UPDATED: Approx. 1 p.m. ET.
As I noted in my initial post, I’ve been wondering and even looking for an opportunity when the competitive nature of agency business would get in the way of link love and other expected social media warm fuzzies in the blogosphere. So, I undeservedly jumped on Phil Gomes’ post about his StoryCrafter project. Given what I know of Phil, I should’ve assumed better of him. That’s backed up by his comments here and update on his own blog. So, I’m sorry. Next time, I’ll have better proof before jumping to conclusions to get support for a post I’ve been wanting to write.
Original post starts:
One of the great things about social media is, duh, the interaction. Discussions (okay, really commenting back and forth). Sharing ideas and links.
There are many agency-focused public relations blogs that evangelize the good and bad — mostly the good — about blogs and other social and Web media. One big happy community.
Edelman. MS&L. SHIFT. Webber Shandwick (though more by an individual or two than corporately). ThornelyFallis. Hill and Knowlton. (For more, see this Bivings Report post.)
Until the business world seemingly brings us back to reality.
Honesty and transparency are expected in the blogosphere. I’d add that it’s also expected to share your sources of information. And, when you reference another company or blog, link to them.
But, then, that may draw attention to — aghast — another PR agency.
I caught the obvious lack of link love in a recent Phil Gomes/Edelman post about Edelman’s new social media release efforts. He repeatedly cited Todd Defren in a Part II post, but failed to link to him.
Maybe it was a simple unintentional omission; maybe it was business-driven intention. Rightly or wrongly, Todd was sure to point it out.
Now, to Phil’s defense, he did link to Todd’s SMR efforts in Part I.
I’ve been wondering for awhile when our competitive natures might get in the way of our community spirit.
If I’m wrong, please correct/clarify for me, Phil. I have a lot of respect for you and don’t want to miscast you.
But, I will be paying a bit more attention to the agency bloggers out there to see which comes to the forefront more: their competitive or community spirit .
– Mike
I try not to get agitated but it did strike me as odd. Oh well.
But forget about the linklove, Mike, the more interesting “lack of community spirit” is demonstrated by Edelman’s decision to only make StoryCrafter available to its clients. As I noted at Phil’s blog, that is Edelman’s prerogative, but it ain’t all that cool, either.
Hey, btw I like the new template. Much better.
Regarding the StoryCrafter part, I don’t have so much of a problem with. While this community stuff is nice, we are in the business to make money.
If Edelman wants to make it proprietary, that’s fine.
If enough PR pros and corporations use public domain SMR like what you developed, it’ll either force Edelman to release its version or obsolete it.
Think of AOL. All of its servers like chat, e-mail, communities, were available only to its paying subscribers. How’d that work out?
Mike
P.S. Thanks for the new format compliment. I like the three-column look; just want to look at making the middle column a bit wider.
[…] Phil Gomes (in a comment on Mike Driehorst’s blog): Here’s to a Web 2.0 world where people remember that the “Send” button, though older and less-cool, is sometimes more appropriate than “Publish.” […]
Mike - you might be interested ni this blog discussion on David Jones’ blog post here: http://www.prworks.ca/index.php/is-criticizing-other-pr-firms-offside/
Lisa,
It is an interesting topic. As I stated, I assumed wrong to use Phil’s post as an example of a subject I’d been looking for. (That is, agency competition surfacing among PR blogs.)
As David Jones indicated, I don’t think there is anything wrong with being critical of another agency — whether or not it’s a competitor. As long as the criticism is fair and, in my case, if incorrect, it gets corrected.
There are plenty of examples of blogging good stuff from other agencies — as demonstrated by links.
In blogging and other social media, it seems like there’s this utopian feeling that we’re one big happy community. But, while there is a sense of sharing and exchange of ideas, we’re doing it in a business setting. So, a level of competition — even if “friendly” competition — is always top of mind.
Mike
[…] If you are going to blog, no matter what letter you are, you have a responsibility for fairness and accuracy. It’s your personal integrity on the line. Now, I’ve jumped to a false conclusion in the past — and I apologized for it. But, that was a one-time deal. […]