The Plenary Panel Weblog

Shoot the focus group

The title of our opening plenary panel is The Giant Global Focus Group. I reflected on what an appropriate choice of words this seemed whilst reading Shoot the Focus Group in Business Week.

It highlights in particular Yahoo's move away from 'traditional' focus groups (where marketers assemble in "beige conference rooms to observe behind two-way mirrors") to what amounts to co-creation - getting consumers to improve products or generate new ones by interacting directly with development teams.

Steve Rubel (becoming quite well known for his large bloghammer) immediately rounded on Business Week, asking why they hadn't even thought about the insights that blogs could generate in this context:

"Blog mining serves nicely as an efficient way to open a window onto the minds of consumers. This is because a) bloggers express themselves more freely than consumers who know they're being watched like guinea pigs and b) they tend to represent the influencers - the ones who tell the other five non-bloggers what to buy."

I'm not sure I completely agree with b) but a) is certainly valid. However, as with any survey sample, mining blogs will only tell you what bloggers think. That may or may not be representative of your entire population.

But as a starting point for our topic, this article and the debate Steve has started couldn't have come at a better moment.

What Happens to Traditional Tools?

In Neville's description of our panel, he asks the following question:

What does this mean for the press release, the web site, the brochure, the employee newsletter or the investor conference call?

The "this" in this case being, "radical change to the traditional centralised model of creating and distributing news and information, the receivers and consumers of that news and information look as though they now call the shots".

I have seen far too many people calling for the death of press releases, forecasting the end of employee newsletters and generally stating that PR/marketing as we know it is feeble, toothless, and should be abandoned.

I don't agree.

The new communications tools and strategies that we are adopting are ADDITIVE in nature.  They don't replace anything, particularly in the short term.  In fact, you will likely see a hybridization of elements, where you have a print newsletter supported by an eNewsletter that has blog and/or forum-like elements for interaction and supporting podcasts.

Given that a press release is an important legal document, particularly for public disclosure purposes, it won't be disappearing any time soon.  Besides, I would argue that it is important to have a single document that spells out any announcement clearly and precisely. Now, one could state that many press releases don't meet this requirement, but done well, they serve an important purpose.

I personally would like to see static brochure-style websites and documents adopt more collaborative frameworks using tools like wikis, forums, blogs and so on.  That will take some time to work their way through technology adoption (and cultural adoption) cycles.  But companies are starting to take baby steps towards adding collaborative aspects, which is a heartening thing.

The most important difference between the traditional and the new collaborative or conversational tools is voice.  The new tools generally adopt a more human, informal voice vs. the third part "voice of god" found in most traditional releases, websites and so on.  This is not an easy task for companies, and we'll be talking about the topic during our panel session.

So, bottom line? I think a pragmatic approach, where companies figure out how to insert these new tools and strategies into their already-existing portfolio will be the best one.  Some will do this successfully, many won't.  But we shouldn't get discouraged yet.  Rather, we who understand these tools need to help others understand them better and learn from the mistakes already made.  I hope that during our session, we can provide some clarity on all of this.

Is blogging the new PR?

One of things that I can guarantee at our session at EuroComm is that, when it comes to blogging, no one will have all the answers.

Sure, some people know more than others, and some shout louder than others, but no one knows everything about this way of communicating that is still in its infancy (and some might argue, rather infantile). That's why the whole concept of four people sitting in front of everyone else imparting our words of wisdom sits a little uneasily with me.

But equally, I guess that's why we have this blog. It is in itself a statement of the new communications world. Like conference speakers, companies are already finding that broadcasting their views of the world to the masses delivers diminishing returns for their business. Like you all, we have an opinion on how things could be done but we'd much rather have a dialogue with you than present you with a collection of thoughts that you can only agree or disagree with.

So here's something to get you started, courtesy of Kathy Sierra. She offers some new, more creative - and possibly more effective - alternatives to the old ways of doing things:

I doubt anyone would agree with all of these (I am duty-bound to disagree with item four!), but I think Kathy has done a great job here. She perfectly encapsulates some of the ways in which communicators need to think if they are to take their organisations forward in what is undoubtedly a very different world.

There are some interesting themes running throughout. Authenticity, co-creation, and inside-out branding are just a few that might resonate with some of us.

So what's stopping us crossing the chasm? What questions do you have? What will make your CEO sit up and listen? As I said, no-one has all the answers, but then again we don't always know what the questions are either.

The Value of Direct Feedback

At a conference I attended a couple of weeks ago, I heard some interesting points made that tie directly into the theme of our panel: the giant global focus group.  One of the speakers from a large Fortune 50 company talked about the value of unfiltered feedback.  He spoke of yearly meetings with a small group of his company's top customers where they shared their ideas, feedback, criticisms and so on during a couple of days of face-to-face meetings.  He said this was his most valuable event of the year due to that direct feedback.  Then he claimed the comments one of their corporate blogs receives were equally as valuable because they also are unfiltered feedback.

Another speaker at the same event put enabling blog comments in terms of cost savings versus traditional focus groups.  Asking the question, "How much money do you spend to talk to 15 or 20 people? $10,000? $15,000?" Compare that to the cost of a blog (low, comparatively).  I can't remember the exact numbers quoted, but think about it.  Even 5-10 good comments a week (a month!), where the feedback is less filtered, less scripted, can give immediate ROI to your blogging efforts.

Here's something else to think about.  Marketers spend millions every year trying to capture customer attention.  Yet, at the same time, they make it ridiculously difficult for those same customers to talk to them in any easy fashion.  A customer who has chosen to take valuable time out of his/her day to try to talk to you is an incredibly valuable resource for your organization.  While it might be difficult to retool your legacy call center, CRM and other customer contact technology, it is relatively simple to set up a blog and invite your customers to join the conversation.

We'll be touching on these themes and many other during our session.  I hope you will share your thoughts and examples here as well, so we can bring them to the audience.

PR engagement with bloggers

One of the topics that will undoubtedly be part of the panel discussion at EuroComm is that of the influence and role of bloggers in the overall public relations mix. It's a good topic as many in the PR business do ask: How do you engage with bloggers? Are they like journalists? What about monitoring what blogs say?

In a timely article published online yesterday, PR Week gives some good advice to PR professionals on how to engage and work with bloggers. The article includes some excellent quotes from some in the PR profession.

Two examples:

• Sarah Bresee, account executive, OutCast Communications: "I think that a lot of people are afraid of blogs in probably the same way that they were afraid of the internet. You can't ignore it and hope that they're going away. You have to interact with them. You have to work with them. That transparency can be scary, but it can really work out well for your clients."
• Lynann Bradbury, SVP, Waggener Edstrom: "It's critical to read relevant blogs daily - and, whenever possible, on an hourly basis - to understand their slant, tone, and point of view and learn whether there's anything unique that you might be able to add to the discussion. It's not that much different than how you would engage the mainstream media in terms of the homework that you need to do up-front. Being well educated about that blog and what that blogger cares about is critical and is a necessary foundation to lay down before you have a conversation with them."

The only criticism I have of the PR Week article is its headline: "Working with the top echelon of bloggers."  This is not about an 'echelon' or an elite grouping, it's about working with an effective channel. It's about influence (read the Technorati/Edelman "Trust MEdia" report for more on that - PDF, free download).

In any event, if you're in the PR profession and want to gain some insight into what some of your peers believe about blogs and PR, you should read this article. It concludes with some smart advice:

- Do include bloggers in your media strategy
- Do remember that blogs are open forums
- Do treat bloggers with the same respect as journalists

- Don't try to mislead or manipulate with a posting
- Don't pitch or send press releases
- Don't forget to explain the terms of an embargo

Grab this article while you can, though - if you're not a PR Week subscriber, free access to their websites was due to expire at midnight yesterday. The article was still openly accessible this morning.

(Adapted from a post on my blog, heard about via Media Guerrilla.)