Let’s start at ground zero: Markets are Conversations. You’ve probably heard that before -- it’s thesis #1 in the popular book The Cluetrain Manifesto. But what does that catchphrase really mean, and why should you care? Most importantly, why does it mean you should probably fire your PR firm and hire a smarter one or do it yourself.

Markets exist largely because people talk. Although we like to think of ourselves as free-thinking individuals, in fact we rely on other people to do a fair amount of scouting and evaluating for us. Even when we disagree, our views influence each other because they set context. This conversational context strongly affects all kinds of choices -- from which products we buy to which opinions we hold.

What people say to each other in a market context usually matters far more than any advertising message or branding/PR strategy. If the market conversation turns against you or dismisses you, all the brand awareness in the world won’t save you.

If you are a public relations or brand expert, you’d better believe this, or start looking for a new career.

Is PR Dead?

...I’m not saying that PR is dead, or worthless. In fact, smart individual PR practitioners and smart agencies are more valuable today than ever before. However, the context that PR operates within has shifted radically. For those of you in the profession this represents an opportunity to reignite your passion and climb the learning curve. For those of you seeking to raise your individual or corporate visibility - opportunities abound.

I don’t hate PR practitioners. In fact, I’m a former owner/partner of a mid-sized, high-tech public relations agency recognized in Inc. Magazine’s, Inc. 500 fastest-growing private companies list. I am a staunch proponent of PR. With this background, it may seem strange that I’m telling companies to fire PR firms. This more-often-than-not hard working dedicated profession has a huge skill, talent and trust deficiency in the technical, “geeky” areas of measurement, analytics and ROI to justify its existence. That’s a problem when the CMO comes calling for accountability.

In the recent Web Marketing Association, Internet Standards Assessment Report, public relations agencies ranked low across all categories (design, innovation, content, technology, interactivity, copywriting and ease of use). In an article on AdRants.com, William Rice, president of the Web Marketing Association is quoted as saying "It's likely that PR practitioners focus more on developing their clients' sites, while their own sites suffer from typical 'brochure-ware.' Another possibility is that the low scores reflect the informal nature of the Internet and the backlash over over-edited, corporate speak."

I disagree with Rice. The TRUTH is PR agencies don’t have the in-house skills and capabilities to build or maintain their own web site, much less even know where their clients’ sites are even hosted. This is the Achilles heal of the public relations industry. The individuals best equipped to drive the conversation (remember, markets are conversations) don’t have the skills to set up analytical systems to feed them the needed conversation data.

KEY POINT: If your PR firm has not asked to see, have access, or implement web analytics -- you need to consider FIRING YOUR PR FIRM and hiring a smarter one, or do it yourself.

CAPTURE, DON’T CONTROL

Market conversations hold the key to the survival for any business. In fact, they always have. But today, with the prominence of weblogs, forums, podcasts and other types of widely available conversational media, no company can afford to ignore or devalue them.

You can’t control market conversations, however, you can capture them. By capturing we mean measuring, analyzing, implementing and engaging in a communications strategy based on real-time, real-world data. This is the path to true influence and healthy market relationships.

“Capturing” a market conversation goes beyond merely taking a snapshot of “buzz” via web site statistics or article hits. It means consistently listening closely, analyzing what people say, and participating constructively in key conversations within your existing or potential markets. It means leveraging conversations to build relationships and gain insight that will sustain your business for the long haul. These conversations exists both offline and online, so if your PR firm is not able to merge the two worlds, you need to FIRE YOUR PR FIRM and hire a smarter one, or do it yourself.

WHO SHOULD YOU WORK WITH, OR WHAT MAKES A “SMART PR PERSON”?

Any PR professional you may consider working with must know these essential realities of today’s marketplace:

• Search engines are media.
• Customers desire a two-way dialogue, not a one-way monologue of inauthentic “corporate speak” and “messaging.”
• Demonstrating expertise and building credibility means consistently communicating openly and authentically through good times and bad. One keynote speech at an industry event ultimately means very little.
• Insights are more valuable than product specifications.
• Feedback is positive, even when it’s negative and difficult to hear.
• Trust is earned through dialogue.
• It’s all about the story and the ability to tell the story in a human (conversational) way.
• Media play doesn’t really initiate or cause conversations. Article placements and recognition are a byproduct of the alignment of internal and external conversations.
• True public relations goes beyond the mainstream media. After all, it’s the public you wish to engage and influence.
• You can measure and track the ROI on market conversations. It’s important to understand the tools available to support and track performance.
• The work doesn’t end once a media placement is made.
• “Search releases” are more important and effective than traditional press releases.
• The Internet is a direct-response vehicle.
• Standing up and saying NO to pitching bad story ideas.

Slowly, more PR professionals accept these tenets and PR agencies recognize these realities, but the fact still remains they don’t have the skills or knowledge inside their organization to capitalize on many of the above points. Rather, a new breed of communications professional is just beginning to emerge from related fields: the Conversation Analyst. If I were hiring one, here’s what the job description would look like:

Must have mainstream media experience as a journalist or communications practitioner. Strong social and analytical capabilities. Has experience with and enthusiasm for blogging, podcasting, RSS feeds, tagging, wikis, e-mail publishing, web analytics, cross-campaign management, adserving, affiliate marketing and online news aggregators. Has maintained a personal or corporate blog for at least one year. Has managed pay-per-click search marketing campaigns across Google, Yahoo, Looksmart, and other services. Can read and understand web analytics and tell a client with confidence what market to speak to. Applicants please submit a brief resume with links to your current and past sites or blogs, as well as your del.icio.us bookmarks. HTML skills required.

Who are these Conversation Analysts?

In the PR field, there are several “Capture the Conversation” luminaries such as Steve Rubel, Shel Israel, Robert Scoble, Constantin Basturea, Jeremy Pepper, Andy Beal, B.L. Ochman, Shel Holtz, Richard Edelman and of course Doc Searls and Christopher Locke. The problem is that there are too few true PR visionaries and too many “wanna-be’s.” The advantage for you is that all of these visionaries are not keeping their knowledge to themselves. They share and promote it openly for the rest of us to engage and learn from. They live the creed by linking to their competitors, openly and enthusiastically championing the adoption of new communications strategies.

If you are not able to engage the likes of leading Web 2.0 PR firms such as Edelman (who snatched up Steve Rubel), Weber Shandwick (who snatched up Jeremy Pepper), or MWW Group (who snatched up Tom Biro) go find a great media relations person (more than likely an individual, not a company) who has the personal contacts and influence to wrangle high-profile mainstream media hits for you. Then find one or more skilled communication analysts to do the heavy lifting on a daily basis. Either way, there needs to be a personal commitment on your part to actively engage in the conversation. The PR person is not going to be the one posting new blog entries for you.

The above mentioned Conversation Analyst job description emphasizes hands-on experience for an important reason. Thanks to the irresistible call of potential revenue, many PR agencies have rushed to introduce new social or conversational media services (such as weblogs) -- even though they possess little or no experience or skills with using these tools. I have not done hard research, but anecdotal evidence suggests that most public relations agencies have no clue on how to get ftp access to their clients’ websites, have never set up any analytical tracking system and are not tracking offline–to-online media conversions. KEY POINT: Another reason to FIRE YOUR PR FIRM, hire a smarter one, or do it yourself.

In February of 2004 Southwest Airlines, in conjunction with SEO-PR, used an optimized press release to sell $2.5 million in tickets. The PR industry should have jumped on this powerful new opportunity of tracking ROI, or as Greg Jarboe of SEO-PR put it “You are now free to link PR and Sales.” But that didn’t happen.

Here’s why. PR firms, like ad agencies, are notorious for hiring after the crush, and spending little to no resources on new employee training. The skills and knowledge requirements needed to survive in today’s social media environments demand that PR firms spend time and money on training and developing new skill sets in their organization. This does not mean following the traditional PR firm growth pattern of dropping individuals into the fire to learn on the client’s dime. That dated methodology produces negative results for you, the client. Plus, it further reduces the credibility of the PR industry in its ability to lead in this emerging market.

Corporate communications, PR, and branding professionals need to recognize the power and strategic advantage available from cross-pollinating media tools such as blogs, podcasts (audio), vodcasts (video), RSS feeds, forums, wikis, search engines, e-mail, and chat with traditional MSM. When layered with sound analytics and conversion tracking, and integrated with selective, complementary public relations and advertising strategies, these tools yield significant and sustainable benefits. Not to mention that this overall strategy offers a superior ROI to traditional PR.

Eventually PR firms will come around to this understanding as a matter of sheer survival. That doesn’t mean your organization needs to wait for them to catch up. You’re just missing opportunities.

BLOGS AND BEYOND: CONNECTING THOSE CONVERSATIONS

Capturing the conversation does not rely on a single communications channel such as blogs, podcasts or RSS feeds. Rather, you align and integrate several online and traditional channels to engage and support people who can help you build your business.

For instance, you can enter a market conversation through a blog -- either your’s own or someone else’s. When that conversation peaks and traffic is now being driven to your site, set up and promote teleconference to answer live questions. Then, create an MP3 file of the teleconference and offer it online. 

As follow-up to maintain the relationship with teleconference attendees, offer a series of relevant e-mail auto-responders with intriguing insights. Keep them engaged with consistent energy and enthusiasm -- and with consistent listening. Remember, this is a conversation, not a sales pitch, so providing relevant and timely information in a conversational way is critical. Finally, use the right tools to test your approach, define the conversion, and most importantly - track its success.

The model above makes a ton of sense, but do companies and PR agencies use it much? Amazingly, no. Their excuses are many:

“It takes too much time to have a dialogue with my customers.”

“They don’t understand what we are doing yet.”

“What can I possibly say to them on an ongoing basis?”

“What’s an autoresponder?”

“How do I capture and post an MP3 file?”

Sadly, the two most common reason of all is that very few companies recognize the power of connecting the dots and the skills to set up the blog, do an MP3 capture, post it on a web site, deliver an email campaign and track it all. The fragmented and narrow state of today’s communications industry is largely to blame for this.

In emerging service or technology markets, new services or technologies generally get adopted first by distinct vertical markets. This is why many “experts” on, say, blogging or podcasting, understand how to use these media channels well. However, if someone sets up a blog, often time they lack an understanding of how these channels can fit into a company’s overall strategic communications plan. This is where smart and enlightened PR professionals add tremendous untapped value, by seeing those connections between online and offline media that capture the conversation.

Here’s an example: How can a company’s blog leverage an upcoming mention in Business Week or a product mention in Shape magazine? Is there a plan to capitalize on the exposure an article in BusinessWeek or Shape will deliver? How can you keep your customers engaged by connecting conversations?

The Placement Crash

Traditional PR yields a common problem I call the  “Placement Crash,” which is like a sugar crash. One big media hit brings volumes of visitors to the web site -- but did the PR firm, the online communications expert or anyone devise a strategy to leverage that traffic and Capture the Conversation during and after peak traffic to drive sales or solidify new relationships? Do excited or curious new visitors arrive at your site, only to find a disappointingly stale home page full of corporate marketing-speak, dull self-serving press releases, and untargeted and out-of-date content?

It’s like the early 1980s, when direct mail experts explained how direct mail can drive new customers but never mentioned how to coordinate direct mail with other marketing and sales tactics. Later, companies wised up by integrating advertising, telemarketing, and direct mail into coherent, integrated marketing campaigns. The above example needs an integrated online/offline marketing campaign and strategy, not camps of evangelists touting the benefits of a single tool like blogging. Sure, most companies would prefer to start small and focused, and blogging is a great place to start. But, overall greater success lies ahead when you have the skills enough (or the right person who does) to connect the dots (advertising, PR, blogging, podcasting, pay-per-click, etc.) and drive ROI.

WHAT DO WE MEAN BY CAPTURE YOUR CONVERSATION?

“Capture the Conversation” is our integrated online/offline sales/marketing/communications model for the brave new world of “Bring it on, I’ve got nothing to hide” communications based on ROI.

The essence of our “Capture the Conversation” model is grounded first in understanding where and what the conversation is in your case. As Seth Godin would ask, what story are people telling themselves about you? What are people saying about your product, your service, your competition, your industry, you personally? Where is the emotional content in the marketplace? Where emotion is high (good or bad) there will be an active conversation.

What about feedback from customers? Isn’t that a cornerstone of traditional PR? Ideally yes, but in practice here’s what happens... 

Focus groups are used to represent markets. This strategy almost always fails.

While focus groups do produce some useful comments, in my experience the group data always gets skewed in a way that invalidates the overall results. Invariably, one participant dominates and even intimidates the rest of the group. Human psychology requires that someone emerge as an influencer within any group -- and the rest of us like to line up in agreement.

In contrast, when we Capture the Conversation, we’re observing online conversations and customer movements as they happen naturally. It’s not a forced, artificial setting like a focus group. Therefore the results are more likely to be meaningful and directly actionable.

VISIONING

Imagine that you have in hand three to six months’ worth of data from online conversations in which people discussed your company, products, services, business strategies and executives. Imagine also that you possess all of that same data for your competition. Do you think you’d be able to craft a targeted communications plan based on that? We think you would -- and not just a good one-time campaign, but a uniquely effective ongoing strategy.

Let’s say you discover that most of those conversations involve males 18-25 years. Four of these men turn out to be the key “influencers” who set the tone for most of the relevant conversations. It so happens that these four influential people dislike your product for the same three reasons -- and they specify those reasons repeatedly when making public (and influential) recommendations against your product.

On the bright side, analysis of online conversations reveals that your competition faces the same challenges. Those influencers report the same complaints about their products, too.

Now, imagine combining that insight with robust web analytics (patterns of visits to your web pages). This data includes:

• Which products and services your site visitors view the most
• Your top exit pages
• How many site visits it takes, on average, to drive a conversion
• Search log files that indicate what people are seeking on each page of your site
• Pay-Per-Click data on your highest-converting keyword, ad messages and conversion pages
• The number of downloads of your white paper

How valuable would this information be to your efforts to craft creative communications programs? It’s priceless. In fact, give any decent communication strategist this kind of data and your communications will be rocking and rolling.

IMPACT BEYOND PR

How might your product development and outside sales staff capitalize on detailed, current information from your captured conversations? Or, how might the best minds in your company put this information to good use? Might this process help you identify credible, diplomatic, and conversationally gifted individuals in your firm who could effectively address the complaints raised by the most critical influencers in public conversations about your products? I’m not talking your CEO, though if that is the right person, great. What I’m talking about are people inside the company that really know how to answer customer questions.

What long-term benefits might you realize from engaging in such constructive, authentic dialogue?

By now you probably realize why the “Conversation Analyst” job I described earlier is probably the most valuable addition you can make to your array of key business services. Virtually every organization now has a pressing need to:

• Analyze relevant online conversations
• Interpret that data
• Use that insight to develop strategies to address, improvise, and adapt in real time -- through creative, integrated communication strategies and by successfully engaging your customers (or their influencers) in constructive dialogue.
• Keep up this cycle, and keep Capturing the Conversation, as a regular aspect of how you do business.

To learn the necessary skills, or to do it yourself, visit http://www.fireyourprfirm.com/ and use our video tutorials to go from a Web 2.0 pretender to contender.

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