WARNING: This posting will likely interest only people working within Social Media in China.

The China International Public Relations Association produced a set of rules and recommendations that has been trickling through China’s media and Internet in various reports. We decided to do a full translation of the guidelines (Below).

Some highlights relating to what they call “Digital PR”:

• Digital PR is the fastest growing business model within the PR industry
• Accounted for 6.3% of PR in China, with a total turnover of 880 million RMB in 2008.
• Companies “should not provide any form of attack or defamation towards a competitor” 

The point about attacking competitors is an interesting one and an ongoing problem in China, as this article in the China Daily points out:

An underground business, that charges companies high fees to delete negative news or posts against them, has been flourishing in the run-up to World Consumer Rights Day today, normally regarded as the most important day to highlight a company’s good reputation.

An operator surnamed Wu with Han De Kai Si Crisis Dealing Experts Company, told METRO on Sunday they normally charge 600 to 800 yuan per post deleted. He revealed there were usually two ways to deal with such business crises, including paying insiders within websites to delete online information and hiring people to release positive posts with the same titles as negative posts.

The association itself is run by a former China ambassador to the US and has the stated objective “to let the world know China and to let China orient itself to the world”

Anyone have thoughts/comments on these recommendations?

Guidelines for the Online PR business in China
Preface
Following the rise and expansion of the Internet and of social media like forums and blogs, traditional media and communication patterns have undergone a profound transformation. At the same time, marketing and public relation disciplines have also undergone a radical transformation. Digital PR has already become an extension of traditional PR that cannot be ignored, and it is the fastest growing business model within the PR industry. As shown in a survey of the CIPRA, in 2008 the PR market in China has exceeded 14 billion RMB, with a growing rate of 29.6%. Digital PR accounts for 6.3% of this market, with a total turnover of 880 million RMB.

The use of online news, forum conversations, online activities, word-of-mouth marketing, group marketing, sentiment marketing and online crisis management has become the main services provided in the PR market, and fast consumption, automobile, IT, Internet and communication companies have become the main clients of PR. Following the normalization and the expansion of e-commerce and online sales, companies have raised higher and higher voices calling for the standardization and regulation of online public relations. At the same time, given the continuous innovation of means of communication and of communication technologies, the concept of online public relation is also in continuous evolution.
The expansion of the market calls for regulation, and in the case of online public relation, this is even more important. We believe we should take example from the Regulations for public relation services, in order to control and regulate this market, continuously raise the standards of technology and the level of qualification of the people working in the field, in order to ensure the sustainability and the growth of the market. For this reason, as a result of thorough research and thought from the CIPRA, we have developed this document that attests the standards of services in online public relations.
The specific content is as follows:

Chapter 1 Definition of digital public relations
1.1 Digital public relations aims at making use of the practice of traditional public relations to communicate, build relations and manage brands on online platforms like social media and online media. Compared with traditional public relations, online PR has the advantages of being faster, more interactive, more precise, more long-term and having a bigger scope.
1.2 Differently from other online marketing techniques, online PR does not only have the objective of increasing sales, or influencing the purchasing behavior of single individuals or groups. Digital PR aims at delivering strategic and long-term messages to the online public, and therefore serves the creation and the management of the brand. For the client, the practical value of digital PR is: increase the image of a brand; affect the opinion of consumers towards the brand and their purchasing behavior; protect the companys reputation and image.
1.3 Digital PR agencies and any company providing online PR service should satisfy their clients online PR needs. The ten main services provided in online PR are: customer service; online news; online activities; brand promotion; interactive marketing; public opinion monitoring; crisis management; online media management; specialized training.
1.4 Online PR services can be divided in two main groups: concept products and channel products. Concept products are consultancy and announcement products like online news, online customer services; experience/activity products like online activities, word-of-mouth marketing, community marketing; monitoring/alert products like public opinion monitoring, crisis management, criticism protection; and protection/optimization products like website optimization, SEO, traffic optimization. Channel products are news distribution, forum and blog seeding, SNS seeding, IM seeding, video distribution.

Chapter 2 Technology utilization and media attitude of digital PR agencies
2.1 Online PR agencies mainly utilize Internet technologies for their work. Internet media tools have qualities that traditional media do not have such as immediateness, personal approach, interactivity, openness. They can be one-to-many, many-to-many or many-to-one. Online media have overturned the elitism of traditional media, slightly moving the right to express opinions from the elites to the grassroots.
2.2 According to the main means of communication of online public relations, it is possible to divide the online PR media in five kinds: general portal websites, vertical portal websites, forums, blogs, streaming websites. The most used channels of communication are news, forum threads, blog posts, streaming videos.
2.3 The technology support systems of online PR can be divided into five main platforms according to the different functions: news publishing platforms, sentiment monitoring platforms, media resource platforms, media communication platforms and control platforms.

Chapter 3 The workflow of digital PR agencies
3.1 Digital public relations are a consultancy service, and the effectiveness of this service is attested through regulated and organized procedures, and developed through stages such as project discussion, project research, project planning, project confirmation, project execution and project evaluation.
3.2 The core aim of digital PR is to solve the online reputation issues of a client, and digital PR agencies should carry out research on the online brand of the client, evaluation of the online PR strategies already carried out by the client, analysis of the competition, definition of the challenges faced by the client, and the opportunities ahead, and finally define an online strategy for the client.
3.3 Because it makes use of advanced technologies, the effectiveness of online PR is more easily assessable. Nowadays, there are three main assessment systems: qualitative assessment of the project (online traffic changes, attention from traditional media, level of satisfaction of users, level of reputation of the brand); quantitative assessment of the project (number of posts, number of views, number of participations and recommendations); ROI.
3.4 The assessment reports of digital PR projects must include a project summary, project research, project strategy, project implementation, project assessment.

Chapter 4 The payment procedures for digital PR
4.1 Digital PR is a personalized service, that should be rewarded in the form of service fee, and the amount of this fee is established in light of the level and the expertise of those providing the service. The service fee is normally established in light of the number of people participating in the project and the time spent on the project.
4.2 Payment should follow these international procedures:
Payment item: project operative cost; consultancy service fee; project management fee, management taxes.
Payment procedure: project service fee; consultancy fee; project management fee.
4.3 Nowadays there are four main payment procedures: payment at the moment of the completion of the project; payment according to the quantity of work in the project; payment according to the time spent on the project; payment according to the results of the project.

Chapter 5 The service management of digital PR agencies
5.1 Digital PR agencies must all comply with the rules and the regulations of the national corporate law. These include: companies should register before operating; they should organize and define the higher organs of management (such as the shareholder, the board of administration, etc.) and their responsibilities; keep the accountancy books; settle taxes; mismanagements or failure to comply with these regulation can result in criminal act.
5.2 Digital PR agencies should respect the following conditions: have a solid initial capital (not less than 100k RMB); have a fixed company address; have good office and communication conditions; feature two PR consultants with at least five years of experience in PR; a definite number of clients or potential clients.
5.3 Digital PR agencies must set up their organizational structure according to the management objectives, and should be divided into: market department; client service department; creative department; media management department; activity management department and administration department. Alternatively, they can be divided according to industries into: IT client department; financial client department; consumption goods department; public affairs department. Finally, it could be divided into regions of activity into: international affairs department and local affairs department.

Chapter 6 The development of the profession of online PR
6.1 Online public relations practitioners should have a variety of professional skills, expertise and professional experience. Strategic thinking, innovation, organizational sense, interpersonal skills, analytic spirit and problem solving skills should be the common features of successful online PR professionals.
6.2 Business operations of online public relations generally involve seven main teams: management team; project management and customer service teams; strategic planning team; media relations and media executive team; creative design and art production team; R & D and technology team and administrative support team.
6.3 Generally speaking, the online public relations professional ladder is mainly composed of the following levels: junior positions (Customer Assistant, Account Executive); intermediate positions (Account Manager, Senior Account Manager); senior positions (Assistant Account Director, Account Director, Senior Account Director, Vice President, Senior Vice President). In order to be promoted from the junior level to senior positions most of the professionals need 8-10 years of experience in the field.
6.4 Training programs should be organized for every level of professionals working in online PR. Content of training should include: online communication means, online interaction strategy, public relations, introduction to research methods, project proposal writing, proposal and bidding, event planning and management, online media analysis and research, online media relations program, marketing, brand management, crisis management, case studies and analysis, project management, customer management, impact assessment and strategic consulting. Junior professionals should be given 100 hours of training each year; mid-level professionals should be given 60 hours of training each year; senior professionals should be given 30 hours of training each year.

Chapter 7 Professional ethics of the online public relations practitioners
7.1 Public relations businesses should abide by the Internet Self-discipline Convention. In specific: they should ensure that the content and means of dissemination of information are consistent with the relevant provisions of the national law; they should ensure content integrity, authenticity and accuracy, and that content disseminated on the Internet is not inconsistent with objective reality; they should ensure that the content of information does not involve politically sensitive topics or state-sensitive issues; they should not conceal the truth or deceive the public; they should not engage in any immoral or dishonest activity, or damage the dignity or the reputation of others; they should not provide any form of attack or defamation towards a competitor; they should not use any copyrighted material without lawfully clearing the rights.