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	Phil's Blogservations Tuesday, October 11, 2005 Posted by philgomes 2:16 PM Lark And Israel On PR Advice Lark And Israel On PR Advice I've been thinking about this this exchange between Shel Israel and Andy Lark about "What PR must do". To Mr. Israel's fifth point, "Be out of control", Mr. Lark writes: While the Participatory Era has created an entirely new context for managing those communications we need a more intelligent response than this. On that basis alone, I wholeheartedly agree. People who have met me know of my "I hate to tell you there's no Santa Claus" speech. However, it's worth reading the rest of Mr. Israel's statement: Do not attempt to control message or timing as most agencies usually do. Just let employees and the company infrastructure express themselves in their own voices and in their own ways. Just make certain they know precisely what is NDA. Sound scary? Perhaps, but the blogosphere has been proving that the more you trust people, the more trustworthy they behave. I don't really think that Mr. Israel meant to be as devil-may-care as he sounds here. At least I hope he wasn't. My principal thoughts: This highlights why company policies in this regard are so important. They protect the employee just as much as the company, for one thing. There's more to those policies than simply telling your employees not to spill the beans. For one thing, there is a respect for standards of comportment in online communities that must be imbued in a company's staff. Control of timing is often necessary for business reasons. Sorry. Some of it's regulatory. Some of it owes to competitive pressures. A lot of folks seem to think that the culture around today's online communications means the death of the idea of "messages". I suggest maybe we need to make some kind of distinction between "messages" and "messaging". Here's a whack at it: "Messages": The articulation of thoughts, opinions, observations, beliefs, suppositions, and predictions, by a company, department, or (increasingly) employee about the industry/locale/world/whatever in which he/she/it operates. "Messaging": The rote, staid, over-iterated, dull, boring, scrubbed, excremental, buzzwordy, yawn-inducing, stercoraceous crud that has no place in the blogosphere and was quickly dying in any case. Back to Mr. Lark: So, maybe I am getting wrapped-up in semantics re: voice/message and tone. I don't think so though. Arguably, it's worth getting wrapped up in it. Words mean things. HOME | OBSESSIONS | FAQ | HEROES | CAREER | BLOG | CONTACT Note that the views expressed on this site do not necessarily reflect those of Phil's employer, its business partners, its clients, or anyone or anything that doesn't come from Phil.	ABOUT THIS BLOG This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. EMAIL phil[at] philgomes[[dot}]com SYNDICATE Feedburner ARCHIVE YAHOO! IM SKYPE WISH LIST PITCH POLICY MY PHOTOS www.flickr.com Photostream RSS Enter your Email Powered by FeedBlitz COMMENT AND TRACKBACK POLICY Comments and trackbacks are unmoderated, though I will delete the patently offensive ones. Any comments and trackbacks are the opinions of the individual writer of those comments and trackbacks, and not those of Phil Gomes, his employer, its clients, or its business partners. If you have a bone to pick, bug the people who wrote the comment or trackback.