Today’s quote of the day from Chris Shipley’s essay on how openness, not secrecy, is the new face of public relations…
“In a blogosphere of connected, fast-breaking posts, you can’t control the story. It’s that simple. Paradoxically, the best way to control a story is to let it go. The more openly and honestly you expose the corporate story — the more transparent the company becomes, the better off your company will be.”
More from the article:
“There are simple rules for blogging at Channel 9, and at Microsoft: Don’t be stupid, and tell the truth. In risking the exposure — the transparency — of honest discussion about the company by those closest to it, Microsoft arguably has done more to improve the image of Microsoft with developers than any other developer program the company has ever run.
It’s a model that other companies are beginning to follow, in internal and public blogs. Be open, be direct, and tell what you can as honestly as you can. It’s a model that more companies need to adopt — and soon. Because if you aren’t blogging truthfully about your company — if you aren’t embracing transparency — you can bet that someone else will.”
Steve Rubel is a PR strategist with nearly 16 years of public relations, marketing, journalism and communications experience. He currently serves as a Senior Vice President with Edelman, the largest independent global PR firm.
He authors the Micro Persuasion weblog, which tracks how blogs and participatory journalism are changing the public relations practice.
