The three things that make online PR really really interesting

1. Transparency, Porosity, Agency David Phillips

2. Learning Outcomes This lecture extends the first online lecture ePR http://netpr.blogspot.com We will examine three features of online Public Relations: Transparency, Porosity and Agency The purpose is to provide a critical framework that you should apply to internal and online relationship management, PR strategies and on-line tools. You will develop your thinking about these three elements and will draw on your new experiences working with social media and newly emerging literature.

3. Transparency Transparency, as used in the humanities, implies openness, communication, and accountability. It is a metaphorical extension of the meaning used in the physical sciences: a "transparent" object is one that can be seen through.

4. Examples of transparency When government meetings are open to the press and the public, when budgets and financial statements may be reviewed by anyone, when laws, rules and decisions are open to discussion, they are seen as transparent and there is less opportunity for the authorities to abuse the system in their own interest.

5. Economic transparency In economics, a market is transparent if much is known by many about What products and/or services are available. What price. Where.

7. Radical transparency Radical transparency is a management method where nearly all decision making is carried out publicly. All draft documents, all arguments for and against a proposal, the decisions about the decision making process itself, and all final decisions, are made publicly and remain publicly archived.

8. The case for transparency Acording to Frank Buytendijk, Vice President of Corporate Strategy, Hyperion, “ The case for corporate transparency is compelling. With perfect corporate transparency, everyone within a company has access to relevant information. Management accurately represents the drivers of the business. Annual budgeting is replaced with a system of continuous planning supported by a collaborative process. Every manager knows exactly how his or her decisions affect other aspects of the company. There is visibility into how external changes impact internal matters. And the organization is able to predict precisely how the market will respond to various activities.” http://www.hyperion.com/company/overview/thought_leadership/

9. Transparency and the PR practitioner * What is the environment for this information, * What are the transparency objectives, * Who are the publics? * What do we know of them? * What channels for communication are open for the transfer of information provided? * Which channels are best to meet the organisation's objectives/ * How will they regard information presented to them because of corporate transparency?

13. Porosity Large numbers of people in organisations use email. Many use Instant Messaging. The use of SMS in business is huge and the use and applications of sound and video in the work environment is growing. All this means that information 'leaks' out of organisations.

14. Forms of porosity management Many companies monitor email to attempt to detect confidential information leaking out via email. But this is but one (and not very effective) form of leakage. There is a need for employee policies to be in place to make clear what is acceptable for use of email, Instant Messaging Blogs and other electronic communication but it is not common. As internal publics, such advice and guidance is essential. Porosity can have significant consequences and can even bring down Cabinet Ministers. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/talking_point/1822343.stm

15. How messages move

16. Transparency and porosity also means loss of control

19. Learning Outcomes This lecture extends the first online lecture ePR http://netpr.blogspot.com We will examine three features of online Public Relations: Transparency, Porosity and Agency The purpose is to provide a critical framework that you should apply to internal and online relationship management, PR strategies and on-line tools. You will develop your thinking about these three elements and will draw on your new experiences working with social media and newly emerging literature.