Saturday, November 15, 2008

It's a well-worn blog topic - the 'death of PR' meme. Drew B links to the latest arguments from the red corner; the case was also well made in the chapter called 'Survival of the Publicists' in Naked Conversations (2006).

In the comments on Drew's blog, I've cited WPP's Sir Martin Sorrell in the blue corner. In his recent lecture to the US Institute for Public Relations ( Public Relations: The Story Behind a Remarkable Renaissance) he ascribes the continued strong growth in public relations in part to the growth of social media, 'a natural territory for public relations'.

Student practitioners on our MSc course should be well placed to weigh up these arguments: is social media killing PR or leading to its renaissance? I suspect your answer depends heavily on how you define public relations...

Posted by Richard Bailey at 10:20 AM in Social media | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Monday, October 06, 2008

Academics, it often seems, are focused on blogging; consultants on podcasting; students on social media sites such as Facebook. Yet the biggest Web 2.0 phenomenon of them all, YouTube, has risen almost without comment and debate in three short years.

So I'm glad to hear of a new Demos report, Video Republic, being launched today. It is previewed in this piece in Technology Guardian today.

UPDATE: Here is the publication in PDF format.

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Friday, August 15, 2008

Then read Brendan Cooper's sharp and funny manifesto for action.

Someone who's learning fast is Natalie Smith. Having kicked off the lively discussions reported in my previous post, she's now upgraded her blog to PR Girl.

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Tuesday, August 12, 2008

So I asked Natalie Smith to help me. She's just completed her first year and is now on a placement at Wolfstar, and I'll be using her list to guide me next year.

But note how Natalie's learning through doing. It might be self-defeating for a university lecturer to admit it, but there's something rather passive about only learning through teaching. Besides, here's a list of some of the things I might have taught in the past that would seem useless today: WordPerfect for DOS; desktop publishing; using a scanner; network protocols; research using online databases; using bulletin boards; CB radio...

It helps to distinguish between teaching principles - which shouldn't change - and teaching practice, which can date very rapidly. And to realise in all humility that it matters less what you teach than what students learn.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 01:49 PM in Social media, Students | Permalink | Comments (10) | TrackBack

Wednesday, May 21, 2008

Groundswell Richard Bailey has a problem. This middle aged public relations lecturer struggles to keep up with all the latest thinking affecting his subject area. Books, articles, podcasts, academic journals, blogs. The answer? He listens to the groundswell. The word on the social media street said 'you must read Groundswell by Forrester Research analysts Charlene Li and Josh Bernoff.' So he has.

There's much to admire in this book but the formulaic American-business-book-style parodied in the paragraph above becomes rather grating for this reader.

The book's strong central concept - the groundswell - is a strength. It removes the focus from technology (eg blogs, podcasts, videos) and turns instead to relationships. 'The groundswell is a social trend in which people use technologies to get the things they need from each other, rather than from traditional institutions like corporations'. This scares marketing managers, scares PR practitioners and makes chief executives very, very afraid. Hence the need for this book.

Groundswell could be the one book these senior people should read to cover the trend emerging from a succession of books following in the wake of The Cluetrain Manifesto. Here's my pick: everything written by Seth Godin, We the Media, Naked Conversations, The Corporate Blogging Book, The Long Tail, Wikinomics, Punk Marketing, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, Now is Gone, Here Comes Everybody. I'm also looking forward to Chris Anderson's forthcoming Freeconomics.

Groundswell provides a good summary of what's gone before, and contains some valuable case studies. But fileting the book for lean new ideas, I've only found the following.

The 'Social Technographics Profile' (chapter 3) is a useful tool for assessing the stage of engagement with social media in a target community. How many are content creators, how many are critics, collectors, joiners, spectators or inactives? This tool will become an essential step in assessing whether organisations should engage in social media activities.

The other idea I liked was the concept of 'psychic income' (the authors acknowledge that this idea has been around since the 1920s, but it has a new significance now). This is a way of explaining why some people are willing to devote so many of their spare, waking hours to contributing to social media forums when there's no payback in terms of salary. One contributor to a Dell support forum has been logged in 'for an equivalent of 123 working days a year... He has read nearly a quarter of a million of other people's messages, and he has posted over twenty thousand times.' These super-users are the people you want to enlist - not enrage - in your social media activities.

The international, research-based perspective is useful too. Broadly, Europe lags behind the US; and everywhere lags behind South Korea. But in such a well-researched book, calling Hugh McLeod 'an American blogger' is a bad - if minor - lapse (page 234). His biography shows that he has worked in New York, but like many creative Madison Avenue types McLeod is British (specifically, Cumbrian).

You guessed it, McLeod is menioned for his role in the blog-based Stormhoek wine promotional activities. One of the many mostly-familiar case studies in the book.

Groundswell is a useful book with some helpful tools. But if you want an exciting read with big ideas on almost every page, then I recommend Clay Shirky's Here Comes Everybody.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 10:16 AM in Books, Social media | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Saturday, March 01, 2008

The Telegraph reports on a tussle over the Wikipedia entry on the chief constable of West Yorkshire Police. This has resulted in the entry being locked for the next two weeks.

The neutral point of view is an admirable perspective, but so much in our political, public, legal and academic life depends on an argument between opposing views that this type of dispute will become more and more common. (To give another West Yorkshire example, it's easy to see that 'positive' and 'negative' views have also contributed to the Leeds Metropolitan University entry. Cussed folk, these tykes.)

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Thursday, February 28, 2008

Podcasting 'My name is Richard and I'm a podcast refusenik.' There, I feel better already for this confession. This is a discussion I've had with various people over the past week, so this post pulls together some of these thoughts.

Who are podcasts aimed at?

Presumably, those 'digital natives' with computer connections and MP3 players. (I now have an iPod, but previously found listening to podcasts on the office PC a chore.) I also assume that podcasts are prefereable to those who prefer to learn through the spoken rather than the written word (I'm not one of these.) The ability to listen on the move suits some people well - and I found myself catching up on podcasts on a long train journey last week.

What is their role in education?

This is a much-discussed topic. One colleague has a site devoted to giving digital audio feedback to students and there are books on the topic. I've come to realise the absurdity of my own position: that one hour podcasts are too long yet I expect students to listen to my hour long lectures several times a week.

How can they be categorised as social media?

Podcasting uses a broadcasting approach (one to many) rather than a true social media approach. So why do they count as social media? The answer comes in their ability to encourage conversation and community. Shel and Neville's book on podcasting is dedicated to 'the worldwide listenership of For Immediate Release: The Hobson and Holtz Report. Much more than just an audience - a vibrant community.' Conversations are two-way, broadcasting is usually one-way (radio phone-ins being the exception).

If blogs can be seen as a form of amateur journalism, then podcasts are a form of amateur radio. Citizen journalism is another defining quality of social media. Yet podcasts require skilled amateurs, with good voices, sharp interviewing skills and good technical editing skills.

What is their role in marketing and corporate communications?

It is easy to see the value of a podcast in internal communications - or in crisis communications. But I fear that many corporate podcasts will be little more than vanity publishing, just as corporate videos were in the 'world before the web'. I'm hoping that Anna Farmery, who is leading a session here the week after next, might have some good examples to cite.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 10:39 AM in Social media | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Wednesday, February 20, 2008

As evidence, I'll cite the popularity of Dragon's Den, the circulation of The Economist (over a million a week), even the popularity of business courses at university ( our faculty is the size of some universities and still growing strongly).

Is it the fascination with money? Was it the quality of the stories, from Dot Com to Google to Enron and Northern Rock?

David Parkin of The Business Desk spoke to us this evening, and his story wasn't really 'the death of print', a title he tried to blame on the sub-editors. His story was about the entrepreneurial urge.

You've been the well-known business editor of a long-established regional newspaper for seven years. Then you get the itch... Could I become one of the entrepreneurs I've interviewed? Could I get funding for my idea? Would I risk the job security for the thrill of running my own show?

The funding took two years to secure, but the service launched last November and he's been recruiting staff, subscribers and advertisers ever since.

His initial market niche is timely regional business headlines, an obvious advantage over a daily newspaper. But it doesn't stop there: video interviews are coming soon, and there's scope to expand into lifestyle coverage and into other regions.

The big change is in tone of voice. An entrepreneur has to be a believer (if he doesn't believe in his idea, then who will?); a newspaper reporter has to be a sceptic, able to separate the substantial wheat from the over-hyped chaff. Now that he's an entrepreneur and an editor he has a respectful relationship with the public relations industry. We're his sources, his subscribers and his connectors, mavens and salesmen who can recommend the service to others. 'PR people are in a strong position', he says.

Print isn't dead; nor is news. But it's very apparent that the students I teach no longer gather their news from the morning newspaper. The internet enables different means of production and distribution, and different relationships with readers. On a traditional news desk, there's not much feedback. On the web, statistics are readily available. Parkin recited the number of subscribers, unique visitors, their locations and average time on the site. He even speculated on our average incomes and spending habits. He's now speaking like an entrepreneur.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 09:40 PM in Business, Social media | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Friday, February 15, 2008

Kevin Dugan's Valentine's Day plea for passion in social media still resonates, a day late.

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Friday, February 08, 2008

So this week's topic is the contribution of 'digital natives' to new forms of public relations and communications. Read the views of Professor Neville Hobson in the learned Bulldog Reporter journal.

The source for the Digital Natives, Digital Immigrants concept (here's part two) is 'visionary, consultant, author, speaker, inventor, game designer, learning designer and futurist' Marc Prensky. It is indeed a wonderful world online.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 03:41 PM in Social media | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Yet when I asked some groups to write to Wolfstar in response to this vacancy (as a classroom exercise), only a few individuals picked up on the need to mention social media. The fault must be mine: 'you haven't taught us about this'. Whereas I want 'digital natives' to show what they know, and not wait for a 'digital immigrant' to tell them*.

E.M. Forster's phrase is becoming my educational mantra: only connect.

(* The immigrant/native disconnect can be embarrassing. When I was enthusing about my new-found ability to update my Facebook status from a 3 Skype phone to a student, she almost went purple trying to suppress giggles at my expense. 'But I can do that from my phone, too.' Duh!)

Posted by Richard Bailey at 06:18 PM in Social media, Students | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBack

Friday, October 19, 2007

Facebook Two newspaper cuttings have appeared in my office recently, anonymously. The latest is from yesterday's Independent: Professors - keep out. It asks whether lecturers should frequent a social space popular with students (I choose to keep out of their bars and clubs, after all). Can Facebook ever be used for teaching purposes?

What am I to make of this? Most likely, a colleague thought I'd be interested in the cuttings (I am). More sinisterly, is someone trying to warn me off (why else remain anonymous)?

Let me revisit where I stand on Facebook. It's above all a social networking space. Want to learn about individuals? Check out their friends and their photos. Want to keep in contact with people whose jobs, phones and other contact details frequently change? Now you can do it. No one has to befriend their lecturer - but some choose to and some find it useful.

It's my job to show connections that students often struggle to see. Between classroom theory and real-world practice. Between being a student and a practitioner. That learning doesn't stop when you're 21. Students don't see that something they do with their friends can have anything to do with public relations. Yet I'm interested in the blurring boundary between private and public, and networks and relationships are part of public relations. We used to have the little black book of contacts; now we have Facebook 'friends'.

If lecturers should keep out of Facebook, what about blogging? And should I have just accepted the editorship of 'the public relations magazine for students and young practitioners' since I'm self-evidently in neither category?

Posted by Richard Bailey at 10:18 AM in Social media, Students | Permalink | Comments (4) | TrackBack

Tuesday, October 16, 2007

So we have something powerful, rather ill-defined and in need of best practice guidelines. Sounds a bit like public relations... What we need is an industry association to show leadership. So I'm behind the new Word of Mouth Marketing Association (WOM UK) which is being launched today at the Marketing Week word of mouth conference. It follows on from the well-established Word of Mouth Marketing Association in the US.

The ubiquitous Stuart Bruce is involved, which bodes well. My only quibble: that this shouldn't just be about marketing. Its remit should also cover conversations, participation and democracry - the whole of the public sphere (the space in which public relations operates). I find the thought of a marketing sphere depressing, and not just because I'm reading JG Ballard's bleak new novel, Kingdom Come.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 08:00 AM in Campaigns, Marketing, Social media | Permalink | Comments (2) | TrackBack

Monday, September 10, 2007

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Thursday, July 19, 2007

Now, as Naomi Klein has argued in No Logo, the public realm is being privatised: invaded by sponsorship and advertising clutter. Our default assumption is private, not public. (Commuters on public transport are individual iPod bubbles or are blithely conducting private conversations in public.)

Others argue that in our 'surveillance society' there's an unacceptable invasion of privacy, but I interpret this debate differently. We are so agitated about this issue because it runs counter to our assumption that privacy and individualism will triumph.

This issue matters to students and job seekers when they find that what they assumed to be private (for example, their Facebook conversations, interests and photos) are considered in the public domain by university authorities or employers. It might matter to anyone taking photographs in public spaces; depending on how the photo is used, whose privacy is being invaded? Were any children in the frame?

If we are privatising the public realm and witnessing the deconstruction of the mass media into masses of media, then what is left for public relations to do? I'll leave this for the scholars to debate, but I suspect that the phrase public relations will decline in usage through this century. Nor will it be replaced by private relations: that phrase will surely still mean something else.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 09:11 AM in PR history, Social media | Permalink | Comments (3) | TrackBack

Friday, June 15, 2007

Older and wiser heads have visited this topic already (as well as Stephen Davies, of course). I'm new (and, unlike Andrew, enthusiastic), but sense the need for some personal guidelines on Facebook friendships.

When it was a private network of college peers, then no rules were necessary. But what about power relationships: parents and children, uncles and nieces, bosses and junior colleagues, clients and consultants, lecturers and students? These change the dynamics and the nature of the discourse.

My Facebook friendship principles:

• This is primarily a social space. I try to avoid mixing work and pleasure (though universities exist at the boundary - between young and old, theory and practice, business and parties - and Facebook operates at the boundary between public and private)
• I accept friends invitations from those in existing networks (bloggers, past and present colleagues, fellow academics and professionals, students on my course, alumni)
• I send friends requests to students who I have good reason to communicate with (feedback on assignments; reference checks; alumni networking)
• I will only make Facebook a formal communication channel for teaching with the public consent of the whole group
• I will respect the wishes of any student who chooses not to befriend their tutor

My addition to the debate (and a useful consideration for my students) is the point about references. This week I received a reference request for a student who is graduating this summer, but whom I last taught in 2003. I was happy to provide this endorsement, and able to keep the student in the picture thanks to Facebook. Yes, pictures... I confess I occasionally receive reference requests and struggle to put a face to the name. No longer a problem. She's the smiling face with dark hair in a red dress towards the back of the picture. No, third from the left, half hidden by...

Posted by Richard Bailey at 12:55 PM in Social media, Students | Permalink | Comments (5) | TrackBack

Monday, June 11, 2007

Paull reminds us that while it's good to learn about social media, you should consider the fingerprints you are leaving. Not only will you be Googled, but employers can check your MySpace and Facebook profiles. His advice: don't expose any part of your life you wouldn't be happy to have your mother read about.

Famous people have always lived with the threat of their earlier lives being revealed by indiscreet or mischievous 'friends'. But historians and biographers will in future have a mass of new information to set against the decline in letter writing and personal diaries.

Posted by Richard Bailey at 11:45 AM in Social media, Students | Permalink | Comments (1) | TrackBack