Public Relations does not relate to the public. Companies are deeply afraid of their markets.

This statement is the 26th theses in the Cluetrain Manifesto, published a decade ago and the subject of the celebratory cluetrainplus10 project, which involves 95 bloggers conversing on the anniversary: 28 April 2009.

The heart of this ground-breaking text is the idea of the Internet enabling human conversations and promoting a market of “fabulous stories” told by authentic voices.  That sounds like the natural home of PR to me – so why is this thesis the only one that references public relations, and even then, in critical terms?

Like many pioneers of the social development of online communications, one of the authors of Cluetrain Manifesto had poor experiences of PR as “hucksterism”; pitching journalists in the hunt for free editorial.  And, as a result of this perspective, he stated:

That’s how I discovered PR doesn’t work and that markets are conversations

My own experience of public relations is not one of command and control, and indeed, I always understood the role of the PR team to be about having conversations and building personal relationships.

Even if you believe PR is solely about press relations, the clue is in the name – which is a useful reminder that generating media coverage is a partnership and not a right.

I started teaching public relations around the same time that Cluetrain was published, which was when I first began to think about the other word – public.  It is evident to me that public relations must relate to the public – or publics to be accurate.

The term, public, has many interesting dimensions:

• the community or wider public, as understood by “the public good”
• open to scrutiny, that is the opposite to private
• the consequence of discussion and feedback, evidenced in public opinion
• a group of people with a common interest, such as the reading public

Within the PR literature, the term publics is also used specifically, notably by Grunig, who back in 1978, drew on the work of Dewey, Blumer and other early 20th century writers, to identify how publics organise around problems that affect them.

As such, it is imperative that an organisation communicates with not at people who can affect or who are affected by its operations.  This presents a clear societal context for public relations to ensure that organisations understand their responsibilities and how they need to engage with publics to achieve strategic aims.

That may be achieved by generating relevant media coverage – but that editorial needs to relate to the public.

Sadly, too often what we see of PR, ironically more so in this age of social networks, is a failure to relate to the public.  There is far too much hucksterism and pitching of pretty poor ideas that seek only to achieve coverage (online or offline) regardless of whether or not this is relevant to a public.

So does this prove that “companies are deeply afraid of their markets”?

David McKie and colleagues believe the PR field has not explicitly met the challenges presented by the 26th thesis.  Alex Hillman sums up the fear as companies being “petrified” by what others have to say about them.

Ged Carroll criticises the reluctance of PR professionals to engage with research and measurement.  Indeed, not engaging with the data, implies that PR practitioners are not interested in hearing what others say and that any efforts at influencing are predicated entirely on shouting at the other party.

Yes, a lot of PR folk seem stuck in the press agentry rut of spamming out one-sided messages and unfortunately, these practitioners only see social media as another “channel” open to corporate manipulation.

But this type of spinning is increasingly revealed as pointless and stuck on the spot instead of progressing the aims of organisations, through genuine relationships.

Over the last decade, the ideas of Cluetrain Manifesto and strategic public relations have begun to be proven in practice.  I’ve seen this in my own 10 years of teaching where ideas that students used to find idealised are now thought of as common sense.

It is only by public relations relating to the public that companies can move beyond being deeply afraid of their markets.  Instead of acting as a gate-keeper, PR must open the door and facilitate the human conversations and “fabulous stories” that it, above all other functions, is able to discuss in authentic voices.

Technorati Tags: Cluetrain Manifesto,PR,public relations,publics,markets

A feminist birthday legacy

On my office wall, I have a picture of myself sitting in a highchair behind a cake with one birthday candle on it.  This evening on 27 April 1979 was my surprise 18th birthday party.  On my 30th, I enjoyed a special weekend in Paris, and on my 40th, my mother and I went to New York, which was another great birthday.

This year is one of those nothing special ages – but it is still nice to get phone calls, texts, emails, Facebook notes, cards, presents and flowers. And, I also enjoyed afternoon tea with a great friend at a hotel boasting one of the most expensive views on the planet – Poole Harbour.

Google reminds me that I share my birthday with Morse (I just love that Google was signed out in code today).

Wikipedia also notes, the day was the birthday of the writer and feminist, Mary Wollstonecraft – who despite being dead for 212 years is a fascinating Twitterer (via Judy Gombita). Indeed, her latest Tweet quotes from Vindication of the Rights of Woman:

A lively writer, I cannot recollect his name, asks what business women turned of forty have to do in the world.

The answer, from my perspective, is that there is much to do in the world, and given my own enthusiasm for education, I hope that I am able to evidence how much the world has changed for a woman born in the late 20th century, compared to one born two centuries before me.

Scrap – SEO and PR fortune

Personally, I think the UK government’s car scrappage scheme has more holes in it than any MoT-failing, clapped out 10 year old rust bucket that might be eligible for a £1k handout from the taxpayer (that’s only £2k if the car manufacturer/dealer adds its share).

But it’s been a goldmine for search engine optimisation and the PR fraternity.  The relevant meta tag – scrap, scrappage, car disposal – probably attracted only the enlightened scrap metal dealers until this week.  (Arguably these had been reinvented and rebranded as environmental recycling centres in the past few years – no Steptoe & Son image there.)

Now Google is bursting with paid for search ads from car manufacturers and sites offering to tell you where to find the best scrappage deal.  Indeed, Bristol Street Motors has grabbed itself the web address: scrappageallowance.org.

Meanwhile, PR practitioners have been as busy as Spring birds tapping out press releases on their keyboards as the car companies, their PR consultancies and anyone else with a slight angle to spin has sought a slice of the media attention on that sexy term – scrappage.

This will be matched by marketing activity as the posters, local radio and newspaper adverts and direct mail tactics will be rushed out to follow the speedier PR efforts.

The media humbugs have been equally busy – in the Telegraph, “consumer champion” Mike Rutherford is against the scrappage scheme and the Times calls it a “cheat“.

Environmental groups have complained about a lack of incentive to replace the old with shiny new “green” models, whilst the RAC Foundation adds to this a worry that it risks “consigning a lot of perfectly good, and relatively clean, vehicles to the dustbin”.

In fact, DirectGov terms this a vehicle discount or ‘scrappage’ scheme – which starts to confuse the emphasis on the S-word.

This government explanation does clearly state that the dealer will explain the rules and check eligibility of the car to be sold and bought (provided “they have joined the vehicle discount scheme”), and offer the money as a discount on the price to be paid.  Then “the dealer will sort out the paperwork and arrange for your vehicle to be scrapped.”

Does this actually mean scrapping vehicles that are not old bangers – as the government criteria state the trade in must have a current MoT test certificate “before the date of order for the new vehicle” – which implies it could well have an existing value of more than £1,000.  Does the dealer have to scrap any car under the scheme?  This surely further restricts the type of deal to be done as they aren’t going to pay good money on a car to be scrapped.

But I suppose that’s not the point – if the news of the scheme has encouraged people to enquire about buying a new car, then it may have increased some sales and benefited the industry.

Will customers have got a good deal?  A few probably will, whilst others may be disappointed when they find the devil in the details.  Dealers will be happy only if the added hassle of the scheme doesn’t outweigh the sales generated.

I feel it’s a bit like the short-term drop in VAT – intended to generate lots of headlines but not to resolve any of the underlying issues.  And that’s typical of a publicity-oriented approach to problem management.  Coming up with schemes, motivating the media and buzzing the public is relatively easy – but such excitement may mask a situation instead of addressing it.

Only time will tell if the scheme will work – but I reckon it won’t be long before scrappage returns to the SEO scrapheap where it largely lay until this week.

Draper dares to talk PR Week new media conference

Matt Wardman notes that Derek Draper is apparently still going to be a presenter at the forthcoming PR Week new media conference – and questions the merits of a speaker with such little experience of the topic.

The rush to be active online has led to many questionable activities – whether they involve the moral efficacy of alley cats as the Draper’s Red Rag scheme, or the short-term, expensive marketing tactics. 

In turn, these have quickly gained currency as those involved become talking heads at a myriad of conferences as learning about social media remains a hot topic.

I’m not sure anyone could take DD seriously – but undoubtedly PR Week will be delighted that he is still attending it will be interesting to see how he spins the recent furore over surely the most ill-conceived social media strategy ever.

Will pseudo-nudity sell the Peugeot 308 CC?

The new Peugeot 308 CC has already been unveiled to the media with first drive reviews appearing in February from the European launch and more recently, road test reviews resulting from a UK test drive event.

One of the car’s key features is a “airwave heating system“, which blows hot air at the back of your neck.  It is this simple fact that has inspired a rather odd stunt in London today presumably intended to generate some online and offline buzz for the new cabriolet.

This morning 308 “nude” people (well actually wearing rather wrinkly, over-pale body suits) are wandering around London with blue neckscarfs – apparently all will be revealed at 3:08pm.  A website has been set up: http://www.nudeinascarf.com/,  a Twitter account: http://twitter.com/Nudeinascarf and photos are being uploaded by the minute onto Twitpic: http://twitpic.com/photos/nudeinascarf.

So far the Twitter account has gained just over 400 followers – although many appear to be very new and lacking in followers themselves.  Despite the attempt to tease a launch here, the first Twitter mention on April 19 is from Bill Hunt from Euro RSCG Biss Lancaster, which works with Peugeot and it didn’t take long to “solve” the tease – as Sandlines reports, “a simple DNS look up will reveal who is responsible” for the campaign.

What is the real value of such stunts?  Some Twitter followers have thought the initiative was related to Earth Day and others are cynical about it being having a commercial objective.  One has to wonder also about the point of a tease with a delayed reveal when most of those seeing the “naked people” this morning will not be bothered to find out more.  Maybe the PR campaign will involve the reveal in the London free papers this evening – although that seems a rather circular approach to possibly inform people.

It also seems odd to me that despite the fact that a Twitter search for nudeinascarf identified the “secret” hours ago, many people (presumably real ones) are still asking what the campaign is about.  Why bother to ask via Twitter when the answer is already there?  I find this “transmit” feature of Twitterers really annoying – if you care, why not bother to do a quick search rather than just expecting someone to tell you.

I imagine that this stunt will have had a substantial budget and been funded by marketing rather than the in-house PR team.   But given how stylish the new model is – and I understand it will be supported by zero per cent finance – why go to all the trouble to be vague with a stunt, when the car could speak for itself.

I think stunts can be great and genuinely intrigue and engage, but frankly I’ve never seen the point in being obtuse when clarity is a much better way of communicating.

Wouldn’t 308 Peugeot 308 CCs parked or driving around London create more appeal for the car than a load of over-excited not really nude people Twittering away?

21 April – personal and PR connections

What does 21 April mean to you?  It is the day that Queen Elizabeth II was born in 1926 – and 500 years since Henry VIII ascended to the thrown of England.  Wikipedia details many such historically significant events, births and deaths.

For me this date will forever be the anniversary of the day that my dad died – 3.15am in the morning is linked forever as the time, with Toulouse in France a place I cannot visit without thinking of as the place of his death exactly one year ago.

On the other hand, today is just a day like any other – the date only matters because I make a connection to an event that is significant to me.

Today I am running a training course about online PR and looking at the importance of connections that engage people in communications. My co-trainer, Peter Brill, is currently talking about organic search engine optimisation (SEO).  The idea is trying to understand the connections that people make with topics, key words, themes, and so on.

We can generalise and look for the type of connections that most people might make – but we are all individual and have our own mental constructs underpinning the way we think – which influences the way we search online.

That’s why I think of PR as an applied psychology – I need to understand what you are thinking, what influences you and what connections you have made already before I can hope to communicate with you.

Understanding what April 21 means to me could be important – certainly this year – when a large part of my mind remains in Toulouse and how I’ve just lived a whole 365 days without my dad.

A great time to buy a new car – would you believe a motoring PR person?

I’ve just put my money where my PR mouth is, in buying a new car (replacing my runaround Peugeot 107 for a sexy turbo-diesel Peugeot 207).   I wonder how many other PR practitioners are directly supporting the industry in which they earn their living.

Hearing the latest sales figures showed a 30.5% drop over March 2008, I also wondered why more people aren’t recognising now is a great time to buy.

They may be waiting for the introduction of the type of scrappage scheme that has been adopted elsewhere in Europe, which is mentioned in Gordon Brown’s budget plans alongside investment in electric vehicles (very last century).

At the start of the year, trade publication, Automotive Management, launched a Buy a Car campaign.  This undoubtedly appeals to its dealer readership, who can download a poster detailing 10 reasons why “there’s never been a better time to buy a new car” and a letter to send to a local MP.  The AM site also  and a press release which it intended dealers to send to their local paper, but this hasn’t been updated and is three-pages long.

If you are financially in a position to buy a new car, I agree you should act now.  Here are my reasons – any PR or dealer reading this is free to adopt these as sales messages:

1. As there will be fewer cars sold this year, the residual value of a 09 model should be strong.
2. The current VAT level of 15% is set to return to 17.5% at the end of the year – and who knows to what figure after the election in 2010.
3. Car manufacturers and dealers have stock to sell – the best times to negotiate are towards the end of the month, or even better the end of a quarter (hence my buy at end of March), when dealers want to hit their targets and may be prepared to offer you their bonus too.
4. Buyers are rare and your custom should be valued and the buying experience more of a pleasure (if a scrappage scheme is brought in, more buyers means you’ll be less valued – and that extra government kick will probably come off the negotiable price).
5. The figures stack up right now – if you are realistic, you’ll get a good price for any trade-in, the retail price is negotiable, interest rates are low and finance is starting to improve, from the car companies if not the banks.
6. If you are in a stable job (which many people are), remember the cost of living has actually decreased and it is likely your mortgage payment has decreased by the amount you could pay out for a spanking new model on monthly finance.
7. There’s little point in keeping your money in the bank at the moment when using it can get you a better deal – if you put off buying a new car for 12 or 18 months, what will you have gained compared to the deal available now?
8. You can save money on the cost of ownership – many cars are more economical to run, you can drop into a lower road tax band, reduce insurance costs, avoid the service and MoT costs that you have with older models and benefit from breakdown cover included in the car cost.
9. There are a lot of really good cars out there – my new model is much better specified, has better safety equipment and looks great.
10. . My new car makes me feel good – it is cute and fun to drive – I like to see it parked outside my house and it makes me smile to know it is mine.  With all the recession talk, it is great to have something (even if it is just shiny metal) to feel positive about.

Well do you believe me?  Yes, I am an automotive PR person, but I’ve spent my own hard-earned money here.  I haven’t benefited from any discount that you couldn’t negotiate yourself and I’m genuine in believing this is a great time to buy a new car.

Maybe it’s because I was born in the year of the Ox under the sign of Taurus, but I really feel that being bullish is the right strategy. 

So much of life is a matter of confidence and I’d rather see my glass as half full, with the opportunity for a top up.