Social media and ethics – implications for PR practitioners

While there are umpteen opportunities, there are also an increasing number of challenges that PR and communications management practitioners face in the online world (especially social media). Among other issues, ethical dilemmas are now becoming something practitioners have to deal with on a daily basis.

Dr. Margalit Toledano and Levarna Fay Wolland’s research paper (Ethics 2.0: A social media implication for professional communicators) identifies the current major ethical topics on the profession’s agenda and considers their implications for practitioners.

Here’s an excerpt from an interview with Dr. Toledano. (Click here, for the full interview).

What are some of the ethical challenges that PR practitioners face in the social media communications environment?

Using evidence from focus groups and interviews with NZ practitioners, my research identified ethical concerns around transparency, ease of deception, control of media agenda, employee communication rights, and tensions between a practitioner’s personal and organisational voice…

Do you think that the line between private and professional use of social media has an impact on ethical PR practice?

Practitioners who participated in my research were uncertain about what they could and could not say in private online publications. They also expressed resentment about the fact that executives expected communication consultants to engage in online conversations on their behalf…

What is the value, if any, of professional training in keeping up with challenges of the social media ethics?

I personally believe that the future of public relations depends on practitioners taking responsibility for the ethical behaviour of organisations. Instead of covering up failures and irresponsible behaviour, they could initiate employee training programmes in social media and in ethical communication – online and offline…

Related:

PRINZ Professional Development Course – Social Media Boot Camp
All you need to know about social media in just one day. By the end of the session, delegates will understand the basics, how to operate the tools, how to manage them within their daily workload and how to plan an effective, measurable strategy that builds and sustains good digital relationships with your communities.

3 February, 9:30am to 4:30pm, Auckland. Register Now!

Tags: digital media, Ethics, ethics 2.0, online ethics, online public relations, online transparency, Social Media

2011 – the year of the communicator?

Time Magazine recently named ‘The Protester’ as its person of the year globally. I wonder if in New Zealand the person of the year should be ‘The Communicator’.

In a testing year for the country, public relations and communications people have come to the fore. Think of Rena, Christchurch’s earthquakes and, on a more positive note, the 2011 Rugby World Cup.  In all cases pr people were central to the activity.

Those involved were not simply public relations practitioners, in most cases they are also members of PRINZ. Members who support what we do, and by being a member, make a commitment to the profession. A whole-hearted ‘thank you’ from the National Office team for that.

Looking ahead to 2012, it’s a year that I am excited about for PRINZ. We have some new, and existing, initiatives that we’ll be talking about in the New Year. Please feel free to be an active part of your professional body and let us know what you think at any time.

Wishing you a Merry Christmas and a safe New Year.

Simone Bell

Chief Executive (acting)

Note:

The PRINZ National office is closed from December 23, 2011 and reopens on January 16, 2012.

Tags: Christchurch earthquakes, communications, public relations, Rena, RWC, The Protestor, TIME magazine

Should lawyers be PR advisers?

“Should lawyers be giving PR advice in a crisis?” is the question posed for a story in the New Zealand Law Society’s Law Talk magazine. Public Relations Institute of New Zealand Inc. (PRINZ) chief executive Tim Marshall provides these comments.  

Public relations and communications management (PR/CM) in a crisis is a complex and demanding field requiring clear thinking, great organisational teamwork and fast action. PR/CM crisis management experts must identify and communicate with a multitude of stakeholders via a daunting array of media ranging from news and social media to public meetings and street posters.  

Many – but no means all – crises have legal issues at their heart. In the best of all possible worlds PR/CM practitioners work alongside legal advisers to chart a course that will manage both the legal risk and protect the organisation’s reputation. 

Mutual respect for different roles: In a crisis lawyers and (PR/CM) practitioners each bring their own skills to the situation. Ideally there will be a mutual respect and a willingness to work together. An organisation which focuses only on its legal obligations rather than taking into account the views and wishes of stakeholders runs a serious risk of damaging its reputation. 

Organisations should include their legal counsel in their crisis communication planning and rehearsals. If, during that process, they identify legal concerns, these should be taken back to the issues management process to be resolved before they become a crisis.  In general terms, legal implications of crisis situations should form part of the scenario planning so that those involved – legal, PR / communications / other team members – are familiar with each other and aware of the operational requirements of each.  Bringing together ‘siloed’ disciplines that each have their own operational track can, only when a crisis strikes, can be a recipe for disaster. 

Find a PR/CM crisis management specialist: Generally, PR/CM practitioners are skilled in media and stakeholder communications. However, as lawyers do, PR/CM practitioners tend to specialise in different areas such as marketing communications, internal communications, investor relations, government relations and community relations. Therefore, it is important in a crisis when reputation is at stake to identify and work with a PR/CM practitioner who is a crisis management communications expert. The PRINZ Guide to PR Consultancies lists PR consultancies and their areas of specialisation and can be found on www.prinz.org.nz

In-house vs consultancy PR/CM roles: About 70% of PR/CM practitioners work “in-house” – i.e. are employed in full time roles in corporates, government, local government or not for profit organisations – with most of the balance working in consultancies. Capable in-house practitioners can handle challenging situations but a crisis by nature is out of the ordinary and organisations will often call on the crisis/reputation management experience of a consultancy. Consultancies are also called on to provide additional operational resources when organisations are stretched.

Not all crises have a legal focus: For example the Christchurch earthquake and the kiwifruit psa outbreak crises both required expert communications but neither had a legal focus resulting from human conflict or fault. Both these crises gave rise to PRINZ Award-winning work this year which are published in the e-book PRINZ Public Relations Case Studies 2011.

The PR perspective – winning hearts and minds: Broadly speaking PR/CM practitioners work from the paradigm of “winning hearts and minds” of an organisations’ many stakeholders including staff, customers, investors, suppliers and neighbours. This is quite a different perspective than the adversarial role of a courtroom lawyer whose focus will be winning the legal case. The PR practitioner’s role is protecting or restoring reputation in the “court of public opinion”.

Role of media: The ‘court of public opinion’ is influenced by the media – print, electronic and social – and PR/CM practitioners represent their clients in this theatre on a daily basis. As with the justice system’s courtroom, media activity has rules, procedures and conventions, and ignoring or being unaware of them is not in a client’s best interests. A crisis situation is also not a time for ‘learning as you go’.

- Tim Marshall

Chief Executive, PRINZ 

Related:

PRINZ Course 30 Sep Auckland – In at the deep end: On-the-ground crisis

This new action-packed session is for any practitioner who wants to learn more about how to manage PR and communications in an incident management setting and get involved with some ‘hands-on’ scenario responses.  Each section of the day will be followed by a live exercise so delegates can see just how they respond under pressure and what happens as a result. At the end of the course practitioners will be able to demonstrate understanding of:

· The PR role within New Zealand’s Co-ordinated Management System; · Legal requirements and obligations; · Crisis management planning (to a minimum standard); · The role of the media; The realities of working in crisis/incident situations, expectations and how to do an effective job.

REGISTER NOW!

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Tags: Christchurch earthquake, crisis communication, media relations, New Zealand Law Society, PR and Law, PR consultancies

PRINZ Climate Change Events

PRINZ was offered Viscount Christopher Monckton as a speaker and our intention is to have him talk about the communications issues around climate change – given that this is a hotly debated topic that many laypeople are confused about.

Incidentally, PRINZ did not bring Monckton to New Zealand, is not organising media interviews for him and does not endorse his views. We are interested in all views and how the arguments on climate change are communicated.

PRINZ Central in Wellington decided to offer members a low cost “bring your own lunch” opportunity to hear Monckton.

PRINZ Northern’s Auckland evening event gave enough time for a speaker from the mainstream anthropogenic climate change side to present – but none of the meteorologists, politicians or environmentalists we contacted were willing to engage.

Viscount Monckton is unquestionably an unusual character whose hereditary title and occasional extreme statements attract attention and criticism. But he does represent a point of view and, as an opinion-leading climate change skeptic, communicators should be interested in what he has to say.

In the end, for the Auckland event we have Auckland University geophysicist Professor Geoff Austin, himself a climate change skeptic who we had lined up to chair a two sided discussion, to put questions to Monckton.

Geoff Austin’s point of view on climate change communication is: “My concern about the present situation is not that we may or may not reasonably expect catastrophic global warming. It is that anyone who has the temerity to try to discuss the issue will be the recipient of ad hominem attacks designed to shut down the debate.”

The 2011 PRINZ Conference was about art, science and much more!

Jacky James, Communications Manager, BOP Police shares their social media case studies

The verbal and written feedback we have had from the PRINZ Conference and the Awards has been exceptional. Here are some comments we have received from attendees:  

“The conference was excellent. Good diversity of speakers, a warm atmosphere and an ‘x-factor’ I’d call heart.” Duncan Stuart, Kudos Organisational Dynamics 

“The PRINZ Conference is awesome. So much to think about here, and use.” Dr Jocelyn Williams, Unitec 

“Wonderful conference … I have gained so much from it … an unforgettable experience” Cindy Wong, NZTE 

“A big thank you for a superb conference – the array of speakers was great and they were all excellent. I came away with lots of nuggets.” 

“I thought the conference was A plus.” Margie Comrie, Massey University 

 “… an outstanding conference! It had a great programme, variety of excellent speakers and was very well organised.” 

”… a great conference, great hospitality and excellent organisation.” 

“Really enjoyed the conference. Sir Paul Callaghan was a stand out performance.” 

Delegates networking at the 2011 Conference

We really appreciate the company of the 130 attendees – delegates and speakers – and the warm family feel that developed. Thanks to conference organiser Amanda Weatherley and to the PRINZ team – Deepti, Brad and Catherine Arrow for making it such a success. Thanks also to the main conference and awards sponsor Media Monitors and to supporting sponsors photographer Gerry le Roux from Sciencelens (see conference and awards photos here) and to our ever supportive friends from Perceptive Research.  

Gez Johns (NZTA) with his winner trophy for Special Event/Project

Congratulations to all the award winners and highly commended entries (see the full list here) – especially to the Supreme Award winner Melanie Palmer from Zespri International and Angela Brady from Catalyst Communications for their work on the Psa outbreak in the kiwifruit industry. Melanie’s conference presentation of the work was a model of crisis communications excellence. We are preparing an e-book of case studies from the awards.  

For PRINZ members who weren’t able to make it along, we are hoping to be able to bring some of the presentations out to divisional events. We will also be putting presentations and audio up on the PRINZ website over the next couple of weeks – and we’ll let you know when these are available. Look out for updates on www.prinz.org.nz  

You can also have a look at http://float2.wordpress.com/ for key points from the conference as shared by Dr. Jocelyn Williams (PRINZ member and Head of Communication Studies, Unitec).

 Tim Marshall

Chief Executive

Beyond the Farm and the Themepark

With just days to go before this year’s PRiNZ Conference kicks off in Rotorua and, after a rousing speech at Labour’s party conference calling for innovation in New Zealand, Sir Paul Callaghan will scrutinise the state of the nation when he speaks to #PRiNZ11 delegates on Friday. Titled ‘Beyond the Farm and the Themepark’, Sir Paul will explore the potential ways in which science and technology entrepreneurs could diversify New Zealand’s economy.

In the two-day build-up to his address, delegates will have gained much food for thought along the way with sessions on social media, creativity, psychology, gaming, crisis communication, measurement and monitoring – all set within the conference theme of ‘PR – Art or Science?”.

For those not in Rotorua, you can follow some of the sessions on Twitter – #PRINZ11 – plus updates on our Facebook page.

Tags: Sir Paul Callaghan

Royal engagement with social media crowns the brand

It’s often said that social media is ‘all about the conversation’ but, no matter what the pundits suggest, just as often it is about observation.  As Royal Wedding fever kicks in, nowhere is the art of engagement through observation more evident than in the British Monarchy’s use of social media.

The Queen’s cohorts have always been quick to embrace technologies that help them connect with the Commonwealth from the early use of radio and television, right through to the 2007 launch of the Royal Family’s YouTube channel and this year’s ‘all-the-bells-and-whistles’ Royal Wedding website.

If you love the Royals, you can follow them on Twitter, like them on Facebook, keep up to date with last minute wedding preparations via @ClarenceHouse or check out their photostream on Flickr. Since 2007, the Royals have added a social network nearly every year – YouTube first, then Twitter in 2009, then Flickr and Facebook in 2010.  This week’s wedding will be a very 21st Century affair in all aspects of its delivery, streaming through every channel you can think of and complete with its own #rw2011 hashtag (although I do keep confusing it with the Rugby World Cup hashtag)

The noteworthy element for those of us in public relations and communication management is that with very little direct engagement the Royal Family has created online an active, supported, shared and well-liked brand that has remained undamaged by social media participants.  They may not ‘talk back’ much, but as one who was around when Charles and Diana married they have certainly grasped the art of  ’letting go’ their information, allowing their story to be shared as directly as possible. Any collateral damage has come about through mainstream media coverage of ‘The Firm’, rather than online conversations and interactions of recent years. Spoof accounts are largely ignored (although it would be great to think the real Queen Elizabeth secretly follows fake royal account – Queen_UK – on Twitter) and, if you analyse commentary elsewhere (which I’ve done), it is largely positive in sentiment and contribution.

Traditional brands and organisations are often frightened to venture into social media mainly because it represents unchartered waters, breaks uncomfortably from the ‘norm’ and they don’t know what to do or how to handle ‘the conversation’ etc., etc..  You can’t get a more ‘traditional’ brand than the Royal Family but in many ways it has shown the way to others who remain timid about jumping in.  The Royal Family  has had a go and reaped dividends in terms of countering the highly negative images portrayed in mainstream media. ‘Conversation levels’ might not be what the pundits would wish for but social media channels fill a communications gap for millions who want to engage, appreciate – or be critical.

Online ‘rules’ are still being forged as people evolve and develop in the space. They are certainly not finite. This is obviously a great match for monarchy given they’ve made up the rules of engagement with ‘subjects’ for centuries. If there is a valuable lesson to be learned from royal involvement in social media it is this: don’t be afraid to have a go, be authentic and true to your brand or organisation and, if you need to make it up as you go along, try that too, knowing you will have to adjust your course depending on conditions.

The royal engagement with social media may not be a life-long match but it certainly moved a huge bunch of stakeholders a little nearer to the throne.  And that has to be worth a celebratory dance or two…

Tags: British Monarchy, engagement, Facebook, royal wedding, rules, Twitter

Sticky marbles, Hollywood and a 10-year-old Cambodian

Acclaimed market researcher Duncan Stuart is set to take PRINZ Annual Conference delegates on a journey over a floor of sticky marbles and connect them with Hollywood through a 10-year-old Cambodian, as he identifies five things that PR artists must learn from science. 

What is the best way to create communications magic? How do you measure your effectiveness? Duncan, the Director of Kudos Dynamics, comes at the subject from a science angle and presents five immutable laws from our physical, social and psychological universes that are profoundly important for communicators.  

Duncan is a Fellow and a Life Member of MRSNZ but his career splits into three chapters. Career one was script writing, storylining and editing for television before he segued, via journalism, into marketing management and public relations. However in 1992 he discovered his true calling: market and opinion research. Outside of research, his main interest is in Cambodia where he helped build – and continues to fundraise for – a school, orphanage and medical centre www.savong.com 

Register before 29 April and get the early bird special.

For the full PRINZ Annual Conference programme click here

Tags: Duncan Stuart, Kudos Dynamics, MRSNZ, PRINZ Conference

Exciting addition to PRINZ Conference lineup

Poet, writer, painter and visual artist Tracey Tawhiao will be sharing her unique, newspaper-based artwork and the inspiration behind them at the PRINZ Annual Conference in Rotorua on 26 and 27 May 2011.

A new addition to the conference programme, Tracey will also recite poems that she has written especially to fit with the conference’s PR – an art or a science theme.

Born in Murupara and raised in Kaingaroa in the Bay of Plenty, Tracey is Ngai Te Rangi from Matakana Island, Tuwharetoa and  Whakatohea.  She has degrees in classical studies and law. Tracey’s use of newspaper evolved from her interest in the written word and began in her youth, when as a way of brightening up her grandparent’s home on Matakana Island, she suggested redecorating their newspaper-covered walls with colourful murals. While completing this project she noticed the negative connotations in the headlines and decided to embark on her series of artworks that subvert the ‘truth’ of the daily news.

Tracey’s poetry has been published in anthologies, journals and art books and her poems have been studied in New Zealand literature at Auckland University and at the University of Hawaii. She is a Director of Heartmusic, a music company for the creation of works by Maori artists.  She is also the Director of the House of Taonga www.houseoftaonga.com, which showcases Heartmusic artists as well as visual artists.

For the full conference programme and to register, visit: www.prinzconference.weebly.com

Tags: art, events, poetry, PR, PRINZ Conference, science, Tracey Tawhiao

Science and the media working together

At the 2011 PRINZ Conference on Thursday 26 May and Friday 27 may at the Holiday Inn, Rotorua, we will discuss and debate whether public relations and communication management is an art, a science or perhaps both.

Among our many prolific speakers who will share their expertise and experiences is Peter Griffin, the founding manager of the New Zealand Science Media Centre. Peter – who is also the founder of Sciblogs (Australasia’s largest science blogging network) – will identify some recent science stories where PR succeeded and sometimes failed shockingly along with offering valuable tips to ensure the success of science communication. 

More about Peter: He is the technology columnist for the New Zealand Listener and the former Technology Editor of the New Zealand Herald. In 2005, he relocated from Auckland to Wellington to complete a masters degree in creative writing at Victoria University’s Institute of Modern Letters. He is currently writing a play about quantum physics and a book gathering together New Zealand’s best science writing.  

Latest post from Sciblogs (founded by Peter Griffin): looking ahead: science education for the 21st century Alison Campbell

We will be profiling more such wonderful speakers in the coming weeks. Watch out for them on www.prcentral.wordpress.com

The 2011 PRINZ Conference is proudly sponsored by Media Monitors. For the full programme and speaker details, visit: www.prinzconference.weebly.com

Tags: Peter Griffin, Sciblogs, science communication, Science Media Centre