PR 2.0 vs. Industry 0.2
It’s as simple as Watzlawick once said: “You can’t stop communicating. Even when you say nothing, that’s a statement.” Over the last few months I’ve seen the debate intensify about how organisations might benefit from Web 2.0 technologies, such as corporate blogging, podcasts and Web TV, and how PR can assist with the communications.
But I feel that many are missing the point. It should be about dialogue. However, often whenever organisations talk about Web 2.0 they talk about the tools and how to use (or even abuse) them. The focus is on the speed and extensiveness of communications. But companies need to address communications strategically rather than from a tools perspective. They need to define their communications objectives, and embrace the opportunity for dialogue that the new tools give them.
However, there are lots of examples out there to illustrate how companies still need to embrace the basic principles of PR. Recently, there was an accident at a nuclear power plant in Germany, and it took more than a week before the operator Vattenfall provided a statement. Even the regional government was quicker to comment on the issue. And even worse, Vattenfall did something we in Germany call “salami tactics”: only when forced by the government, the media and the lawyers, did they acknowledged the inevitable. It seems before we can talk about PR 2.0, the industry standard needs to move from 0.2 to at least 1.0.
But I feel that many are missing the point. It should be about dialogue. However, often whenever organisations talk about Web 2.0 they talk about the tools and how to use (or even abuse) them. The focus is on the speed and extensiveness of communications. But companies need to address communications strategically rather than from a tools perspective. They need to define their communications objectives, and embrace the opportunity for dialogue that the new tools give them.
However, there are lots of examples out there to illustrate how companies still need to embrace the basic principles of PR. Recently, there was an accident at a nuclear power plant in Germany, and it took more than a week before the operator Vattenfall provided a statement. Even the regional government was quicker to comment on the issue. And even worse, Vattenfall did something we in Germany call “salami tactics”: only when forced by the government, the media and the lawyers, did they acknowledged the inevitable. It seems before we can talk about PR 2.0, the industry standard needs to move from 0.2 to at least 1.0.
posted by Hotwire Blog @ 5:12 pm
2 Comments:
Das Vorgehen von Vattenfall ist natürlich absolut unverständlich. Es reicht purer Menschenverstand um zu wissen, dass der Konzern sich mit einem solchen Vorgehen das eigene Grab schaufelt. Dabei war natürlich eine Nicht-Kommunikation von Vattenfall angedacht...
Blöd ist nur, das funktioniert nicht.
Dude you talk straight from the core of my heart. I´m so running into concrete walls with that attitude though every day, because there are too many people too scared to let things happen. What a shame. Corporate communication needs to be redefined, but most of the deciders seem to shit themselves instead of getting themselves going ...
Post a Comment
<< Home