World's most beautiful geraniums - one, originally uploaded by The River Thief. Copyright Ruth Seeley 2008
Since social media and Web 2.0 are all about engagement and dialogue rather than top-down message delivery - which is, essentially, monloguing - I thought I would do a brief post about engaging graciously with one's audiences.
I came across Leo Bottary's blog when looking through the questions relating to public relations posed on LinkedIn - he had asked if there was a way to make PowerPoint presentations less deadly (my hyperbolic phrasing there), and I pertly answered that I believe Pecha Kucha is the answer - six slides, 20 seconds per slide, and you're out. Much to my surprise, I later found myself on the June honour roll on his blog - a lovely example of acknowledging one's readers. Leo and I were colleagues at the same firm, but he wasn't one with whom I'd worked directly or with whom I'd even corresponded during my stint at H&K. I'm not saying we're all wonderful, but it's certainly a huge talent pool of professionals who have benefited greatly from the resources, continuing education, and professional development opportunities made available to staff. I have to say I agree with him - basic social skills (including use of the 'magic words') are kinda key to this medium and should be a requirement for folks working in public relations.* And it's nice to see that Web 2.0 is more about standing up and being counted than the empowerment of anonymity we saw with Web 1.0.
Next up: my former boss Boyd Neil, whose blog can be found here, or through the links I've provided. A crisis communications and corporate reputation management expert at H&K, Boyd did something I think few people can, which was to build a department from an extremely motley crew of inherited staff with, shall we say, varying levels of ability. That's one tough gig. Coming across Boyd's original blog was actually what got me off (or onto) my ass to start blogging myself. The premise for his original blog was Proustian. Even though writing is a large part of what he does for a living, he had more to say on a variety of subjects, and his subject matter was not trivial. I was following his Air Canada complaint saga closely but with a rather hopeless feeling: having requested a gluten-free meal they sabotaged him on a flight to Europe and he was sick for days afterwards. As someone who's had a variety of food allergies throughout the course of her life and has been astonished to see food allergies given less respect and attention by servers than religious dietary restrictions, I would have been falling all over myself to grovel at the mistake I'd made if I were Air Canada. But no....
When I alerted him to the fact that a link he'd posted wasn't working, I got a very gracious acknowledgment from him. When we worked together I appreciated Boyd's professionalism so much and was frequently amused by the fanatical grammarian in him. I don't think I've convinced him that those who regulate the English language (I think it's the OED folks, but I'm a little hazy on this) have conceded on the split infinitive front (it had to have been all those Star Treks, no? After you've heard 'to boldly go' seven million times you have to accept that you're never going to be able to maintain an 'infinitives must not be split' stance - better to choose your battles wisely and just stick to refusing to permit sentences that end with prepositions, a battle we can win).
The third example, and the original motivation for this post, was this exchange I discovered on the CBC web site, in which Esther Enkin, the executive news editor, discusses why CBC chose not to air the latest Bernardo video in its entirety. It's an excellent example of how to deal with diversity of opinion without compromising the stance your organization has taken. And if you read it, you'll see that the tone of the questions actually maps to the gracious tone Esther displays throughout.
Happy reading, all.
* If only they were - I came as close to death as I ever have when I watched in horror as a junior colleague once - gasp - picked his nose in the middle of a major presentation to a major client we'd been trying to win for nearly a year. I have never prayed so fervently to Scottie to beam me up as at that moment.
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2 comments:
Let's hope your potential client was selling nose hair removers or handkerchiefs. Thanks for the nod, and if you're still in touch with Boyd, please say hello for me. We were fellow bloggers on Collective Conversation (where the Canadians put us Americans to shame by the way) and I continue to read his insights at his current blog Intangibles. Thanks for introducing me to your blog as well. I'll be sure to keep reading!
If only it had been nasal accessories, Leo. It was quite the pitch, with a very senior member of staff also interrupting the planned sequence by flourishing the front page of the Globe and Mail about 10 minutes before we got to the 'and we can get you excellent media coverage' portion of the pitch - sometimes you can dress 'em up but you still can't take 'em anywhere, leaving the rest of us wondering whether we should skip ahead 10 slides on the PowerPoint and backtrack later or just ignore him.
I'd love to see some stats on number of bloggers by nation - they always used to say that Canadians spent more time talking on the telephone than any other nation, and I was left to ponder whether that was because we just like to gossip (I mean talk) more than others, a result of our wonderful (albeit expensive) telephone infrastructure, or whether it was because we just live in such a vast country that visiting is difficult.
Boyd keeps threatening to have coffee with me when he next gets to Vancouver but it hasn't happened yet. London, south of France, Vancouver - well, I guess I can understand why Vancouver isn't winning that contest. :)
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