Public Relations and the “Conversation”
So here we are again. A blog is revealed as a sham, an agency has egg on its face, having given shoddy advice to a client. In this case, it’s Edelman, Wal-Mart and the now-infamous “Wal-Marting Across America” blog.
There are two issues here, Edelman’s mis-step and WalMart’s refusal to acknowledge that its problems are anything but PR problems. For the Edelman problem, Shel Holz is right on target when he says that “Edelman has botched the whole social media thing on Wal-Mart’s behalf.” He goes on to say:
Those smart PR folks working for Edelman are among the members of the PR community who advocate participation in the conversation. Some of them have been brutal when, to their way of thinking, somebody else fails to understand what it means to be engage in the conversation. So where is Edelman in this particular conversation? Missing in action.
Honestly though, I’m not at all surprised by any of this. Agencies, especially the big ones, are having a great deal of difficulty letting go of the idea of message control. For all the lip service paid to social media as the Holy Grail for PR, I’m sure the great majority of the rank and file at Edelman are still practicing (or think they are practicing) message control.
Shel’s full entry is here.
The second issue is a larger one. Wal-Mart obviously believes they have an image problem. Maybe they do, if you believe paying their business practices have given them a poor image. Unfortunately, as I’ve said before, PR is not a cure for lousy labor practices. The cure for that is to improve their labor practices. Scott Karp of Publishing 2.0 puts it best:
[I]f you have a problematic brand like Wal-Mart or GM, where a lot of people think your product/service is socially irresponsible, for example, then letting people control your brand is going to perpetuate your image problem. The only real solution is to improve your product or service — which is a lot harder than vague notions of “conversation.”
Scott’s full post is here. He also brings this around to Shel’s larger point:
The problem is that no one has figured out how to make money in all instances by letting people run off with their content and brands, as wonderfully liberating as it all seems.
Which is true. No one yet has figured out a business plan for “conversation” and until that happens, there won’t be any incentive to whip the rank and file at most PR agencies into conversational shape.
Update: Kami Huyse has more:
As public relations professionals, it is our job to rein in our ideas and test them in light of intense scrutiny before releasing them into the wild.
I couldn’t agree more if I said it myself.
Update II: Richard Edelman (finally) chimes in and owns up to the responsibility.
I want to acknowledge our error in failing to be transparent about the identity of the two bloggers from the outset. This is 100% our responsibility and our error; not the client’s.
Hopefully in the future more PR folks will point to this moment and remember to say ‘hold on….’ when someone else comes up with such an idea. Well, one can hope.
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Comments
The Edelman/Wal-Mart mishap seems to be the topic of every blog around these days! But you make and interesting point that Edelman might not be completely to blame. The company may have been the culprit of the actual blog, but not of the problems leading up to it. The function of public relations is not to improve the image of an organization. That is the organizations job. The purpose of public relations is to make that image more prominent to its audiences. If a company’s business practices are in shambles, how can a few news releases and promotional events ever help when there is nothing good to mention or promote? Forgive the cliché, but the saying “what’s the use in putting lipstick on a pig” comes to mind. If a company genuinely wants to improve its image, it must start from the inside. And when the improvement are complete, then call in the pr squad to inform the public of those improvements.
[...] I like this statement at “Marketing Begins at Home”: There are two issues here, Edelman’s mis-step and WalMart’s refusal to acknowledge that its problems are anything but PR problems. [...]