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Some of the email communication I’ve received about my ‘Project Management in 72 hours’ post (and here) has focused on the (erroneous) requirement of corporate communicators to know every tool, and know them inside out.
Far from it!
The fantastic thing about the community that has sprung up around the Nobodies meme is that no one person is a proclaimed (or otherwise) expert on everything, but that different people are great at different things. Prior to the Nobodies, I already had my own squidoo lens and thus had some idea on how to set one up, but two of the Nobodies were no doubt vastly more adept at manipulating it than I — Henriette Weber Anderson and Linda Zimmer.
Similarly, in a soon-to-be-launched pan-global initiative, Sallie Goetsch, Donna Papacosta and I are launching a podcasting consultancy service to corporates. Now, each of us has different skills and abilities — research, writing, presentation, multimedia mixing, voice production, inter alia — so between us we believe we can create something of use to corporate communicators. Obviously I’m not going to start pitching for work in Canada, and I’m sure Sallie won’t be attempting to pick up clients in Australia (of course, we would welcome the opportunity to fly anywhere in the world for you! We are, after all, reassuringly expensive 
).
The whole point of mentioning this, and why it links into my previous ‘Project Management in 72 hours’ post, is that you don’t need to know everything about Web2.0 yourself — you just need to know the people who are Subject Matter Experts (SMEs). I know that if one of my clients has an urgent need for assistance in, say, Canada, then a quick phone call or email to Donna P and I have ‘people on the ground’ ready to go. Same with just about any western country — a cry for help is met with assistance in our little marcoms/pr community.
I don’t need to know everything about every location any of my clients deal in — I just need to tap into the SMEs already in place.
The same goes with your own company’s crisis management plan. You don’t need to know everything — you just need to know the people who do.
{ 8 comments… read them below or add one }
Lee,
The thing that has amazed me the most as I have ventured into blogging, and recently podcasting, is how generous individuals have been in offering me help. I am certainly no techie, yet by demonstrating a desire to learn and a willingness to ask others more qualified than I (and those people always exist) I have managed to get by quite nicely.
Corporate Communicators don’t need to know how to use every tool out there, but the moment that they categorically dismiss any one tool, they have sold their client short. Just because you don’t understand it, or can’t do it, doesn’t make it wrong.
Practitioners need to be willing to learn, willing to try and willing to ask for help when necessary.
You are SOOOO right, Jeffrey. Dismissing a tool as inappropriate (like wikis in a crisis, for example) is foolish and short0-sighted, both for the client AND for the consultant (in-house or external). I agree with you that the lovely thing about the blogosphere (at least in my experience, too) is that 98% of the time a request for help does not go unanswered if at all possible.
Thanks for your thoughts, Jeffrey!
I would second Jeffrey’s comments. I, personally, stepped timidly into the blogsphere a few months ago. The patience bloggers had, and still have (!) with my lack of techie knowlege is amazing. As long as you admit what you don’t know, other bloggers will help you along. Lee is one of those eternally patient souls who has certainly helped me along. As always, thank you, Lee.
Oh, Donna… thank you for the very kind comments! But it is only good manners, really, to help out others rather than slam them. Perhaps a course in etiquette should be mandatory for bloggers so other newbies don’t suffer the same as you originally did {smile}.
I also think that how you are asked is also important; approach someone respectfully and you will get a better response than just dropping into their email inbox and almost demanding a reply. As always, relationships are the key — start a relationship first, *then* ask for help.
That said, your constant teases with snippets of gossip about House could very well undermine our relationship — the tension is almost unbearable, as the network here plays one old episode, one new episode, one old episode… Are you SURE series 2 isn’t out on dvd yet????? {huge smile}
I’ll make you a promise. If we finish our season long before you do and House comes out on DVD before your season is over, I’ll get it and FedEx it down to you!
I think the networks are all in a conspiracy…they want to torture people. I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid a season was from Sept. - May. The only break they had was around Christmas for holiday shows and such. That might have been two weeks. Then right back at it. None of this 3 week break in the fall after only 3 new episodes, then weeks and weeks off after the first of the year…then another break in March. What is up with that? I’d like their schedules!
Having said that, next week’s episode seems really good…only a few more left before the end of the season!
And I, in return, would reimburse you for all your expenses (dvd, fedex, taxi to/from dvd shop, cappuccino whilst waiting for fedex man/woman to arrive, etc) if you were to do that.
What a wonderful thing the internet is for making new friends and resolving international tension, hey?
Mind you, if Fox are going to allow downloads the next day of the previous night’s shows, what will that do to …well, everything — dvd box set sales, foreign networks who paid millions for the rights to broadcast and get undermined by peer-to-peer sharing…
well, the whole world should be one big virtual office shouldn’t it ? Im working on it *s*
In which case, when it is one big office, Henriette, I look forward to catching up for a coffee!