When Goliath ignores David's gripes online, David emails 50 of his friends, family members and neighbors, and tells them to start stockpiling rocks. Last year Intel Corp. tuned
out early newsgroup gossip about its flawed Pentium chip, and its reputation got pummeled as the ill word spread like pollen in spring - first to message boards and tech-
enthusiast Web sites, then to the online press, and eventually to offline media.
Conventional PR wisdom once dictated that the standard response time in a crisis situation was one day. But in the digital world, the standard has shifted - to one
hour. This was among the caveats issued by Environics Communications CEO Bruce MacLellan at last week's PR NEWS/Canada Newswire Strategic Online Communications
seminar in Toronto. Wait too long and Web-based reporters, activists and so-called "disengaged Darwinists" (a.k.a. cyber-snipers) will likely take control of your message, he
said.
Web speed was the undercurrent of the day, as speakers stressed the need for quicker PR reflexes in the new world order. The Internet is no place for "big dumb companies"
obsessed with flow charts, said Chris Hayes, chief new economy officer at Middleberg + Associates in New York. "Timelines are truncated [with the advent of new media]. I've
pitched journalists about a story and seen it an hour later on their Web site." These days, a lead coming over the wires is often considered old news by Web reporters, he said.
And in the global democracy known as cyberspace, journalists aren't the only messengers giving PR counselors the race of a lifetime. As an example, Hayes referenced the lone
pirate who took the fizz out of George Lucas' 1999 "Phantom Menace" debut by filming the flick on videocam during a preview showing and Webcasting the movie online before it hit
theaters.
In fact, as several seminar speakers noted, the press is becoming increasingly "disintermediated" from online communication channels - often at the hands of savvy PR
practitioners.
Last year, vitamin manufacturer Metabolife carted its own digital camera to an interview with "60 Minutes" and Webcast the interview online before the TV segment aired.
While the "60 Minutes" piece was ultimately edited down for broadcast, Metabolife was able to run the interview in its entirety online, giving site visitors "the full story,"
noted Freda Colbourne, VP public affairs with Edelman Toronto. Act fast and you can eliminate other news filters, thus claiming a place as credible content provider, she said.
No doubt, the Web's pace is unprecedented. A 1999 study by the Foundation for Public Affairs estimates that if an email is sent to five people at 8 a.m. and each recipient
forwards the message to five more people every hour, the message could potentially reach 9.7 million people by 5 p.m.
Keynote Kelly Peters, senior manager of Internet strategies for Bank of Montreal, urged the audience to ride this momentum, rather than fear it. Word-of-mouth tactics (a la
Blair Witch's viral coup) and "sticky tools" (such as "send this page to a friend" functions on a home page) will get your users to "do the PR for you," she said.
"Competition today is not between products, it is between business models," Peters said, quoting a recent Fortune article.
The Web has changed PR forever. But the best PR counselors are the ones who are harnessing its power and changing it - at warp speed.
(MacLellan, Environics, 416/920-9000; Hayes, Middleberg + Assoc., 212/888-6610;
Colbourne, Edelman, 416/979-1120; Peters, Bank of Montreal, 416/927-2324)
Facing Facts
Worldwide Web. There are now 160 million Web users globally. Outside
of the U.S., the greatest concentrations of users are found in the U.K. (16
million) and Germany (8 million).
By 2005, the world's Internet population is expected to reach 300 million and
American surfers will drop to only 29% of all users.
Source: Computer Industry Almanac
By Comparison... Radio took 40 years to reach 50 million listeners.
TV took 13 years to reach 50 million viewers. The Internet took four years to
reach 50 million users.
Source: Middleberg + Associates
Vote of confidence. In the U.S., 86% of Web users are registered voters.
Source: Computer Industry Almanac
Being There. For more details from last week's Strategic Online Communications
seminar in Toronto, check out the Webcast on Canada Newswire's home page: http://www.newswire.ca.
Watch for additional coverage of seminar highlights in upcoming issues of PR
NEWS.