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This is a bit of ‘old’ news for the ‘hard core’ Social Mediarists amongst us, but I figured that everyone could have a good laugh at CNN’s expense.

As Gawker points out,

Chez Pazienza, fired from CNN six months ago for his blogging, would “really like to let the subject of my untimely dismissal from CNN go once and for all.”

Instead, he has somehow gotten hold of CNN’s new blogging guidelines [chortle, chortle]. Yes, those guidelines:

“You know, the policy they didn’t have in place when they made the decision to fire me and a few others like me, and the one that I’ve openly criticized them for neglecting to enact and clarify?”

Herewith, for your education and enlightenment, a cutting from CNN’s Social Media policy (in full here):

We’ve gotten a number of questions from CNN staff wanting clarification of CNN policy on communicating publicly about our work, or on news or public affairs — on the internet. In Blogs. In Chatrooms. On video sharing sites. On social networking sites.

Below are some of the typical questions — and our answers. We hope this is helpful to everyone,

After reading — please don’t hesitate to call or email anyone at Standards and Practices if you have further questions. (See contact info below).

MOST IMPORTANT TO REMEMBER:

UNLESS GIVEN PERMISSION BY CNN MANAGEMENT, CNN EMPLOYEES ARE TO AVOID TAKING PUBLIC POSITIONS ON THE ISSUES AND PEOPLE AND ORGANIZATIONS ON WHICH WE REPORT.

The best rule of thumb is, keep in mind whether what you are doing or saying is “in public.” In most cases, what you write online is public or can be made public.

CAN I COMMENT IN A CHAT ROOM?

It depends on what you’re commenting on. A chat room is, of course, a public place. If you identify yourself, or could in any way be identified, then you should not comment on anything CNN reports on. Remember, even though you don’t say who you are, someone else might reveal your identity. AND if you’re discussing things that are in the news, keep in mind you could be seen as representing CNN, and therefore you should not comment on the issues CNN covers.

HOW ABOUT MYSPACE, FACEBOOK OR OTHER SOCIAL NETWORKING SITES?

Again, on these sites only write about something CNN would not report on. Don’t list preferences regarding political parties or newsmakers that are the subject of CNN reporting. Local issues that CNN wouldn’t report on would be OK. And of course private communication with friends or family about issues that aren’t in the news is fine. If you are not sure, ask your supervisor or S&P for parameters on posting. (S&P contact info is listed below).

Also keep in mind that you should not be commenting or writing about what goes on in the workplace at CNN without specific approval by CNN senior managers. For example, in some cases there have and will be exceptions made to have some staff get information out to an outside audience on platforms like Twitter about our upcoming coverage plans.

But without those approved exceptions, your workplace activity is proprietary and so you should not be writing on these sites about what goes on behind the scenes here at CNN.

CAN I POST MY WORK ON YOUTUBE, PODCASTS OR OTHER VIDEO SHARING SITES?

You should not post any CNN material online unless it is approved. Likewise, if you make a short video on your own time, if there’s any question about it being something that CNN might air, first ask someone before posting it. And again, if the subject touches on anything you might cover or CNN reports or may report on, you should likely stay away from it. If it is a close call, ask your supervisor or S&P.

HOW ABOUT SECOND LIFE?

CNN’ers are encouraged to visit Second Life, just keep in mind it’s a public place and the same rules (listed above) apply as they would to “real” public life.

CAN I HAVE MY OWN WEBSITE OR BLOG?

Yes. But you should notify your supervisor about it, to have it cleared as a non-conflict for your work. Your supervisor may choose to then have it cleared at another level or by S&P. And again, you shouldn’t post commentary on anything you might cover in your work or CNN may report on, or write about the CNN workplace or post CNN material without permission by a senior CNN manager.

WHAT ABOUT FREELANCE EMPLOYEES AND INTERNS?

Supervisors should make sure freelancers and interns read this policy now — or on their first day going forward — and commit to following it.

In case you missed it: “And again, you shouldn’t post commentary on anything you might cover in your work or CNN may report on, or write about the CNN workplace or post CNN material without permission by a senior CNN manager.” Well, that’s just about everything, then.

You have been warned.

Anyone still want to work for them?

Filed under: PR, Second Life, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, blogging, podcasting, politics, public speaking, tools, videoblog
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This has been a-mullin’ and a-musin’ around in what some laughably call my brain for a little while now.

My friend and colleague-in-arms Trevor Cook wrote an op-ed piece for the ABC’s ‘Unleashed’ site about the seeming death of social media in Australia. Robert X. Cringely argued that Social Media is just CB Radio by another name.

Trevor argues that the Australian blogosphere, or the larger ‘Social Media’ environment in Australia, is not so much dying for a lack of trying but that it is exhausted from burning too many candles at both ends and starving to death from a lack of income.

As a meme this is nothing new — we’ve been around this particular park before. But Trevor makes some compelling points in his piece:

"In those heady days, American online gurus Shel Israel and Robert Scoble rallied the believers with "Naked Conversations", a dewy-eyed book-length version of the geek vision-splendid. But last week, Israel blogged a more sobering update:

"There seems to be a growing sense that social media just ain’t what it used to be that it too, is starting to emerge as yet another wasteland for product pushers and shameless self promoters."

"As social networks get bigger they lose their cosy clubbiness and can feel more like a business networking function where ‘product pushers’ keep crashing your conversations or snubbing you in favour of more popular attendees."

Very true.

Trevor goes on to quote arguably Australia’s most successful blogger, Darren Rowse:

"…when I first started blogging (it’ll be six years ago later in the year) there was a real community spirit among bloggers and the idea of bloggers helping bloggers was something most people seemed to embrace.

The blogosphere is a different place now in many ways. For starters there are a lot more blogs. There is almost a bigger focus upon blogging as a business tool and the idea of making money online in general."

But whilst I agree with Darren and Trevor that the communitarian spirit of blogging is potentially slipping away due to a lack of time available to focus on it, I think Darren is also being gently ambidextrous; after all, B5media (the blogging network he helped form) was created entirely to make money ("blogging for benjamins" as my main man Jenkins so eruditely puts it), and Darren has no shortage of adverts on his site (nor do I, either — we both need to eat).

And let us not forget that my own research is based on the premise that it is the solo entrepreneurs who define any new communication space and find ways of making money out of it.

But back to the issue of Aussie Social Media’s death…

Steven Lewis highlights what I and Allan Jenkins found over eighteen months ago — that podcasting is hard work. Goodness knows how Shel and Neville still manage to do it!

Time was when I had plenty of time to read my feeds of a morning and keep up a daily conversation with Trevor via our blogs. These days I’m so busy I barely have time to read my favourite authors (and he is one) more than once or twice a week. I haven’t listened to a single podcast in well over three months.

Josh Hallett wrote about the lack of time almost exactly a year ago:

"I used to blog quite a bit in what could loosely be termed the ‘thought leadership’ vein….that was commentary on this evolving world of social media. It was great for business development, but then I ended up getting busy, too busy to blog :-)"

One of his commenters agreed:

"Completely empathize with you. I had dinner tonight with an old blogging friend and we talked about how tired we are of "blogs" being this term of wonderment. We can hardly find time to read our favorite blogs, let alone update ours anymore, because we are scanning facebook, checking our Twitter and working like crazy. We reminisced about the old days of Diaryland. Those were the first blogs, where we had our first glimpse at what life was like for someone else just like us, but across the country or around the world. It was so excited to read the daily life of someone in Canada or Sweden! Now, it’s all old hat…Now, it’s our work!"

I find this dilemma in my own professional/academic life.

I am taking time out to re-skill in what I believe will be an important development or ‘next stage’ of the internet: the 3d virtual web. I am supposed to be blogging intensely about my research as part of my research (I know that’s a tautology, but I’m using a method that I have named autoethnetnography).

But to keep the biggest wolves from the door I still have to earn some money, and consulting work is the most lucrative and where I derive the most self-actualising ‘kicks’. However, to maintain a ‘profile’ within the Australian social media space I need to continue posting on this blog, otherwise my readership goes down and with it my Technorati authority.

Okay, we shall leave aside all discussions on which metric is ‘best’ for the moment. Let us assume that ‘less blogging = less exposure’ amongst conference organisers and seminar/workshop designers.

As an example of this, there will shortly be a major Marketing Conference here in Adelaide where some of the sessions are on areas that I believe I have much to contribute (perhaps more than the actual speaker). But I was not even on the radar of the organisers, despite thinking (perhaps delusionally*) that I sit in the Marcomms space.

Conversely, a roadshow conference for senior HR managers and directors approached me to talk about social media — I never would have thought I’d be on the radar of HR people! And judging by the one big burning question that delegates to my seminars and workshops always have, there’s seemingly no shortage of interest in the perennial question of how to get Social Media onto the radar of CEOs and the ROI issue past the CFOs and bean counters.

Thus the paradox: to ensure that I can continue to research and study I need to earn occasional dollars, of which consulting in ‘Social Media’ is the most enjoyable, both for me and my audiences (judging by the feedback I receive).

But to earn those dollars I need to continue blogging, which takes time and effort (particularly time). If, as Trevor suggests, we are merely muttering in an echo chamber, then should I not bother anymore and instead devote my time to my studies?

Trevor, who like me is also conducting doctoral research, still finds time to think and write (but then again I still had plenty of time on my hands in my first year; it’s the second year of the program that really sucks your time up, according to colleagues further along the research track than I).

There is also the research that shows that blogging can help those afflicted with depression.

If I stopped blogging here except for the occasional post, would anyone miss me? Would I be forgotten? Allan Jenkins hasn’t posted anything in months, but does my desire to read him diminish over time? Certainly not. His is still the first of the feeds I check when I eventually *do* get to read my feeds.

Would I be better off focusing on my research and repositioning myself for the next wave of internet communication (with my hopes pinned on the coat-tails of the Web3D Consortium)?

I have noticed an increase in interest (albeit small) in Second Life again — I’m getting more emails from SME organisations wanting to know more about it and interesting requests to present about it.

I don’t know what the answer is; I don’t know if the answer will remain the same in twelve months’ time as it might be now. Trevor and I arguably set the agenda for PR practitioners and agencies in Australia and perhaps now is an apt time to hand the reins over to a new generation of PR-focused bloggers while we busy ourselves with pursuits of a slightly different nature. Your thoughts, Trev?

Note: this post, including the images, took over four hours to research, write and edit.

And the reference to the ShinyWeb2.0Desk™ in the image at the top of this post is a homage to the wonderful huh?corp and duhcorp satirical sites.

——————-

*The teenage child of a dear friend has just been diagnosed as schizophrenic, so I have been reading up on the condition. One of the effects is delusions — perhaps of grandeur, perhaps of paranoia. Maybe *I* am schizophrenic? And "No", I am most definitely NOT belittling the condition!

Filed under: PR, Second Life, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, academic research, blogging, marketing, micro-blogging, podcasting, public speaking, videoblog
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My good friend the Divine Miss M, aka Heidi Miller, recently pointed out that there is a potential hierarchy of communication skills required in social media.

Referencing an article by the big bad bald man in black Mitch Joel, Heidi agreed with Mitch’s argument that blogging as an entity will not be killed off by Twitter-like micro-blogging.

I agree, and for additional reasons to the ones that Heidi & Mitch give.

For me (here and here Heidi is spot on, albeit that the latter is from a later post), the ‘passion’ is the key to whatever vehicle you choose to use. Those of us who feel natural behind a keyboard and ‘at home’ with long-form text will continue to compose to suit the blogging format. Especially those who love including “offbeat 50s images” in their posts [ a loving tip of the Akubra to you, Miss Heidi ].

Those, like Heidi, whose preferred communication style is to talk, will continue to excel at podcasting and vidcasting.

Those, like @JJProjects, who prefer the rapid machine-gun rapport of micro-blogging will continue to Twitter and show their mastery of their weapon of choice.

The important point for us is that we use the tool that most suits us and our style.

Just as there’s no point trying to get a non-communicative CEO to start blogging, there’s no point trying to use a tool and channel that uses skills not ordinarily part of your personal repertoire.

Naturally, there is nothing wrong with stretching, growing, developing, and adopting new skills. But be honest with yourself — if you don’t have the time and the self-esteem to vidblog (bearing in mind that video blogging can take ages to get right, far longer than text blogging or audio podcasting) then don’t commit yourself to it and your audience to expect it.

As one of the signs I have hanging on the walls here at BetterComms Towers says, “You don’t know what you can’t do until you try”, but be honest with yourself about your strengths and weaknesses when you first attempt to enter this brave new communication landscape.

Once you feel comfortable with one tool/channel, then branch out and try something new. Okay? And let me know how you get on…

Filed under: blogging, ethics, micro-blogging, podcasting, tools, videoblog
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Gavin Heaton raises an important point over on his blog: that ‘expert’ is a very meaning-ridden word.

We are living in a time where the acquisition of knowledge is occurring at ever increasing speed. Thanks to search engines like Google and to personal knowledge networks like Twitter, we can all find, relatively quickly a preliminary answer to the trickiest of problems. For example, if I want to know how to write a social media release, I will find good quality links to Todd Defren, Lee Hopkins, a case study by Geoff Livingston and even a webinar by Des Walsh. I could also comb back through my own del.icio.us bookmarks (or those of others), or I could reach out to my personal knowledge network (aka Twitter) — or just enlist the charming Connie Reece.

None of this makes me an expert.

Gavin goes on to say,

How then can I, in all honesty, advise clients/companies/ anyone about "social media"?

What I do have is experience, access to people who are way smarter than me, an openness to learning new things and an ability to bear a certain amount of risk. I try before I buy. Oh, and I have failed, and even embarrassed myself.

I claim no expertise in social media … I am continually learning too much (and working on shifting ground) to consider myself anything other than a charlatan. And I have taken the words of Connie Reece to heart — "If someone tells you they are a social media expert, run".

Now, I personally don’t agree with Connie on this point (and as Connie is a very skilfull communicator herself and one who I would call an ‘expert’ she knows that we agree to disagree on this, but still adore each other’s minds and wisdom).

I think being an ‘expert’ is no great ‘con’, as Gavin and Connie would say.

But I agree that the word ‘expert’ can be bandied about with complete abandon and recklessness of ethic.

If someone comes to you proclaiming ‘expertise’ in anything, please please please do your homework.

Read their blog (assuming they have one), listen to their podcasts, google them, find out who links to them and who they link to (who you keep company with says much about you).

And as for Gavin, I respect him immensely for both his writing skills and his honesty. He’s one of those rare folks with whom I’d enjoy sharing some of Sydney’s finest coffee.

Filed under: PR, blogging, customer service, ethics, podcasting, videoblog
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My favourite Sydney PR agency Text100 have just wrapped up an Asia-Pacific survey of bloggers [pdf report], asking them what they wanted and how they preferred to be contacted.

Personally, my own demands are few and quite logical:

• Copious bottles of Verve Cliq in order to motivate me to read any of your press releases
• Free business class flights and appropriate accommodation to meet with you once a quarter so you can avail me of more of your clients’ stuff
• Copious fawning and bowing at my feet from the most attractive female members of your staff.

Having been assured by Antonia Christie at Text100 that these simple demands will be met each time we meet, I then studied the raw data and findings that Antonia ’secret squirreled’ to me.

Here’s some key stuff:

• We want to be treated professionally, not just as an electronic deposit box for your endless releases
• We want to build up a long-term relationship with you, Mr/Ms Agency, therefore please start a conversation with us before you hammer our inboxes
• Be a part of the blogging community that you wish to engage with. If you don’t know who and what the key players and key issues are, we won’t take you seriously
• Be the appropriate person from your organisation to contact us — that is, the person who is actually close to this issue, not some office junior fresh out of his/her undergrad PR degree
• The Social Media News Release [video introduction to SMNR] is key to gaining our respect. Use it, or lose it
• The majority of us actually do have some ethics, and would therefore honour an embargo. You will figure out over time who won’t (and the ethical amongst us would expect you to not contact them again)
• Similarly, the majority of us do believe in disclaimers — that is, if you throw some kit and kaboodle our way, we will more than likely disclose that fact so there’s no hidden conflict of interest. Oh, and never request the return of products you send us for review — the vast majority (99.985%) of us do this for love, not money, and we don’t have the time and money to repackage everything and send it back to you.

I guess the standout, one sentence précis of this is:

It is crucial for PR people to know their target,
know what they are interested in,
offer them unique information,
and know how they like to be engaged with

There’s a whole lot more in the final report, including the stats breakdown and stuff, and even video reports.

Jeremy Woolf, Text100’s Peer Media ‘lead’ (whatever that is - see note about jargon below), offers advice and tips on how to engage with bloggers following the results of the Text 100 APAC Blogger Survey, all of which are YouTube vids:

• Jeremy unveils why this survey interests PRs
• This is a unique survey to APAC
• Jeremy provides tips to engage with bloggers
• Jeremy discusses what bloggers want

One interesting finding from the textual analysis (as distinct from the purely quantitative stuff) is this comment:

“Those who contact me should not be lost in their own jargon”

Wise words, indeed, and something we ALL as business communicators should remember!

One of my very own academic colleagues, Michael Netzley in Singapore, offered the following thought about the survey:

The survey showed that effective PR agencies need to make social media part of their DNA. …To succeed, PR professionals must increasingly become grounded in social media.

Many thanks to the be-lurgied but assuredly still gorgeous Antonia for giving me a sneak peek at the results.

You can read Text100’s news release and download the pdf report.

Currently playing on the trusty teak-walnut laminate BetterComms radiogramme: ‘Mr Siegal’ by Tom Waits. Classic line: "How do the angels get to sleep when the Devil leaves his porch light on?"

Filed under: PR, blogging, podcasting, tools
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One of my favourite academics is Manuel Castells. He’s currently a professor of communication and the first Wallis Annenberg endowed Chair of Communication and Technology at the Annenberg School for Communication at the University of Southern California (’USC’ as you Americans probably know it better).

His three-volume set is considered the most important works on communication and social dynamics/economics of this era.

No less a figure than Anthony Giddens wrote:

It would not be fanciful to compare the work to Max Weber’s "Economy and Society."

• Volume 1: The Rise of the Network Society, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, and Malden, MA), 1996.
• Volume 2: The Power of Identity, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, and Malden, MA), 1997.
• Volume 3: End of Millennium, Blackwell Publishers (Oxford, and Malden, MA), 1998.

Another reviewer wrote:

may be the most important analysis of the interaction between the technology, economics, politics, and religion ever produced

So it was with delight that I read a passage in Clay Shirky’s latest opus, Here Comes Everybody, which reflected a passage I often quote from one of Castells’ articles.

Castells wrote:

The emergence of mass self-communication offers an extraordinary medium for social movements and rebellious individuals to build their autonomy and confront the institutions of society in their own terms and around their own projects. Naturally, social movements are not originated by technology, they use technology. But technology is not simply a tool, it is a medium, it is a social construction, with its own implications. Furthermore, the development of the technology of self-communication is also the product of our culture, a culture that emphasizes individual autonomy, and the self-construction of the project of the social actor.
(2007:249)

This ties in nicely with a passage in Shirky’s book:

Communications tools don’t get socially interesting until they get technologically boring. The invention of a tool doesn’t create change; it has to have been around long enough that most of society is using it. It’s when a technology becomes normal, then ubiquitous, and finally so pervasive as to be invisible, that the really profound changes happen, and for young people today, our new social tools have passed normal and are heading to ubiquitous, and invisible is coming.
(2008:105)

Agree with me? The two tie together nicely. And I would have agreed with Clay, until recently.

But a generation of ‘yoof’ who you would think would ‘get it’ have shown me that they don’t (although that may be a cultural artifact).

Undergrads involved in a 2008 web design and multimedia course were split roughly 30:30:40 over their ‘enjoyment/take-it-or-leave-it/definitely leave it’ of web2.0 and 3D virtual worlds.

This tallies with a surprise finding of mine in 2007 when addressing a class of final year undergrads here in Adelaide: most had never heard of a ‘blog’, had heard of YouTube but had never posted a video themselves, had never heard of a podcast or listened to one, and ALL got their news from the one local newspaper, several co-owned radio stations and the four terrestrial television stations.

These were the famed ‘digital natives’: those for whom this new technology is supposed to be genetically embedded and who should know how to redesign a WordPress blog in their sleep.

Some of we oldies (aka ‘digital immigrants’), meanwhile, DO know how to wrangle with this new technology (given enough time, a good set of instructions and plenty of pure malt).

At a conference I presented at on the weekend we discussed this ‘digital native/digital immigrant’ nonsense and hopefully helped some of the delegates realise that age is irrelevant in this new communication landscape — attitude is what is important.

Perhaps the reason why some of we ‘immigrants’ are able to grasp and appreciate this new technology is because we have been around the block enough times to recognise something fundamentally ground-shifting when it comes along.

Radio found its ground shifted by television; television was ground-shifted by the ‘phase one’ internet. Perhaps ‘phase two’ and its ground-shifting power can only be recognised by those who have a little bit of history under their paunches belts.

———————

Castells, M. 2007, Communication, Power and Counter-power in the Network Society, International Journal of Communication, 1 (2007), 238-266

Shirky, C. 2008, Here Comes Everybody. Camberwell, Vic: Allen

Filed under: PR, blogging, micro-blogging, miscellaneous, podcasting, tools
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As my final paragraph says: you only have yourself to blame.

Shel Holtz recently reported on a presentation he sat through.

Well, perhaps ‘sat through’ is the wrong term; ‘sat riveted and spell-bound’ might be closer to the truth.

I have seen the future. Advertisers and marketers should be afraid. Very afraid.

I spent today with a client. It was an interactive session with members of the company’s communications team, but during the last couple hours, the group watched a presentation by students from Emerson College, finalists in this year’s National Student Advertising Competition, sponsored by the American Advertising Federation.

The presentation I saw—one of several trial runs before the students head to the finals in Atlanta on June 8 and 9—was one of the best I’ve seen in years. These kids—who have already made it through several rounds of competition—put on a 20-minute pitch that rivals the best I’ve seen from polished professionals with years of experience. From their personal delivery to their presentation support materials, to the written plan, their work could compete—and win—against any agency out there.

All of which is beside the point. The point is their organic understanding of the way social media and traditional communication have integrated. They’re not gushing enthusiasts proclaiming social media this and social media that. Social media is just part of their lives and they understand the way they—and the target demographic established for them by the competition rules—use these tools as day-to-day vehicles for communication.

And these kids nailed it. Sure, there were some quibbles and ideas for improvement here and there, but they nailed it. If I could package these students up and bring them with me, I’d put them in front of every communication leadership team I meet and say, “See? This is what I’m talking about.”

Some agencies will be very lucky to hire these kids. A smart one would hire them as a team, but I doubt there are any quite that smart.

There are two possible outcomes of the competition next week. The Emerson team could win, and I suspect they have an excellent chance. Or, they could lose, which has even more significant implications. If they lose, it means the Emerson team isn’t a fluke, a rare combination of raw talent guided by a savvy professor. It means there are a lot of advertising and marketing students poised to assume positions in agencies and companies where they can bring their organic understanding of the new media world to bear. They can work on campaigns based on their innate understanding of new communication models.

For all those communicators putting off learning about social media, hesitating, resisting, this is very bad news. You could quickly become expendable as agencies populate their ranks with those who (and I really do hate using this phrase) “get it.” [emphasis is mine - Lee]

That last paragraph sums it up for me. I’ve been saying this for a long time, but perhaps you will listen if someone else says it: if YOU don’t get up to speed with these new technologies and this new communication landscape, then those coming in underneath you will. They will take your job from under you.

If, as a business communicator, you are irrelevant to your company then why should you continue to receive your salary? Say goodbye to your nice house, your nice car, your kids’ private educations, your wine cellar, your holidays on Hamilton Island.

You only have yourself to blame.

Filed under: PR, Second Life, Second Life & 3D virtual worlds, blogging, customer service, ethics, internal communications, marketing, micro-blogging, podcasting, public speaking, tools, videoblog
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Further to my rant the other day about the cluelessness of PR agencies in Australia, a fevered series of emails has crashed into your humble correspondent’s inbox.

Most of them are from agency seniors who took umbrage at my labelling of them. However, as they are all very experienced practitioners, they framed their comments in positive, non-combative language, which is fabulous and shows why they are at the top of the tree.

In distilling the wisdom from their communications I came to the following conclusions:

• PR and communication agencies ARE discussing Web2.0 with their clients, and these clients ARE interested.
• Of the many tactical solutions to communication challenges both within and outside an organisation, social media initiatives are not the quickest, simplest or cheapest. So, as Anthony Hasluck from Clarity says, "other things are being done first."
• Social media initiatives are resource intensive (no news there) and not everyone wants to contribute. This is something I have always said — only about ten percent of any population group will be content creators (‘prosumers’ in the new lexicon), the others will be the consumers and only a small percentage of these folks will actually ‘spread the news’.
• We are all time-poor — consultant, employer and employee alike. This creates two challenges: 1) no one has time to create and add additional material to their intranet/extranet/ internet/web2.0 offering without some other task having to be sacrificed; and 2) few people have the luxury of time to read blogs, listen to podcasts, watch vidcasts, contribute to wikis, etc.
   
  Yet I argue that spending 15 minutes a day skim-reading through the headlines in your rss feed reader (FeedDemon, say, or Google Reader) can give you a personal edge over your competitors (even if they are in the same office as you), as well as enhance your life. You may be Joanne Juniper, the Accounts Junior, and think that blogs and stuff are irrelevant to you in your current role, but what about a future role? Wouldn’t it be handy to have knowledge about industry trends, about possible future employers, about what the industry pundits think will be the implications of a piece of legislature the Government is considering introducing?
   
  You may have the luxury of driving yourself to work each day, but as fuel prices increase that luxury may not last; car pooling, public transport (woeful as it usually is) and even home-working will become larger features in your life. So while you are sitting in the passenger seat in the pool car, or sitting on the bus, train or tram, or saving yourself that hour-long commute by wandering over to your laptop in your pyjamas, you have the opportunity to update yourself on the incredible world you live in.
   
  I also appreciate the resistance from employees who feel imposed upon if they are ‘encouraged’ to contribute. They probably won’t get paid for it, nor rewarded in any way. This is an issue we touched on in a recent edition of Mark Jones’ superb podcast ‘The Scoop’ (the most subscribed-to and downloaded business podcast in Australia, according to iTunes). There is no doubt this is a management headache.
   
  But if it were such a headache how have companies like British Telecom, American Electric Power, ING, National Research Council of Canada, IBM, Microsoft, Nortel, Altana and many more solved it, because those companies have high participation rates in their internal web2.0 initiatives? 
   
  [More details about these initiatives in the Melcrum report ‘How to use social media to engage employees’, to which I contributed some material.]
• PR and communication agencies are atrocious at self-promotion. This is probably more of a general cultural problem than one particular to our industry; we have that ‘British’ reluctance to ‘blow our own trumpet’ lest we be seen as egomaniacal. But if the industry reached out to the pundits, such as your humble scribe, to let them know what work IS being done, then we ALL (agency and general industry reader alike) would be able to puff out our collective chests in pride, certainly more so than the industry does at the moment, what with one ethical and reputational scandal after another.
   
  Perhaps the agencies could make more of a ‘blogger outreach’ effort to keep folks like me informed.

I thank all of the folks who emailed me to join in this discussion, and who contributed to the comments in my previous post about this. I particularly thank Anthony Hasluck from Clarity Communications and Antonia Christie from Text100 for their insights, views and hopes about this issue.

I close with Anthony’s closing comments in one of his many erudite emails to me (from sunny downtown Seattle, no less!):

I understand your frustration but a lot of people do actually "get it" with blogs. They are just not going to "do it" right now.

The solution, find some way of turning off all the other electronic crap everyone gets hit with in their daily lives and then blogs may come into their own.

A lovely idea, but it will probably never happen, so we’d just better get used to finding ways of filtering the information and receiving it in ways that work for us (and acknowledging that what works for me may not work for you, and what works for me one day may not work for me the next).

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Related posts: The state of comms in corporate Australia and Why don’t Aussie PR companies get it?

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