What's old is new again

First off, thanks to Arik for the opportunity to write on his turf. I'm glad to chip in (five years without a vacation?!), and I hope my little essay below doesn't disappoint.

Let me begin with a ray of hope.

I hope what I'm about to say is nothing more than preaching to the choir. I hope this writing is simply helpful reinforcement of a concept you're familiar with.

If not, don't worry. We're hear to discuss and learn, not to judge or scold. I come in peace!

Here's the bottom line: This newfangled "PR 2.0" stuff we're all hearing about everywhere we turn these days is newfangled only on the surface. 

Wild, huh?

Yes, helping your colleagues or your clients understand Twitter and its 140-character limit is new. Dealing with the intricacies of blog-comment moderation policies is new. Pitching people (bloggers) who are a lot more likely to publicly shame, rightly or wrongly, PR folks who rub them the wrong way is new.

But of course:

Writing concisely -- and well -- is not new. Dealing with critics is not new. Working hard to make sure your time spent pitching stories is meaningful and fruitful is not new.

The platforms, tools and concepts we cluster under the umbrella of "social media" have not changed the core of what PR practitioners do. Not one bit.

We have a lot of new tools and lingo and a lot more access to information than we had collectively been accustomed to -- a lot of stuff that's upsetting what had become a comfortable, familiar way of working --  this era of "PR 2.0" is actually just a quick, rough return to what PR always should have been. 

Yes, bloggers are a lot more likely to publicly ridicule the sender of an off-target e-mail, but is fear of public shaming really your strongest motivation for making on-target pitches? Yes, Twitter and Facebook might seem like utterly foreign territory at times, but wasn't there a time when CD-ROMs were blowing people's minds?

It's like Arik wrote in his recent post: PR is a relationship business. Always has been, always will be. Sure, you can get a story placed working with a reporter you've never even heard of, but in the long run, relationships make the work easier. And recently we've seen a clear return to public relations -- not just media relations. Working with bloggers might closely resemble working with magazine reporters, but what about that active twitterer who's constantly talking about your company's products? Or the Facebook wall-post writer who's always keeping you on your toes? Media relations? Hardly. Public relations? Damn straight.

So while it's clear that those of us on the leading edge of Web-savvy PR are quickly becoming pseudo-IT pros almost as much as we're pseudo-journalists, the core of PR is still exactly the same: working to establish credibility and foster conversations between organizations and their interested publics. Online or off.

Photo courtesy of Krista76 on Flickr

PR Rock Stars: A Conversation with Allan Schoenberg

One of the great things about social networks is their ability to connect you with like-minded individuals you might not otherwise have the chance to meet. Such was the case when I met Allan Schoenberg on Twitter a few months back. Completely chance meeting--but since then we've connected on a number of fronts--everything from family obligations to B2B communications to Bells beer.

Here's the great thing about Allan is--in my opinion: Here's a guy who runs PR/communications for the combined largest financial exchange in the country and he somehow finds time to teach and educate the next generation of PR leaders, give back to his alma mater and network with other PR pros across Chicago and the country. 

Rock star, right? Let's hear more...

You head up corporate communications for CME Group, which operates the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, Chicago Board of Trade and New York Mercantile Exchange (combined the largest financial exchange in the U.S.). I know social media plays a large role in your communications and PR mix. How are you currently using social media tools to shape and influence attitudes and perceptions of your customers and stakeholders and how do you see that evolving over the next few years?

Social media certainly plays a role in what we do at the exchanges and has for at least the past 18 months. Let me just go over how we use before I talk about what we use. Our strategies and tactics for social media encompass three things: listening, engaging and servicing. First, social media allows us to follow the trends and issues that our customers are most concerned with and talk about. By using social media we can better understand what is on their mind in both the short and long term. Second, we can actively engage customers with the products and services that matter most to the engage. By listing and talking about these we can monitor feedback and have a dialogue with customers. Third, we use social media to actively provide another way to help answer questions that are important to our customers.

Now, how are we using these tools to better communicate?

One thing that was very simple for us to do was to just make our media room social media enabled. Not only have we provided an RSS feed for our news releases for the past two years, but in late 2007 we took the initiative to make every news release shareable by using some of the most popular social media tools -- Facebook, Reddit, Word Press, Blogger, Twitter, Digg, etc. We know that customers want to talk about and share things we're doing so this was an easy decision for us.

Another way we use social media to our advantage is to monitor what is going on in the blogosphere. There are a number of media, economists and academics who blog regularly about things that matter to us -- risk management, treasury bonds, agriculture, energy, market regulation -- so following these people and engaging them is part of our strategy. I personally use tools such as Bloglines, Google News and Technorati to help me aggregate blogs and key topics.

We also are actively using some of the tools out there to help us better communicate with customers. Facebook has been helpful in allowing us to build online communities and forums for customers to know what is happening at the exchange. We have a customer group that was formed by traders following the merger of CME with CBOT in the fall of 2007. I proactively reached out to the admin of the group and asked if I could help manage the content. After adding me I've been active at posting content from our web site and the Internet with items that we believe should be of interest to the group. There are more than 350 members of this group today. Our Market Education team this past fall also created a CME Group Fan Page on Facebook that we use to showcase our education topics and forums. Both groups help us to communicate in different ways -- one in more of a conversation where we can interact with customers about topics inside and outside of the exchange, and another in a way that lets us talk to customers about the many education opportunities we have to learn more about our products and services.

Another social media tool that has been really useful for the exchange is Twitter. I personally started using Twitter in early 2008 (@allanschoenberg) and after seeing the benefits of talking with others I created an account for the exchange in September 2008 (@cmegroup). Today, we have more than 30,000 followers of the exchange. I'm very mindful of how we use this tool since, unlike Facebook that is more of a static post and comment forum, Twitter is a real time conversation. I don't use Twitter to push CME Group content out to people but I'd rather find the "diamond in the rough" blog posting about treasury bills and someone's opinion on how that may effect the market. I know that one way our customers are using Twitter is to gain a trading advantage, so if we can help them with useful trading information than we are doing our job. Twitter is an interesting tool for us because I have a number of things to balance with every posting. Since we are a publicly traded company (Nasdaq: CME) I know that there are people on Twitter who just own our stock and don't trade our products. So I have to converse with these types of customers in addition to traders. We also have to use Twitter like any other communication tool when we talk publicly knowing that we have to meet disclosure and regulatory guidelines. I think the advantages of Twitter for the exchange is two-fold: we can watch/observe/listen to what traders are talking about, and we can actively engage in real-time conversations with customers who need a question answered or want to talk with us.

In terms of what's next, I can tell we are actively looking at a number of other tools but I don't want to reveal just what is next quite yet.

You're also an adjuct professor in PR/communications at DePaul University and Loyola University-Chicago. Do you think today's cirriculum and programs at our universities and colleges are effectively preparing students for a career in PR or corporate communications? Where do universities fall short and what might you recommend as potential solutions?

I've been fortunate enough to be involved with two outstanding universities for the past four years with rich histories in the city of Chicago. In my short time at both schools I have seen a lot of great changes. The College of Communication at DePaul was established in 2007 and works to meet the needs of students in a variety of communication fields, including public relations. In January 2009, the Loyola University School of Communication offices moved into the brand new School of Communication building in downtown Chicago.

A few points of observation from my brief time at both universities. First, they both recognize the growing and exanding field of public relations. It is great to be involved with both schools knowing that they see the importance of the profession -- and that they tap into professionals to help teach. Second, it's also evident that we have a lot of work to do as a profession as most of my students know either very little about the profession. This presents both a challenge and an opportunity for me as a teacher.

Like any degree program, I would guess that both schools wish they could require more credit hours and classes to fully immerse students into these programs. I think one way they are both trying to accomplish this is with the help of Chicago's vast public relations community. Both university's have PRSSA programs that tap the help of professionals, use professionals as adjunct professors and offer other opportunities for students to connect with professionals. Hopefully as these programs expand the growing alumni base will give back to their respective schools.

From our conversations, I also know you set up a scholarship in your name at your alma mater at Central Michigan University (a wonderful idea, by the way). What gave you that idea, how did you execute it (initially) and why do you continue to give back to the students at our alma mater?

Yes, back in 2002 I worked with Dr. Diane Krider to establish a public relations leadership award given annually to one student. I pay for the costs of the scholarship out of my own pocket and the university and student recipients have all been lucky enough to receive a partial matching gift from the exchange. I can't take all of the credit for starting this. The idea really came from Dr. Krider whom I met simply because I called her one day and asked how I could get more involved. There were two reasons for me to reach out to CMU. First, I would have to say that my involvement really goes back to my parents, who always pushed me to give back. That has always stayed with me. Second, I really wanted to help build a connection with tomorrow's future leaders in the profession. There are some extremely bright students coming into this field and they continue to make me push myself to be a better professional. The rest, as they say, is history.

I really would encourage everyone to somehow get back involved with their undergraduate university. My degree from CMU is in Economics so for me now to be involved with the school though its public relations program gives me a new pride. Not only has this been a nice source of accomplishment for me personally, but I do believe in the idea of mentoring up. Each recipient of the award brings something unique to our relationship and I have learned something from each of them. It's also important that they realize that while the scholarship is a one time deal, I hope to be able to maintain a long-term personal and professional friendship with each of them. To this date I still regularly communicate with each of them. I also work to try to connect them with each other. In addition, I try to make it every year to the university's annual PRSSA event on campus to speak and every spring I arrange a career day in the city of Chicago for six to 10 seniors in the program.

You can find several past recipients of my scholarship on Twitter (@rachelesterline @LacyQ @tasevedo @Kcovert @MeganSoule) and encourage people to talk with (and consider hiring) them.

We've been talking about the lack of conversations and case studies around B2B and social media for quite a while. This week, we finally began our venture to help better facilitate that conversation--the B2B Voices blog (along with Kate Brodock, Anna Barcelos and Beth Harte). How do you think this blog--and the conversations it will hopefully spur--will help communicators and marketers better understand this complex and relatively unexplored space?

I think there are a couple of misconceptions about B2B communications. One is this idea that it is not as glamorous or challenging as B2C communications. I would hope to show that even though some of the things we sell to our customers in the B2B space may not seem exciting, if you look at the value chain of what our companies do there are some very interesting things where consumers benefit from our work. I also hope we can show that many of the strategies and techniques we do really are very similar to the B2C enviornment. Hopefully this can show that making the transition from B2C to B2B and vice versa can be relatively seamless. Finally, I hope we can showcase some of the great professionals in the B2B space who do some excellent work.

Among other things, we share a common love of microbrews. We've had many conversations about how these brands interact online. If you were consulting these brands today, what would you suggest microbrews like Bells, Surly and Goose Island do differently to engage and interact with customers online?

Well, actually, I can appreciate any profession that requires a highly intensive skill or craft to achieve. It just so happens that microbrews are something that can be enjoyed with some of my great friends and a grille. I hope that the brands I enjoy really do embrace social media as a way to talk and listen to customers. Most of these brands grew up with their roots around friendships and a small group of people sharing a passion, and social media helps keep that passion alive with fans like myself and others. What I hope they don't do is use social media to alienate other core followers. I know plenty of friends who enjoy Bell's and Goose Island, but they're not active in social media. What any company/brand needs to realize is that social media is just another tool in the toolbox, but we can't forget the other ways to reach customers. The other part about using social media is that the brands have to realize that just "doing it" isn't enough. If you're going to set something up you have to use it otherwise you can turn customers off. Finally, they should understand that not every tool needs to be utilized; picking and choose what tools to use can be more important than using them.

Another topic we've talked about recently--the fledgling newspaper business. With more newspapers shuttering their doors every day, what can these institutions do to transform their model so they're not only serving their watchdog function for the public-at-large but also creating a sustainable business model?

I don't want to pretend I know how to run the news business. From what I can see the print side of the business is suffering from two converging dynamics. First, readers continue to migrate online for news, information and stories. I think the industry has known this for years and they have actually done some very interesting things with online content. So while that is effect the bottom line I don't think that is the key driver of what we're seeing. The second and more pressing issue of what we are seeing is more an impact of the economy than people not wanting to read the newspaper or magazine. If you look closely at what's happened with the papers and magazines that have either shut down completely or transitioned to more -- or only -- online content is that they are struggling through the credit crisis. They're losing advertisers, not readers, and advertising pays the bills. What will be more interesting is what the industry looks like after we come out of this recession. Will Seattle rebuild demand for the P-I? Will the Detroit papers reinstate weekday delivery? There are certainly some interesting models to follow, such as WSJ.com, Huffington Post, Slate and even what the Chicago Tribune is doing with social media. The way I look at it for myself is that I'm willing to pay for really good content -- WSJ, NY Times, FT, Esquire to name a few of my favorites -- so if the publishing industry can stay focused on getting exceptional content that its readers want they can charge a premium. And while I really am enjoying my Kindle and reading everything in one location, I do hope (and believe) the print business will be with us for a long time.

A meeting about nothing--how to cut through the mindless minutiae

We've all been there. Head into work. Got a full day planned. You're going to strategize. Brainstorm new ideas that will help the organization build brand, influence key audiences and drive revenues. And meet with key executive leaders to start initiating plans to executing on these outstanding ideas.

Then, it hits. The minutiae.

You get called into a meeting. The topic/agenda is sketchy at best. You're listening, but really only half listening. They're talking about implications of changing our HR benefits from one vendor to another. Or, how we're going to switch payment systems or operating platforms in 2009. Or, whatever. It's boring. It's low value. But it's necessary and you have to do it.

Or, do you?

Should we, as communications and marketing leaders, really be spending our time in these kinds of meetings and consulting and engaging with organizational partners around this kind of work? Is the work worth your time? If you worked for an agency, would your manager want you spending your time on this project?

These are the kinds of questions I, and I believe many other marketers and communicators struggle with daily.

Are we really spending enough time on the high-value work? The work that really matters? If it doesn't impact or tie directly to your organization's goals or strategies, should you be working on it? Isn't that what our employers and clients pay us to do?

So what can we do? A few ideas:

* Start saying no to "those" meetings. You heard me. Say no. Pretty simple, really. I'm not talking about the client meetings where you're presenting new ideas, discussing key initiatives or talking about plans for a major campaign. I'm talking about the meetings with no agendas. The ones where you know no work product will come as a result. The ones that feel like a meeting about another meeting--you know what I'm talking about. You need to get out of those meetings pronto.

* Be "slippery". This one's key. One of my favorite people in the PR biz, a good friend and mentor of mine is terrific at being slippery. She's made a habit of letting the low-value, non-critical work slide off her allowing her ample time to focus on key areas like strategic planning, coaching key executives and other high-value work. Sure, she handles some administrative duties and sits in a few dull meetings from time to time, we all do. But it's a pittance compared to the time she spends on the high-value work.

* Support your team. Junior staffers often feel unable to push back on client demands, putting them in a tough situation. They need to know you will back them up if they push back on the client and not leave them in a lurch. Make sure you take the time to sit down with these team members and reinforce that they're doing the right thing and that you feel the same way. If these folks feel empowered, they will be able to consult more effectively and free up more time to focus on the right work.

* Consult--don't take orders. If the client asks for a message they feel needs to be out right away, ask a few questions. Why do you feel it needs to be distributed immediately? What's your goal with this message? What are you hoping your audience will think/feel/do? Usually by asking a few questions and getting into the nitty-gritty behind the "why" of the ask, you can push the timeline back a bit, consider an alternative approach or stay status quo. All of which can prevent you from spending wasted time on the initial request.

What do you think? Any other tips to add? Whatever you suggest will benefit us all--we need to get out of this minutiae business.

PR Rock Stars: A conversation with Lee Aase

When you work in the close-knit Minnesota health care PR/communications community, it's almost impossible not to know Lee Aase. He's widely known as a strong advocate of social media (I initially met Lee at a Ragan conference on social media presented by Shel Holtz back in June) and a pro's pro in the media relations and public affairs arena.

As manager of social media and syndication at Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn., Lee's helped this world-class organization foster and grow a strong community of loyal Mayo patients across the world who are more than happy to share their stories. In fact, Mayo counts on it. More than any other medium or communications vehicle, Mayo relies heavily on its patients to spread their stories of the outstanding care they received to others across the globe.

Interestingly enough, Lee and Mayo took yet another step in their social media journey this morning when they launched their new blog, Sharing Mayo Clinic. Designed as a way for patients and employees to share their stories about what makes Mayo Clinic unique, the new blog is another addition to an already impressive social media lineup that Lee has helped engineer the last few years. A Mayo Clinic YouTube channel, a Twitter account and multiple blogs and podcasts.

The other interesting thing about Lee: he's a chancellor. That's right. A little over two years ago, Lee started Social Media University Global as a way to help PR and communications pros learn about the burgeoning world of Web 2.0. The site is set up like an online university, complete with a full curriculum, videos of the "campus" (read: Lee's home) and tuition and financial aid. Tongue-in-cheek references aside, the site has been a great way for Lee to help educate PR professionals on the ins and outs of social media.

Clearly, Lee is a PR Rock Star. He's also a member of the famed Blog Council, so pay attention folks. And if you're not following him, start now.

Historically, the health care industry has been slow to adopt new communications tools and technologies. Yet, Mayo Clinic is on Twitter, has its own YouTube channel, Facebook group page, and multiple podcasts and blogs. How did you go about educating your internal stakeholders and building consensus around the merits of social media to your overall communications plan?

Word of mouth has always been the most important way for people to find out about Mayo Clinic. So we've emphasized that social media are just the new way word of mouth happens. We also had two external consultants, Shel Holtz and Andy Sernovitz, come to Mayo to speak and hold workshops to engage our broader Public Affairs department and through that our leadership.

How are you using social media tools at Mayo Clinic to listen to your patients and their thoughts, concerns and ideas? Any examples of instances where you've taken action based on something you heard from a patient through one of your blogs, podcasts or videos?

With our Facebook page, it's been wide open for patients to share their thoughts, and we're launching a new blog this week (Thursday) called Sharing Mayo Clinic where we likewise will be giving patients the opportunity to share their stories and their feedback about their experiences. We had a blog last year for our employee patient population that was related to our Mayo ExpressCare service (a walk-in retail clinic), and through the blog we got feedback on some issues we needed to address...specifically, because the demand was so much stronger than we expected, we needed to add more staff, modify some procedures and accelerate the plans for a second clinic.

How has the social media landscape changed the way you work with the media? Do you still work with traditional media outlets? How are you interacting with bloggers? Are you eschewing traditional channels to tell you story directly to your patients and other key audiences?

Social media tools make it easier for us to provide audio and video resources to traditional media, as well as to bloggers. After the stories come off embargo, those same resources are made available directly to patients. Working with traditional media is still extremely important, but sometimes we do a post on our news blog instead of a full-scale news release because we can do it more quickly and still provide improved resources for journalists.

Physicians, by and large, are not individuals that have a lot of time on their hands. Yet we all know blogs, podcasts and video interviews require time and commitment from subject matter experts like them to succeed. How do you manage those competing demands and keep these key stakeholders engaged in the process?

Our main strategy is to use video blogs, so our physician experts can answer questions on camera. We prefer that our surgeons use their hands for operating instead of typing. By using video, they can talk about their research as they would to a patient instead of taking time to write. It becomes a 10-15 minute interview instead of a lengthy writing exercise. This also proves that the physician participation is genuine and not ghost-written, because the blog viewers see the experts speaking for themselves. The level of ongoing interaction in the comments varies among the physicians, with some choosing to engage directly and others preferring to do summary responses based on the general tone of comments.

You started with your Medical Edge podcast back in September 2005 and have grown your use of social media tools extensively the last three-plus years. Any key lessons you've learned along the way?

Starting with something that's already approved for distribution to radio stations made it less controversial; it was getting another use for the same product. Then we continued to find ways to produce content tailored to the medium (i.e. longer podcasts) in a cost-effective way, as part of our TV production process. It's also helpful to have outside experts share the state-of-the-art with leadership, to validate that other companies and organizations are getting into social media without having major problems. The worst fears are almost never realized; everyone has nightmare scenarios, but you shouldn't let them paralyze you and keep you from seizing the potential (and much more likely) benefits.

Now the tough question--how have these tools helped Mayo Clinic further its vision and achieve its organizational goals? How do you measure results?

We look at traffic to our sites, comments, appointment requests coming through our social media platforms, and also how having these electronic resources has helped us better serve journalists and get coverage in traditional media. The activities would be worthwhile based solely on the increase in traditional media coverage, but we see significant word-of-mouth benefit too.