about 100 participants each time it’s been presented.
Then, starting August 28, we’ll begin “The New Fundamentals of Employee Communications,” which I’m heading up. This Webinar will look at the changes to some of internal communications’ ground rules, many of which are the result of social media’s impact while other are based on changing employee perceptions of work, management, and companies. If you work in internal communications, this is a can’t-be-missed session!
For details, visit the website for Shel Holtz Webinars at http://www.raganwebinars.com.
10. Site of the Month
For Immediate Release
Okay, I’m tooting my own horn here a bit, but I’m not pointing you to my podcast site just to attract more listeners. Earlier this month, Neville Hobson (my co-host) and I were asked to come to to New York and attend the 2006 Innovative Marketing conference, co-hosted by Columbia Business School (where the event was held) and Corante (http://www.corante.com). We sat in a small conference room interviewing one conference speaker after another, 10 in all. The interviews are about 10-15 minutes each and are well worth your time. Among those interviewed: Larry Weber (the “Weber” in Weber Shandwick), Craig Newmark (founder of Craig’s List), and Russ Klein, chief marketing officer for Burger King. We also captured the audio of most of the presentations.
http://www.forimmediaterelease.biz
11. HC+T update
- I’m conducting a pair of sessions on intranets and new media for a Canadian financial services company.
- I have still more intranet audits in the works, one with a focus on manager/supervisor content for a major US airport.
- I’m wrapping up work on my next book, “How to Do Everything with Podcasting,” written with the assistance of my podcast co-host, Neville Hobson.
12. Boilerplate and subscription information
You received this newsletter either because you asked for it or somebody who likes you forwarded it to you.
Please feel free to forward it to someone =you= like!
HC+T Update is published monthly by Holtz Communication + Technology.
You can subscribe by visiting the HC+T site on the World Wide Web at http://www.holtz.com and selecting the FREE email NEWSLETTER page. You can subscribe ,unsubscribe and view back issues at http://darkstar.holtz.com/hct/mamboserver/cgi-bin/dada/mail.cgi?f=list&l=hct.
You can subscribe to an RSS feed of this newsletter by adding “http://blog.holtz.com/update.xml” (without the quote marks) to your news feed reader.
Holtz Communication + Technology helps organizations apply online technology to strategic communication efforts.
(C) 2006, Holtz Communication + Technology. All rights reserved.