What’s the good of asking a company to blog, if that company is not going to use the blog to get feedback from customers? What’s the use of blogging if a company only intends to talk not listen?

These are all questions I’ve been asking myself today. I was thinking about the cluetrain book and its ideas, and thinking about how few companies have actually made the necessary cultural changes to implement its ideas. Some blogging will help, and may not even harm a company, but maybe most social media evangelists should sign a pledge not to sell blogging services unless a company subscribes to making some real cultural changes. That may be a little harsh and in the end something may be learned by implementing a blog but not a cultural change. But I was thinking that really social media evangelists are not technology evangelist rather they a business strategy evangelists. Would you rather be the consultant who advised Dell to change its culture? Or the consultant who advised Wal-Mart to hire a couple of journalists to Astroturf?

as for being offended by the f-bomb, i say, get over yourself.
BL

I hope this post starts a groundswell of change and opportunity with companies.

I want it proven false that “as a consultant (PR in-house, out of house, or otherwise) you get paid for advice given, not taken.”

Until the under 40 crowd assumes more powerful positions in management at larger companies, status quo (the traditional mass communications approach) will remain. And I say this as a 48-year-old….

“Note: I’m not talking about running around and selling people on your products or services. I’m talking about genuinely going out there and joining the conversations that could use your input!”

Brian, let’s just ditch pitches and focus on the stories that matter to the people reading them

Hazel, I don’t even know how to reply. This is more than a professional perspective…this is a real world sense of frustration over any potential sensationalism than you could possible perceive in this title. It’s not meant to be offensive, it’s supposed to be a depiction of what’s going on in the world of new media PR and what it’s going to take to finally have traditional companies break through. Seriously, read it and understand what it is that we’re missing vs. what we need to do to help companies build relationships in the era of social media.
Move past the headline and read the post – you might learn something. And the goal of the comments section is also for me to learn something as well.

“Ultimately, this is all the same advice for PR people as well. There’s no room for pitching, spamming, or the day-to-day BS that defines most PR. With social media, PR is now exposed to the public again and therefore now needs to reengage by putting the “public” back in public relations.”

here’s some thoughts from singapore