www.nickhodge.com

Last week I presen­ted at the Vic­torian Branch of the IABC (Inter­na­tional Asso­ci­ation of Busi­ness Com­mu­nic­at­ors). Thanks to Dr Jen­nifer Frahm for invit­ing me, sight unseen, to speak. Onstage after Ross Mon­aghan from Deakin Uni­ver­sity and The Media Pod was a tough gig. There­fore, it was time to flip the con­tro­ver­sial switch.

A premise that I artic­u­lated was that “online, people smell the fake” – and from ques­tions and com­ments dur­ing Ross’ present­a­tion, this is of major con­cern to PR professionals.

How do organ­isa­tions com­mu­nic­ate both intern­ally and extern­ally in a PR-spin weary world?

To respond to this, I described an emer­ging job role: “digital com­munity spe­cial­ist”. Noth­ing new here; the idea stems from Laurel Papworth’s work over the last 15 years. What is new is that PR’s audi­ence is quicklu shift­ing to online/digital medi­ums (ref: ACMA Report 2006/7). People online can and will invoke the nuc­lear option (ref: Mark Pesce) And this is a nor­mal part of their lives. Online is as real as off­line. (ref: danah boyd’s research)

Organ­isa­tion can and must use social net­works to engage stake­hold­ers. Not using than use “fake names” or “brand names”, No astro­turf­ing nor sock­pup­pet­ing. Just as people use online net­works to con­nect with their friends, organ­isa­tions can use social net­works to make connections.

People con­nect with other people. One role of the new PR is to hire/foster real employ­ees to act on behalf of the organ­isa­tion online. Do not out­source this import­ant role. My sug­ges­tion is to find a star in the internal sales team, cus­tomer ser­vice team. An indi­vidual who is already online out of hours, who also under­stands the foibles of your organisation.

Empower your new ambas­sad­ors with the free­dom to con­nect, act hon­estly, and tell the truth. Provide tools to per­mit them to right the wrongs that all organ­isa­tions do.

The role of the new PR is to man­age the image these new digital dip­lo­mats. Be their internal cham­pi­ons and meas­ure their work.

Release your best ambas­sad­ors into the digital world.