First Person PR

Stay with me on this one …

With all the summer craze of top lists and rankings, I’ve been spending a lot of timing trying to pick that top PR blog that I read daily (several of you have asked for my top pick, which was the catalyst for all this thought). So here it is: www.rosie.com.

Okay, hear me out on this one. I’m actually not a huge fan of Rosie (I work during the day, so I rarely watched the Rosie O’Donnell show or The View). But, someone pointed me to her blog several months ago when I was doing research on incorporating video into websites and blogs. And I’ve been hooked ever since.

Great, you say, but what’s that have to do with PR? Admittedly, I was first captured by the blog’s rawness and honestly, it became a guilty pleasure of mine to watch it each morning. But then, something interesting started to happen. I’d watch a five minute clip of Rosie talking about something, and that night while I was cooking dinner (ok, ordering it), I’d hear a completely different version of the same thing on one of the entertainment “news” shows. Over and over it would happen – I’d listen to Rosie randomly talk about what was on her mind, like perhaps the latest celebrity going to rehab, and then that night I’d hear on the news that she was publicly attacking someone.

That’s when I really started tracking her every word, every picture posted. I listened as she recounted something she said on The View, and a debate she got into with her cohost, and then hear her explain why she was mad. That night, I’d watch the news (and by this time, it had moved to actual news, including CNN). They’d recount an entirely different event. Rosie would post a poem, the daily newspapers would go bananas over her impending breakdown. Rosie would post a picture, and the talk shows on CNN and MSNBC actually had guests lined up to discuss what she was trying to say. It got to the point where Rosie would answer a question for her fans, and then follow it up with “but that’s not what the news will say tonight.” Everywhere I went I heard about Rosie doing this, Rosie doing that – but it never matched what I had seen or heard directly from her.

And with that, her blog has been an evolving real world PR case study for the last eight months. A few things I’ve learned about PR and blogging (besides appreciating that I’m not her publicist, regardless of how entertaining I find the blog):

The very level of transparency and honesty that the blogosphere demands can be used against you by the media.

• Rosie’s blog is probably the most transparent one you’ll find – nothing is off limits for her readers to ask, and after reading a few entries, you’ll agree she’s honest (sometimes, perhaps a little too honest). She even posts comments from readers calling her names – and responds by correcting their spelling (I do find that part comical). Unfortunately, many of the websites and reporters who follow Rosie are so scoop oriented, they employ the “write first, confirm later” method. That usually ends up with a soundbite being taken out of context, or a complete misstatement being reported.

We live in a real-time world, and it only takes a few minutes for a single statement to spiral out of control.

• As media continues to consolidate, they turn to each other as sources for stories. This means that often, another news outlet picks up the first news story containing the misstatement, and before you know it, there’s no separation of fact and fiction – and correcting the first incorrect statement doesn’t automatically mean the other articles will follow suit. Couple that with the blurred line between consumer content creator and traditional press, and then consider that in 2007, many people automatically believe what they read – regardless of the source. Ouch … now I understand why several of the more public CEOs are hesitant to blog without the supervision of an entire legal team.

Sometimes, being honest and “personal” opens the door for emotions to trump rational thought.

• I can see how CEOs who blog can get themselves in trouble by talking about their stress and what’s on their minds, like Rosie does. They’re being sincere and open, but haven’t fully thought out the ramifications of being so forward. I can think of at least three examples of CEOs blogging about potential layoffs, and then living to regret it. Many people are encouraging executives to show a more personal side, but that can be a slippery slope if they’re not careful. Likewise, encouraging an executive to be controversial can … cause controversy :)