Depuis un certain temps, comme vous l’avez peut-être constaté, ça ne me tente plus, moi non plus. Je néglige mon blogue. Comme Nadia, j’ai moi aussi un peu de difficulté à bloguer sur les médias sociaux et la communication avec tout ce qui se passe au Québec … et au Canada.

Comme les manifestations étudiantes contre la hausse des frais de scolarité. Et le comportement de certains policiers à leur égard. En tant que prof d’université … en tant que citoyenne … cette lutte me touche directement;

Comme le démantèlement de Droits et Démocratie par le gouvernement Harper … et les changements chez l’ACDI qui font en sorte que certaines compagnies pétrolières de l’Alberta reçoivent davantage pour leurs programmes de Responsabilité sociale des entreprises (CSR en anglais) que certains OSBL qui militent pour les droits humains depuis des décennies. Et on ne parle pas ici des coupures annoncées dans le budget Flaherty;

Comme les menaces à notre environnement au nom d’une lucidité qui me semble tout sauf lucide;

Comme les coupures à Radio Canada et à l’ONF;

Comme l’abolition du registre des armes à feu;

Comme un gouvernement qui ne laisse pas parler ses scientifiques … et qui ne parle pas aux médias;

Je me dis que je devrais justement en profiter pour présenter une analyse des moyens de pression que les groupes exercent via les médias sociaux. Ce blogue est censé, après tout, prendre un virage plutôt Affaires publiques 2.0.

Mais je n’y arrive pas.  Je passe mon temps à partager des liens via Facebook et Twitter dans l’espoir de sensibiliser et de mobiliser mon réseau … dans l’espoir qu’ils soient aussi outrés que moi. Je me réfugie sur mon blogue Images de femmes, qui semble avoir plus de mérite en ce moment.

Quand ta mère de 70 ans te dit : tu devrais lancer une campagne Facebook pour contrer telle ou telle décision gouvernementale ou injustice sociale, tu te dis que c’est vrai que les médias sociaux ne connaissent plus d’âge.

Quand ta passion pour les médias sociaux te semble soudainement vide de sens, tu te dis qu’il est temps de passer à l’acte. Vous me pardonnerez, alors, si je continue à négliger ce blogue. J’ai un Québec à changer.

Le bijou du jour, gracieuseté de @priseilliaL, qui se doute peut-être que son prof a un faible pour l’histoire. Combinaison gagnante, alors:

Les RELATIONS PUBLIQUES commencent dès l’Antiquité

49 Av. J.-C. : JULES CESAR envoie les rapports de ses exploits guerriers dans un journal quotidien intitulé : ACTA DIURNA

1066 La 1ère infographie au monde : la Tapisserie de Bayeux relate la conquête normande de l’Angleterre

17ème siècle : Église Catholique crée la “Congrégation de la propagande” pour la “propagation” de la Foi

19ème siècle : Naissance des Relations Publiques

1807 Thomas Jefferson : Premier à utiliser le terme « Relations Publiques » dans un discours devant le congrès américain

1889 Westinghouse crée le 1er département RP pour rivaliser avec General Electrics de Thomas Edison dans la « Guerre des Courants ». VICTOIRE du courant alternatif qui s’impose comme le standard

1897 L’Annuaire des chemins de fer américains. Pour la première fois, les RP sont utilisées pour gérer la communication entre une organisation et le public. Naissance des Corporate PR

1900 « The Publicity Bureau » : la première agence de Relations Publiques

Les années 1900 – 1920 voient l’arrivée des « Grands hommes » des RP

1906 Ivy L. Lee crée le premier COMMUNIQUE DE PRESSE officiel pour aider le chemin de fer de Pensylvanie à COMMUNIQUER sur un accident ferroviaire

Son « public statement » est publié par The New York Times

Les années 20 marquent le passage d’une culture du BESOIN à une culture du DESIR

1924 Basil Clarke introduit le « British Code of Ethics » en Angleterre. Mène une campagne pour que soit inscrit « déconseillé aux nourrissons » sur le lait écrémé importé (pour le compte des producteurs de lait pasteurisé) S’oppose à l’utilisation des colorants nocifs dans les aliments en conserve pour le compte de HEINZ

1929 Krach de Wall Street Les Relations Publiques deviennent primordiales

Edward L. Bernays fait de la cigarette le symbole de la libération de la femme. il organise à NY un défilé de jolies femmes fumant « les torches de la liberté »

Il convainc l’opinion publique que la bière est une alternative saine aux alcools forts

1938 De Beers « Les diamants sont éternels » Campagne pour associer les diamants à la romance. Hausse des ventes de plus de 40%

1941 Après l’attaque sur Pearl Harbour Coca Cola persuade le Département américain de la Guerre que son soda est crucial à l’effort de guerre. Chaque homme en uniforme a une bouteille de Coca Cola pour 5 cents. Résultat : 5 milliards de bouteilles consommées pendant la guerre

1948 L’Institut des Relations Publiques est fondé

1949 « Public Relations and Publicity » de J. H. Brebner est publié. Premier livre britannique avec « Public Relations » dans son titre

Les années 50. La globalisation des RP. Les pionniers John Hill & Harold Burson

Burson crée son entreprise en 1953… En 2001 Burson-Marsteller pèse plus de 259 millions de dollars de chiffre d’affaires et compte plus de 2000 employés dans 34 pays

Les années 60 : Émergence d’organismes professionnels à travers l’Europe pour représenter les agences de RP

1969 : Le PRCA en Angleterre

1982 : ASSOREL en Italie

1988 : Le SYNTEC CONSEIL EN RELATIONS PUBLIQUES en France

1992 : ADECEC en Espagne

AUJOURD’HUI

l’ICCO : :Regroupe plus de 1 500 entreprises à travers le monde.

D’après l’ICCO, les médias sociaux et la communication digitale représentent la plus forte source de croissance pour les relations publiques.

Les années 1990 : Brian Solis, prédit qu’Internet transformera les relations publiques. Il invente le terme PR 2.0

2008 : Deirdre Breakenridge publie son livre PR 2.0. ce libre décrit comment les médias sociaux ont cimenté la nouvelle approche : la place du « public » dans les relations publics…

Case in point, the protests which continue in Egypt following the events of this past year’s Arab Spring. Video of the « Girl in the Blue Bra » has ignited reactions from around the world, including comments by US Secretary of State Hilary Clinton, as quoted by The Daily Telegraph:

Recent events in Egypt have been particularly shocking. Women are being beaten and humiliated in the same streets where they risked their lives for the revolution only a few short months ago (…) This systematic degradation of Egyptian women dishonours the revolution, disgraces the state and its uniform and is not worthy of a great people.

Shot by an amateur videographer from a rooftop, this footage is only one of the thousands of videos which have emerged from what has been dubbed the Arab Spring. In a country like Egypt, where mobile phone penetration is at 91%, a camera phone is a powerful communications tool which becomes a weapon in the protester’s arsenal.

While, according to YouTube’s own year-end top 10 list, most Canadians were watching videos of cats, babies and Rebecca Black in 2011, hundreds of protesters were documenting events in their cities and sharing them online. While most are viewed only by a small number, lost in the sea of YouTube videos, some, like that of the Girl in the Blue Bra, touch a particular cord and spread, much as the video of the death of Neda Agha-Soltan had during the Iranian protests of 2009.The moving image remains a powerful thing. It’s even more powerful when coupled with a platform like Facebook and its network of « friends ». Simply by clicking on a share button, we can express our outrage on our Facebook profile. And our 130 Facebook friends can hear about it.

Arab spring. The Occupy Movement. Each now with their iconic videos.

The whole world is watching.

When Jack Layton passed away, I decided to postpone publication of this blog post to pay tribute to him. The positive reaction that my 500th blog post garnered reinforced the notion that social media in general and blogs in particular are a wonderful way for me, as an individual, to connect in meaningful ways with other members of my tribe. Thank you for everyone who took the time to write and speak to me about what I’d written.

In that 500th blog post, I alluded to the fact that I was going to change the direction this blog has been taking for the past 4 years. When I first launched this social-media-for-PR blog in January of 2007, there were only 2 other PR bloggers in Quebec. I had been excited about the possibilities social media opened up for our industry and our clients for a few years by then, and was eager to share and discuss my discoveries with my PR tribe.

Mission accomplished. Far from single-handedly, mind you! Along with many other early adopters and social media zealots, I’ve managed to convince a colleague or two to take a look at social media for PR and I’m pleased with the inroads that have been made. We’ve been joined by the industry mainstream and social media is taking root in the Quebec PR landscape. There now are dozens of Quebec-based blogs, Facebook pages, Twitter accounts, Google+ profiles and LinkedIn Groups – not to mention Third Tuesdays, Camps and other events – available to Quebec PR types hungry to stay abreast of the latest developments in social media.

I’ve written hundreds of blog posts presenting social media case studies, tools and best practices for PR professionals. Now, many more voices have joined and there’s a wealth of information out there. It’s fantastic.

And it’s why I’m now able to shift gears.

I’m going to start concentrating less on the tools and innovations, and more on the impact social media and the Internet in general is having on society, on tribes, on individuals. You’ll see less of this and more of this and of this. And you’ll probably hear more about tribes than you ever thought possible. I may just have to rename this blog …

I also intend to focus more on the public affairs side of PR, moving away from where social media seems to have found an easy and natural fit – marketing communications. So no more brand name case studies. There are other great blogs for that kind of thing. I want to take a look at how lobby groups – whether corporate or grassroots – are leveraging social media to effect political and social change.

Fifth gear: Lowest power, highest speed. Used for high speed cruising on dual carriageways, motorways and other such open roads.

Third gear: Used for driving uphill, through a hazard at speed and where a greater degree of power is needed than fourth will allow.

This blog is shifting into third gear. The hazards are greater in number, the stakes are higher. We’re talking about people’s lives and how they use social media to change the world around them.

It’s going to be a fascinating ride. And yes, I pick up hitchhikers.

In Japan, the term aware (pron. a-wa-ray) speaks to a reverence for the « transient beauty and mortality of all things ». Mono no aware is often translated as « the ‘ahh-ness’ of things », life, and love. Awareness of the transience of all things heightens appreciation of their beauty, and evokes a gentle sadness at their passing.

And so it is for me, with Jack. A time to reflect upon the contribution of a great Canadian. «Ce bon Jack» as we say in Quebec, when talking about Jack Layton. And he carried his name well.

In the hours following news of his passing, my mother compared Jack Layton to my father. That’s the highest of compliments .. to Mr. Layton. But she was right. Both were honest, compassionate men of integrity whose true « religion » was love for their fellow man. The outpouring of affection for Jack from Canadians and the urge felt from coast to coast to mourn collectively is deeply touching. When we mourned my father, we were comforted by words of kindness and shared memories from family, friends and acquaintances about the man we’d loved and had lost.  Eleven years later, the passing of a much more public figure shows how far technology and the Internet have brought us in our ability to grieve collectively.

• Facebook allowed me to hear about and participate in a candelight vigil in Montreal
  
• Facebook told me about a movement to inspire Canadians to light a candle in their windows in his memory
• Facebook was used to organize The People’s Procession
• Twitter told me that the CN Tower and Niagara Falls would be lit up in orange lights to honour him
• Flickr brought me stunning photos of the chalk messages at Nathan Philips Square
• Websites allowed me to sign a book of condolences and donate to the Canadian Cancer Society .. and social networks allowed me to encourage my networks to do the same.
• The online sites of traditional media allowed me to follow live streaming of the vigil on Parliament Hill and of the funeral procession and ceremony at Roy Thompson Hall.

And all these online spaces and social networking sites allowed me and thousands of others to share our thoughts about Jack’s passing and legacy with one another in real time.

My father passed away in September of 2000 and friends and family from across Canada and as far away as Ireland gathered for the interment of his ashes a month later. Not being there to receive the condolences of our community in the days following his death was a difficult thing for those who were far away in those first weeks. It is a key stage in the grieving process. Eleven years later, it is clear that developments in technology in general, and of social networking in particular, make physical distance almost inconsequential. We can come together to comfort one another in our grief, and we can collectively share in those all important rituals that accompany death, as they happen.

The social media space is composed of tribes. Tribes with common interests, overcoming physical distances to come together in sharing. Since Jack Layton left us on Monday, Canadians have been gathering online as a tribe of millions, to pay tribute to one of their own, and to comfort one another in their collective grief.

Who said technology alienates us from one another?

Now if you’ll excuse me, now that Jack’s funeral is over I’m going to turn off my laptop and grab my bike for a ride through the Laurentian woods. Time to reflect and quietly pay tribute to this great Canadian.

RIP Jack. You will be sorely missed.

And give my love to my Dad for me. He’ll be the guy welcoming you to the eternal-club-of-good-guys with a golf bag on his shoulder and a warm smile, hand outstretched.

Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. On a quiet day I can hear her breathing.
— Arundhati Roy as quoted by Stephen Lewis, during his eulogy for Jack Layton

KD Lang sings Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

Van Morrison’s Into the Mystic

Croire de Martin Deschamps

Lorraine Segato sings Rise Up

The Youngbloods – Get Together

MAJ: Footage from the various ceremonies, including musical tributes, have been circulating online since Jack Layton’s death. Below, I’ve updated the musical list presented above with footage from the funeral ceremony, hosted on YouTube.

Steven Page sings Leonard Cohen’s Hallelujah.

Richard Underhill plays Van Morrisson’s Into the Mystic

Croire de Martin Deschamps

Lorraine Segato sings Rise Up

Let’s recap:

1. The creators of video game Duke Nukem fired their PR firm The Redner Group after their rep tweeted the following threat to reviewers: « Too many went too far with their reviews … we are reviewing who gets games next time and who doesn’t based on today’s venom. »

2. A PR rep manning Chrysler’s Twitter account likely misapplied the following Tweet to his client’s corporate account rather than his own personal account (either way, it’s bad) : « I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f**king drive. »

3. Similarly, an internal social media resource at the Red Cross, made the following Twitter gaffe: « Ryan found two more 4 bottle packs of Dogfish Head’s Midas Touch beer…. when we drink we do it right #gettngslizzerd. » The Red Cross apparently has a sense of humour, posting the following after deleting the tweet: « We’ve deleted the rogue tweet but rest assured the Red Cross  is sober and we’ve confiscated the keys. » The incident actually turned into a fundraising opportunity, thanks to the good people at Dogfish Head.

4. If you’re a fan of the classics, you’ll appreciate this flashback to 2009, when a Ketchum exec tweeted his distaste for the city of Memphis a few short hours after teaching FedEx employees all about Twitter at their Memphis head office: « True confession but i’m in one of those towns where I scratch my head and say I would die if I had to live here! » FedEx was not amused.

While I’m of the mind that these incidents speak more to very poor judgement than to the perils of Twitter, and that instilling solid values is what agencies should do to ensure their employees communicate professionally no matter the communications channel, there are a few things you can do to ensure this kind of slip up doesn’t happen at your PR agency:

1. Don’t mix business with pleasure: Tools like Tweetdeck and Hootsuite have features that let you manage multiple accounts. Choosing one for client accounts and another for your personal account means that there’s little risk of mistweeting.

2. Be transparent: While it’s not  best practice, many brands turn a portion … if not all … of their tweeting responsibility over to their PR agencies. They should do so transparently, ensuring tweets are identified; using initials is standard practice.  At least this way followers can identify the actual source and not necessarily link it to the brand (in an ideal world, anyway). It might help if accidents happen.

3. Remember crisis management 101: Own up to the error and, if possible and appropriate, keep a sense of humour about it. Social media is fluid and moves quickly. A well placed mea culpa and a bit of self-effacing humour can go a long way to quickly cooling off a heated crisis.

4. Think twice before hitting submit, share or reply: do you really want to spew venom through social media channels when you’re managing accounts that aren’t your own? Don’t let momentary rage or frustration get in the way of good client relations and a reputation you’ve cultivated over time.

5. Be prepared: Maintaining an active Twitter presence, becoming part of the community and ensuring your brand’s account always has a human face is the best way to ensure your Twitter account isn’t seen as the impersonal mouthpiece of a faceless corporation. The community understands that to err is human, so be human.

As for the Duke Nukem example, threatening people, online or off,  usually isn’t the best course of action. Just saying.

1. Formulists – I use this one to develop niche networks for myself and my clients. Choose the « Find Tweeps like someone else » option and Formulists will lead you discover some great profiles. Add them to your Twitter list, and start developing relationships from there!

2. Follower Wonk – This app is great for searching Twitter bios for keywords (ex: your brand or industry). It also draws comparisons between Twitter users, with venn diagrams showing overlaps in followers and influencers and charts tracking Twitter activity.

3. DoesFollow – This is a nice, simple tool that lets you know if Person A is following Person B. Handy if you want to be doubly sure your DM will reach your favourite journalist or blogger, or if you want to get a sense of the impact a tweet or retweet can have. Twitter can be like a cocktail party. Sometimes it’s nice when someone can introduce you to that fetching creature across the room.

4. TweetPsych – This app gives you the « psychological » profile of any Twitter user. Far from wanting to play armchair therapist, I use this to get a sense of who any given Twitter user is – what he or she is interested in etc. Bios are one thing. An analysis of tweets to build a profile is another. In case you’re curious, I tweet about media 47% more often than the average user and about learning 8% more. If you’re looking for someone who tweets about leisure, I’m apparently not your girl. I tweet about leisure activities 70% less than the average user. Hrm .. I’m not sure that’s a good sign. On the other hand, @pmharper tweets about money, work and leisure 276%, 210% and 126% more often than the average user and reflects anxiety 86% less than the average user. No comment.

5. Foller – If you want to get an idea of what the influencers you’ve identified are interested in these days, Foller is the one-stop shop for you. Particularly interesting for hashtags. It also displays a map showing geographical influence. I’m popular in Canada, the US, Europe .. and India! (Hi Rajesh!)

6. TweetReach – I’ll often use a special hashtag or trackable URL like budurl or bit.ly on Twitter. When I want to have an idea of how far those tweets might have reached, I plug the unique identifier URL into TweetReach. The free version of this app has its limitations, but it’s a nice start.

7. TweetEffect – Curious to know what kinds of tweets make people start or stop following you? Tweet Effect your last 170 or so updates and highlights those where you gained and lost. I suppose making a second #rapture joke on Saturday was too much for some. I lost 7 followers with what I thought was a link to a cute video. Strangely enough, a link to a photo I took of my tonkinese earned me a new follower. Proof that, online at least, cute cats win over zombies everytime.

8. Nearby Tweets – Hyperlocal is trendy for a reason. Find out what tweets are originating near you or in cities around the world using this Twitter app. When an important story hits — the Mumbai terrorist attacks for example — you can target the city (Mumbai) and keywords (Taj, terrorist etc) that are of particular interest.

9. Keepstream – I’m always on the look out for good ways to present Twitter content to clients. Keepstream lets you curate tweets, get a glimpse of hyperlinked content, add commentary and then share the content on Twitter or Facebook. There’s an embed code so the content can be published on a website or blog. This app has potential. I’d like to see a premium version that would allow me to share content only with specified users, like my clients and colleagues. This would make the comment field that much more useful. Still, it’s not a bad start.

10. The Archivist – Tweets are fleeting. Twitter search only goes back so far and no third party application I know of guarantees it can deliver the full archive of Twitter search results going back the 5 or so years Twitter has been around. Cue The Archivist. Sure, it’s no time traveller, and no, it doesn’t have access to Twitter’s pipeline, but it does get you started and gives you some insight into the identity of the top users chatting about your brand, top related keywords and top URLs. I depend on platforms like Sysomos’ MAP, but it’s nice to be able to complement a paid service like that with a free service like this.

What are your favourite Twitter apps?

Pourquoi l’évoquer sur ce blogue?

Parce que la disparition de ce blogueur nous rappelle que dernière chaque blogueur que nous identifions comme étant un « influenceur », il existe un individu qui vit, qui aime, qui souffre et qui connaît des moments de grand bonheur. Un être mortel, qui compte pour la communauté qu’il a tissé autour de lui.

Lorsqu’une entreprise décide de se lancer dans l’aventure des médias sociaux en menant une campagne de relations auprès des blogueurs, les responsables des communications ne doivent jamais perdre de vue que les blogueurs ne sont pas des journalistes.  Ils ne sont pas des professionnels embauchés par une entreprise médiatique pour produire du contenu qui sera vendu à côté de publicités dans un grand quotidien ou à la télévision. Ils sont motivés uniquement par leur passion. Leur œuvre est forcément intime. Forcément personnel. Et ces passionnés forment des communautés – des tribus – caractérisées par des liens serrés et tissées avec chaque commentaire. Avec chaque hyperlien.

Dans les séances d’introduction aux médias sociaux que j’offre à mes clients existants et potentiels, je parle immanquablement  de la notion de tribu. Je considère qu’il est essentiel de comprendre que les médias sociaux permettent à des tribus de se former selon des champs d’intérêt, et ce indépendamment de distances et de frontières. Nous ne devons jamais oublier que derrière chaque blogueur que nous approchons dans l’espoir d’obtenir de la visibilité pour les entreprises et marques de nos clients, il existe un être passionné qui s’investit souvent corps et âme dans la production de contenu qui l’intéresse et qui intéresse les membres de sa tribu.

Collègues: Mettons de côté nos listes et engageons nous pleinement dans la conversation en ligne ainsi que les rencontres hors-ligne. Entrons en dialogue avec le blogueur en tant qu’individu. Prenons le temps de le connaître. Tissons des liens avec lui. Démontrons du respect pour son temps, son investissement personnel et sa passion. Gagnons sa confiance. Faisons nos preuves et démontrons-lui que nous méritons d’être un membre à part entière de sa communauté. De sa tribu.

Et lorsqu’un membre de notre tribu signe son dernier billet, pleurons-le ensemble.

Derek K. Miller, repose en paix.

The world, indeed the whole universe, is a beautiful, astonishing, wondrous place. There is always more to find out. I don’t look back and regret anything, and I hope my family can find a way to do the same. – Derek K. Miller

A few years ago, I had to drive as far as Ottawa to attend a social media event. Now, there are more social media events than you can shake a stick at (where does that expression come from, anyway?) including the two Montreal events I organize. My absolute personal favourite, though, is Podcasters Across Borders – or PAB to its friends. I was at another kind of event this past weekend – my brother’s wedding – and spoke with another PAB veteran. We agreed the people who attend PAB are weird … in the best possible way. This weirdness completely explains why I love PAB so much. While other social media events drown in startup and marketing presentations focussed on monetization, PAB reminds me every time of the beauty of social media.

You’ll meet actors-who-podcast, knitters-who-podcast, scientists-who-podcast, geeks-who-podcast, photographers-who-podcast, comics-who-podcast, educators-who-podcast, comedians-who-podcast … and the list goes on. They’ll impress you with their passion and commitment. They’ll inspire you.

PAB has broadened its scope to include everything social media, so the non-podcasters among you will find the kind of weirdness that will make you happy at PAB too.

I didn’t attend last year, so don’t know if Ottawa has the same charm Kingston did, but I suspect that it’s the people, not the venue, that make the event. I’m looking forward to finding out.

You can register here.

Embrace your inner (and outer) weirdness. See you at PAB.

Let’s calm down a little. It’s not because one CAN do something that one SHOULD do it. How about hitting pause on this self-centered age we live in, to think about this a minute. Around the world, in Libya, in Egypt, in Iran, in Tunisia, in Irak, in Afghanistan, people are killing one another in pro-democratic movements.

And what do we do? We get indignant when faced with a law that seeks to protect our democracy and we gear up to defy it on Twitter. To what end?

Yes, the law should be changed to better reflect our new communicational reality. No, we should not sacrifice democracy on the altar of Twitter. Let’s respect our democratic institutions and the right of Western Canadians to express themselves through the vote, free of all external influence.

Bottom line? Grow up.

On election day, until the last polls close in all electoral districts, the Canada Elections Act prohibits the dissemination of:

election advertising

results of election opinion surveys not previously released

election results from other electoral districts

Note to my readers: For the first time since launching this blog over 4 years ago, I’m translating a post. The challenge of having a bilingual blog is that you know that no post can be read by 100% of the people who follow you. I chose a bilingual blog format because I wanted to engage with two communities. It happened that those communities were separated by language. A bilingual blog is a truly Canadian compromise to a truly Canadian dilemna. The problem is that, this time, I want to be read by both anglo and franco Canadians. For those of you who master the language of Molière as well as the language of Shakespeare, my apologies for the redundancy.