PR and new media
MSc Corporate Communications module
October 2010-January 2011
Agenda
One: Assignment
Two: Talking points
Three: Context
Four: Concepts
Five: Strategy and policy
Six: Issues
Seven: Sources and reading
6. Issues
Issues for corporate communications
What's the role of PR in the Web 2.0 world?
- Is the traditional press release dead?
- Are the risks to corporate reputation less or greater today?
- Social media news release template, example
- Audience or community? (Chris Brogan)
Can we control information?
- Could we ever prevent leaks or factory-gate gossip?
- Is the scale of challenge greater given the porosity of online information?
- Is PR about 'command and control' or should it encourage conversations on issues?
What does Web 2.0 mean for newspapers?
- Advertising is migrating to the web (eg Craigslist)
- Google is now a media company, but with no journalists (eg Google News)
- Print is not enough: Guardian now has blogs, audio posts, podcasts, video: in a word mashups
- What does the decline in print journalism mean for PR?
Does blogger relations replace media relations?
- Yes, if blogs have reach and credibility with target audience
- Otherwise, new media complements - but doesn't replace - old media (think radio, TV, internet)
- Blogger relations complements media relations (as does eg analyst relations)
- See Tom Murphy's PR hype cycle
- State of the live web / blogosphere (April 2007)
Should we prevent employees from blogging and using social media?
- Stop blocking campaign
- There should be guidelines on blogging where the company is named and blogs are part of its PR strategy:
- Yahoo! employee blog guidelines
- IBM blogging policy and guidelines (pdf file)
- Edelman Managing employee bloggers (pdf file)
Should our blogging be transparent?
- When blogs put brands at risk, Financial Times, 8 November 2006
- Buzz off! this blogger's voice is not for sale Media Guardian, 20 November 2006
- Anti-astroturfing campaign
- Edelman, Wal-Mart flogging campaign
- WOMMA code of ethics
Should we police our Wikipedia entry?
- How clean is an 'open source' encyclopedia?
- Self-penned entry (eg Tim Mackintosh-Smith)
- What about protecting your reputation?
- Wikipedia's five pillars (including 'neutral point of view')
What are the risks?
Brand Science Institute: Why social media projects fail: a European perspective
Issues for PR academics
Do we need to build new theory?
'For public relations practice the unavoidable conclusion is that nothing will ever be the same again; the advent of an online world means almost every aspect of the discipline needs to be rethought.’ (Phillips and Young 2009)
- Engaging the social side of James Grunig
- New theory is emerging
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