Social Media Press Release - "Controlling" the Message in a Web 2.0 World

I hear it all the time when the subject of social media marketing comes up with executives, particularly in the B2B (business-to-business) space, "but how do we control what people say about us?" The answer is, "You don't, but you can influence what they say if you're smart and play by the same rules your audience is playing by." Of course, i usually don't have a nice pithy comeback when queried on just what "rules" I'm referring to - Web 2.0 being hardly about rules at all - but now I have an actual example I can point to to explain what I mean!

A new tool called the Social Media Press Release demonstrates a sophisticated way to shape what others say about you without controlling anything. I suppose some would argue it's not that new (first introduced in 2006 by Shift Communications and now updated by Social Media Group's Digital Snippets), and perhaps not all that revolutionary (being primarily a web page not unlike PR Web's press release format) but the concept of the SMPR provides insight into how marketing in the era of social media and networking is evolving.

Of course, the doubting execs have every right to be nervous. Now that their customers, employees and competitors are blogging, Facebooking and YouTubing about whatever they want unfettered it's pretty clear to anyone in the marketing profession that organizations (and individuals) control their own images to a lesser extent than ever before (See "Dell Hell" example below). 

The inability to control one's image in a Web 2.0 world hits the marketing communications and public relations professions pretty hard because they are charged with crafting and controlling messages to form that elusive "image" that comes to mind when the organization name or logo appear - and they are heavily tasked with responding when the message goes sour. I've talked to many marketers who seem aware that the rules of the game are changing, but this doesn't mean they go about their jobs very differently day-to-day, other than using a new medium (blogs) to publish their official messages out to the world in the same "push" paradigm marketers have always used. Often they are doing things "the old way" because the executive team hasn't sensed a dramatic shift in communications habits among the company's customer base or competitors - a necessary precursor to major change in most organizations. Additionally many marketers simply don't know what else to do because this is all so new - especially in the B2B space where marketing and entertainment are not to intertwined. If they are active social networkers themselves, they might have some good ideas, but convincing upper management to let them spend part of their workday cruising MySpace "on behalf of the company" can be a tall order.

Even so the case for why your organization should start playing in the Social Media world is pretty simple:

Defensive Rationale - Customers and employees are already talking about you out there (and if not you, your competitors) and the sooner you get into the dialog, the more likely you are to hear what's being said and at least be a part of the discussion even if you don't control it. People are just as rational (and irrational) online as off and so just as in need of good information - make sure you're there to give it to them.

Offensive Rationale - When people repeat your message in social media dialogs, even when they change the spin by putting it into their own authentic voice, "the company line" achieves that coveted gloss of third party credibility. This has always been the public relations gold mine and it's now possible on a grand scale if things go right, but you can't increase the odds of it going right if you're not in there making sure people have the relevant information.

The best way to get started is to send employees out, blogging and commenting to translate your messages into the vernacular on an as many sites as possible and in their own voice. This has been Dell's strategy in response to the negative "Dell Hell" blogstorm that hit them in 2005 with Jeff Jarvis' rant about their customer service on his blog, Buzzmachine.com. To "get into the dialog" they've equipped employee Lionel Machaca to write the Direct2Dell blog. Interesting to note is that while his blog first appeared along side the corporate blog (One-2-One), the company has since dispensed with the official version (the one that controlled the message through corp. communications) and let Machanga speak for the company in his own voice. 

Next - and a  bit tougher - is to engage your customers, vendors and business community champions and commentators in carrying your messages forward. In entering into the dialog with Jarvis and thousands of other users and commentators - and, it should be noted, in adjusting it's customer service practices - Dell was successful in turning Jarvis into a semi advocate with a follow-up Business Week article, appearing eighteen months after his original rant. As Jarvis noted in "Dell Learns to Listen" (October 17, 2007):

"[B]y Dell's measure, [since actively engaging in the blogsphere] negative blog posts about it have dropped from 49% to 22%. And the Dell Hell posts on my blog, which used to come up high on a Google search for the company, are now relegated to second-page search-engine Siberia. 'That change in perception just doesn't happen with a press release,' Menchaca says." 

Of course, one could argue that Dell had no choice but to jump in and sail the social media maelstrom given the negative buzz Jarvis unleashed, but you don't want to wait to be on the defensive to get your feet wet. Still, an offensive strategy engaged before such bad luck finds you will make the professional communicators in the organization very nervous. Why? Because communicators know better than anyone that humans are incapable of playing the game of telephone without dropping a syllable here and there even when they're trying to be helpful. So in both defensive and offensive stances, you need to get your messages out there in a way so people can repeat it, build on it and expound on it with the least likelihood for mistranslation.

Good theory - how to execute?

The best way to help someone help you is to make their job easier. When people are out yakking in the blogsphere about something, whether professional journalist or enthusiastic user, they like to show it off with pictures and video and blast it off with .wav files. They want to make it interesting with pithy facts and glitzy eye candy. So why not give them all that stuff on a platter and let them stitch it all together with their own special flair (which is what they really want to do anyway)? Why make them scrounge around for the material that makes you look good? This is essentially the reason the traditional press release was invented in the first place. But the press release in its original form was optimized to the primary media around when it was invented in 1906, the newspaper (yeah, I looked it up, isn't Google great?). Obviously, things have changed.

The Social Media Press Release updates this fundamental public relations tool and turns the simple no-frills text bulletin into a multimedia smorgasbord for professional and hobbiest social media commentators to crib from and reference. You'll notice in these examples from Ford's Digital Snippets about their products and corporate news that there is a ton more information than is typically available in the traditional press release; it's updateable and RSSable, and it provides a fair amount of spin and messaging along with data and information. I'm a little surprised they're not more integrated with the company's actual blogs - or that each SMPR doesn't' include a mini-blog itself to focus the dialog around these key news blasts, but maybe that's coming once people respond to this basic shift in format.

The best thing about the SMPR is that is embraces the shift in Web 2.0 from the one-to-many communications paradigm to the many-to-many communications paradigm  which Web 2.0 is making a reality. The SMPR accepts that other people will talk about you in their own voice and it enables that discussion in creative and useful ways that respect the ability and right of Web 2.0 discussants to create their own opinion, message and media - all while promoting the official messages in compelling ways. Kudos for PR firms like Social Media Group for exploring this new territory and bringing their clients along with them.

Acknowledgment: My thanks to Lindy Dreyer for bringing up the SMPR up on her blog last week so it gave me something to go on about this weekend.

EDIT: In comments, Lindy said: "...I've heard mixed messages about the way they are being used so far. I'm going to start researching pitfalls and successes...thoughts?" We should watch how this evolves. I'm always intrigued at how much online and offline patterns tend to mirror each other, although the tools we use to manage things are best if they are media/channel specific. So although I think the SMPR is a step forward in optimizing the work for Web 2.0, I would expect the pitfalls and successes to be similar to offline. When word-of-mouth works, it's great free exposure. When it backfires (whether for legit reasons or less than savory ones), the company will have to dig in and find out what went wrong and construct a reaction plan.

Your question prompted me to look up the terms of use/rights reservation language on Ford's Digital Snippets site. I'm going to look at it more carefully and maybe do another post on it in the future. This is fascinating territory since there clearly ARE potential pitfalls. Being an optimist I don't tend to lead with those, but they do bear looking into. Thanks for the discussion!

Comments

[Lindy Dreyer]

I like your argument "The best way to help someone help you is to make their job easier."
That's a fundamental part of word-of-mouth, and the SMR may become one of those essential WOM tools, like e-mail or business cards.

I'm really interested in the execution of these new releases. I've heard mixed messages about the way they are being used so far. I'm going to start researching pitfalls and successes...thoughts?

[Hayden]

Dana
Your thoughts coincide with mine and I like the way you structure your approach.
I also believe that the 100 year old press release format needs revising, but companies also need to revise how they measure PR and their brand reputation in the modern digital & fragmented communications world.

Control of the message is still a worry for clients, especially those who have not experienced a more decentralised and flexible method of engaging with their customers. It is therefore up to us to guide and reassure them that its ok, then to train them and then provide them with much support, training, landscape reviews, etc. as is necessary to stand alone.

In a simplistic analagy I used to a client recently, its the difference between riding a bike with stabilisers and not.... taking them off gives you far more freedom, but means you have the opportunity to crash far harder.

[Dana Theus]

Hayden:

You're right about having to guide our clients, though I usually learn as much from them as they do from me. Every challenge is unique and presents a new opportunity to apply the principals we're all learning as this new media explodes!

[John Redmond]

Web 2.0 is a term that dates from 2004. Based on Moore's Law, today you/we should be talking about Web > 4.0! Anyway, "social networking" is not the new new thing. Now that the money men and women are placing their bets, it will become (became?) SPAM. Look what happened to email.

John Redmond