Interview: Shel Holtz

Along with Neville Hobson and myself, Shel Holtz is te only communications professional who were probably practicing at the time the wheel was first launched.  Had either of them, been involved, we'd probably know today who the developer was.  In any case, the following is an edited version of my conversation with Shel.  It will be used in our "Consultants who get it," chapter.

Q. You've been in the communications business since the early 1970s. What are the most significant changes you have experienced?

I started out as a newspaper reporter around 1974 and took my first communication job in 1977 at ARCO.I'd like to say the introduction of online technology is the most significant change I've experienced, but I think it’s only second to management’s recognition of communication's value. Executives recognize the need to communicate, a huge change from the mid-70s. While we still have to sell communications – to people viewing it as an expense, rather than a profit center -- it's an easier sell.

There's less fluff in communications now. When I started as Mattel’s manager of employee communications in 1984, the company was in dire straits following a failed interactive television venture, but the l the employee magazine’s lead story was about an administrative assistant who would be square dancing at the  Summer Olympics. Today, most companies communicate about substance to employees and other audiences. Today, the senior-most communicators have proximity to the CEO, and is included in strategy and planning meetings.

Now comes online technology, introducing of many-to-many communications, which has had dramatic impact. Tactically, the change has been stunning. For my first 20 years, I spent my time almost exclusively producing print publications. I am reluctant to guess how much time I spent on press checks and blueline reviews. I haven't been involved in a print project in at least the last eight years. Not one.

Strategically, online communication has turned all the models and assumptions under which we operated upside down. Control of message, targeting of audiences, measurement of effectiveness -- it's all changed. And most communicators don't know it yet.

Q. Your PR website gives me the impression that your communications business is now exclusively focused on social media services. Is it true? How and when did this transition come about?

Well, the name of my business IS Holtz Communication + Technology! I still do traditional communication consulting, if asked. I just finished developing a strategic internal communications plan for a client and I didn’t't promote traditional services as prominently as online-focused services. Still, it’s not all social media. I work on a lot of intranets. I do intranet and Web site audits as well as online communication planning.

But, since 1996, I’ve focused on online communications. I first got online by accident around 1985. I discovered BBSs while using modems to transmit text from an IBM PC (firstgeneration) to four LCD display boards we hung from the ceiling at Mattel's cafeteria. We flashed stock prices, service anniversaries, and other short items. But once I found BBSs, my life changed.

I got onto CompuServe around 1988, and the Net around 1989 or 90. My first real revelation about the Web came when I was working for Allergan as director of corporate communications. I started monitoring a few Usenet newsgroups dealing with animal rights, since we engaged in animal testing. At first, I was just curious to find out if I'd be able to get a heads-up on any planned protests at our annual meetings or investor road shows. Ultimately, though, I used the intelligence I gathered there to convince management that we needed to alter our approach.

In 1994, at Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group, in San Francisco, my client Adobe Systems Inc. had committed to employees it would deliver annual benefits enrollment to the desktop. Of course, they had no clue how they could do that.

At that time, I was teaching myself HTML. I cobbled together a "looks-like" Web-based benefits enrollment and ran it down to Adobe. "You can have a corporate Web," I exclaimed, "and put your benefits enrollment on it."

"Yeah, yeah, we have a corporate Web," they told me, dashing my fantasies of having invented the intranet. "But we had no idea you can do benefits enrollment on it."

I wasn't sure, either. I went to the WELL, an online community and asked. I got 20 or 30 replies telling me I was out of my mind. But one that said, "Sure, we can do that." This was a local company run by a developer named Matisse Enzer, who we would use to develop the first-ever online benefits enrollment. \ Adobe's employees enrolled over their intranet  in 1994, the first company to ever do so.

We put a copy of the enrollment on our own server and I flew to New Jersey to the head of my agency. I felt we had a tremendous early-mover advantage. The president listened politely, then asked, "why in the world would we introduce a system that anybody can do when we make a fortune selling shrink-wrapped software?" I quit shortly after that and started HC+T, convinced that there was a future in helping companies figure this whole thing out.

Long story short:  I've been focused exclusively on this field since 1996, I've been right there as all the major changes occurred.

Q. How do you and your clients find each other?

I spend a lot of time on the speaking circuit;  and its where I often find new clients. I do keynotes, conference sessions, workshops, seminars, the whole range of speaking assignments.

A lot comes from referrals from other clients with whom I've worked in the past. Some are subscribers to my RSS-enabled e-mail newsletter. Occasionally, I get one from my Web site, although my site is mostly there to provide more information to people who have heard about me through other channels.

Q. When did you start blogging? What made you start?

I started my first blog, "Shel on Communications," in mid-2003. It was a Blogger blog. I had read about blogging, and had followed its evolution, and decided I'd better try it if I was going to be able to talk about it intelligently. I didn't have a good handle on what to say, though, and I didn't like the early Blogger interface, so I abandoned it. I started my current blog in mid-2004 after deciding I'd be more inspired to maintain it if I owned my own software. Since I have my own Web and mail server, this wasn't a big deal.

Q. Has blogging changed who you are and what you do?

Who I am? No. I'm just as active in my synagogue as I ever was. I listen to as much of the music that I like as I ever did. I read the same types of books and have the same relationships with my wife and kids. I've produced my e-mail newsletter for years, which was very blog-like in its content. Today, my e-mail newsletter is a collection of what I think were my most relevant blog posts from the previous month.

As for what I do, I guess I'd say it has changed to a modest degree. For one thing, I spend a lot of time blogging -- reading and writing. I also do a podcast, "For Immediate Release: The Hobson & Holtz Report" twice a week. My network of friends and colleagues has expanded tremendously. And, of course, I consult on blogs now. But I don't see that as any more of a change than adding instant messaging was to the mix.

Q. How has blogging changed the PR business?

Dramatically and irrevocably...and yet, not as dramatically as some of the more zealous blogging evangelists would have us believe.

For one thing, I don't believe PR EVER had control of messages. But blogging has amplified the power of the audience. Blogs affect organizational communication in terms of transparency, tone, channel, influence...there's not an element of PR that blogging won't affect by blogs.

But when I read that blogs will replace press releases (as one example), I just have to laugh. A press release is the official, authoritative, final statement of record by an organization. A press release can be distributed in a manner that accommodates securities regulations. They may be lowly, but they have a place. Blogs can't replace that. Blogs also can't brew a perfect cup of coffee. What am I trying to say here? You'll find no bigger advocate for companies understanding and employing the power of blogs -- and recognizing the awesome impact of blogs on the business -- than me. But I have always believed that new media don't kill old media; they only force old media to adapt. Blogs are, unquestionably, transformational. (Well, actually social media are transformational, and blogs are part of that.) But a lot of the old methods are still valid. Blogs are great, but newspaper reporters still reach a lot of people and pitching a reporter depends primarily on building a one-to-one relationship with the reporter.

Q. Robert and I are both fans of the Hobson & Holtz Report. Can you tell me how it came about? How do you select people to interview?

I was fascinated with podcasting and started listening to a few and immediately began noodling with the idea of a podcast aimed at PR practitioners. After all, what is podcasting if not a great example of narrowcasting? There's not a radio station on Earth that would broadcast a PR-focused show; the audience isn't there, but it’s perfect for podcasting and I wanted to be the first to do it. What better credentials for consulting on podcasting than to be  a pioneer? But mostly I was just dying to try my hand at what people like Adam Curry, Todd Cochrane, and Michael Butler were doing.

I wanted an international flavor and I've known Neville for a long time. So I Skyped him and pitched him on the idea. I didn't have to pitch too hard. This was in mid-December 2004. We launched in early January.

As for interview subjects, there's no formula. We'll meet someone or talk to someone and it'll strike us, "This would be a great person to interview." Or we'll be talking about an issue, like GM blogging, and it'll hit us: "We ought to interview somebody about this." One of us will pursue the interview.

Q. How does your role as a blogger and podcaster change your role as a communications consultant?

It really doesn't, but it allows me stay ahead of the curve. My clients and my readers count on me to tell them what's new. That said, the mix of what I consult on has shifted toward blogs and podcasts. But given the speed with which new technologies are introduced, that's been the nature of the business all along. When something else appears, I hope I'm right on top of that, too. If I fall behind, I'll be of little value to clients.

Q. What advice do you have for traditional communications practitioners regarding blogging?

Subscribe to at least 20 feeds and read them every day. Add at least two a week. Force yourself to keep reading these feeds until the light bulb appears over your head. Concurrently, start tracking your organization's appearance in blogs through PubSub or some other monitoring tool. Once you have a firm handle on the whole thing, start blogging. I don't care what you blog about. There's always room for PR bloggers, but if you want to blog about politics or sports or your dog, just blog. It's simply not something you can truly understand unless you do it.

Come to think of it, that's not very different from what I was telling traditional communicators in 1995: Get online. Surf the Web. See what's out there. Learn a little HTML and see what you can do. Everything old is new again, isn't it?