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The New PR: Blog Monitoring for Media & Customer Service Issues

Stephen Baker at BusinessWeek’s Blogspotting asks of the Jarvis/Dell kerfluffle:

Is this a lesson for how companies should deal with bloggers? Or simply with big bloggers? Jarvis, after all, launched nothing less than a media campaign against Dell, one that spread to hundreds of other blogs. 386 by this count at IceRocket. But compare that to this blog post that complains of a problem with an HP printer. That seems more the domain of customer relations. But why dwell on these differences? We’re heading into a world where customer and media relations are merging.

To which Steve Rubel responds:

Steve, over time I think you’re going to see blog search and Web search tools integrated into CRM systems. This will give customer service the tools they need to manage individual issues that bubble on blogs. However, you are right. PR professionals will increasingly need to not only serve as an organization’s mouthpiece (one of them at least), but also its eyes and ears. The best PR pros have done this for years. Blogging just makes it easier to keep our finger on the public pulse. 

Exactly.  Rather than follow the ‘pr is dead’ meme, think:  pr is more important and expansive than ever before.  It’s not about blog relations as warmed over media relations, but rather a whole new, nuanced level of interaction.  PR can be an ideal place to start putting these new tools — such as blog monitoring and corporate blogging — to work.  But, it will take folks ready to stretch and mashup new skill sets, as Mike Manuel has pointed out.   

Posted by admin | August 25, 2005 - 12:52pm8 Comments
Category: Uncategorized | Tags: Corporate Blogging, Memes, New PR, Social Media