Who are the media?

I just looked up the definition of media from Dictionary.com, and found the following:

"me·di·a: (usually used with a plural verb) the means of communication, as radio and television, newspapers, and magazines, that reach or influence people widely"

This definition, however, is a bit shortsighted considering the world we live in today. Media are no longer just radio, TV, newspapers and magazines (though they are still all very strong media). We need to expand the definition of "media" to include bloggers, podcasters and, to a certain extent, users of social networks (i.e. MySpace, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). These are what constitute social media.

Last week at work we held a pilot session for what we hope will become on ongoing series of classes on the basics of social media for GM employees. Christopher Barger, director of global communications and technology at GM, was quick to point out that our team (the social media team) is not out to try to tell people that social media is good or bad; people just need to understand that social media is here and we can choose to embrace or reject it.


Professional PR and communications practitioners need to avoid a common mindset that social media people are not really the media. If we only ever think of print, TV and radio as the only media out there then we are doing our organization and our publics a big disservice. When we invite traditional media out to cover events, we should be inviting bloggers and podcasters as well.


Social media is here. We as PR practitioners can either accept it or not, but it's here to stay.

A Tour of The Detroit News

As part of an internship activity yesterday I had the opportunity to take a tour of The Detroit News newsroom. Our host, Mark Truby, business editor at the paper, was more than accomodating when it came to answering our questions and showing us around. Upon entering the actual newsroom we were greeted by piles of different newspapers, stacks of various books, a large collection of Pez dispensers and an even larger collection of bobble head dolls.

One of the interns in our group asked Mark what he thought the future of the newspaper business looked like. Mark replied that while the paper's circulation had decreased (as I'm sure is the case with the majority of the papers around the country), readership had actually increased due to more people reading online. Mark also made a point of saying that news still has value today, and that mass media makes money from the masses. They want to print the news that will sell papers and capture those "impulse buyers" who may buy a paper simply from what they see "above the fold." This has some serious implications to PR practitioners who often engage in "pitching" news to the newspapers. It's important that we not only pitch news, but pitch news that will sell papers. This is a self-interest of journalists that I have never thought of before.

We also had the opportunity to speak with another editor and to get her opinion on what are the best and worst ways for PR people to work with print media. She told us that the most helpful PR people are those who understand what journalists do and allow themselves or their client to be accessible to the media as much as possible. She recommended that we do all we can to help the journalist get the story he/she wants.

One thing she told us to beware of is something I've heard before: stop blanketing journalists with news releases. I've always been taught that doing this is a bad PR practice, but she put a new spin on it for me. By inundating journalists with news releases some of the really important, newsworthy information may be lost in the mix. She also recommended shortening releases and maybe even just bulleting the information out so they can read through it quickly. It seems the news release is becoming an increasingly irrelevant part of the PR industry.

It was a great experience to visit The Detroit News and see more of the behind-the-scenes work that goes on in a newsroom. Now I want to visit a broadcast news studio! I recommend that all budding public relations professionals take some time to tour their local newsroom and visit with the journalists.

Interacting With Bloggers

This blog seems to be morphing into more of a commentary on social media, but, hey, that's what I'm immersed in now, and it is a vital part of public relations.

This past Thursday I had the opportunity to participate in a news conference for Challenge X, an event co-sponsored by GM. Given that Challenge X is a contest for college teams to create more fuel-efficient and decreased emissions engines for the Chevy Equinox, the Social Media Team here at GM decided to invite a group of "green" bloggers to attend the event and news conference. Our guest bloggers included Sam Abuelsamid from AutoBlogGreen, Phillip Proefrock from GreenOptions/EcoGeek, Matt Mayer from Groovy Green . Lyle Dennis from Chevy-Volt Forum, Matt Kelly from NextGear and Todd Kaho from Green Car Journal.

It was interesting to note the differences between interaction with social media and the traditional media. GM brought the bloggers out to Michigan to participate in the events at Challenge X and to attend the news conference where this year's winners were announced. Following the news conference and driving activity the bloggers had the opportunity to sit down with Micky Bly, director of GM Hybrid Intergration, and ask him questions about GM's efforts in alternative propulsion. Later that evening the bloggers joined us for dinner with an engineer and scientist from GM, and were able to ask more questions about energy diversity, the Chevy Volt concept and other topics.

One thing I noticed about the bloggers was how passionate they were about the subjects they write on. The entire conversation at dinner was focused on cars and cars only. There was no small talk! The bloggers all seemed to be very down-to-earth and grateful to be included in this event. More than one of the bloggers told me how honored he was to be there and how exciting it was to see what GM is doing.

Bloggers quite often have day jobs and blogging is just something they do on the side. I was impressed to learn that one of the bloggers, Lyle Dennis, is a neurologist in New York and does his blogging in-between patient visits.

The reason I want to include this in the blog is to show how companies should interact with bloggers. Bloggers are a critical "public," if you will, for all PR practitioners. We can't afford to ignore bloggers and their immense influence on our other publics. This experience showed me how to host bloggers at a media event as well as how important of a voice they have.

Social Media Blunders

My boss sent me an interesting article today that highlights a few companies who have made some big errors in trying to engage in social media. The article, titled "What Kills a Social Media Campaign," goes through a number of blunders various companies have had in working with social media.

Being an intern in New Media Communications at General Motors, I have learned so much about how to correctly engage in social media activities. An interesting thing I've learned here is the importance of being completely transparent about who you represent in the social media sphere. For example, any time I start or participate in dialogue on social networking sites like Facebook or MySpace, I have to identify myself as a GM employee.

Another thing I've learned is the importance of being sincere. Anything less than complete sincerity sounds like a cheap marketing or public relations stunt. Social media users do not want to be marketed to and willl not put up with it. Each time I engage in dialogue on social networking sites I try to solicit input and advice from the users, while still identifying myself as a GM employee.

While the use of social media can greatly benefit an organization, misuse of it can greatly harm it as well.

Blogs = Dialogue

In my work in New Media Communications at GM I frequently read and comment on various blog posts. I've learned a great deal about blogging and how it can best be used. One of the biggest lessons I've learned in regards to blogging is that blogging is a unique type of media in that it allows for organizations to create meaningful dialogue. I suppose I always thought of blogging as another way for an organization to "get it's message out there," but this assumption runs counter to what public relations should be all about: generating two-way communication between an audience and its publics.

Blogging differs from traditional media, such as newspapers and broadcast news, in that it provides a forum for an organization to not only tell it's news, but to get feedback from its publics as well. Blogs allow organizations to understand what their publics (including customers) are thinking and what they want; a luxury not easily available with traditional media. By way of measurement, perhaps organizations can assess their relationship with publics by measuring not just the number of blog posts about the organization, but what comments people are making in response to these posts.

Blogs are, and will continue to be, an extremely imporant media that public relations practitioners cannot afford to ignore, but if abused they can greatly hinder an organization's PR efforts.

Trust

I have recently been reading Trust or Consequences by Al Golin (2004). The basic thrust of the book so far has been the need for organizations to build trust with their stakeholders or face negative consequences for not doing so. One concept Golin introduces in this book is a "trust bank." Golin developed this term (trust bank) to "describe how deposits of goodwill can serve a company well when it faces a crisis or other negative news" (Golin, 2). The book then outlines various reasons why organizations need to establish a trust bank and how to do it.

It is important to note that "trust directly impacts an organization's success and profits" (Public Relations Practices: Managerial Case Studies and Practices. Center, Allen & Jackson, Patrick. Upper Saddle River, NJ, 2003).

While I agree completely with the above statements, I have to wonder if actively working to establish a trust bank for the purpose of increased profits and success is ethical. Perhaps I'm too altruistic or naive, but I believe an organization should want to build trust simply for the sake of building trust. Having ulterior motives in building trust is, in my opinion, not trustworthy (for lack of a better term). Imagine how a group of stakeholders might react if they found out their organization has embarked on an active trust-building campaign (as Golin suggests doing in this book) simply to increase revenue. I don't imagine it would go over too well.

I believe organizations should work to maintain and increase the trust of its stakeholders, but only for altruistic purposes. Organizations should be a good corporate citizen simply because that is the right thing to do. That, in my opinion, is the best way to build trust.

The World of Corporate Communications

This past Monday I embarked upon the biggest career move of my life so far: an internship at General Motors Corp. I have been assigned to work on the Social Media team for GM at the headquarters here in Detroit. It has been an absolutely overwhelming, yet amazing experience so far. I'm definitely a very small fish in a very large pond.

I have been most impressed with the kindness that has been exhibited to me by everyone here. They truly know how to make a brand new intern feel welcome and comfortable. I feel like they are giving me the red carpet treatment. I have no problem asking some of the higher-ranking leaders here for advice and counsel. They have all been very supportive.

I have also been impressed with the immensity of GM's communications department. We had a meeting yesterday for all the North American communications people. There were more than 200 people there! GM has segmented its communications approaches to a number of different areas: labor relations, parts and supply chain communications, plant communications, corporate communications, social media, media relations, etc. GM is truly a company that knows how to communicate with its numerous and varied publics.

On a side note, I just have to write about what we did yesterday. After the meeting we all drove up to the Milford Proving Grounds, an enormous site where GM does all of its vehicle testing. The purpose of our visit? To drive alot of the new 2007 vehicles. I drove so many cars yesterday. I drove the new GMC Sierra truck, a Hummer H3 and H2, a Saab 9.5, a Cadillac Escalade, GMC Acadia (very nice), Saturn Aura Hybrid (which won the North American Car of the Year Award for 2007) and the Pontiac G6 convertible. The highlight, however, was driving a 2007 Chevy Corvette Z06 and an '07 Cadillac XLR. The pickup on those cars is exhilarating. I got both of them up to 90 mph in just a matter of seconds. I also had the chance to drive a Hummer on a course designed to highlight all that a Hummer is capable of. It was amazing.

I think I'm going to enjoy my time here at GM. :)