CEO, PRs and Blogs: A Reprise

Bill French forwarded to me yesterday a post he has just written about "PR and its Role in CEO and Corporate Blogs."  In it, he quotes some comments I made last year on the CEO Bloggers Club in support of PR playing a role.  He quotes Jackie Danicki of the Big Blog Company as the con argument; she doesn't believe PR should play a role.  Neither Bill nor I agree.

Along the same lines, last night I had a great conversation with JanMarie Zwiren of Edelman about the New Communications Forum and our goals, and she said that she believes PR people are uniquely positioned to understand the relationships and cross-influences that flow around the online world and then to bring that knowledge to the CEO. I agree!  Of course, not all PR people yet grok how to do that, and that is why we've put together the Forum.

Each day brings more queries, more news, more case studies and more interest on the part of PR people about all of these new technologies.  As always, I would be very happy to talk to you about how your organization could benefit from blogging, wikis, RSS feeds, social networking, podcasting and other new tools.  Just drop me a line!

Update: Jackie (see comments below) has asked me to change this post as she quite firmly states that while she doesn't believe uninformed PR people should play a role, there is a role for PR people who understand blogging.  Her original quote:  "I just do not think that training people to blog is something that most PR people are knowledgeable enough to do. Yes, there are some who completely understand blogging, but in my experience they are rare."  Further explanation follows in comments.

I have reacted defensively to her and her colleagues (and others!) around the blogosphere several times over the past year or so, as there seems to be a strong bias out there against PR being involved in blogging.  I have seen too often the generalization/assumption (and I am not saying this is Jackie's or BBC's) is that PR is automatically about ham-handed lies and manipulation or that PR people (being technological luddites) cannot begin to learn these new technologies.  Drives me bananas, honestly.

Here is Bill's reaction to Jackie's quote above (I thought it would be useful to quote in full here):

Perhaps, but there was a time when CEO's had to be coached in how to use instant messaging (some still need it), how to write email, and how to use a telephone (hard to believe, but true). The CEO's involvement in blogging, and PR's need to assist, is simply evidence that blogging has become an extremely important strategic and [sometimes] tactical marketing and communications tool. My experience indicates that public relations people are taking to blogs like a duck to water.

"I think that teaching people to blog is best left to experienced bloggers with a proven track record." –Jackie Danicki

This is unrealistic—experienced bloggers typically lack other skills like an awareness of SEC regulations, the laws or rules of multi-national corporations, and sensitive corporate relations and legal affairs. Perhaps an experienced blogger that used to be a CEO might be able to help, but even that would be risky.

"If nothing else, why not let PR get on with its core competencies." –Jackie Danicki

The world of corporate communications is the core competency of PR and CEO's. Blogging just happens to be a useful technology to accelerate and improve the flow of information.

So, I hope this clears everything up. I have a policy not to change posts, but I will add additions, as I have done here.  I have also left the comments up so you can see the explanations.

Comments

[Jackie Danicki]

she doesn't believe PR should play a role

I'm surprised to be misrepresented on this, Elizabeth, as you and I have talked about it at length in person. Indeed, if you refer to Bill's article and his quotes from me, nowhere to I state that PR should not play a role in blogging. I'm sure it's an honest mistake on your part, so just to clarify:

I do not think that most PR people are presently informed enough about blogging to play a positive role in corporate blogging. For those PR people who are informed, I believe their role in a corporate blog should be limited - hands-off unless exceptional circumstances dictate otherwise - so as not to stifle the blogger's positive participation.

As Bill says, PR people are taking to blogging like ducks to water...Which is why I totally agree with Niall Cook's prediction that 2005 will see more bad corporate blogging than one can shake a stick at. It will be a cringeworthy show to watch, that's for sure.

[Elizabeth Albrycht]

Perhaps I overstated....apologies.

[Jackie Danicki]

It's there in black and white, Elizabeth - beyond overstating, my views have been misrepresented, no 'perhaps' about it. I would very much appreciate a correction to your post to reflect my actual views. I work hard with clued-up PR professionals in the realm of blogging, so not only is the claim that I don't believe PR should play a role untrue because everything I have written about the matter contradicts such a claim, but it is also demonstrably false when considering the work that I do and have done with PR people.

[Bill French]

Jackie:

[For those PR people who are informed, I believe their role in a corporate blog should be limited ...]

Okay - let me understand this - you believe PR people that aren't up to speed on blogging should be kept away, and for those few that *do* understand it, their role should be limited. I guess that means *all* PR folks should be sidelined from blog participation to some extent. I respect your viewpoint, but saying that blog writing should be left to bloggers is like saying only writers should be allowed to use word processors.

Imagine if that were the case when other tools (valuable to the PR function) were introduced. Let's start with computers. There was a time when PR folks were new to computers and word processors, yet I don't recall these technologies being embargoed until some degree of competency could be demonstrated.

"Step away from that telephone! Have you been coached on how to speak to the press over a telephone wire? - I didn't think so. You need to find someone that has spoken to the press over wires and have them speak for you before we let you touch that dialing crank!"

Somehow, I just don't think that conversation ever happened, and if it did, it's easy to see how absurd this notion is. ;-)

PR people should be free (and encouraged) to learn and make progress with new technologies and communications models.