Tag Archives: PR

WPRF Guest Post: Transparent public relations – do your publics see into you or through you?

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Metaphors are always trouble. Take transparency, a bedrock metaphor of ethical communication. Transparent communication opens the window to your organization and suggests honest engagement with publics. For this reason, many annual reports trumpet transparency. But, what if your publics can see right through you? Then you’re in trouble.

Transparent public relations is often thought of in terms of its opposite – namely an opaqueness that obscures unpleasant truths. Certainly, the ability to see into the workings of an organization is one dimension of transparent communication. But there are others which, I believe, are far more important.

The other dimensions of transparent communication all rest on engagement. Your willingness to actively engage with publics and meet their information needs, will determine whether your publics see into your organization or just through it.

Rawlins (2009) provocative piece, “Give the Emperor a mirror,” suggests the key questions for public relations professionals are:

  • Do I ask my key publics what they want to know about my organization?
  • Do I provide the information my publics ask for in ways that they are able to understand?
  • Does the information I provide enable my publics to understand my organization?

Only by answering yes to all three questions can you lay claim to the practice of transparent public relations. However, research suggests that very few organizations are in a position to make this claim.

The main reason is an unwillingness to move into an engagement paradigm for fear of losing control. Control has always been an illusion and, in the age of web 2.0, is fast becoming a dangerous delusion. Communication is a stream, not a destination.

Your organization and your clients are relying on you to navigate through it, not build a dam.

About Professor Shirley Leitch
Professor Shirley Leitch is a member of the Institute of Social Research at Swinburne University. She is a strong advocate of digital communication technologies and in 2011 was named as one of the top ten social media influencers in Australian higher education by the UK Guardian (#ShirleyLeitch). Professor Leitch and her co-researchers have received more than $4M in national competitive grants in Australia and New Zealand and produced over 100 refereed publications. For the past decade she has also held senior leadership roles in the university sector, including Deputy Vice-Chancellor (Academic), Pro Vice-Chancellor of Public Affairs and Dean of Commerce. She also has significant experience working in public-private partnerships, most recently in her role as the founding chair of Online Education Services Ltd, a joint venture with SEEK Ltd.

Written by Professor Shirley Leitch, Swinburne University of Technology

 

WPRF Guest Post: Insights into the social mind

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Social business is dynamically changing the face of human interaction and communications globally. The emergence of new social behaviors and interrelationships between individuals, organizations, thought leaders and influencers are evolving in new and previously unforeseen ways primarily because of social media networks and peer groups.

A disruption is in the making, but this time, human behavior is the driver, not technology. People want and need to get the information they need at the time they desire it, especially from those they consider to be experts. We are returning to the “apple cart” of yesteryear. However, this time around we are armed with digital devices to extend our global ability to talk with the companies and people who inform our decisions.

This paradigm shift is a major communications innovation in all markets, which is radically changing the way people and organizations engage and behave online. There is also a strong link between social networking and what might be called “a new global anthropology” that is developing because of these new behaviors, interactions and interrelationships between cultures enabled through social business.

Over the past three years Don Bulmer, Peter Auditore and myself, all Society for New CommunicationsResearch fellows, have embarked on a series of research studies to understand this new and evolving business platform and its impact on social communications and influence.

The New Symbiosis of Professional Networks
The findings and predictions from our most notable study, the New Symbiosis of Professional Networks research conducted three years ago, (2009), identified what we called a Social Media Peer Group, (SMPG) this is essentially a Web 2.0 community of interest around a specific topic and/or business in the course of this treatise we will refer to them as Social Media Networks (SMNs). SMNs, are not always groups of peers, but are enabled by the new social media human computer interfaces and platforms that facilitate easier information sharing and collaboration. And the second New Symbiosis of Professional Networks study (2010) honed in on the changing role of the online influencer and formatively noted the rise of the “crescendo effect” where content creation and curation was being used as credibility builder in online environments.

The Social Mind
The Social Mind research project was designed to explore and understand interrelationships of global communications and how they impact the consumption of information across social media channels and influence flow. Social Mind findings will enable B2B, B2P, B2C or cause marketers to understand the importance and relevance of content – and – its ultimate impact and influence on behaviors, beliefs, decisions and actions. The Social Mind identifies key characteristics and insights into the engagement behaviors of influencers and individuals, and how organizations can maximize reach and influence to execute on what we call the new Principals of Engagement in the Millennium.

We surveyed more than 400 mostly professional and highly educated people in North America who actively participate in social media networks. And nearly 50% regularly create content through blogging, the other half engage and share/create content in social media networks.

Our findings show that social media networks have evolved into trusted expert communities that are testing the trust that people have in more traditional news and information sources. This is a huge shift in information and influence flow as nearly 65% of the sample base indicated that SMNs and professional networks are more trust worthy than traditional news and information aggregators (again remember that these are highly educated individuals.)

We found a significant shift in information flow:

  • The role of the expert is rising in importance on the social sphere;
  • And the need for expert content is high among content consumers.
  • Journalists are no longer considered the sole authoritative sources, and traditional media is just a leader to let people know what they need to self-educate about on their own.
  • As an alternative to media-fed information, content consumers find greater value in curated content from experts in order to discover the information they need.

We found that professionals spend approximately 40% of their time online interacting in peer -peer communities closely followed by friends (31%) and then family at (13%.)

  • Twitter and blogs are equally important as the company or organizational website which ranked 2nd in importance to Twitter. This in contrast to research from just three years ago where a majority of respondents indicated that websites were the most important source for information, followed in close second by social media channels.
  • Twitter emerged as the most important social network for professional interaction.
  • Facebook was “the friend network” where in-person friendships are reinforced and extended, virtually.
  • Email remained the preferred channel for family to interact online.

Summary
The Social Mind research study clearly defines the characteristics and behavior of social media influencers within social media networks that impact the brand, reputation and potentially the sale of products. Organizations that are socially savvy will and are recognizing the value and enhancements that can be derived in the areas of customer service, CRM and customer experience through social media networks. This is becoming a significant competitive advantage for many companies and organizations as social business evolve and grow globally.

Vanessa DiMauro is the CEO of Leader Networks, a research and strategy consulting company that helps large organizations succeed in social business and B2B online community building. DiMauro provides strategic business consulting to mainly large organizations around B2B online community and social business strategy. She is a popular speaker, researcher and author. With over 15 years experience, she has founded and run numerous online communities, and has developed award winning communities and social business approaches for influential companies such as Cisco, LexisNexis, Palladium Group and Shell. Her work has been covered by leading publications such as the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal and CIO magazine. She blogs at http://blog.leadernetworks.com.

WPRF Guest Post: Public relations: It’s a matter of trust

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News of a “big announcement” from North Korea at lunchtime on July 18 had the Twitterverse on edge. But when it turned into an anti-climax, it proved another opportunity for political point scoring against one of the world’s least trusted nations.

Fortunately, Australian organisations are generally rated more highly than the hard-line North Korean regime. But what happens when trust in institutions even in democratic countries starts to break down, and how can public relations practitioners address it?

PRIA defines public relations as “the deliberate, planned and sustained effort to establish and maintain mutual understanding between an organisation (or individual) and its (or their) publics”.

Yet according to a recent Edelman survey conducted in 25 countries, trust and understanding in institutions such as government and business is at record lows.

According to the 2012 Edelman Trust Barometer, regular, rank and file employees now have more credibility than chief executives, and only 29 per cent of government officials are considered credible spokespeople.

In Australia, only a third of the general public trust the government “to do what is right,” with just 13 per cent considering that they are being listened to.

In this context, the Gillard government’s attempts to promote its new carbon and mining taxes have proved particularly difficult. It is hard to imagine the Goods and Services Tax (GST) being successfully introduced in such a negative political environment.

Ethical business
Business is also under pressure to respond, with the survey finding “listening to customer needs” and “having ethical business practices” as the top two factors in building trust.

Similarly, CEOs were rated among the least credible spokespeople. Instead, Australians prefer academics (64 per cent), technical experts (63 per cent) and a “person like me” (57 per cent) to tell them the facts.

“The public expects business to do more than just make money and create jobs. They expect business to improve the world it operates in, act ethically, treat employees well and help local communities,” said Edelman Australia chief executive Michelle Hutton.

While the media scored a lowly 33 per cent as an institution, traditional media still rated highly as information sources. This was led by television (81 per cent), followed by newspapers (78 per cent), radio (77 per cent) and magazines (75 per cent).

Yet globally, social networking sites rated highly as information sources about a company.

According to Edelman, smart businesses talk to employees first, since citizens trust each other more than established institutions.

Similarly, businesses need to put customers ahead of profits and accept feedback if they wish to build long-term support and trust.

However, the ratings for communicators and other professionals also remain low.

The Roy Morgan Image of Professions Survey 2012 found “advertising people” scored below politicians for ethics and honesty with an 8 per cent rating. Public company directors achieved just 20 per cent, newspaper journalists 12 per cent and politicians 10 per cent.

Licence to operate
The ongoing efforts of public relations in creating understanding and ensuring a “social licence to operate” are therefore now more important than ever, not just for clients but the profession as a whole.

Communication is integral to all aspects of government and business planning, despite many seeing public relations as only “selling” the already decided policy.

In one example, Bank of America was forced to reverse a decision to impose a $5 per month debit card fee on customers without a minimum $25,000 balance. The policy triggered a customer exodus, with 300,000 protesting on Facebook, due to its failure to explain the decision properly and provide context.

Similar examples have been seen in Australia, showing the need for public relations to gain acceptance as being equally important to other management disciplines such as finance, operations or marketing.

In a November 2011 speech, Richard Edelman argued that by achieving successful engagement, public relations could increase trust, change behaviour and achieve commercial success. Public relations could do this by driving operating strategy, practicing “radical transparency”, taking advantage of all media forms and developing skills beyond communication.

In Hugh Mackay’s “Why Don’t People Listen,” he identified some key principles of communication, including that “people are more likely to listen to us if we also listen to them”.

Are we listening to our publics and engaging with them? In the 21st century, it can be the difference between being as isolated as a reclusive dictator, or accepted as being trustworthy and one of the people.

BWH Communication’s Anthony Fensom is an experienced practitioner in investor and media relations, having worked for more than a decade in the financial and media industries in Australia and Asia. He previously spent six years as a full-time journalist in Tokyo, Japan and has written for various publications in Japan and Australia on business and other issues. Anthony consults to a range of organisations on communication strategy, from ASX-listed companies to private companies and professional service firms.

WPRF Guest Post: Privacy in publicity

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The Privacy Amendment (Enhancing Privacy Protection) Bill 2012 was introduced into Parliament last month and is expected to be enacted early next year, marking the largest move to reform privacy laws in 24 years.

The Bill aims to establish a national set of Australian Privacy Principles (APPs), which propose to increase the obligations on private and public organisations and replace the National Privacy Principles by which these organisations have previously been bound.

Within the Bill are heightened obligations associated with direct and digital marketing, which would affect the way PR professionals communicate with stakeholders through both traditional and digital channels.

Of particular importance would be the individual’s right to request organisations to disclose to them the source of their personal information, placing an onus on businesses to keep detailed records of their sources.

The Bill also proposes additional restrictions on organisations who disclose customer data to other parties.

Under the proposed changes, customers can also request organisations not to use or disclose their personal information for the purposes of direct marketing by other parties.

Businesses would also need to tell customers if they intended to send personal information offshore, a provision of particular relevance to PR businesses relying on cloud computing systems, which would then be liable for any breaches of the APPs by overseas recipients.

PR agents engaging in direct and digital marketing would therefore need to pay attention to ensure compliance by developing detailed privacy policies that can be clearly and easily accessed by consumers.

Commencement of the laws has been deferred to nine months from the date on which the Bill receives Royal Assent, allowing affected organisations time to conform to the changes.

The Bill also increases the powers of the Australian Privacy Commissioner to resolve complaints, conduct investigations and promote privacy compliance, and in a profession that is based so largely on communication, publicity and dissemination of marketing messages, a balance will most likely need to be struck between these notions and counteracting rights to privacy.

Patrick MacDonald is a Senior Account Executive at Cole Lawson Communications in Brisbane. He is also a qualified lawyer who now specialises in media relations and issues management.

 

Professor Ronél Rensburg joins the WPRF speaker line-up 2012

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Former Head of the Department of Marketing and Communication Management at the University of Pretoria (2000-2008), Professor Ronél Rensburg, will present at the World Public Relations Forum later this year.

Professor Rensburg is currently a Senior Professor in the Department of Marketing and Communication Management and has also held the positions of Deputy-Dean and Acting Dean of the Faculty. Her contribution across many public relations organisations and institutes is vast and varied and includes the immediate past-Presidency of the Public Relations Institute of Southern Africa (PRISA) and sitting on the Board of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management (GA).  She is also a member of the European Public Relations Education and Research Association (EUPRERA), the Eurasian Communication Association (ECA) and the International Communication Association (ICA).

Professor Rensburg is a coordinator of international exchange activities and collaboration initiatives for the Faculty of Economic and Management Sciences at the University of Pretoria and a founding-member and the caretaker Director of the recently established Centre for Communication and Reputation Management at the University of Pretoria.

A speechwriter and trainer for politicians and captains of industry, Professor Rensburg also writes a regular column for Business24 which deals with communication and reputation management issues.

The World Public Relations Forum’s foundation is built around the mission of the Global Alliance for Public Relations and Communication Management:

•             To unify the public relations profession

•             To raise its professional standards all over the world

•             To share knowledge for the benefit of members

•             To be the global voice for public relations in the public interest

More information can be found www.worldprforum.com or the World Public Relations Forum can be followed on Twitter and Facebook.

WPRF Guest Post: No taxation without engagement

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What does an employee want today?

Currently, the importance to have employee engagement between the leadership and employees in an organization is as important as it was for people to have democracy in a tyranny. The brave employees at Ballarat who were unfairly taxed when digging for gold would understand this. In 1854 they declared ‘that it is the inalienable right of every citizen to have a voice in making the laws he/she is called on to obey, that taxation without representation is tyranny’. So let’s first have a look in the mirror of the past to have a better reflection of our present.

It seems that internal communication in an organization is a natural corollary of the times we live in. Isn’t it obvious that people embraced and struggled for democratic values and religious principles because it gave their lives a meaning and ameliorated them? Change comes at a gradual progress – Christianity triumphed over the old pagan gods because it preached to the people, especially the poor and slaves in the Roman empire, who formed the majority, that all men are created equal, and that there is a paradise after death for the people of good will. Since the life of a slave or poor person was meaningless, a better, eternal life, after death became the most popular notion to aspire to in the land, until it reached its stagnation period in the Middle Ages, where the majority had a meaningless and cruel life again.

The Renaissance saw amongst others the rise of the individual. This started a long process which would be the beginning of the end for that hated arm of the Church – the Inquisition and others who blocked progress, cut people’s tongues and if ‘necessary’ burnt the ‘heretics’ at the stake. Many got in the way of the individual’s development; kings, fascists, nazis, communists, opportunists, religious fundamentalists and capitalists. But after hundreds of years of struggle, you, the individual, have won, and you know this from history books, novels, movies, computer games and that institution that has convinced you that you are so smart – University. If I may ask another rhetorical question, in this reality, are there seriously command and control style companies who think that graduates can switch off their brains and individuality during office hours?

So as people wanted to have a meaning for their lives, today many employees wish to be engaged at work. This is clearly shown in a report submitted to the Government of the United Kingdom in 2009 entitled, ‘Engaging for Success: enhancing performance through employee engagement’. People want more than just the wage at the end of the week. This report was presented to the Right Honourable Lord Peter Mandelson, then Secretary of State for Business Innovation and Skills, who commented in its foreword ‘that only organisations that truly engage and inspire their employees produce world class levels of innovation, productivity and performance.’ The report also stated that only engaged organisations have strong and authentic values, with clear evidence of trust and fairness based on mutual respect, where two way promises and commitments – between employers and staff – are understood and are fulfilled. Furthermore, in manufacturing companies for instance, people management practices were a better indicator of company performance than strategy, technology, research and development.

Few might have read this report but many can see the beneficial results of engagement in facebook, Wikipedia, Linux, Innocentive, Human Genome Project, You Tube, Second Life, Flickr, Modzilla Firefox and Goldcorp. People (both paid and volunteer) are now creating TV news stories, sequencing the human genome, remixing their favourite music, designing software, finding cures for diseases, editing school texts, inventing new cosmetics, and even building motorcycles. This extensive collaboration and user-participation on the marketplace and corporate world has been coined as Wikinomics.

Wikinomics is based on four principles: openness, peering, sharing, and acting globally – the future of the 21st century successful creative firm. Tapscott and Williams the authors of Wikinomics point out that this is very different from the hierarchical, closed, secretive, and insular multinationals that dominated the previous century. They even argue that organizational values, skills, tools, processes and architectures of the ebbing command and control economy are not simply outdated; they obstruct the creation process.

But what does an employee want today? Eudaimonia – happiness. Socrates argued that everybody longed for happiness, above everything else. Aristotle, another ancient philosopher says that happiness required not only good character but also rational activity i.e. to be entirely engaged in intellectually stimulating work that one excelled at. In modern psychology eudaimonia has been conceptualized by Ryff in a six factor model: autonomy, personal growth, self acceptance, purpose of life, environmental mastery, and positive relations with others. Six factors which fit much more with employee engagement in an organization than a command and control style one. Hence my last rhetorical question: isn’t it obvious that the employee wishes first and foremost to be engaged, be counted for, feel worth it and then he/she would be more useful to an organisation?

Mr. Kristian Bonnici holds the Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Diploma, an undergraduate degree in International Relations, where he obtained first class honours, and a Masters in Diplomatic Studies. Mr. Bonnici speaks Maltese, English and Italian fluently, and has a good command of French, Russian and Arabic. In 2003 Kristian passed a competitive exam to join the diplomatic corps of Malta. Since then Mr. Bonnici served as a diplomat at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, as Deputy Head of Mission and Consul in Egypt, and is currently the Deputy High Commissioner of Malta in Australia. Mr. Bonnici has a passion for Public Relations, and wrote a paper establishing who the founder of this discipline is.