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Shel Holtz
Communicating at the Intersection of Business and Technology
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An open letter to David Murray

Dear David:

What can I say about your opening item on the December 6, 2004 Ragan Report‘s page one column, “Blog wonks need chill pill”? It’s wrong on so many levels it’s difficult to know where to begin. You and I have known one another for, what, more than a decade now? I’m sure that, since your editorial was distributed to all the Ragan Report‘s readers and published on the Ragan Communications Web site, you’ll agree that it’s highly appropriate—and even maybe a little ironic—that I reply to you personally via my blog.

Your overall premise is that those of us who blog about public relations and organizational communications are unjustified in trying to push the public relations industry into adopting and leveraging blogs. Or, as you put it:

“These guys—they are all guys, as far as we can tell, in a profession dominated by women—use their blogs to wonder why their communication colleagues aren’t more blog-savvy and blog-happy.”

You conclude:

“The truth is, organizational blogging will move forward at its own pace and communicators don’t need geeks…whipping them in the behind while whipping themselves into a lather.”

Allow me to enlighten you on the many reasons why your conclusion is naieve at best. When I’m done, if you’ll bear with me, I’d like to take issue with some of your other comments.

Let’s start with the importance of blogs. I don’t want to spend much time on this topic, since it’s been addressed well throughout the blogosphere. Still, in response to the assertions in your column, it’s worth covering the highlights.

The impact of blogs has little to do with technology and much to do with culture. The ease of publishing through a blog has resulted in the fulfilment of one of the Internet’s great promises—that anybody can publish. Now there are millions of people publishing and even more reading what they write. According to some estimates, more than 11% of those who go online read blogs.

Because the community is large and growing, it wields a certain amount of influence. Some examples:

  • Bloggers report news the mainstream media misses or ignores, often forcing the media to cover stories they otherwise wouldn’t. US Senator Trent Lott’s remarks about Strom Thurmond, which led to his loss of the Senate leadership, is a good example.
  • Many reporters have turned to bloggers to promote their stories, hoping to drive traffic to their publications’ web sites.
  • Bloggers have corrected misinformation reported by mainstream media, most famously Dan Rather’s claims to have documentation of US President George Bush’s failure to fulfill his National Guard service.
  • Readers have turned to blogs for information. For example, authors who can’t get reviewed in mainstream book review publications have seen sales increase when bloggers have reviewed their works.
  • Similarly, popular blogs have served as platforms to complain about institutions and their products and services, influencing opinions and affecting reputations.

I could go on, but I think you get the idea. Just read some of the blogs of those CWTOBs, as you call them (communicators with their own blogs), and you can gain even more of the insight that appears to have escaped you.

There is, however, an even bigger picture. As a consequence of the blogging phenomenon, we are witnessing the birth of the “social constituency.” These are audiences—running the gamut from customers to shareholders, from activists to employees—that have the ability and the expectation to interact with real people. As one writer put it, by listening to members of social audiences, “companies have the opportunity to create the tightest relationships between vendor and customer we have seen since the days of the corner store.” Of course, this writer focuses solely on the customer. The relationship potential extends well beyond customers, though, to any constituency whose opinion can affect an organization’s performance or reputation.

Clearly, then, there is a role for communicators to play. It naturally falls within the realm of communications and public relations to guide the production of official company blogs, to work with influential bloggers, and to monitor and react to the blogosphere when bloggers turn their attention to the client.

Sadly, organizations in general tend to be slow on the uptake of any new relevant communication technology, and the public relations profession tends to be even slower. Think back, David, and you’ll remember that the earliest company Web sites were managed by IT, not communications. While the World Wide Web phenomenon exploded around us, communicators blithely continued to ignore its existence while programmers and system administrators assumed responsibility for organizations’ online presence.

To put a slightly different spin on the situation, organizations that ignore blogs are at risk. They risk missing out on the potential blogs afford them while their competitors reap the benefits. And they risk the damage blogs could do them if they aren’t paying attention.

We in the communications profession know from experience that organizations don’t wait around for their PR counselors to figure out new technologies and their application to communications. If we’re unable to help them, they’ll turn to others who can. Thus, as the PR profession lumbers along at its glacial pace of technology adoption, we, too, are at risk. And that, David, is why your claim that communicators don’t need to be prodded along is mistaken. Communicators have always needed prodding. Without it, as companies become aware of blogs (and other tools that enable the social constituent, such as wikis and social networking), they’ll look to alternatives and we’ll be left to fulfill secondary roles.

Besides, David, even your own publication, the Ragan Report, contains little that isn’t intended to whip communicators in the behind. In the same issue in which you so denegrate bloggers dedicated to dragging the profession kicking and screaming into the age of the social constituent, RR implores communicators to embrace videos, write better headlines, make HR communications interesting, and use creative means to solicit employee feedback.

The efforts of the community of PR bloggers—those CWTOBs—has already paid off. PRSA, which had no sessions on blogging slated for its annual conference—added one at the last minute. They even enlisted some of the bloggers who had been critical of the oversight to run the session.

By the way, David, the last time I checked, Elizabeth Albrycht and BL Ochman were not guys.

Which brings us to some of the other off-base points you managed to pack into your brief editorial. (I trust I’ve made the case against waiting patiently for “organizational blogging (to) move forward at its own pace.”) Let’s start with your opening salvo:

“Back when the Internet was new, we heard a serious argument among the arly adopters in the communication profession. Some of these ‘Internet geeks,’ as the more Luddite-ish of the Ragan editors dubbed them then, asserted that the Internet was as important as the invention of the Gutenberg printing press. Others argued fiercely that the Internet was way bigger than the Gutenberg press; they said it was as big as the invention of fire. The argument was imbecilic then, and it hasn’t gotten any smarter in the meantime.”

Okay, David, I agree that harnessing fire. But you have to forgive the enthusiasm many felt for a medium that can rightly be compared to the printing press. The most significant contribution the printing press made to society was the redistribution of power. Before the printing press came along, the average person had to hear the word of God from a priest. Once a bible could be printed and given to that same average person, he was free to read and interpret it for himself. The Protestant Revolution would never have happened without the printing press.

Not much has changed in the world of communication since the printing press. Even sound and video are incremental advances. The Internet represents the most profound change to the communication model since Mr. Gutenberg put ink to his first sheet of paper. It once again redistributes power, this time the power to publish. If you haven’t seen the result of that change, maybe you need to get out more.

Don’t worry, David. I’m not personally offended at being called “imbecilic.” The Internet’s impact on culture, society, business, entertainment, and virtually every other walk of life is evident to nearly everyone. Those of us who proclaimed the inevitable impact it would have were right then, and our argument has only gain more relevance in the meantime. Blogs, as you might guess, are the latest development to reinforce the relevance of that argument.

To support your point, you picked on Neville Hobson:

“Recently, Hobson harrumphed, ‘With so much debate and discussion going on about blogging and organizations in a wide range of business blogs, I’ve been surprised to note that hardly anyone who is an IABC members is joining any of these discussions.’ Hobson also joined the ranks of blog wonks who piled on IABC Chairman David Kistle when he introduced his own blog in October and then failed to post a new entry for more than a month. OK, Kistle’s lack of follow-through was bush-league. But perhaps the crime was not quite heinous enough to justify Hobson’s nearly teary post of Nov. 24—the 30-day ‘anniversary’ of Kistle’s last blog entry: ‘I’m just too disappointed to add any comment at the moment,’ he sobbed. Good Blog, man, get a hold of yourself!”

Neville’s blog is widely read, David. In fact, he’s among the nominees for best European blog in the 2004 blog competition. One reason he’s gained such a following is that he’s a fine writer. He uses writing techniques to make a point. I suppose Neville could have taken three or four paragraphs to articulate why Kistle’s failure to maintain the blog was disappointing. It’s the mark of a good writer that he was able to make the same point in a single sentence.

It was a point worth making, too. More than just “bush-league,” a chairman’s blog that remains untouched for a month is a reputational problem waiting to happen, particularly when the chairman represents a communication association.

Thanks for sticking with me on this, David. I hope I’ve been able to help you figure out why the Internet is important, why early adopters need to drag the profession into the world of blogging, why Neville didn’t deserve to be singled out for attack, and why the IABC chairman’s blog really did pose a problem worthy of attention. I also hope we’re still friends.

Warmest regards,

Shel Holtz, ABC

12/06/05 | 46 Comments | An open letter to David Murray

Comments
  • 1.Shel--

    This is incredible! First, I'll begin at the end: Of course we're still friends. You and I have been going at it hook and tong since the mid-1990s on the importance of technology. I remember one private e-mail exchange about the importance of the Internet that must have consumed 10,000 words. That we would have another go-round on the subject someday was probably not only predictable, it may have been inevitable.

    But I didn't think it would happen over this particular editorial, or over blogs in general. Unlike the Internet, about which you--who, as I recall, were on the printing press side! the right side! (of a dumb argument)--were 90% right, while I was about 90% wrong, I think I fully see the relevance of blogs.

    No, I don't FULLY see the relevance; I guess no one does at this point. But I recognize that blogs and their breathren may change our business. And I've written a great deal about blogs in The Ragan Report and in Speechwriter's Newsletter.

    It's just that, my miss of Elizabeth Albrycht notwithstanding, I HAVE had a look around at the blogs of communicators, and I HAVE found some of them a little on the hysterical side, especially when they're going hard at a David Kistle or a Dick Edelman for blogging fouls. I'm not objecting to some communicators' enthusiasm for blogging, just the proportion of that enthusiasm.

    As I always do whenever I go near technology in my writing, I thought of you as I wrote this column. And I thought that, on the whole, you would agree with it, because many of the posts that I read on THIS blog seem to argue for a sober, reasoned, proportional understanding of blogs and their impact.

    In fact, I may have actually thought: There is no one more passionate and excited about what communication technology can do to make the world a better place than Shel Holtz. And Shel wouldn't have written something as exaggerated in its emotionalism as what Hobson wrote, and what others have written.

    But you make many good points in your open letter; may we publish it in The Ragan Report?

    Even WARMER regards,

    David

    David Murray | December 2004

  • 2.Whew! So David, are you saying that we passionate bloggers are hysterical but not imbecilic? I feel so much better now.

    As Shel noted, PR people have been among the last communicators to understand the Internet. The bitching about blogging that I got as feedback from the 15,000 subscribers to I-PR was basically "omigawd! How Can I possibly do one more thing. This can't be important. I don't care." Your basic head in the sand attitude.

    When I began counseling the PR staffs of Fortune 100 companies several years ago, I told them to take back the website from IT and sales and make it a PR function. They still haven't done that. And they have diminished their own power in their organizations as a result.

    The same thing will happen if PR people don't pick up on blogging and bring it into the marketing mix.

    I am quite sick of talking about whether or not blogs are important. I am too busy helping my clients blog.

    One of the many good reasons for that, in addition to the ones Shel so eloquently outlined, is that blogs are perhaps the most effective tool ever for increasing search engine placement.

    When the blog and the company website are well-integrated, better search engine placement leads to more website traffic. And, if the site is well-done, that leads to more sales.

    Put PRSA 2004 Conference into Google;s search bar. You'll see that two of the top 10 results are from my blog's challenge to PRSA to add blogging to the program. Which they did. It took all of three days to cause a turnaround.

    Bloggers have influence beyond their passion. Any communicator who doesn't learn to work with those influencers is missing a huge opportunity.

    B.L. Ochman | December 2004 | New York City

  • 3.

    People, you do not want to scoff about blogs in front of friend Neville Hobson and friend/client Shel Holtz unless you like your arguments handed back to you, deep-fried. Though it’s surely an education to watch them react. What’s great about their p…

  • 4.Shel -- I largely agree with most of what you say here, but when the web revolution began, it wasn't corporate IT people setting up the first web pages -- it was the corporate librarians. A lot of IT people believed the web would go the way of eight-track tapes -- because the future was Lotus Notes!

    I think this may help explain why so much innovation in any professional discipline comes from the outside -- those of us on the inside have too much of a vested interest in the status quo.

    Cheers! And I hope this discussion continues.

    Glynn

    Glynn Young | December 2004 | St. Louis

  • 5.Mr. Ochman--

    Yes, that's exactly it: You passionate bloggers are hysterical but not imbecilic.

    I'm the imbecilic one, as I'm about to reveal. Help me understand how you "help" your "clients blog." Here's why I ask: As far as I can tell, the best blogs are one-man/woman shows ... like newspaper columns.

    They're regular, they're immediate, they're personal, they're courageous and they rely on familiarity and the desire of the audience to get to know the writer.

    Here is my one real skepticism about blogs: There ain't many Mike Roykos or Bill Safires out there--people not only able to be interesting every day of the week, but willing to do what it takes to continue to be interesting over months and years.

    You ever read about the life of a daily columnist? It's a biography called Hell.

    And I don't see how the "help" of a consultant could ever create a truly sustainable blog in an otherwise balanced businessperson.

    I'm quite sure I don't know what I'm talking about. Please enlighten me.

    David

    David Murray | December 2004

  • 6.David:

    That's MS. Ochman.

    Shel

    Shel Holtz | December 2004 | Concord, CA

  • 7.Shel, I can feel your delight from Chicago.

    (Sorry, Ms. Ochman.)

    David Murray | December 2004

  • 8.I'll tell you what's imbecilic: you called me Mr. Ochman twice. That indicates that you had the timerity to criticize me in your column withiout ever having looked at my Website http://www.whatsnextonline.com OR my Blog http://www.whatsnextblog.com Both have my picture all over them. Jeez.

    To answer your question: I should have said I help my clients start blogging. Then I send them off into the blogosphere on their own.

    Here's what I do for them:
    -- Introduce them to a designer who can integrate the design of their blog with their website
    -- Give them a copy of my book, "What Could Your Company Do With a Blog?" http://whatsnextonline.com/blogbook/ which has 85 examples of successful business and marketing blogs
    -- Look at their early posts and make suggestions about how to make them better
    -- Register their blogs in blog and regular search engines
    -- Show them how to find other blogs to read and quote
    -- Show them how to properly attribute and link to other bloggers
    -- Demonstrate how to search engine optimize blog posts
    -- Explain how they can build an audience for their blog
    - Send them links to stuff they might want to blog about
    -- Cheerlead and enourage them

    Two of my three blogging clients are turning out to be talented bloggers who will soon find an audience in and perhaps beyond their industries.

    The third is no Mike Royko, but he's a brilliant man, and a good writer, so he'll get the hang of it. And since his subject is newsworthy, he will eventually build an audience if he can get over his fear of creating controversy.

    It's fun helping clients take off their training wheels and go out into the blogosphere. And it helps boost their search engine rankings.

    B.L. Ochman | December 2004 | New York City

  • 9.Ms. Ochman--

    I am very interested in your work coaching people how to write blogs, and I'd actually like to interview you for Ragan's Corporate Writer & Editor, or its Journal of Employee Communication Manageement, perhaps after the new year, if you're willing.

    By then, I will most certainly have visited your web site and your blog. '

    UNTIL then, however, I reserve the right to criticize someone without looking at their Web site, or their blog, or their pet lizard.

    Best regards,

    David "Blogless-Not-For-Long" Murray

    David Murray | December 2004

  • 10.

    Well, I???ve been seriously rapped over the knuckles by the Ragan Report newsletter. They???ve called me to task for critical commentaries I???ve posted in this blog about the IABC Chair blog. I???m accused of being hysterical, harrumphing, making tear…

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