This is the fourth and final interview that I am doing before my talks to communications professionals in Ottawa and Toronto.
I share so much in common with Shel Holtz, beyond the name thing. We both have long careers in communications. I've written one book he has written at least five. He found the social media shortly before I did. I've always admired his humanity and his wisdom.
While Shel and I violently agree on a great deal, we are not singing in full harmony on the issue of PR & social media. Where I see a fundamental disruption, Shel sees another dot on a decades-long continuum of evolving communications professionals.
The funny thing is whichever perspective comes closer to your own, the conclusion seems to be the same: if you are in the communications business, you really need to understand and participate in the social media phenomenon.
Here's what Shel Holtz has to say on the subject:
1. You’ve been around about as long as I have. Is it true that some of your earlier clients launched the wheel and fire? If so, why doesn’t anybody know who the developers are?
It's on a need-to-know basis.
2. More seriously, you have has a long and successful career. Could you give my readers a synopsis of where you have been and what you have done in terms of corporate communications?
Sure. I worked for a few years as a newspaper reporter in the mid-1970s before moving into corporate communications in 1977. I started at ARCO, the oil company now part of BP, as an internal communications representative. I was there about 6-1/2 years, leaving when I decided I wanted to try my hand at managing an employee communications department. That wouldn't happen at ARCO, where the manager who hired me wound up retiring from the position only a few years ago following the acquisition by BP.
I spent one frustrating and unfulfilling year at Transamerica Financial Services before moving to Mattel, the toy company, as manager of Employee Communications. I was there four years, during which time I was promoted to Director of Corporate Communications, responsible for financial communications, media relations, and a variety of other audiences. It was also during my stint at Mattel that I got online, around 1986, on Bulletin Board Systems.
I moved from there in 1988 to William M. Mercer, Inc., a human resources consulting firm, where I was a senior communications consultant. I was there only two years, long enough to learn that the billable-hour routine wasn't for me. I became manager of Employee Communications at Allergan, an ophthalmic pharmaceutical company. I was quickly promoted to director of Corporate Communications, again responsible for media, financial, and corporate PR in addition to internal communications. While here, I got onto CompuServer's PR & Marketing Forum and, later, the Internet (in 1991).
From there, I moved from L.A. to the Bay Area and took a job in the billable-hour world again, this time with Alexander & Alexander Consulting Group. While there, I led the project team that developed the first-ever intranet benefits enrollment. But management didn't see the intranet as a tool to embrace, so in 1996 I left to start my own consulting firm, Holtz Communication + Technology, which I've been doing ever since.
3. I’ve asked you this before, but could you tell us how the Hobson & Holtz report got started? How big is your audience and what percentage of it is communications professionals?
In November 2004, I contacted Neville -- whom I've known since the early 1990's though the CompuServe PR & Marketing Forum, and particularly through the PRSIG's IABC Hyperspace section (we're both long-time members of IABC, the International Association of Business Communicators). I told him I wanted to start a podcast about online communication, primarily as the best way to learn about podcasting but also to give something back to the profession that has given so much to me. I felt the podcast would be better with both a co-host and an international perspective. He agreed and we started podcasting in early January, 2005.
We have about 1,000 listeners per episode, and most of them -- I'd say about 75-80% -- are in the communication profession. We know because we surveyed our listeners.
4. It seems to me that you are a consistent voice of moderation during a great many of blogging’s periodic shouting matches. Is this your nature? Would you advise communications professionals to remain prudent in what they do and say in social media? Are there exceptions?
How nice of you to notice! I've made it a habit to sit back and pay attention to trends in communication before voicing an opinion. I find too many people proclaim something the next big thing, or the right or wrong thing to do, before the evidence is truly in. I also don't believe that anything changes everything, and as you probably know, I don't believe new media kill old media. When the zealots begin shouting that this or that is dead, or this company did everything wrong or that software is going to change the world, I usually react with a bit of bemusement and then wait a while to see how it actually shakes out. I rarely jump on something as soon as it's introduced. For example, I watched podcasting for several months before deciding that it was a valid medium that would gain momentum and go mainstream, leading me to reach out to Neville and start FIR.
Prudence in the business world is never a bad thing, but it should be balanced with a certain amount of boldness and risk-taking. I seem to recall one of the companies I worked for calling it "prudent risk-taking," which means you've researched the subject adequately and your risk is an informed one.
5. How have the social media changed your business?
Social media is the next step on a continuum. Intranets changed my business, then message boards and instant messaging changed my business, now social media has changed my business, and in two or three years, something else will change my business. So I guess the real answer is: It hasn't changed my business at all, when you stop and consider that my business is all about consulting on the latest online trends. And for all the inquiries I get and talks I give on social media, I still conduct intranet audits.
On the other hand, I was not blogging or podcasting before social media, I didn't maintain a wiki, I wasn't tagging content, and so forth. In that regard, social media has changed EVERYTHING about my business!
6. Do you see social media as something different, or is it simple a new communications channel to be incorporated into the corporate marketing mix?
Both. It should be integrated into the mix, because new media do not kill old media. However, the rules for using social media are entirely different, and companies really do not have a choice but to figure out and embrace social media. That means learning to function and communicate in an entirely altered communication environment.
7. What advice do you have for communicates people just now adapting to blogging and social media?
Read. Read, read, read. And listen. Then start to participate in other people's blogs and podcasts. Understand the environment before becoming a communicator within it yourself. Jumping into the space without understanding it is potentially more dangerous than not jumping in at all.
8. As professional tools, how would you differentiate the strategic differences between podcasting and blogging?
While podcasting certainly can be a two-way, community-building vehicle, it is less so than blogging. In general, podcasting DELIVERS a message while blogging ENGAGES people in conversation. But blogs, like every other communication vehicle, requires 100% dedicated attention, while audio podcasts allow you to listen while you're doing something else. Podcasts deliver a real voice; there can be no mistaking the tone a podcaster takes, whereas text can corrupt tone, particularly in an unskilled writer's hands.
9. Describe to me your picture of a typical PR firm five years from today?
Five years from now, a typical PR firm will look exactly the way it does today. Sorry. Some things don't change too quickly. PR firms today look pretty much like they did before the web, with the exception of the addition of interactive practices to provide online services to account teams.
Some agencies will specialize in social media, to be sure, while others will "get it" more than others. But if you're asking whether there will be virtual agencies that ebb and flow in terms of client engagements and employees, I'd say not many, and certainly none of the big boys will transition to that state.
10. What will happen to PR firms that don’t change?
Not much, since traditional PR services will continue to be in demand. But a lot of work they could do for their clients will be shifted to organizations that know how to engage the social marketplace. Some of these will be boutique PR agencies, others will be individuals or small teams.
11. Is there something brilliant you would like to share with our studio audience that I have not given you the chance to say?
The Grateful Dead is the greatest band that ever was or will be.
Besides that, I would urge communicators to avoid the temptation to dismiss new social networks or media that emerge. Ten years ago, I heard communicators shrug off the web saying, "It's too time-consuming, I'm not interested, it's only for geeks and nerds, it isn't important to PR." Today I'm hearing the same words uttered, but this time about everything from blogs to Second Life. Nobody said it was easy, but it's our job to know where the threats and opportunities for our brands and reputations lie, and how to counsel our clients and companies on how to address those threats and opportunities.
