You can't wear your own swag

Many times, things that have built up into a craft are viewed as inaccessible magic to those who don't a background in them. People will look at programmers or architects or designers as though they're practicing voodoo, when in reality they're often taking very simple concepts and scaling them up.

Once you grasp those concepts, getting to a certain level is primarily about building your knowledge base and gaining experience. Talent very much plays a role, but talent in its base form is being able to intuitively grasp certain concepts almost unconsciously. It doesn't mean you'll be adept, but chances are you'll at least have an appreciation for what you're seeing.

There are some concepts in public relations and marketing that are, well, some of the foundations of how public relations and marketing actually work. These aren't terribly hard to grasp, rather they're innate concepts we use every day... just scaled up.

One of these ideas is that a person is much more likely to reinforce an idea handed to them than they are to add information to it. Another is that people really do respond to the tone in which things are presented, and are more likely than not to respond in kind.

We all have a pool of cross-referenced data in the back of our heads that we draw on when having a conversation. If someone comes up to us and says, "OMG I'm so excited I get to go to Tahiti for two weeks on vacation and see my grandmother!", chances are you won't go "I hate my grandmother, grandmothers are the worst family members ever. Plus Tahiti has those really big spiders. I hate traveling." but rather you'll sample from the back of your brain and pull things out that are consistent with the subject being presented as well as the tone in which it's presented.

Depending on your frame of reference, the data might be different between different people. You might have data to pull from the back of your brain in areas of grandmothers, vacations, Tahiti, etc. Whatever the subject, you will have a strong disposition to sampling out good things about those areas to add to the conversation, rather than negative in order to match the tone of the person initiating the conversation. The reverse would be true if someone approached you in a negative way.

At it's core this is what PR and marketing are all about, even though you probably experience these concepts day to day, or variants of them... they're just scaled up a bit.

There's a reason why I'm bringing this up; too often lately I've been watching people forget that at it's heart, public relations and PR are inherently social things. They aren't a one-way street, and while you can try to create a meme, or viral idea, throwing them out in a one-way direction is risking a heavy backfire. If you're curious about exactly who I'm talking about, some of the recent posts might give you an indication.

These 'ideas', or press releases, are specifically formulated to set a specific tone; to 'frame the conversation'. But there can be a certain hubris in assuming that just because you say it, it'll get picked up by the hive mind. It can often frame things in a negative way which actually comes back to you. It might be worth noting that before a certain press release, a certain company had virtually no mindshare in the digital music market at all, and is being viewed by many as a rival.

It's also worth noting that a certain company recently had banners at it's developer conference proclaiming things like "Redmond, start your photocopiers" and the like, which was so obvious and full of so many holes, especially with some of the controversies that came out of the conference... that's it's being used against them as more of a joke now than anything else, and even real mac-heads basically just chuckled and move on... realizing that someone was trying really, really hard to push the idea that when Microsoft's OS hits it'll mostly be copied functionality from Apple.

This is basically the crux of the matter; trying too hard to push a meme, and having it backfire. These aren't the only recent cases, they're just the ones I'm isolating. And I'm sure you've been exposed to many in your own experiences. Chances are you've known someone who has gone out of his/her way to say nothing but bad things about someone, and then when you meet the person you they aren't what they were made out to be. This generally shifts everything in your head regarding the situation, and causes you to question the credibility of the person feeding you the dirt.

When you're perceived as trying too hard to push an idea, you're setting yourself up to not only have your credibility questioned but to have the whole mindshare situation change. People can not only start questioning the idea you're trying to push, but a larger share of them becomes unwilling to further the idea and add to it. Simple as that. The hard part is saying recognizing that arbitrary tipping point where you're crossing the line.

A good analogy of this involves music bands. Self-promotion is at the core of a small band, and there's absolutely nothing uncool about a band doing everything they can to 'get their message out'. There is nothing wrong with selling t-shirts at a gig, or walking around laying down fliers every place they can.

But they can't wear their own t-shirts. Ever. They can sell their swag anywhere they like, and ask people to buy it, but if someone from a band is photographed wearing their own swag, or even worse, actually goes up on stage and performs while wearing it... it kills something and sets them up for a backlash.

In it's simplest form, it's very cool if others are wearing DrunkenBlog swag, but if i were ever caught wearing it I'd be trying too hard and something would be lost. Even if my 13 loyal readers would be too kind to actually tell me I'd jumped the shark.

The real idea to take from this is that one doesn't really own their reputation or mindshare, they're the object of it. They can guide it or alter its course, but those who forget the relations part of 'public relations' and instead treat it as a one-way street of banging ideas into their users' heads are asking for it.

yummy alcohol posted button Posted by drunkenbatman
    August 15, 2004, at 07:04 AM


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