How I Screw Around Online When I Should be Writing Press Releases
The dirty little secret of all public relations professionals is the amount of time we spend each day on various websites, social networks and online communities. Every day I see people close their web-browsers with lightning-fast reflexes as colleagues approach lest they are discovered to be on Facebook, Google+, Twitter, Amazon, YouTube, eBay, Pandora, Quora, Digg, Ning, Reddit, LinkedIn, Foursquare or Gowalla. It’s the reason those rear-view mirrors that clip onto your PC monitor were invented.
Most, if not all, of these online properties are still deemed by many in positions of authority as ‘non-work-related’ and a frivolous waste of time – a productivity killer at best and a breach of your professional contract at worst. Some companies actively block them in an attempt to shut out the outside world completely in case one of their auto-bots should suddenly remember that the world does extend beyond the beige walls of their cubicle and stop writing code, drafting legal writs, selling insurance or whatever else.
It is interesting how deeply this perception still runs; even at companies that you would assume ‘get it’. Mashable’s Ben Parr recently reported on how few of Google’s senior management team actually spends time on Google+. He concedes that “Google’s management is a busy group,” but goes on to say that “having only three members of its management team post more than 10 times sends a terrible message.” I would opine that on some deep, subconscious level, Google’s C-suite of brilliant, super-achievers believes that screwing around on Google+ is just not a productive use of their time.
I would like to offer the argument that not only is this time not spent frivolously, but the knowledge and experience gained by regular and consistent interaction with these platforms are essential to the PR skill-set. They are vital if you want to be able to present yourself as a trusted influential advisor to your clients and not just a hired gun, cranking out press releases and compiling coverage reports. Besides, in a few years, they’ll have apps for that.
The online experience is a deeply personal one, tailored to any number of interests, both personal and professional, but there a couple of channels that we all use (or should) for one reason or another. I am going to focus on the two most popular ones and one from out of left-field in an effort to un-demonize them a little and try to explain the value I get from them as a PR professional. There are a plethora of others (Quora, Google+ or YouTube for example) that also qualify, but I’ll save those for another day.
I would hazard a guess that everyone reading this has a profile of some description. On a very basic level, Facebook has allowed me to break down the barriers of time, distance and in a lot of cases, unfamiliarity. At the time of writing, I have 439 friends on Facebook. Of those, I would consider less than fifty to be close friends. The rest are made up of a motley crew of past and present colleagues, clients, media contacts and ‘industry influencers’. Facebook allows me to maintain some kind of a relationship with all of these people without ever actually having to see them in person. I can let them into my personal life and access theirs at a whim. I can show them the guy behind the in-box and give them a reason to take my phone call. This is an extraordinary opportunity for someone who works in an industry that is so reliant on their network of relationships.
I am a fairly open and honest with what I post on Facebook and I have pretty relaxed privacy settings too because I want to provide access to whoever wants it. If I don’t want to share it with the public, I don’t post it on Facebook. Simple as that. I have also found Facebook to be an incredible resource over the years for digging up useful info on reporters or prospects I am looking to pitch. I was recently doing some digging into the in-house PR guy at one of the top global digital camera manufacturers and discovered that we had no less than 30 friends in common – most of them camera reporters. It was not hard to get an introduction and now we have plans to grab drinks the next time he is in the city.
You can friend me here.
Twitter is an easy sell. Perhaps the easiest in a PR setting. It is simply the single best resource for breaking news that exists today. I post a moderate amount on Twitter. Most of this gets lost in the Twittersphere for the most part and I don’t truly ‘engage’ as much as I would like, but with 250 followers (some of them actually legitimate industry pundits) I’m getting there. Where Twitter really shines for me is that when news breaks, Twitter is where it breaks first. As a PR professional, just by signing up for an account and following a few of the main news outlets (AP, Reuters, NY Times, WSJ, CNN, Fox News, etc.) you are better off than you were five minutes ago. Now expand that over time with some actual reporters and influencers that cover whatever industry you need to follow and you are on the front lines of the news. And this is all without ever actually having to Tweet anything yourself. It also helps to follow @shitmydadsays too because god knows you’ll need some fodder for those uncomfortable silences at the next media dinner you have to staff.
You can follow me here.
Shared-Experience Online Community
“A what?” I hear you say. Slightly different to a social network which connects you to people you know first before moving further afield (think Facebook and Twitter), this category encompasses any online community that connects complete strangers around a central theme (think online message boards or fan forums). I have belonged to one in particular for almost ten years now and it ranks up there as the single most valuable online resource I have. It started as a fairly run-of-the-mill soccer fan blog for the North London team I grew up supporting – Arsenal – and has grown into one of the most heavily-trafficked fan blogs in the world. But that is aside the point. The fact that it’s a soccer blog at all is completely irrelevant. It’s the community that is so valuable.
Arseblog runs a closed forum. It has done for a number of years now. The blog’s founder, an Irishman known only and mysteriously as ‘Arseblogger’, decided that once the forum membership grew to a few thousand, he wanted to shut the gates to preserve the community with a manageable number of regulars. People can still apply, and many still do, but they are admitted rarely and only with a direct reference from within the ranks. This has had an incredibly stabilizing effect on the community and has meant that ten years later, most of the original members are still regular contributors.
But why is that valuable? And what the hell has that got to do with PR?
Well, for one, it provides me with a significant (but focused) group of highly-diverse, tech-savvy, early adopters to dip into whenever I need to. There are a fair number of luddites, but the site’s membership is overwhelmingly digital native. They are spread widely across the globe, are plugged into every trend, industry, culture and demographic and because the forums are closed and protected, are completely open and honest, brutally so at times, with their recourse.
Access to this community has had an incredible impact on my career and the value that I have been able to bring to my colleagues and clients over the years. If I need an immediate and impartial opinion on an industry, company, product or service, Arseblog is usually the first place that I go. I have discovered more breaking news, global trends, behind-the-scenes stories from Arseblog than any single other source over the last ten years. Want to know whether iOS or Android platforms are more popular in Iceland? Someone on Arseblog knows. Want some quick feedback on a PR stunt idea? Whether a video has the potential to go viral? An appropriate gift for a Taiwanese client? How to ask for a raise and not get laughed at? That’s where I usually go first.
My point is, we work in an industry that lives and breathes on information. Does it really matter where that information comes from?
~Mike Steavenson, New York
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