Off the record? In the world of social media: Never!

The AP reports today that President Obama has stirred a debate over his comments about Kanye West's bizarre behaviour during Sunday's MTV Music Awards. In light-hearted banter before an interview this week the President said West was a "jackass". (Not that he was wrong, most of the 305 million people in America, and entire population of civilized world probably agree with him.)

The controversy was not about West's lack of couth, but about what was "on" and "off" the record of Obama's interview with CNBC's John Harwood. Harwood stands by the fact that everything said during the "formal" interview was "on the record" and everything before or after was "off the record." And he's stayed true to his word. However, there were several people from ABC within earshot prior to the interview. They overheard the President's comments and Twittered away.

According to AP, one of the ABC employees "was Terry Moran, a former White House correspondent. He logged on to Twitter and typed: 'Pres. Obama just called Kanye West a 'jackass' for his outburst at VMAs when Taylor Swift won. Now THAT'S presidential.'" ABC condemned its employees for Tweeting what they heard, had the Tweets deleted, and apologized to the White House and CNBC. But the news was out (and spreading even further through legitimate mass media news sources like the AP and Fox News.)

We live in a world of democratic, free-flowing information. Cannons of journalism be damned. There is no guaranteed objectivity nor factual filters in Tweets, Blogs and Facebook updates, as there once was in the Fourth Estate. News travels swiftly and indiscriminately – like wildfire. For the President or anyone else for that matter, to believe what is said "off the record" will not be repeated (online and otherwise) is a fool. This isn't a new concept. I've been advising corporate spokespeople for the past 15+ years that there is no such thing as "off the record". Everything you say, in the presence of a reporter – or any other person for that matter – is always ON the record. No exceptions.

Never say what you wouldn't want to see as a headline in tomorrow's newspaper. Never. Simple as that.

Why don’t CEOS and other leaders take advice?

 

Why didn't Sarah Palin take the advice of a smart, savvy political maven?

 

Politics aside, this raises the issue of senior executives casting aside the counsel of seasoned experts. Perhaps they feel that they are smarter, or are in control, or have a personal point to make that drives them to ignore fair warnings.

 

My dad used to tell me, "lead, follow or get out of the way". But he left out the value of good advice. A leader can lead better with the right strategists around him or her to help pave the way.

 

Strategists and advisors have the ability to see the bigger picture, away from the limelight they can keep a finger on the pulse of the audience sentiment. They can evaluate the impact of decisions, using objectivity and experience. But yet, time after time, senior executives ignore good counsel, with a devastating effect on both the advisor and advisee.

 

Being ignored is bad enough, but being marginalised is worse and getting sacked is the ultimate sacrifice for doing the right thing.

 

As a trusted strategic communications advisor for the past 15+ years, I get satisfaction out of helping companies and their senior executives make the right business and public relations decisions.

 

Influencing the senior executive requires:

 

Trust – mutual, two-way trust between advisor and advisee overtime becomes loyalty

 

Rapport – a relationship built on mutual respect

 

Honesty – for any advisory relationship to work both parties must brutally honest – no detail, no matter how seemingly "classified" should be left off the table

 

Credibility – bring to the table real life experiences, the decisions that were made and the outcomes that resulted

 

Expertise – impeccable skill in bringing your advice to action

 

Have you had a leader take your advice, or not? What could advisors do better to get the attention of CEOs?

 

Who should own social media strategies: Advertising, Marketing or PR?

Who should own social media strategies: Advertising, Marketing or PR?

Perhaps it's not ad agencies or corporate advertising/marketing teams that should "own" a company's social media presence. AdWeek proclaims, "Learning Twitter? Don't Take Your Cues From These Agencies." Think about it: social media is for creating one-on-one relationships...relationships with members of the public.

Sounds like Public Relations to me.

Social media strategies should fall within public relations (and, of course, be further aligned with business, brand and marketing strategies.) Social media give us a platform for the most fundamental of all public relations disciplines -- grassroots communications -- based on genuine conversations. We need to start thinking of things more holistically, and integrate and escalate public relations into our marketing, branding, advertising and promotional plans.

Marketeers may have managed o.k. before without a strong PR component but in this new era of democratised communications and relationships made possible through technology -- they cannot live without it.

Marketers are getting real

It's nice to see marketers "getting real". But it seems Procter & Gamble's Gillette has liberated its new ad concept "The Best a Man Can Get"/"The Moment" from its competitor Unilever, who did an exceptional job with its own Dove brand in the "Campaign for Real Beauty." But with the continued global success of The Best a Man Can Get campaign, why did they have to introduce a "new core brand message", "The Moment"? Repitition builds brands, not evolving messages. Or so I thought.

Christina

@cdivigard

Unlearning for the future of PR

Given the fact that a lot (not all!) PR and MarComm practitioners have picked up some (really) bad habits that we need to unlearn. Instead of learning new tricks, we should be going back to basics (but with the convenience of new tools.)

Speaking as a PR professional, I think we need to return to our roots, to put the "relations" back into public relations. So many of us have become publicists or promoters... pushing messages out through the mass media without pulling in feedback from our audiences. We need deep understanding and relationships with our publics to succeed, and while journalists have been CONDUITS to our publics thereby requiring our "care and feeding", our relationships need to spread much further and wider.

Social media strategies, while perhaps still in their infancy, are helping public relations people focus on the RELATIONS. It really is time for many PR and MarComm pros to unlearn the bad habits that might have brought success in the past, but are destined to bring doom in the future.

Perhaps not exactly in its present form , but most definitively, the future of communicating with our publics lies in social media.

Christina

@cdivigard