In IT, a black box is a program that measures output against input in complex systems.
This Black Box is designed to help companies achieve a similar goal in PR. Black Box provides our candid input—based on several lifetimes of experience—for companies that want to measure and improve the performance of PR programs.
Long ago when social media was new a company we know had the opportunity to write a weekly guest blog. They opted to “first wait and see what the competition does.” That attitude puzzled me at first. Now I see that gearing corporate strategy to follow versus lead is the rule.
As a kid I joked that when the Revolution came, lawyers would be the first ones put up against a wall. Later, when I learned that they aren’t really here to help but only to fire people, I added HR execs. Today it’s all those who screen social media before it’s “safe” for posting.
In olden days the news arrived by fax. Go further back –”posting” meant literally “by mail.” What’s old may be quaint as yesteryear’s iambs. ‘Twas usually read, though, e’en when carried ‘pon snail.
The social media genre brings to mind the 1960s “flower power” movement. “Trust,” if not love, is in the air, and that’s a noble sentiment. Trouble is, you rarely see a carefree, happy freak doing much of consequence. The “dogs of war” rule business and great PR, too.
Last year a handful of lost souls, fatigued to the core by Web 2.0, opted to “Kevork” their entire social media presence. Mercy killings were available via Suicide Machine and Seppukoo. What drives Man to abandon virtual life? Privacy issues and spamola.
In business we’re conditioned to think big, want more, and right away. Success is gauged by mass markets won instantly. In social media we want followers by the thousand. Are huge “body counts” the ideal goal? Better that your audience be well-defined. The mass part can come after.
Many PR professionals work by rote. Follow the formula: press releases, bylines, speaking gigs, daily blogs, site optimization. Then customers will flock to you, right? Not necessarily. Media and PR, like business and life itself, are stochastic, with many possible outcomes.
Seth Godin presents a cogent case for hand-crafted work. Matthew Crawford offers a similar argument in Shop Class as Soulcraft. Can tech PR and social media benefit from this approach? Contrarian it might seem, but the PR you make “by hand” always outperforms the mass-produced.
Novelist Mark Helprin stepped in a hornet’s nest when he asserted that intellectual property rights should be assigned to an author or artist for as long as Congress sees fit. Not surprisingly, those most incensed were the Internet Freedom crowd — “Digital Barbarians” to Helprin.
Blogging is now so big that the word itself seems too small. Though both involve the blending of ingredients, you wouldn’t lump baking and chemistry in one category, would you? Herewith a handful of terms that better define discrete types of blogs and bloggers.
