Thought Leadership - The Curse of the Open Letter

With the internet comes all these new ways of connecting ideas with people, or does it? Rising in popularity is the recent ‘trend’, resulting from ease of access to social media, being the “Open Letter”.

Well, let’s contextualise this first. Before digital platforms became the norm (and the avenue of venting for the general public, newspapers had “letters to the editor” and “agony aunt” columns as key outlets for laymen discussions of everyday issues and frustrations. This, ladies and gentlemen, is the origin of the “open letter” – same concept, new channel.

We have to ask ourselves then, is anything different? Well, NO! Same stuff, different medium – except; speed and accessibility, and ‘viral potential’. The real difference is in the viral possibilities associated with social media. Thirty years ago friends may share a newspaper, but it would be thrown away within a couple of days. Now, friends share posts, multiplying potential exposure, and it’s for something that lasts online forever.

Potential for cause marketing? Perhaps.

But there’s an issue, or lingering question which I have: as one writes an “open letter” to vent their perspective on what they experience and observe in their living of society – “do they expect answers / responses”? One is not really sure.

Do open letters serve a purpose? Absolutely! There is nothing like venting to get an issue off your chest – makes one feel better for having released that inner tension. But also, let’s consider the power of venting: the ability to see others rally support for your line of thinking; the notion of having contributed to society by initiating debate; and even through simply highlighting an issue which others may have chosen to sweep under the carpet.

But, do open letters result in real change? Probably not! Increased issue awareness, yes; but real change, unlikely.

In the last six months alone I can think of two notable “rants”, sorry, “open letters” which went viral. Yes, there have been many others, but these two in particular struck a chord with me.

As we get into them, interestingly enough, both of these “open letters” were complaining about how tough life is being a young person.

REALITY CHECK – life is tough, and it just gets tougher. This sense of “entitlement” by a particular generation is doing nothing to contribute to making the world a better place – it just further alienates those who could help to mentor and make things better.

In both cases, the virality of the letter, in my opinion, made the initial authors look ‘misguided’ or ‘foolish’ (childish, entitled, out of touch with reality), whilst the ‘knights in shining armour’ who put them in their place showed us a glimmer of hope that rationalization and clear thinking is still alive and well in society. But, that’s just my opinion.

In fact, in our increasingly politically correct world, we are simply creating generations of kids who expect to be pandered to, and social media is contributing to this phenomenon.

And here is where the open letter turns interesting. It’s not the responses by people my age that I find interesting, but the backlash against rants from similar generation ‘netizens’ refuting what is initially vented. It is with this that we begin to see true debate, and finally see a glimmer of hope – rationality and intelligence emerges.

I enjoyed the rebuke more than the initial open letter, as I believe that’s where the real debate starts.

But getting back to the topic, an open letter is just a new generation ‘letter to the editor’, to point out a pressing (personal) issue, and to prompt societal discussion – ultimately resulting in feedback and hopefully constructive input into moving forward. With social media virality, these can now reach greater and extended audiences.

Can then, the “open letter”, be used as a PR tool?

Certainly. But remember, the rules to going viral don’t apply in a blanket approach – there’s no guarantee that your carefully constructed, pointed and thought-provoking open letter will go viral (in fact, no guarantee that anyone past the writer and their immediate friends and possibly clients, will read it). To make it work – the message has to be “out there” textually, and “controversial” enough to get people to engage willingly. Think Donald Trump – saying “all the wrong things” (rightly or wrongly) to get people’s attention, being very one-sided, or prejudiced, in order for people to feel both intrigued enough to read it, or passionate enough to either share or respond to it.

Therefore, as a PR tool, we run into problems. If the message needs to be so far skewed to one end of the continuum, the potential backlash for your brand is immense. Unless, you’re Donald Trump of course.

So whilst I like to post short rants on social media about issues of the day, these need to stay as personal messages and not as open letters; I certainly doubt that I will be writing any for my clients any time soon.