If you’re wondering why things look a little different or perhaps why I haven’t posted any new updates in a while, it’s because I’m giving The PR Playbook a major face-lift. Starting fresh with a simpler layout and a scrolling post “area.” Much work yet to be done, but your thoughts, criticisms and suggestions are highly appreciated! What would you like to see?
As PR and Communications specialists we are constantly called on to value our efforts and justify our work in terms of Return on Investment (ROI), a language the bean counters and number crunchers of the world can understand. The two most widely established and accepted ways of doing so are: Cost per Impression (CPI) and/or Advertising Value Equivalency (AVE).
To determine CPI, take your entire communications investment for a certain campaign, divide it by the number of media penetrations or total number of audience impressions. For AVE, you simply calculate the equivalent ad value of a certain placement. This strongly suggests that a news story of a particular size has equal impact to an advertisement of the same size in that publication, however there is no factual basis for this assumption.
While these simple and elegant formulas are great for measuring costs and savings, and thus ROI, they are of little to no real value to communicators looking to ascertain the true worth of their efforts, or of a certain message or campaign. As such, if all clients care about are impressions, then agencies and consultants will give them impressions. But ask yourself this: What is an impression worth if circulation numbers are inaccurate, or if the message wasn’t understood and no attention paid to it? Absolutely nothing.
To distil PR and Communications to these two simple and outdated metrics undervalues our efforts and undermines our work as communicators. As such, I believe we must elevate our profession to the next level. Instead of ROI, let’s think about Impact of Investment (IOI). Instead of CPI and AVE, we should lay the foundation for Receptiveness, Attention and Understanding to be the key indexes of communication effectiveness with Behavioural and Attitude Change at the apex of our work structure. Now the real question is: Where do we start?
Creating and occupying my own online space, interacting with new and old friends across the globe through virtual communities, as well as personal and professional development, this is what the social web means to me. That definition, however, will vary from one person to another, as each user has their very own set of priorities, obligations and expectations.
We all differ both terms of what we’re willing to invest in social networking and the expected outcomes of our efforts, add to that countless new channels and forms of expression and you have a true recipe for creativity and individuality. In an attempt to capitalize/monopolize on the immense amount of traffic generated by social networks such as Facebook and/or Twitter, Google and Microsoft, amongst others, are trying to converge every aspect of the social web under one roof or “network.” Google Buzz being the latest example of this trend towards social media convergence.
The question I ask myself is this: Which approach better serves users, a central authority for all things social or individual networks specializing in a certain aspect of the social web? I don’t believe there’s a straight answer. We must take into consideration that there seems to be a certain level of social media fatigue amongst established users who’ve found a permanent “home” online and are no longer willing to be slaves to emerging trends or networks. Conversely, there will always be waves of new generations looking to differentiate from the past and jump on what’s new and hot.
The only thing we can be certain of is that users will choose which social network is right for them and find the best way to express themselves.
Most, if not all governments want to be re-elected, and one of the oldest and best ways to do so is by riding a wave of fervent emotion and populist sentiment back into office. Society’s current “bête noire”, the banking and financial services industry, presents itself as the ideal target for opportunistic politicians looking to earn brownie points. Need a bump in the polls? Bash big bank bonuses. Want to boost your image or credibility? Talk tough on regulation. It’s really that simple. Who cares if you delayed economic recovery in the process, at least you got that much needed bump, right?
Understandably, Wall Street’s leaders need to demonstrate to the public that it’s no longer business as usual, going beyond saying “I’m Sorry” and implementing significant change. However, much of our society depends on the strength of these institutions and the confidence the public has in them, confidence that at the moment is sorely lacking and desperately needed.
At the mercy of cherry picking politicians looking to exploit the situation in their favour, the banking and financial services industry should not be passive. Instead, these institutions and their Communications experts need to step up and become proactive, lest they they fall victim to gratuitous political threats and legislative intrusions.
In terms of issues management, they need to work on:
Identifying, monitoring, analyzing, and prioritizing the issues at hand.
Responding to their critics by turning the tables on their accusers. Reminding the public that those very same government officials, regulators and policy makers, are equally responsible for the current economic meltdown. The possible arguments being:
Deploying a comprehensive communications campaign aimed at intervening in the court of public opinion, coordinating the industry’s response, increasing their “share of voice” in the conversations between stakeholders, and building relationships with key publics.
Forming an association/lobbying group establishing mutual interests and developing a comprehensive industry-wide stance.
Communicating with government agencies and regulators to develop strategic partnerships, helping determine the most efficient and effective ways to regulate business activities and balance the interests of all stakeholders.
Put yourself in the shoes of Wall Street’s PR and Communications teams; are there any other strategies and tactics that come to mind?
Twitter’s numbers are leveling off, showing a decline in the number of new visitors since August. “But the company and some analysts say that this leveling of popularity shouldn’t be viewed as a failure, because the people who use Twitter are using it more than ever.”
Which begs the following questions from:
Did you know? The 1957 Cadillac Eldorado Brougham cost $13,074 - more than the Rolls Royce Silver Cloud of the same year.
A job interview exercise involving the creation of a strategic plan for a proposed tie-up between BMW & Cirque Du Soleil. So how do you think I did?
Congolese Proverb
6 months ago
A new tainted pill crisis is puting McNeil and its parent company Johnson & Johnson back on the hotseat, causing an ever growing list of Tylenol products to be taken off the shelves, again. J & J’s prompt and agressive reaction to the original Tylenol crisis of 1982 was a shining example of how an organization should handle itself in the face of such a crisis. This time, however, their response has fallen short, suffering from a complete lack of urgency and failing to properly assess the extent of the damage. As a result, they’ve done little to inspire consumer confidence and even less to bolster their reputation. Maybe their response team should pick up a crisis communication textbook and revisit the original incident to see how it’s done.
From the Official Google Blog: “We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China.”
