Listening is the Heart of CooperKatz’s New Micro Persuasion Practice
I am very pleased to announce that today I became an "intrapraneur." CooperKatz & Company, my employer, is launching a new practice that will carry the Micro Persuasion brand. You can read the full details on our first service offering in this press release we’re issuing today. My blog remains a personal site, however CK is borrowing the name because we feel it has incredible equity and it best expresses our vision.
The initial Micro Persuasion service will have a laser-like focus on helping companies listen. Subsequent launches will help them engage, influence and empower consumers. As my regular readers know, I believe that active listening is the most essential skill a company must learn in a world where we the consumers now are the media. At CooperKatz & Company we believe that this represents a tremendous opportunity for savvy companies to establish a transparent dialogue with constiuents in ways that were not possible before.
As part of our new service we will dig in and conduct a thorough audit a client’s overarching issues and vulnerabilities, develop a preparedness plan that might include the creation of special blogs, watch and closely analyze weblogs and other consumer-generated channels such as photo-sharing and link-sharing sites for bubbling issues, and strategize ways for clients to openly engage online audiences in a dialogue about their concerns. It's very consistent with what I wrote about last week.
We're very excited about the corporate potential in social media. We also see a clear role for a PR firm with our deep expertise to analyze the chatter and provide counsel and are pleased to be packaging this all in a branded service that will help clients converse in a human voice. Stay tuned for more Micro Persuasion services in the months ahead!
UPDATED: ClickZ has further information
Excellent. And congrats!
Posted by: Royal | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 09:35 AM
Congratulations Steve! Let us know how your international campaigns come along :-)
Posted by: Drew B's take on tech PR (UK) | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 09:57 AM
Wow Steve, this is great. Thanks for blazing the trail for communications professionals who know the importance of blogs and are trying to make an impact at their companies.
Posted by: Jason Whitman | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 10:15 AM
Congratulations!! Your firm's approach, and public commitment to "doing it right" is a much better example for companies trying to figure out the blogosphere than some of the other examples we've been reading about this week. Do you want fries with that soda?
Posted by: Susan Getgood | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 11:16 AM
Practicing what you preach. Congratulations on turning the blog into a full-fledged service. As you well know, it is addressing a huge void in the marketplace.
Posted by: kevin dugan | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 11:19 AM
Aha! Remember i complained (mildly) about all the blog talk at MP a while back? Well now the light dawns....
Good luck steve, it's no doubt a lucrative biz and you're well positioned cash in on it...
Nick
Posted by: Nick W | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 12:21 PM
Congrats, and didn't we have this discussion a few weeks back ...
Posted by: Jeremy Pepper | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 12:33 PM
Congrats Steve - you are a trailblazer. Best of luck on the new service!
Posted by: David Parmet | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 02:09 PM
Bravo, Rubel! As the French say "It's all about ECOUTE."
Posted by: Robb Hecht | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 05:05 PM
Congrats! Someday, the phrase "the father of Blogging Relations" will always be attached to your name.
Posted by: Steven Phenix | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 05:24 PM
Outstanding! Great opportunity for you, and smart thinking by your team! Go for it!
Posted by: Buzz Bruggeman | Wednesday, February 09, 2005 at 07:45 PM
first of all, congratulations.
But I sometimes feel uneasy with the term of micropersuasion
because it's been a long time since PR as a discipline has moved from
the "persuasive" perspective to the "relationship" paradigm.
So I would rather define a new venue of PR which has been observed in
this blogosphere as "microrelations."
Posted by: gator | Thursday, February 10, 2005 at 01:42 AM
Congratulations, Steve. From reading the press release, it's especially good to see that you've positioned the new service as an issues management offering. It's about the communication, not the channel.
I wish you every success, for you and your firm. And your clients, of course ;)
Posted by: Neville Hobson | Thursday, February 10, 2005 at 06:56 AM
Fab, Steve!
Again, you are my BLOG-MODEL!!!
Cheers!
Posted by: Octavio Isaac Rojas Orduña | Thursday, February 10, 2005 at 07:51 AM
Congratulations, Steve. This is a great thing for the PR industry as they have to wake up for the reality. I made it news in the Japanese ad/marketing industry.
http://adinnovator.typepad.com/ad_innovator/2005/02/nyprprmicro_per.html
(Sorry it's all in Japanese)
Ko
Posted by: Ko Orita | Thursday, February 10, 2005 at 05:32 PM