Five thoughts from Edelman’s Academic Summit
June 30, 2008 by Gary Schlee
Dozens of PR educators from across the U.S. (with one or two Canadians thrown in for good measure) gathered in Chicago last week for the second New Media Academic Summit, sponsored by Edelman and PR Week. Eleven panels over two days prodded the social media phenomenon from a variety of angles and I came away having discovered some new case studies and having some SM truisms reinforced. Let me share five thoughts:
1. Trust is earned by yielding control, Richard Edelman, CEO of Edelman, reminded participants. Giving up some control of the communication process continues to be one of the toughest characteristics of interactive media tools to sell. In many ways it’s a sad commentary on the level of confidence organizations have in their own workforces. Those who have taken the risk have generally found the benefits outweigh the possibility of an indiscretion.
2. One of the most needed skills in social media is experience with change management and negotiation. Reread the preceding paragraph, and it becomes obvious why Charlene Li, Forrester researcher and author of Groundswell, thinks these skills are every bit as important as picking up some mastery with the social media tools. Those communicators with the ability to make a case when blogs or wikis or podcasts or networks are the right tactics to slap onto an objective are the ones we should value.
3. If an idea is timely and has merit, stick to it. Drew McGowan inherited sagging sales of the Brita water filter when he joined Clorox as a marketing communications manager. He saw the growing concern about the plastic waste in water bottles and worked hard to convince the company to promote it’s simpler alternative: Brita. The FilterForGood pledge campaign, along with a supporting Facebook group and Google map, raised Brita’s profile as a way to be more environmentally friendly. Brita sales have reflected the success of the strategy.
4. Watch out for mobile. A variety of presenters, from Jay Bernhardt of the Centers for Disease Control & Prevention to Sean Moffitt of Agent Wildfire, indicated that mobile technology is the logical direction for new media when it comes to actually accessing it. Cell phones and their offshoots are already in the hands of many people who may not have easy computer access.
5. Virtual interaction is wonderful. Face-to-face: more so. I have thoroughly enjoyed the conversations I’ve had in the blogosphere and equally enjoyed listening to knowledgeable people chat on their podcasts about things of interest to me. But even better is the chance to meet virtual acquaintances in person. I was particularly pleased to meet Robert French of Auburn University, Karen Russell of the University of Georgia, and Neville Hobson of For Immediate Release, at the Summit.
6 Responses to “Five thoughts from Edelman’s Academic Summit”
Well, you beat me to the posting but I’ll be writing the summit up, too — and I did think meeting people “IRL” was the best part.
Drew McGowan had a great idea. Brita filters are a welcome alternative to plastic bottle waste and pollution. However, McGowan has not provided a satisfactory answer to the question of why the plastic Brita cartridges themselves are not recyclable.
The original Brita company in Europe has had a recycling program in place since 1992. McGowan says that Brita cartridges are difficult to recycle in the U.S. because of the charcoal inside them. But that charcoal has not stopped the German Brita company from recycling. In fact, the company recycles the plastic AND the charcoal AND the ion exchange resin.
Unless Clorox is willing to step up and announce publicly that is is commited to finding a way to recycle these filters, the FilterForGood campaign is just more greenwashing.
Please visit http://www.takebackthefilter.org for more information.
Even as a retired prof you get invited? Good man. Way to represent Canada! I’m bummed that as a competitor I don’t get invited to Edelman’s cool social media events.
Thanks for your summary. It’s a great recap of what by all accounts was a day of interesting discussions.
I’m also bummed that you got to press the flesh with Robert, Karen and Neville. Three folks I had to scratch my head to remember if I had actually met them live. (I haven’t.)
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Glad we could meet at the summit Gary – and I concur with Dr. Jones – well-representing Canada.
Thanks for the shout out in #4 above.
I know you’re retired and all but would love to grab 7 questions with you and post it on my blog. Let me know if you have the time.
Just make sure you don’t use those case studies at a rival college, Gary! Seriously, enjoy your summer vacation and don’t miss us too much come September as a newly-minted retiree.