ryan l.

As counselors, yes, we have a job to do, but often there are situations where we have no pull, no sway, no leverage. Greater success in this profession will come when you learn how to identify the situations you cannot change among the ones you can, and figure out how to work with what you can to make a program work.

For a while in my young career I was getting lost in the emotions of situations I couldn't change instead of focusing on the things I could and, more importantly, should.

Don't make the same mistake. Clients won't always listen or agree–even if you know you and your team are right–and it took me a while to really get that.

Sorry if this seems like an overly simplistic idea to most, but when you're starting out there's so much you must become technically proficient at that it's easy to forget all that other stuff.

Voce (my company) was able to secure a Q&A with one of the top executives from the $70 billion Procter & Gamble to discuss how they approach influencer marketing and word of mouth. Definitely worth a read for anyone interested in or working in these areas.

It's a two part discussion/post, so stay tuned for the next half.

Update: Part two just posted. Enjoy!

Well, I had planned to write a short recap on yesterday's innaugural Third Thursday: Social Media in PR Meetup, led by Mike Manuel and Jeremy Pepper, that featured TechCrunch's Michael Arrington, but there really is no need when Jeremy comes through with an audioblog of the event. Check it out!

Technorati Tags: Social Media, Meetup, PR, Blogging

Not even going to try and link to all that has been said, claimed, yelled, screamed, or prophesized about how to engage bloggers, but will only say that, yes, transparency is an indisputable must, but also that it’s not just about transparency …

I don’t mean to dehumanize members of the MSM, the structure is just too formal, but when engaging with bloggers it’s about reminding yourself that, at the end of the day, you’re simply dealing with a normal person - so make a connection. Stating the obvious but, bloggers are just people. People with no real motives, responisibilities, or cares (generally speaking) - except about the topics they write about. This holds true, of course, for the traditional media, but there’s more hierarchy and that changes the interaction quite significantly.

Transparency + personality + dropping the PR speak = good blogosphere outreach - or so it would seem.

But what do I know.

It’s funny how the fear, uncertainty, and doubt - skepticism, essentially - that is ingrained in most decision-makers within enterprises instantly relegates PR counsel to the bottom of the priority stack. As it relates to emerging communication mediums, PR people are chartered with providing the advice, facts, logic, you name it, that our clients need in order to enter the blogosphere or start experimenting with other forms of social media. But, counsel only goes so far when the FUD is as thick as mud. Often, it seems, it’s not only FUD, but a mixture of that and an overly hierarchal organizational structure that prevents experimentation.

Surely blogging and other social media initiatives are not one size fits all, but sometimes preconceived notions about what it all means, and is capable of, are too strong to motivate change. I think this aspect of PR counsel is one of the more challenging, and one that we certainly are less confronted with as more and more companies catch on to the power of the medium, but one that we continue to face from companies that are entirely traditional in their belief in communication and PR and how it should work.

As I mentioned previously, I was able to catch only a small portion of the New Communications Forum in Palo Alto this week because, well, client service had to come first. Most of us know how that goes.

One panel session I was able to take in was Dan Gillmor’s presentation on the “Impact of Citizen Media” which was great. He discussed, among other things, how citizen media and technology is shifting the landscape of journalism and how we get our news.

One area of new media technology he discussed was on the topic of mash-ups and how they’re changing the way news is reported and commented on. He used one example of a mash-up of Google Maps being used to report on crime in a given area. Due to my poor note taking, I missed the name of the individual who is essentially pioneering this activity, but he highlighted how it is being utilized as an input for location or route and how the technology maps out specific locations along that route where crimes have taken place, better enabling users to determine if an area is safe. Another example he cited was the mashing of audio and video as commentary, in this case a political statement.

Very interesting stuff, and certainly these are examples of what the media at-large should consider incorporating into their everyday reporting, but few are. It was clear from the presentation that things are changing, however.

According to Gillmor, the biggest threat to big media isn’t blogs or bloggers, it’s eBay and Craigslist. Obviously, these two organizations are the new classified ads and are free, and it makes sense that as the popularity and overall use of both eBay and Craislist continue to grow, the ad revenue earned by traditional newspaper classifieds will continue to fall. As if dropping circulation numbers weren’t enough, papers can no longer count on their classified section either.

When he was discussing the mash-up examples he also cited the fact that in today’s technological climate, the younger generation is increasingly learning and using new media technologies like blogging and podcasting, and mash-ups, to communicate. This, IMO, can only bode well for big media’s future. But, if looked at on the flip side, maybe big media will be all right, but will the “older generation” pick-up what technology is putting down quickly enough to fend off the next wave of journalists … and hell, maybe citizen journalist? I don’t know. Eventually, all of these new tools that we use will become mainstream, blogging won’t disappear but simply become part of the bigger landscape. The question is how quickly will those trying to catch on or catch up get there?

I’ll close this way too long post with an anecdote from Gillmor that I think about sums up the future: “The daily ME will increasingly become augmented by the daily WE.” All that’s left now is for more people to join the conversation.

Found a little time to head over to the New Communications Forum here in Palo Alto to take in a couple of panel sessions. Overall, there was some very interesting content presented and discussions taking place. I plan to be more specific later, but I must say initially that it was very exciting for me to be there. It’s funny how many of us spend so much time reading the writings of other bloggers, PR and otherwise, and “know” them via that channel only to see them in the flesh. It’s was a strange experience, but a good one. At one point, I found myself in a room with a few heavy hitters from the blog world - Shel Israel, Shel Holz and Neville Hobson podcasting live and Voce’s own Media Guerilla, Mike Manuel. I felt out of place yet somewhat at home. Maybe I’m just weird.

No links included today, the offensive parties can remain nameless. It’s pretty discouraging when you can’t distinguish lively debate about the direction of PR and social media and a bunch of whining and talking in cirlcles. “My blog can beat up your blog.”

Granted, the on-going debate within the blogging PR community is probably necessary for us all in finding the proper direction and approach to utilizing blogs in communication, but the sarcasm, arguing, and general statements as if they are gospel while simultaneously trying to avoid calling yourself an “expert,” is just plain stupid. Blog experts, A-Listers, whatever. Idiots, gosh!

That’s not to say all comments and ideas are bad, worthless or irrelevant though. We’re all still figuring it out.