Earlier this year Dutch media reported about companies that have imposed an e-mail-stop on specific days in order to fight stress on the work floor. The companies involved were Intel, Deloitte and U.S. Cellular. Research findings show that workers get stressed when they see a full e-mail inbox. On average workers send 47 e-mails a day. And some of them check their inbox about 40 times per hour. The companies mentioned above imposed e-mail free days, especially on Friday.

The first reactions from workers were negative and they have criticized the e-mail stop, as they have a heavy workload that can only be handled with a working e-mail system.

To me the decision to come to an e-mail stop feels like senior managers who are not connected to the younger generation of workers, who perfectly know how to use the new media and the social media efficiently. In general, I think that managers should worry about this. Understanding the way the workers do their work is getting complex.

One of my clients reported that he closed certain web spaces for their personnel, in order to prevent spoiling time and costs. The downside of this was that many workers could not act properly toward their clients. This too is an example of disconnectedness of senior management.

The new media and the social media are tools for workers to keep control over their work and actually prevent stress. Stress and new media is more an issue for senior managers in corporate environments. They should make sure they get connected with their workers and their new media life.

A recent survey among 200 major ICT companies in The Netherlands, held by Research & intelligence agency Annalise SVP and commissioned by Hill & Knowlton Netherlands in Amsterdam, learned that 75% of the companies uses an external PR agency for their PR work. Crucial in the relationship between ICT companies and PR agencies is knowledge of the market, contacts with the ICT trade media and journalists, a good pro-active cooperation and a good ‘chemistry' between the external consultant and the contact person of the company.

Public Relations

In most cases the marketing manager is responsible for Public Relations. The activities involved are: contributions to mutual understanding between the company and clients, suppliers, distributors, employees and policymakers on several levels. Credibility is the central theme and Public relations focuses on media coverage.

PR more involved

The survey also showed that ICT firms will do more PR work in the future. All ICT companies see advertising and PR  as the marketing tools. As a result of the recession in the ICT sector, advertising budgets have been reduced during the past years, but PR-budgets have remained stable. Two third of the ICT companies expect to continue with advertising on current level and more than half expect to do more on PR.

When PR is compared to other marketing instruments, most ICT companies see PR as an adequate instrument to create credibility and increase brand awareness. For generation leads or stimulating sales other marketing tools fit better.

In-house PR

25% of the ICT companies have in house PR. Contracting PR is popular at big companies (more than 100 employees) and at small ICT companies (less than 20 employees). The most important reason for not contracting PR is experiences with agencies that do not have market knowledge and no capable copywriters.

PR agencies in The Netherlands

In The Netherlands we have more than 2.000 companies registered at the Chamber of Commerce as Public Relations agency; the majority is a one-man operation. 50 PR firms have between 10 and 20 staff and 22 have more than 20 staff. 70% is located in the west of the country (Amsterdam, Rotterdam, The Hague). There are more than 20 in ICT specialised PR- agencies or agencies with a  specialised technology practice.

The agency challenge

The positive attitude in the ICT market towards contracting PR work to agencies creates a challenge for PR agencies. A repetition of what happened in the period 1998 - 2002 should be avoided. That requires a critical attitude towards clients requests. Agencies should assist clients in getting their act together and provide journalists with the information they need for their readers/viewers/listeners.

This survey shows that clients realise that credibility is key. Hopefully that will prove to be the best learning from the internet bubble burst.

During my holiday this summer (2006) I have read Thomas Friedman's bestseller ‘The World is flat', which was a great experience. Actually this book is a ‘must-read' item for every professional in technology and especially for PR professionals working in an ICT environment. This book is good for the ict sector's image. And it contains many issues around ict these days in relationship to society. For consumers, business and politicians. That makes it very relevant for the PR practice in ict.

This book is an excellent overview of technology effects on the current global economy.

With ‘the world is flat' the writer means that distances have disappeared and the level playing field has levelled all over the world due to fibre infrastructure, workflow management software, wiki, search engines etc. Economies like India and China (especially since China joined the WTO in 1991) benefit a lot from this level playing field.

The ongoing outsourcing and offshoring of work to low-wages countries is also addressed as a benefit for all of us. The writer gives direction to the way western countries should develop next steps in their own economies: education, infrastructure and leadership.

He is very critical and against the Bush administration who actually exports fear instead of regaining its position as the moral leader of the world. Regained moral leadership could be achieved by taking the lead in the energy and environment debate by starting a program to reduce the share of oil in energy consumption dramatically. It is argued that the President of the United States should kick-off like John F. Kennedy did in the 60's when he stated that the US would have the first man on the moon within 10 years. The effect of that strategy on science and technology, and later on society was immense and gave the USA a leading role.

In short: I strongly recommend this book to every-one. It is a must-read for our technology practice at Hill & Knowlton in Amsterdam.

Until last week Roger Dassen was external accountant for Ahold, mother company of Holland's largest supermarket chain Albert Heijn and foreign supermarket Tops. He is also chairman of the board of Deloitte.

Last week he held his leaving party at Ahold (because he could not combine both jobs). In his weblog he writes that he has left the company with ‘mixed feelings'.  

This insight is considered to be news by a reporter from Holland's most influential business daily Het Financieele Dagblad. And according to him news should not be posted on a weblog. The reporter writes (on the frontpage) that above all weblogs are a marketing instrument and that spreading news through a weblog is "not a best practice".

 On the other hand, in a letter to the editor some days later Dassen is applauded for posting news on his blog. The writer DOES see it as a best practice. 

We at Hill & Knowlton (the Technology practice in Amsterdam) strongly disagree with this letter. If every CEO posts news on its blog, where does that leave us? Shouldn't corporate news be made accessible for everybody on recognized public places? For listed companies this isn't even voluntarily: they are limited by strict laws about how one should release news: compulsary publication. If you don't stick to the rules, your company will be (temporarily) taken off the market.  Also, it is only 'fair play' towards the journalists and public to release real news through the usual public channels, accessible for all.   

If I would get on a soapbox on the street corner and exclaim my news to passersby, can I say to others some time later: "Yeah, but I DID make it public, didn't I? You just were not there on the street corner." 

The same goes for blogs. As long as they are not being widely read by each and every journalist (real public places), blogs are not suitable for communicating news.  Blogs are great for other purposes like giving an inside look in the company or the CEO's mind and share opinions. But we as PR professionals should be reluctant in advising our clients to use their blog as a news media.

Earlier this year research institute Motivaction and website Marketing Online conducted a simple yet interesting research among Dutch ICT and telco journalists. They asked them to judge telco companies and their press departments in The Netherlands.

It turns out that the accessibility and reaction speed of spokespersons are the most important aspects when judging telco companies.

The full list, from most to least important:

1. Accessibility and reaction speed of spokespersons
2. News value of press releases and quality of the information
3. Knowledge level of the spokespersons
4. Accessibility of the management
5. Collaboration with and openness of the spokespersons
6. Pro-active approach towards journalists

Not very shocking but it shows once again that it's all about the basic things. If you don't know how to manage your department and get your act together on the basic stuff, the media won't come to you anymore. In other words: if you're unable to respond quickly, 24/7 to journalists' requests, you're in trouble!

Not surprisingly ‘national pride' KPN Telecom topped the ranking, followed by T-Mobile and Vodafone.