Wonkette: Control Comes from Letting Go
"
Failed journalist," the self-description of Ana Marie Cox, aka The Wonkette, is the first clue that she's
in on the joke. She doesn't take herself too seriously and shrugs off the title of
A-list blogger - instead calling herself an "online columnist."
The
irony is that Ms. Cox is indeed a successful journalist who happens to write in a blog. It might as well be a
cave painting for all she cares. She just
tells good stories.
Ana has found her niche and downplays the whole blogging phenomenon. She likens blogs to "message boards" and podcasting to "downloadable audio" – heretical statements to the New Tech Evangelists.
At the very core, she's right. Blogs are the newfangled smoke signals, community washing wells, office water coolers...
you get the idea. It's the medium
du jour.
It's undeniably easier, cheaper, and faster than everything that preceded it – yet
it still takes the same time to read a blog that it took to read a page from the Bible during the Reformation (my favorite techno reality check comment, paraphrased here, by
Roger d'Aprix).
The breakthrough is that
RSS (the underlying engine) pushes content directly to us - thus saving time. Blogs make it possible to have
conversations unconstrained by time and space. So did the old CompuServe PR & Marketing Forum – though I had to surf over there.
Is the distinction as simple as: blogs push content, versus us (employees, media, consumers, et al.) having to pull it?
Ana seemed to maintain, as do I, that
technology is only a tool. It’s about the message – and content is still Queen.
She could care less about CEO and character blogs unless they are well written, and of interest. She questioned whether or not they are truly interactive. Ana irked the
Digerati when she asked “why would one listen to a podcast, it’s just people talking.”
What drives this viewpoint?
Judy Gombita pointed me toward an article,
“A Blogging Revolution? ‘Give me a Break’ .” Nick Denton, publisher of
Gawker Media, which contracts Ana to write The Wonkette, drops this bomb, "The hype," he said, "comes from unemployed or partially employed marketing professionals and people who never made it as journalists wanting to believe. They want to believe there's going to be this new revolution and their lives are going to be changed."
I'll bet the blood pressure is boiling now in certain quarters.Here’s another pearl, "There are too many people looking at blogs as being some magic bullet for every company's marketing problem, and they're not," he said. "It's Internet media. It's just the
latest iteration of Internet media."
My opinion? Get up to speed. Blogs can generate a buzz because search engines find opinions posted like needles in a haystack. They can influence (a blog entry here led to a
story on Richmond.com by
Robert Holland). People are trying to make sense of all of this (see the
comments by Leslie Hetherington in the
IABC Café penned by
Warren Bickford).Blogs probably have
more use than Steve Crescenzo thinks. I agree with
Neville and
Shel that blogs and podcasts have corporate potential, especially in light of
action taken by IBM. One downside risk is that employees, activists and unhappy consumers will slam organizations in blogs and gain influence.
Jay Byrne told me that bloggers can create chaos by spreading negative content – and must be monitored in real time.
Control? Ana said
control comes from letting go.
Stay tuned.
Anatomy of a Keynote
When I landed the assignment to interview
The Wonkette, I knew it was going to be controversial. Ana Marie Cox is a successful
political blogger, and
surveys say most people are not yet familiar with blogs. Yet, within the communications sphere, the
list of bloggers well ahead of the curve is already lengthy.
Politics is one of those
taboo topics. How to find the right balance?
Should I turn to David Murray for help?
Dilemma: it was a keynote, not a break-out session. Keynotes are overviews, whereas break-outs offer more nuts and bolts. Ana’s blog is
entertaining, not technically-oriented when it comes to communication theory.
My work was cut out for me. In the back of my mind, I couldn’t help but remember that Steve Crescenzo mocked IABC in
The Ragan Report when the association featured
Maya Angelou in a keynote. Maya didn’t talk about communication
per se to the standing-room only crowd, yet
she was the most natural communicator the audience had ever seen (and received stellar ratings on evaluations).
Keynotes can be inspirational; to heck with Steve!
Game plan: start with topics about which Ana is comfortable (her own blog entries, politics, Washington D.C.), then find out how she started blogging. Wade into the blogging phenomenon, ask about the relevance to corporate communication, and get her to look into the
crystal ball to project where this is headed… the impact upon communication. Specifically cover corporate, CEO and character blogs, podcasting, and the tricky issue of control. End back on her turf: trivia about D.C.
Whew!Result: I have to step back and chuckle… reactions are
all over the map.
Shel disagreed with Ana in part, and
Steve picked up on the absurd. One person liked Ana but
hated me!
Time to venture out for some person on the street interviews at the conference. “Joanna” told me that the session made her realize that she needs to know more on the topic, and now she regrets not attending the nuts and bolts sessions that were available. “Mary” chimed in that she needs to know more too (“where do I go to see a blog?”), and that – frankly – she has no idea what to tell her management team about this new technology. “Matt” found it entertaining and informative, but “didn’t learn anything new.” Others said the topic was over their head, "uh oh, we've been ignoring this topic. I guess we better stop and listen."
People either fell on one side of the aisle
(been there, done that) or the other
(what the hell are blogs?!?! Where can I get more how-to information?). Some took exception to the political references
(buried in the comments on this blog).The fact that people (more than I’ve cited here) are now
inspired to learn more about blogs is a good thing - in my opinion.
Had they not attended, they’d be none the wiser than they were sitting back in their office.
Scooped about Toilet Paper, The Wonkette
Your intrepid blogger has been scooped on the
Pressing Issue of Toilet Paper by Steve Crescenzo, and by
Shel Holtz regarding my interview with The Wonkette. If I am supposed to draw a connection between toilet paper and The Wonkette, it escapes me.
Perhaps it's that the
New York Times described her as
"potty mouthed." (free registration)The truth is: my friends scooped me. Hopefully, that gives me the credential of
"failed journalist," which Ana Marie Cox (aka
The Wonkette) wears proudly. It certainly hasn't hurt her career, thus,
guilt by association could be a good thing.
Nobody talked tissue to me. Steve must attract this kind of attention. Professional conference attendee Mike Gunderson of
Schwan's wrote to ask if I "would be so kind as to share Steve
'C.R.A.P. is my Passion' Crescenzo's e-mail address?" With such a big rep, can Steve ever live up to the
wipe?
The issue regarding the famous political blogger is one of ethics. Since I developed the questions and interviewed Ana, it's fair to say
I am biased.
How could I be objective? Shel had a really strong reaction, so I encouraged him to report on the session.
My own view will be revealed shortly. The most fulfilling moment came afterward, when Steve flipped through the session evaluations and read this gem out loud, verbatim: "The Wonkette session was entertaining and informative, but
I didn't like the interviewer."
No respect.
Beauty and the Beast: Ana Marie Cox, aka The Wonkette, and yours truly at the Ragan Corporate Communicators Conference.
Personal Fight
Jakob Nielson
pooh-poohs the notion of
personalized content. He
relents somewhat in the name of
usability. I asked
Toby Ward for his take on this, and he fired back with
this punch.
In the comment threads here (click on 'comments' under entries), 'Mark' says he is interested in more how-to on getting a seat at the management table. Also in the comments, Heather points Mark to more content - an article in JECM on this very topic (the software that posts pix does not display links, so I can't reference it). The presenter on this topic, Become an Internal Communication Counselor, provided this handy chart. If writing represents the basics of our profession, and business skills are the building blocks, then leadership traits are the stairway up.(SOURCE: Stacy Wilson, Eloquor Consulting). TIP: click on an image to see it full-size.
Role of the CEO Redux
While I was
commenting about the role of the CEO in communications, I completely missed an e-mail from Bob Libbey of
Pfizer. "The CEO is key to successful employee communications… and the key to enlisting the CEO to find ways to increase the function’s contribution to the business is to align employee communication planning and execution with the priorities and goals of the business. This means that you need to learn to work with the CEO, a process for which the benefits far outweigh the substantial investment it generally demands."
Give Bob a raise. Communication cannot be insular. Our job is about helping the business run more effectively, not about
the effective use of white space or
the top ten fonts for newsletters (two clever refrains from the dry wit of
Pete Shinbach).
Bottom line: take a
business course. Read a business mag. Look at business-related TV.
Google the topics you need to learn! Get up to the CEO's speed. Make it
your business.
Overheard
"I have a complex about my writing skills."
"The awards interrupted my networking. Make that a lunch session next time."
"More hands on detail, less background PR from speaker's about their workplace."
"Bring back Barbara Leimsner from
Canada Post. She showed that you can bring a lot of creativity to annual reports and enhance readership. Very inspiring."
"Canada Post should have been a three-hour session. I couldn't get enough."
"Blog? I've never read a blog! I guess I better do that."
"Laurie from
Walgreen's delivered what you would expect from a large company. I wish we had time to learn more about their strategy."
"The information from Walgreen's was practical and down to earth. Best session here."
"The lady from Walgreen's mentioned PR. I don't do PR."
"Now I understand how Walgreen's keeps prices low. They are lean and mean."
"You can't please everyone. Maybe we should start a
wiki and the truth will bubble up."
"Where' the spa?"
Publication Capitalists
What is it about
common sense that is such an
anathema to corporate communication? I can't help but think that I've been hearing the same stuff for over a decade. Good stuff, mind you. But do we keep repeating it because there are new people coming into the field, or is it just that companies don't get it?
Employee communications are too politicized, at the whim and direction of clueless execs. Our own
study by
L.C. Williams & Associates confirms that it all starts at the top. If the CEO believes in open, transparent communication, then it's blue skies ahead (think
Herb Kelleher). If not, prepare for dark and gloomy days.
That's right. This is a case where it's all top down. The leader sets the tone, and your options are often set in stone.
Gosh, I love a good cliché.I started thinking this when the
Ragan Recognition Awards were presented. Do we really need to admonish people to stop the spin and write more journalistically? Who thinks that b.s. is credible anyway? Apparently some execs think they can apply the same creativity to internal comms once reserved for
accounting. Nuts!
The editorial team from
SC Johnson said to put people first in publications. That's right: people before profits in employee comms. Here's
another company that gets it! They also advise you to run features about lessons learned. No, don't focus on failure. Instead, ask managers to debrief and offer post-mortem analysis of projects that missed the mark. Everyone learns from these insights - and they breed the kind of openness and transparency that rings true to employees.
Save the ego and posturing for late night clubs.Ask employees for their opinions and run them
uncensored. I can see corporate headquarters
exploding everywhere about now. You have as much luck controlling communication as you do herding cats. Everyone has access to the grapevine anyway (including
our own).
The SCJ team was marketing savvy too. They reminded us to find the unique personality of our organizations and write about that. Uncover what's special about your workplace.
Have you checked your readership stats? Nobody reads one-way, top-down controlled management pronouncements. And if they do, they don't believe or trust them. Save that style for totalitarian regimes. Business is capitalism, right?
Survey Says
We liked the practical tips
Matt Greenberger of
A.T. Kearney offered on the topic of surveys.
- "You've been chosen..." in the lead of the request (appeal to ego)
- Never overlook the power of a bribe. "Chance to win..."
- Consider online tools, such as SurveyMonkey (an audience participant suggested Zoomerang).
- Familiarize yourself with the randomize function in Excel for selecting employees from lists
- Repeat selected questions from survey to survey to track ongoing issues
- Chart progress over time by comparing results in historical graphs
- Experiment with different styles of graphs. The one that illustrates the data best may not be the one you think of first.
- Pull a team together to build the survey - more heads are better than one.
- Averages lie; break the data into smaller populations to spot differences. Matt gave an example of an employee satisfaction question: the overall average was satisfactory, yet a breakdown by location revealed a big problem in one geographic area.
- The magic number seems to be eleven questions.
Of course, one key to useful results is to start with the right population and questions. That's where good judgment comes in, and Matt says this is a case where it's best not to work alone (see #8). Added perspective adds balance.
This is a topic that often makes my eyes glaze over, especially when it comes to statistics (memories of our college days haunt us). So I appreciated the nuts and bolts approach taken here. When I go to a conference, I want someone to tell me what I need to do.
Even a mathematical nitwit like me can follow these tips.
