Bon's Mots

Web 2.0 is like the Wild West — unchecked and un­tamed, with no laws gov­ern­ing its pop­u­lace. We are still try­ing to es­tab­lish rules and ethics sur­round­ing this new fron­tier that every­one can agree on. Until then, the best we can do is shape our own body of ethics to gov­ern our be­hav­iour. There are pi­o­neers in the field that we can cer­tainly learn from but it’s still anybody’s guess as to what ex­actly con­sti­tutes best prac­tices for Web 2.0.

And yet we still ques­tion why many or­ga­ni­za­tions are hes­i­tant to adapt Web 2.0 tools into their com­mu­ni­ca­tions strate­gies. How can they play the game when no one can agree on the rules? Convincing these or­ga­ni­za­tions of the ben­e­fits of Web 2.0 is the chal­lenge today’s pub­lic re­la­tions stu­dents face. How do we equip them with the knowl­edge and con­fi­dence to take on this oner­ous task?

I have only ven­tured into the so­cial me­dia sphere last fall; yet some­how this makes me one of the more sea­soned pros in my Online PR class. The glut of in­for­ma­tion and tools avail­able can be very in­tim­i­dat­ing and over­whelm­ing, and I’ve seen quite a few con­fused faces in the past few weeks.

If you are more savvy and com­fort­able with new tech­nol­ogy, you can nav­i­gate the wa­ters with rel­a­tive ease and find prac­ti­cal PR ap­pli­ca­tions for any Web 2.0 tool. For those tread­ing into un­known wa­ters, con­sider the fol­low­ing as a primer to Web 2.0 best prac­tices as they re­late to PR. Feel free to co-opt them or add your own.

Listen

The best place to start is by lis­ten­ing to the on­line con­ver­sa­tions tak­ing place. Set up Really Simple Syndication (RSS) feeds and Google Alerts to stay on top of is­sues af­fect­ing your in­dus­try and or­ga­ni­za­tion. These tools al­low a PR pro­fes­sional to eas­ily find and com­pile rel­e­vant in­for­ma­tion that will give his or her or­ga­ni­za­tion a chance to stay on top of any ru­mours or bad press.

Open the door

The idea of hav­ing a con­ver­sa­tion with their stake­hold­ers is anath­ema to se­nior man­age­ment used to hav­ing a com­fort­able dis­tance be­tween their cus­tomers or the me­dia. There is a fear of putting them­selves “out there” – will their au­di­ence take it as an open in­vi­ta­tion to tell them what they re­ally think in a pub­lic forum?

Consider the ad­van­tages of of­fer­ing space on your web­site for com­ments and feed­back. Responding to com­plaints or crit­i­cism in a timely man­ner goes a long way in dif­fus­ing any dam­age that, left unchecked, could crip­ple a company’s reputation.

For any doubters out there, I have two words for you: Dell Hell.

Get out there

In space, no one can hear you scream. In Web 2.0, how­ever, every­one is lis­ten­ing. They are even talk­ing about your or­ga­ni­za­tion – isn’t it time you joined in the dis­cus­sion? A good cor­po­rate blog es­tab­lishes an on­line pres­ence for your or­ga­ni­za­tion and al­lows it to con­verse with its au­di­ence. But you don’t have to wait to be invited…

Reach out

Actively par­tic­i­pate in on­go­ing dis­cus­sions with in­flu­en­tial blog­gers. You will gain more cred­i­bil­ity by com­ment­ing as well as lis­ten­ing. But like tra­di­tional me­dia re­la­tions, it is im­por­tant to build a rap­port with a blog­ger; read their posts and know what in­ter­ests them. Become knowl­edge­able and in­for­ma­tive and add to the discussion.

Be so­cial

Social net­works like Facebook and MySpace pro­vide or­ga­ni­za­tions with built in au­di­ences for its prod­ucts and ser­vices. Setting up a Facebook group lets your au­di­ences (cus­tomers, em­ploy­ees) be­come mem­bers, pro­vid­ing tacit ap­proval for your or­ga­ni­za­tion. Successful word-of-mouth mar­ket­ing is built on a level of trust and cred­i­bil­ity; peo­ple will be more will­ing to in­ves­ti­gate your prod­uct or ser­vice if their friends rec­om­mend it.

Honesty will get you everywhere

You can fool some of the peo­ple some of the time…but not blog­gers. The world of so­cial me­dia is lit­tered with the corpses of fake blogs (or flogs): Wal-Mart, Sony, just to name a few. No mat­ter how savvy your PR agency thinks it is, a flog is a never a good idea; the on­line com­mu­nity can spot a fraud a mile away. I see blog­gers as the un­of­fi­cial gate­keep­ers of Web 2.0. It’s the last pub­lic space that is rel­a­tively free of bla­tant, in-your-face ad­ver­tis­ing, and they want to keep it that way.

Aggregate

Like the book­marks on your web browser, del​.icio​.us is a so­cial book­mark­ing site where you can ag­gre­gate all your fa­vorite ar­ti­cles, blogs and web­sites. For an or­ga­ni­za­tion, cre­at­ing a del​.icio​.us ac­count is a good way of track­ing and ag­gre­gat­ing your me­dia men­tions. You can also de­ter­mine how pop­u­lar your sto­ries are by how many times they were saved. And know­ing who tags and saves your sto­ries helps you de­ter­mine whether your mes­sages are reach­ing the right audience.

Micro-blog

Tools like Twitter can be valu­able as both a pro­fes­sional and PR tool. As a PR pro­fes­sional, start fol­low­ing in­flu­en­tial peo­ple in the so­cial me­dia sphere; you will learn about new Web 2.0 tools and be ahead of your peers and com­peti­tors. For PR pur­poses, use Twitter to an­nounce news about your or­ga­ni­za­tion (e.g. up­grades, new prod­ucts) that your au­di­ences will find helpful.

Reputation is everything

Becoming a Web 2.0 pro­fes­sional doesn’t get you far if your on­line rep­u­ta­tion is dirt. Your brand not only rep­re­sents you but also ef­fects the rep­u­ta­tion of the or­ga­ni­za­tion you work for. Social me­dia does not ne­ces­si­tate a new set of rules for be­hav­iour – com­mon sense still ap­plies. (Here’s a good ar­ti­cle on how to avoid ca­reer embarrassment.)

My sim­ple caveat is this: don’t do any­thing on the web you wouldn’t do at a so­cial event.