The new influencers and PR’s role

Interesting interview with Social Media Maven Paul Gillin (via Judy Gombita) which picks up on two of the themes that emerged during the MIPAA New Media workshop last week.

One of the fictional case studies we considered related to advising an eager senior exec who wanted to blog, be active in social media, etc.  One the one hand, we had participants who felt the recommendation was not to get involved - but others felt more optimistic about the opportunity. 

Unfortunately most of the good examples (as cited by Gillin such as Google and Southwest Airline) are the major global brands out of their head offices (mainly US-based).  This presents a challenge for national PR teams - should they press for country-specific social media or is a global resource sufficient?  Obviously we can’t play a language card from the UK, but there are cultural differences that may not be reflected by a single centralised resource.  And, when the point of social media is to engage, isn’t some local connection preferable?

The one example of a good UK corporate blog - Avis We Try Harder - raises the second issue.  That of where responsibility for social media should lie.  In the Avis example, the blog is run by the customer relations team.  Gillin believes:

the PR function should own it [social media], and has the opportunity to own it because they are the story tellers. They are the relationship experts and these really are about relationships.

But he notes:

That said, in most companies it is falling under the aegis of marketing. For some reason PR people seem to be kind of timid about this whole thing and marketers are more aggressive about seizing the initiative.

This tends to echo my own observations as PR practitioners are definitely interesting, but I’ve not seen many who’ve really grabbed the opportunity within their own organisations yet.

Gillin clarifies the need to have wider organisational empowerment in respect of social media, including senior execs.  This was emphasised by one of our participants who has recently taken up the new role of new media public relations manager at BMW (UK).  His view was that such responsibility requires an ability to build bridges and support initiatives throughout the organisation.

Girl power

Having the confidence to try new things and stretch yourself further than you think possible is a core aspect of the Greenbanana philosophy of continuous improvement (ie if you’re green, you’re growing).

Putting this into practice, today my mum and I are demonstrating ‘girl power’ (well middle-aged woman and old lady power!!) .  We spent this morning putting the roof cover on the gazebo in the garden here in France - which took lateral thinking, some brute force and teamwork. 

My mum is now destroying documents - her first use of the shredder.  And our job for the afternoon is to map out a heart-shaped flowerbed in the garden where my father’s ashes will be scattered.  This is a more complicated task than you might think as we are incorporating five shrubs that have been planted already in honour of departed pets (it’s okay we’re not frightened of recreating a Stephen King novel).

Of course, the shrubs weren’t placed originally with this goal in mind, so I’m flexing my mathematical abilities to map out an appropriate shape, that is geometrically sound and fits the previous planting. 

[We're leaving the digging to my brother and nephew who are coming out in a couple of weeks though, as girl power also means we're not stupid.]

Today is actually my dad’s birthday, so I suppose we’re partly demonstrating that we can do things without him.  My mum has been a star over the past two weeks - even mowing the lawn with stripes and putting up a fence.

So if as a newly-widowed, 5ft tall, 67-and-three-quarters-year old granny, she can stretch herself with new things - what’s stopping you for doing something challenging today?

Now is when Boris may really need public relations

The Guardian prints the full speech of the new London mayor, Boris Johnson (wikipedia entry already updated), whilst there is video available at The Telegraph.  This seems to have gone down well with the media, but it seems media relations minders have been controlling Boris’s communications very closely so far.

Australian election strategist, Lynton Crosby is “credited” with the tight management of the normally gaff-prone Boris during the campaign. 

Interestingly at the start of the year, former CIPR president, Lionel Zetter awarded Boris the CIPR President’s Medal - to some criticism. 

But to avoid the problematic pronouncements, Boris has been curtailed - so if someone is being so controlled can they be considered an effective communicator? 

Online, Boris’s blog hasn’t been updated for sometime and the posts were largely attributed to the Boris Office.  Whereas the unofficial Boriswatch reports a lot of increased traffic today.

Ellee Seymour offers another PR angle on the Boris victory, questioning why few PR agencies backed old blondie.

Now the campaigning has stopped, undoubtedly it will prove harder to control the messages around Boris.  That has to be a good thing though as real public relations should be more about building positive relationships.  Whether the Boris camp, including his media and PR advisors, will be able to walk the talk remains to be seen.