Thomas Friedman had a great column (The Whole World is Watching) in the NY Times yesterday that touched on some related themes I have been discussing in my recent posts about user generated content (UGC) and PR.
According to Friedman, UGC and Web tools have made us all into potential publishers, paparazzi and filmmakers. The flip side of is that any and all of us can be instantly thrust onto the world's stage. Digital fingerprints leave us up there forever.
The conclusion has important implications whether you are in PR, management, customer service - really, any job or station in life. Since we are all potentially "naked" and up there on stage, and the Web offers easily accessible dossiers courtesy Google, it is not the minor incidentals that count - what your product looks like today, or how tall you are - because these details can be captured, archived and in some cases easily imitated.
No, it is how you act that forms a lasting impression, and is harder to imitate. This can relate to individuals, and how they behave (or not) in public, as well as to a company's business processes.
Friedman refers to a book that influenced his thinking on this, simply called "How," by Dov Seidman, C.E.O. of I.R.N., a business ethics company. According to Friedman, "Seidman's simple thesis is that in this transparent world 'how' you live your life and 'how' you conduct your business now matters more than ever,because so many people can now see into what you do and tell so many other people about it on their own without any editor. To win now, he argues, you have to turn these new conditions to your advantage."
The implications for PR? Friedman says:"Companies that get their hows wrong won't be able to just hire a P.R. firm to clean up the mess by a taking a couple of reporters to lunch -- not when everyone is a reporter and can talk back and be heard globally."
Which offers a pretty bleak view for the profession, that is if you buy into the mistaken notion that our jobs consist of damage control and schmoozing reporters (see the Fusion blog's post about PR myths.)
If, on the other hand, you have a more expansive and accurate view of the profession, you will take away a lot from his advice in his closing statement "whetheryou're selling cars or newspapers (or just buying one at the newsstand), get your hows right -- how you build trust, how you collaborate, how you lead and how you say you're sorry. More people than ever will know about it when you do -- or don't."
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