My piece, The Costcofication of Media, on the increasing integration of PR, social media, advertising, and web marketing, and its effect on PR clients and the industry as a whole, is posted on Strumpette as today’s Leader’s Perspective.

This post also appears on my agency blog.

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Hugh MacLeod argues that “public relations is getting social media all wrong,” and “if your ideas have merit, bloggers will talk about them,” and therefore traditional press releases are unnecessary and irrelevant.

The idea that blogs and other social media have replaced the press release is simplistic. I won’t argue that press releases are often laden with corporate crap, and the PR profession needs to take a hard look at this, but the quality of a typical press release, and the relevance of press releases, are two separate discussions. Certainly more and more people in all fields are becoming social media-aware, but there are still plenty of journalists and editors who do not blog or read blogs, but who can be reached with a press release. Anyone who is currently advising clients to stop issuing press releases, whether that person represents a PR agency, an advertising agency, a marketing firm, or a social media consultancy, is negligent. Some day soon we may indeed be ready for the elimination of the conventional press release, but that day is not here.

The theme of MacLeod’s blog is “cartoons drawn on the back of business cards.” Many of them are enlightening and amusing. But I am completely clueless (I admit it) as to the meaning of this cartoon, included in MacLeod’s post:

First of all, I have no idea what the diagram is trying to convey. Second, it is labeled “ad agency biz model,” so I am not sure how it is connected to public relations. The themes of commodification/de-commodficiation (odd words) and “hard sell” are not dealt with in MacLeod’s post.

MacLeod paraphrases Stowe Boyd: “Please, please, please dont talk about audiences when you are theoretically promoting social media.” The idea that corporate communications and marketing people are clueless because they use the word “audience” is a popular red herring among anti-traditional communications jihadists. While the dictionary definition of audience might imply one-way communications to a captive and passive group, the concept, properly applied, is a powerful one that is highly relevant in social media strategy. In the corporate world, segmentation allows a company to enable effective communications with its various audiences. These audiences include customers, prospects, shareholders, business partners, employees, developers, journalists, bloggers, securities analysts, industry analysts and other influential groups that the company needs to reach.

Each of these groups has different interests. Securities analysts, for example, are interested almost exclusively in the company’s financial performance, and generally don’t want to hear about product features or corporate social responsibility. Developers want to know about tools, and the availability of software updates and bug fixes.

By understanding their audience(s), bloggers can engage in more interesting and effective conversations. If I visit the blog of an expert in Service Oriented Architectures and read a post on his experience trying to replace a stolen Blackberry, that might be mildly interesting (OK, it isn’t), but would have no value to me. I’d rather learn about the blogger’s views on the role of open source in SOA adoption. In this case, the first blogger is a narcissist, who has failed to consider his audience, readership, whatever. And I don’t care how articulate, funny or clever a blogger is. If he or she has nothing of interest to say to me, (a disregard for audience), then that blogger and the company are wasting their time and mine.

Finally, it’s totally unnecessary, unkind and uncivil to say that “most PR folk are still pretty clueless.” This kind of posturing trash talk is usually a smokescreen for the lack of a fully formed logical argument. I think the following diagram proves my point unequivocally:

David Pogue takes Microsoft and bloggers to task for a program in which bloggers were given free Acer Ferrari laptops as part of a Windows Vista promotion. Pogue quotes a Times article:

“Several bloggers reported last week that they had received Acer Ferrari laptops, which can sell for more than $2,200, from Microsoft. A spokeswoman for Microsoft confirmed on Friday that the company had sent out about 90 computers to bloggers who write about technology and other subjects that could be affected by the release of Windows Vista, Microsoft’s new operating system.”

I agree with Pogue’s conclusion that the bloggers are 

“exploiting the lawless, Brave New World of the blogsophere, where, since they’re Not Quite Journalists, they don’t feel constrained by any of those pesky journalistic ethics guidelines. Like the one that says, ‘You don’t keep $2,200 gifts from the subject of your review. You might think you can still write an impartial review, but it’s highly unlikely-and either way, nobody will believe it.’

But Microsoft gets much of the blame, too. It deliberately exploited a weak spot in today’s court of public opinion: how bloggers influence consumers, but generally don’t have conflict-of-interest policies.”

Acer Ferrari Laptop, shiny and bright red, but does not influence bloggers

Recognizing that these laptops have no inherent value, I am announcing a laptop disposal program to relieve the bloggers of the nuisance of owning a computer that is of no use and does not in any way influence their attitudes toward Microsoft, Acer or Windows Vista. I urge all of the bloggers to contact me as soon as they are done reviewing Windows Vista. I will send, at no charge, a prepaid Fed Ex box so that they can send me these unwanted/unneeded laptops. I will in turn sell them on eBay and donate the full proceeds to Oxfam’s Sudan Crisis Relief and Rehabilitation Fund.

In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman says his problem is “he’s liked, but not well liked.” In PR, it seems, it is increasingly important to be well liked, and to be well liked, one needs to be a trusted participant in the conversation.

Consider this post by Shel Israel on the selection of David Parmet as ScrapBlog’s new PR manager largely because they liked him, and because he blogged:

“(David’s) blog, and a previous telephone talk was enough to make Carlos (Garcia) feel enthusiastic about the thought of David having conversations on behalf of Scrapblog. That’s what PR is now about. The PR guy needs to be a trusted participant in conversations. These conversations can help a client only if the person bringing that client into a community is already a trusted resource. David is not alone. There are lots of PR people who get this. They tend to know and respect each other and enjoy each other’s company. They will compete against each other if they have to, but in fact they would much prefer to collaborate.”

U.S. toy retailer Toys “R” Us has reversed its decision regarding the winner of its “First Baby of the Year Sweepstakes” contest.

The company created a controversy, particularly in the Chinese-American community, when it had originally denied the first prize $25,000 savings bond to the first baby born in 2007, Yuki Lin, who was born at the stroke of midnight at New York Downtown Hospital, because the child’s mother was not born in the U.S., and hence was not a U.S. citizen and therefore ineligible for the prize.

Here, Chinese children are shown shopping at the company’s first store in China, opened December 8, 2006 in Shanghai.

Toys “R” Us graciously permits Chinese children to buy the company’s products
Mark Ralston, Getty Images

Ironically, China makes about three-quarters of the world’s toys and is the global toy industry’s largest exporter.

Toys R Us Mascot Jeffrey: “Wait, come to think of it, we love Chinese babies. Heck, they make most our toys!”

High marks to Toys “R” Us for reversing this decision, but a stern wag of the finger for making such a stupid decision in the first place. To discriminate on the basis of race, nationality, religion, ethnicity, gender or any other similar criteria is mean-spirited, dumb (and generally illegal). But to take on the world’s largest nation and its people in the U.S. and at home, is an extraordinarily lame business decision as well. At least Borat chose to offend the people of Kazakhstan, who have little buying power or political power.

Today was my last day at Hewlett-Packard. I worked with many great executives while I was at HP, including Peter Blackmore, Mike Winkler, Ann Livermore, Tom Hogan, Andy Mattes and others, and I have seen nothing but change in my two-and-a-half years there. Mark Hurd’s the third CEO I’ve served under, after Carly and then CFO Bob Wayman as interim CEO. The Customer Solutions Group, which I joined in May, 2004, no longer exists, having been absorbed by the Technology Solutions Group.

So I’m on to the next big thing. I have been extremely fortunate to have been offered a position with Eastwick Communications as Executive Vice President, Emerging Media, where I’ll be responsible for developing social media strategy for the agency’s clients. I’ll also be working on the editorial side of the house, building on Eastwick’s recognized focus on content excellence and domain knowledge.

I’ve been in Fortune 500 corporate communications for eight years, first at Sun Microsystems and now at HP, and my position with Eastwick will allow me to apply what I’ve learned to the agency side of the business, and to learn from some of the best PR people in the industry. I was attracted to Eastwick by its stellar reputation and high integrity; by Elaine and Barbara, its brilliant principals; and by the wonderfully balanced culture of excellence and sanity I found there.

It is only fitting that I start a new blog, Techneuroti, more suited to my new position and interests. I am putting my original blog, Hyde Park, in storage, perhaps to be brought back to life in another time and place.