Thanks, BL, for an excellent overview yesterday. Today I will focus on RSS and its applications in media relations.
As I mentioned in my intro I work for a PR agency that focuses on high tech clients, "high tech" in this case meaning all types of hardware, software, telecom, mobile, networking, and electronics, primarily B2B but also a good amount of consumer.
Many early bloggers were techies, and many technology journalists are also avid bloggers. All kinds of interesting ideas ferment in their forums about the way the ways technology is impacting how we communicate.
A couple of years ago, shortly after I became hooked on RSS as a way to monitor the latest information from many different sources, I happened upon a number of posts that greatly influenced my thoughts about ways the technology could be used in media relations. One was by Jon Udell (a blogger and columnist at influential IT trade publication InfoWorld) describing another application for RSS: to facilitate dialog with industry.
“Hi, I'm XXX, [CTO|Architect|Product Manager] for YYY which does ZZZ. I have started a weblog that describes what we do, how we do it, and why it matters. If this information is useful and relevant, our RSS feed can be found here. Thanks!”
According to Jon “The PR folks at YYY now have a couple of ways to gauge the effect of this probe. The access logs for XXX's blog will show whether or not it provoked a clickthrough. They'll also show whether the RSS feed was hit, and if so, whether it continues to be hit on a regular basis.”
This sounded intriguing to me on the surface but raised obvious (and potentially troubling) questions: where does this leave the clients that don’t have blogs or RSS feeds, and what role does this leave (apart from a passive one) for the PR rep or client side communications staff (we’ll set aside for the moment the elephant in the room, namely, that the journalists desire to get the unfiltered and unvarnished line inherently conflicts with PR’s desire to avoid mixed messages and fuzzy speak, or anything potentially embarassing)?
Some of these questions were answered In an April 2003 ExpertPR Newsletter article “PR Tactics: Using RSS for corporate communications”, in which Phil Gomes references Udell’s post, and talks about how RSS can further be used as an adjunct to online media rooms. He wrote:
“By supplementing news release wire transmission with RSS, the people who are most interested in your company will receive a link and synopsis to your announcement within moments of posting the link to a blog-based newsroom. Additionally, since not all announcements are wire-worthy… company events of slightly less significance might be posted to the company’s RSS feed as the sole means of transmission, giving subscribers a richer view of the company. Here’s an example of how this might take shape within a technology company’s tactical news distribution policy:”
Phil goes on to cite Cape Clear Software’s online newsroom as an example of one that uses this approach.
So RSS begets improved communications, and journalists and PR folks live happily ever after? Not so fast: Jon saw Phil’s article and responded in High-tech PR in the age of blogs, part 2.
“What's missing from Phil's chart, I think, is an appreciation of how awareness flows through blogspace. Communication, in this view, is a tactical missile launched by a PR agent and aimed at a journalist. News flash: I'm the wrong target. In fact, and counter-intuitively, blogging doesn't aim at any target!”
In his third (and what I believe to be final) post on the subject, Jon acknowledges RSS’ potential to be a disintermediator for both journalists and PR professionals. What this means for journalists, he writes:
“But our information monopoly is weakening. The value of our work never should have depended, and now increasingly will not depend, on privileged access to people and to information. It will, instead, depend on our ability to perform the highest and best functions of publishing: selection, analysis, coherent narrative. If I do that consistently, you'll read me. If I don't, you won't.”
According to Jon, PR people will assume an almost exclusively advisory role:
“Beyond merely brokering connections, PR agents assist with communication strategy… My $0.02: effective communication strategy is one of those core competencies that you cannot outsource. It's something we'll all need to internalize. Will PR agents become coaches and mentors, helping individuals within companies do that? Again, the best of them already are.”
The Udell and Gomes musings took place almost two years ago. I thought this week’s forum would give me a good excuse to catch up with them and see how their thoughts and experiences have evolved since then. I conducted the following interview with Jon Udell via email, and hope to also be able to share a Phil Gomes Q & A session soon.
Since you first posted these thoughts in 2003 have you seen an increased use of RSS by marketers?
Some, not a huge amount.
There has obviously been much discussion about the technology - RSS and blogs - and communications models since then, have your thoughts changed based either on evolving technology or on how people are using technology?
Nope. If asked to address a PR audience I'd say basically the same stuff.
In one of your posts you mentioned a distaste for anything resembling PR materials when it comes to getting RSS feeds. Don't you think the press release has a valid role? E.g. might not a news editor want to get news releases in RSS format, especially if they can get this information ahead of the newswires?
Sure, just don't spam me with it. A database of press releases has
enormous value, both retrospectively and prospectively. Years ago at BYTE one of the first web applications I ever built was called the
Virtual Press Room which...oh, why repeat myself, here:
Today the VPR would obviously deliver itself as an RSS feed.
Geez, that was almost 10 years ago. Sigh...
What this All Means
So, is there a compromise between the ideal, “information will find its own way” ethos of Jon Udell and many others, and the grittily practical “we need to know if you received it, liked it and will do anything with it” attitude of most PR types?
Can PR people and other marketers proactively use RSS without it devolving into the same mess as email currently is?
It would be great to hear about your experiences, and how you are incorporating RSS into the communications mix.