Cipr

The CIPR is in the process of updating its research, measurement and evaluation guidelines (PDF) . The current edition is dated March 2011 and harks back to when I used to chair the CIPR’s measurement deliberations; the current initiative is being led by Matt McKay and Martin Turner . Here’s a short but important extract from the current guidance: Every organisation should have a mission (why we exist), values (guiding behaviour), a vision (what do we want to be), objectives (breaking down the vision) and strategy (how we intend to get there / achieve the objectives). Given that measurement isn’t just the detached collection, analysis and presentation of data but a powerful management tool in itself, a powerful way to align each employee’s day-to-day activities with the strategy, this cascade must continue robustly, transparently and visibly. People perform as they are measured, so the measures must drive strategically important behaviour. And as each marketplace is unique and as your organisation is unique, your strategy will be unique. And so, therefore, will be the suite of measures you design, deploy and manage by. ...

Ever since we started the CIPR Social Media Panel we’ve been a pro-active bunch. I haven’t got the stats to prove it, but I’d bet the panel is the most active CIPR group. We launched the successful “Social Summer ” sessions, developed Wikipedia guidance (subsequently adopted by equivalent organisations in Canada, Australia and South Africa), created CIPR TV , published the CIPR Social Media Guidance , updated the CIPR’s own social policy, published the CIPR Guide to Social Media Monitoring , and much more. ...

[Originally written for the CIPR Friday Roundup.] I’ve been writing Friday Roundups for five and a half years and this is my last one. The circulation has grown from eleven to nearly eleven thousand, we merged it into the CIPR three years ago, and I’m delighted it’s carrying on in their safe hands. We have covered the full gamut of PR topics in this time, but a tag cloud of the 275 roundups would probably need to render “social media” in font size 100! Increasingly however accomplished social media practitioners are asking a most pertinent question – now what? Well, it appears the answer to that is acquiring the name “social business”, and it’s increasingly been my focus of recent times. You might say social media are the eggs in the social business cake. I’ve tried to design one question to both convey what social business might be exactly and to give the person attempting an answer real pause for thought in relation to their own organisation. I think I’m making progress with the following question, what do you think?… ...

[Written originally for the CIPR Friday Roundup .] You should not make edits to a Wikipedia entry when you have a conflict of interest, as any PR practitioner does in relation to their employer or client. Simple. This Wikipedia rule is reflected precisely in the CIPR’s Wikipedia guidance , published by the social media panel last summer and supported by PR bodies in Canada, Australia and South Africa. (Although not yet in the US.) ...

[Originally written for the CIPR Friday Roundup .] The 2007 report from the Arthur W. Page Society, The Authentic Enterprise , identified four new leadership priorities and skills demanded of the Chief Communications Officer: Leadership in defining and instilling company values Leadership in building and managing multi-stakeholder relationships Leadership in enabling the enterprise with ‘new media’ skills and tools; and Leadership in building and managing trust, in all its dimensions. The report marked the beginning of a rethink at the Society that culminated last year in Building Belief: A New Model . ...

I’ve never been fond of the word ‘user’? It lacks the caring qualities of a much more appropriate word, customer, and even evokes images of substance abuse. On making this point, I’m asked what I’d call people benefitting from a service or application without handing over their hard-earned. Well, customers of course. In such situations they’re simply paying with a different currency, such as their personal data and/or attention, which the supplier of the service does its utmost to monetize. But in one instance, I like that evocation of substance abuse. Of addiction. Of misuse. Do allow me to explain and let’s see if I’ve just been critical of you or a colleague. Please go easy on me if I have, my intentions are honourable. I had the privilege of speaking with 150 Masters students at Imperial College London yesterday, taking their Technology in Marketing module. All marketing activity in 2012 is underpinned or impacted by technology, and thousands of tech vendors tempt us with thousands of marketing and PR applications, tools and services. And we buy them. Lots of them. The question is, are you a professional or a user? What’s the difference? ...

[Originally written, obviously, for the CIPR Friday Roundup .] The Kardashians first appeared in October 2007 just as it was becoming difficult to get a mortgage. I don’t believe the two were related. I also sent out the first Friday Roundup… to eleven recipients. Five years and 250 editions later (missing out the festive seasons), it’s gone out to 9345 of you, which is fantastic. But let’s look at some more interesting October 2007 facts, spanning the full gamut of topics we’ve covered here for PR professionals. Facebook had just passed the thirty million user mark, approaching half that reported by MySpace. There were 350,000 of us on Twitter and ten million odd on LinkedIn – now half a billion and 175 million respectively. There was no Kindle, no Android, no tablets, and no Justin Bieber. Nokia was number one in mobile phones, bigger than numbers 2, 3 and 4 combined. The Blackberry 8800 and the very first iPhone were the executive must-haves. There was no FourSquare, Groupon, Pinterest, Instagram, Angry Birds, Prezi, Quora, Spotify, Mendeley, Blippar, Dropbox, Tweetdeck or Google+. And these were pre-Chatroulette days too, and pre-Barcelona principles come to that. ...

The latest episode of CIPR TV went out live yesterday afternoon, with plenty of interaction from the audience. The programme’s guests are Jenni Wheller (@jenniwheller ), Internal Communications Manager at SSP UK, and Mike Grafham (@mgrafham ), Head of Customer Engagement at Yammer . I think you’ll agree the audience’s questions and the guests’ responses make for an interesting show. Rather than repeat anything covered in the show, I’ll just take a few paragraphs here to make another observation. ...

Share This , the new book from the CIPR Social Media panel and friends, is selling rather well indeed. Having shot straight in at number 1 on Amazon UK’s best new business book releases, it now resides at number 13 in the Sales & Marketing category. Wiley, the publisher, has taken more than a handful of bulk orders directly from PR agencies, which of course don’t then register on the Amazon charts else I’m sure the book would be Amazon’s number 1 of course! ...

After three months of social collaboration involving two dozen authors, we’re just a few days away from publishing Share This: The Social Media Handbook for PR (Amazon UK ). The authors, all members of the CIPR Social Media panel or friends of, decided that that there was a need for a handbook that covers the full gamut of issues facing the PR practitioner in 2012. Incredibly, Lord Sugar provides the endorsement for the front cover :-) I’m delighted to have authored two of the chapters, Chapter 17 on real-time public relations, and the final chapter looking at the future, beyond social media. Here’s the introductory video featuring CIPR CEO Jane Wilson, and then the Table of Contents. Read the CIPR’s press release here . Pre-order your copy today! ...