1. Corporate communications
in the age of social technology
The 12 Truths of Modern PR
Seoul, Korea 2011.10.11
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

2. 1.
People consume content selfishly
• ‘making the other person feel important’
has always been part of persuasion
• listening to the sound of one’s voice
• clicking ‘like’ generates ‘likes’
• narcissism and know-it-all-ism
• sharing ‘what makes you look good’
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

3. 2.
We keep losing control
• of our time
• of our privacy
• of our own reputation
• of the conversation topic
• of the corporate communications narrative
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

4. 3.
Communication is becoming ‘female’
• communication is more and more about
listening and not just talking
• vertical hierarchy being eclipsed by peer-to-
peer horizontal
• a shift in the quantity & tonality of content
• more and more corporate communicators
are women
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

5. 4.
Sorry is no longer enough
• the global rise of apology communications
• most companies will have a crisis in the
next year, but most are not prepared
• lawyers are losing more client debates
• holding statements look weak and
defensive; ‘hiding behind a shield’
• apologies must be sincere and genuine
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

6. 5.
Digital is becoming tired
• there’s a backlash to digital jargon
• ‘Face’ is more important than Facebook
• inaccessibility a barrier to adoption
• the gurus say: most people ‘don’t get it’
• but there’s only so much to ‘get’
• social brand > social business > bla bla
• diminishing returns are setting in
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

7. 6.
Attention spans keep collapsing
• the myth of multitasking debunked
• constant restless scrolling and clicking
• the speed of change is accelerating
• ‘what’s trending’ is often utter drivel
• raw emotion – especially anger – is
trumping thinking and reflection
• there’s no time to tell stories anymore
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

8. 7.
Digital storytelling is key
• the simplification of complexity
• the rapid rise of infographics
• where data meets design is the sweet spot
• ‘brain drain’ from journalism to PR when
‘every company can be a media company’
• Guardian announcement today: The
Guardian displays newslist to public online
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

9. 8.
PR & customer service are merging
• blurring of and confusion between
traditional boundaries between disciplines
• real-time rapid response plus savvy
content curation is easy but vexing
• the rise of dedicated digital teams
• expanding the power of corporate
communications and the CCO
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

10. 9.
It’s all about the content
• content must tell a compelling digital story
• PR is becoming about programming
content for communities
• there’s too much noise, not enough signal
• there’s a ‘TED’ constituency out there
• content must be repurposeable across
platforms, which change relentlessly
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

11. 10.
People crave deeper meaning
• many feel unsatisfied from their digital
interactions, like eating chips
• where the online meets the offline is key
• offline = the reality of everyday life
• digital is ‘cool’ but it is also cold
(transaction-like); analogue is warmer and
face-to-face (relationship-like)
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

12. 11.
Complexity is making PR harder
• the hundreds of people in a PR
professional’s life have become millions
• the sheer size of communities is a
communications management challenge
• communities are ‘social’ but they are
highly atomized and ‘individually sensible’
• analytics only answer some questions
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications

13. 12.
Asian companies are going digital
100
80
60
Asian
40
Western
20
0
2010 2011
Percentage of companies using a branded social media platform
Burson-Marsteller l Asia-Pacific l Evidence-Based Communications