Chapter 10 and a rant on the internet

Chapter 10: Determining Appropriate Methods

Chapter 10 was an excellent chapter for those who need a refresher in communication methods. It was short, sweet and the tradeoff of 13 pages seems to be writing 750 words about it.

I had a few issues with it: The first being that the inclusion of the internet seemed more of an afterthought. I pictured the authors discussing how to address the issue of the Web and simply deciding to throw in the last few paragraphs, while, in the mean time, I’m reading the first nine or so pages going “How could the miss the internet?!?” So I’m going to start talking about the internet first, then go on to my other thoughts on the chapter.

I know this was copyrighted in 2004, before blogs were the hottest thing since sliced bread, before the Dell Hell fiasco with Jeff Jarvis so I’ll go a little easy. Technology moves so fast and we’re so caught up in the flow that it’s hard to remember the terrain as we passed the land before blogging.

The still didn’t cover very much of the internet and the power of Web sites. When I am doing research for anything I go to two things: Google.com and the affiliated organization’s Web site. Tons of background information, forms, documents and informational treasures exist using these two tools. The book, even in 2004 should have addressed the absolute importance of a Web site. I can’t imagine an organization without a public of internet users.

A Web site is such an amazing tool that can offer everyone information for the cost of a little time, the domain name (which can be expensive if you can’t be creative), and a software program like Dreamweaver. I look forward to reading more about this in chapter 18.

There is an interesting and rich history that is detailed in wikipedia (wikis, of course, are another interesting method of communication and collaboration). Type in “blog” and “public relations” into the Academic Search Premier from our library and you will be connected to a number of articles about blogging and its effect on business. It can be good for some and bad for others. It can force an organization to look at how it treats its customers and it can debunk poor mainstream media coverage as what happened with Dan Rather and ABC news. If abused by organizations, such as with Walmart and Edelman, they can cause an organization’s attempt at saving face to “screech to a halt.” Blogs are a powerful entity that should be discussed because they give so much power to the people that use them, and that number continues to grow.

My initial take on the chapter could be summarized as follows: There are three primary types of communication; informational, visual and face to face. The can be short or long, easy or complex, and you should always review someone else’s informative work and ask them to review yours before you disseminate. And all this applies to Web sites and they should look nice.

When working with the media, one of the things that I must always remind myself is to look at the forest for the trees. We talk about the media one way or another, but it’s like saying all Americans are obnoxious and uncouth when visiting foreign countries. It’s not always true. When calling upon the media, I try to remember that it is someone doing their job and they, like me, are busy. That’s why I liked the comment on p. 163 about needing timeframes and being as organized as possible when putting together a campaign or a simple press release. One of the key components in building relationships in PR, especially with the media, is to have a good idea of what sort of timeframes you need and to be able to stick to them.

One trick the book didn’t discuss (it’s a bit backward), but a great way to begin a relationship with a media outlet is to take notice of who it is that most consistently reports on your organization. They are usually the best people to contact, if you haven’t done so already.

The face-to-face communication portion has some excellent advice, especially when dealing with an angry public, however they neglected to mention that face-to-face communication doesn’t need to be a presentation. It can be a representative simply going out and discussing the topic, a forum or any number of the methods that were discussed in chapter 17 and we’ll certainly discuss in chapter 15. These face-to-face methods are important too. A presentation is one-sided and more options should have been discussed.