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The see through world
- 1. The See-Through World
Barry Thomas, Shirlaws Business Coach
We now take for granted the availability, from wherever we happen to be, of
access to supercomputer-based search engines that can direct us to just
about everything that has ever been written about anything. Whether we
want to know which ancient Greek wrote the tragedy Antigone, or are curious
about Ashton Kucherʼs thoughts about what he ate for breakfast this morning,
the device on our desktop or in our pocket can tell us.
In a related development we are all now individually capable of broadcasting
information globally. This trend has been kicked into hyperdrive by the
emergence of social networking services such as Facebook and Twitter. Vast
numbers of people now regularly take the opportunity to express themselves
on every imaginable topic, from the unquestionably serious to the utterly
trivial.
As these trends have been emerging many forms of traditional media have
slipped into perhaps terminal decline. The ubiquity, universality and sheer
speed of the Internet is pretty tough to compete with - for instance news of a
recent earthquake in California was available via Google eight minutes
before it was announced by the US Geological Survey.
The connection problem
So what does all this mean for business?
Connecting with stakeholders, be they clients, partners, investors or potential
employees, has always been a challenge, made even harder by the fact that
we are all awash in a daily cacophony of commercial messages and have
learned to ignore virtually all of it. Our perceptual filters have now been so
developed by decades of ever-escalating marketing offensives that it is no
surprise that only 13% of us trust corporate or product advertising any more.
In the 20th century businesses pushed information to consumers in the form
of advertising and PR, and consumers really had little choice in the matter. In
the 21st century the situation has changed with head-spinning speed as
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- 2. consumers have embraced their new-found ability to pull whatever
information they want to them, when and where they want it. Businesses no
longer control their own story - their story is in large part written for them by
everybody else.
86% of Australians now read online consumer reviews about products,
services or brands. But again it is social media that is pushing this well-
established trend into new territory. A casual “tweet” expressing disgust (or
delight) about a bagel, a band or a balance sheet is instantly just as available
on the Internet as a carefully researched article, or carefully constructed ad,
in the mainstream press. To add insult to injury research suggests that we
are, perhaps perversely, more inclined to trust the casual Twitterer than any
journalist, politician or marketing maven. Naive perhaps but this does
powerfully illustrate how well the marketers, PR consultants and spin doctors
have taught us all that they arenʼt trustworthy.
What all this adds up to, in effect, is a collision between infinite information
and almost equally infinite cynicism. As Marshall McLuhan so famously said,
“the medium is the message”. These days if the medium is perceived as
being in any sense an official one the message being heard is, “look
elsewhere for the truth”. Again this was probably just as true in the 20th
Century but now we have alternatives, and the alternatives are us.
This is a game-changing realisation for any business that wants to build
genuine connections with its clients, staff, investors and partners. Any kind of
economy with the truth, any attempt at spin, any weasel words or play acting
is now at risk of being exposed for all to see. Reputation management has
lately become a growth industry but in the see-through world we now inhabit,
where your reputation is unequivocally something other people determine for
you, the term “reputation management” is almost oxymoronic.
An example on a grand scale
A topical case in point is BPʼs travails in the Gulf of Mexico. Early on in the oil
spill crisis BP was lauded for their clever manipulation of online discussion
channels, with media consultants even claiming BPʼs social media strategy
gave them the ability to, “...control the message without it being filtered by
radio, television and newspaper reporters”. On Twitter BP_America was
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- 3. energetically pushing the official BP line and on Facebook BP even had a
page set up jointly with government agencies. But thing quickly went wrong
from there.
The fact that BP were buying up search terms on Google to ensure that their
official messages were prominent in search results was noticed, publicised
and lampooned. On Twitter an account called BPGlobalPR, purporting to be
genuine but in fact an obvious and very funny spoof, completely
overwhelmed BP_America. With tweets like, “Investing a lot of time & money
into cleaning up our image, but the beaches are next on the to-do list for
sure. #bpcares” BPGlobalPR quickly gained at least ten times the audience
of BPʼs real Twitter account. And of course headlines on popular faux news
sites like The Onion such as “Massive Flow of B******t Continues to Gush
From BP Headquarters” really didnʼt help BPʼs cause.
BPʼs credibility suffered even more when it set up call centres to handle the
hundreds of thousands of calls coming in from the concerned public. This
would seem like a conventional and responsible tactic but it went horribly
wrong when a call centre operator revealed on a popular Internet blog that
they (the call centre staff) were just PR props, saying, “Weʼre a diversion to
stop them from really getting to the corporate office, to the big people …
Because the operators believe the calls never get past them, some donʼt
even bother taking notes.”
The moral of this story? On the Internet you canʼt reliably control a narrative
any more, and if you try you may only make things worse. This is true for
small businesses as much as it is for global oil companies. If you are, in any
sense, not quite what you say you are the chances are good that someone
will notice and pass comment. The power of Google means those comments
will then be easily discoverable in perpetuity for all of your current and
potential stakeholders to find and ponder.
Reputation management that works
George Burns is famously credited with saying, “The most important thing is
sincerity. If you can fake that you've got it made.” True enough but itʼs the bit
about faking it that has become so difficult on the Internet where a potentially
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- 4. huge and gimlet-eyed audience is watching. So why take the risk? Donʼt fake
it, actually be who you say you are.
Here are a few tips on implementing this strategy:
• Have a vision for your business that you really believe in. Communicate it
to your stakeholders and confirm that they also believe in it.
• Know what your values are. Tell everyone. Live by them.
• Know what your position in the marketplace is, and maintain that position
consistently.
• Embrace openness. Itʼs an opportunity as well as a threat.
If these suggestions seem too radical or confronting for your business you
certainly arenʼt alone, but the point of this article has been to argue that there
really isnʼt much choice any more. Businesses that try to hide in the see-
through world will waste time, money and stakeholder goodwill while more
adaptable businesses thrive.
If you accept this premise but arenʼt entirely sure what to do about it Shirlaws
can help. Shirlaws delivers internal leadership training sessions on
Positioning, Communication, and Articulating Your Vision, as well as business
coaching projects to support the strategy and implementation of these
priorities. As a complimentary extra for you, any of our coaches will be
delighted to discuss with you how you can determine whether these options
are important for your business today. Contact Shirlaws for more information.
You should click here to follow us on Twitter and click here to connect with us
on LinkedIn.
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