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PRs must reshape the profession

April 23, 2009

public relations

Book review
Putting the Public Back in Public Relations:
How Social Media is Reinventing the Aging Business of PR
Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge
Pearson Education, 2009. 314 pp.

The Problem: PR has slipped into complacency. Many PR practitioners still blast news releases and spam everyone with pitches. The same old tired marketing ethics and tactics.

The Opportunity: Social Media allows PRs to overhear relevant conversations. They can adopt a less-is-more, focused, and human approach to share information.

We PR people can embrace Social Media (after we’ve participated as a person and not as a marketer).

Brian Solis and Deirdre Breakenridge wrote Putting the Public Back in Public Relations “to show you how to take advantage of the socialization of media, whether you are just starting out or you’ve been in the communications industry for years.”

Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, a PR and New Media agency. Breakenridge is president and director of communications at PFS Marketwyse.

We now have an opportunity to reshape a worn and beaten profession and transform it into something much bigger and more meaningful, they say. PR 2.0 can thrive in today’s ever-evolving and highly competitive online social climate. Although the technology is new, the principles driving the New PR movement are not foreign; they’re rooted in customer service, the social sciences, and community participation.

These conversations that we can listen to, and eventually participate in, take the form of videos, podcasts, bookmarks, blog posts and comments, tweets, pictures, reviews, meetups and events, and news aggregation. PR needs to follow the authoritative dialogue, wherever it takes place.

One of the most important tips of their book: To be a true member of the online community, you must humanize your intent and story, and learn how, where, and why to participate. By doing so, you abandon top-down engagement and embrace one-on-one interaction.

The way to succeed with New PR is to become a reliable resource of information and knowledge for those who either directly or indirectly affect your brand’s success.

Technology is important, and there will always be new tools. But even though the tools continually change, PR professionals will always start the conversation, facilitate that conversation and then, of course, monitor the conversation.

Twitter, Facebook, and other social networking platforms encourage communicators to condense our stories into a focused package that is specific to each community. This, the authors say, is how we put the PUBLIC back in Public Relations. This is how we start to reshape a 100-year-old-history that has coasted along without resistance until now.

Other tips:

Rather than creating profiles on every popular social platform and befriending everyone across the networks, first identify meaningful conversations, comprehend them, then feed that collective insight back into the organization for positive change.

Measuring the frequency and tone of conversations is the new frontier for PR and marketing, with many solutions launching even now.

Who we are today is not who we will be tomorrow. Embrace the changes outlined in this book and remain open to future learning and growth. Transcend traditional roles and exemplify the new hybrid of Public Relations professionals.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: book review, PR, PR2.0, public relations, socialmedia, web2.0 | Permalink
Posted by paul

Rubel’s ‘Five Digital Trends’ worth a careful read

February 23, 2009

Journalists and consumers are tuning out marketing and using Google as a big open book.

Steve Rubel of Edelman Digital observes that marketers have largely focused on reaching stakeholders through ‘push’ media — paid and earned media. But now that Google dominates, it’s equally important for communicators focus on ‘digital discoverability.’ Organizations and communicators must create content that people will “pull” through search engines and social networks.

In his white paper “Five Digital Trends to Watch for In 2009,” Rubel says the greatest reward will go to those who create dynamic content at a regular frequency that is discussed, remixed, and linked to by other high-quality sources online.

Organizations should build relationships with their publics by creating what Rubel calls ‘digital embassies’ and ‘digital ambassadors.’ As people spend time inside social networks, organizations must go where the people are to build relationships. But before jumping into social media, understand where your stakeholders spend time and what they do there.

Today all media is social, and all social is media, Rubel says. It used to be that journalists were on one side, bloggers on the other. No more. Yet many, particularly in PR, still treat ordinary citizens, traditional journalism, and branded content as distinct islands of media. It’s best to see them as a contiguous archipelago connected by a bridge called Google.

With the increasing popularity of sites that aggregate content, there’s tremendous value in serving as a digital curator of quality content, just as there’s a role for museum curators who separate “art” from “junk.”

Google is much more than a search engine, Rubel says: It’s also media. Every day people make business and life decisions based on what they find on Google. This includes consumers and journalists as well. As a result, communicators should prioritize media targets based on their ability to influence Google search results, rather than just reach.

Many corporate blogs focus too much on their products and services. According to Forrester Research, only 16% of online consumers who read corporate blogs say they trust them. Rubel says a better approach is to use blogs as a way to build communities that connect customers and corporate all-stars around shared passions.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: marketing, PR, public relations, socialmedia, web2.0 | Permalink
Posted by paul

PRs as boundary spanners

January 14, 2009

Dawn Gilpin, co-author of Crisis Management in a Complex World, reflects on her upcoming course in public relations campaigns for her students at Arizona State U. The course prospectus begins,

“The world of public relations is changing. One-way, media-driven communication is rarely the most effective means of conveying information, shaping attitudes and influencing behavior among stakeholders. Today’s PR practitioner engages in an array of ongoing conversations, and prepares campaigns based on in-depth understanding of the cultural, social, technological, and local dimensions of those conversations. Doing so may require various combinations of controlled and uncontrolled media, social media, formal presentations, events and initiatives, and other means.

“This course introduces students to the many ways in which they can identify and participate in these conversations, while providing an opportunity to synthesize and apply the theories, principles and techniques of public relations they have learned in previous courses.”
More

1 Comment | Uncategorized | Tagged: PR, public relations, syllabus | Permalink
Posted by paul

Educommunicators name priorities for 2009

January 12, 2009

educommunicators

Patrick Riccards‘ poll of education communicators shows that they would like the Educommunicators organization in 2009 to spotlight communications best practices (67.1%) and discuss ways to use new media (64.6%). Responding members said the best medium for Educommunicators to engage marketing communications professionals is, by far, still email (60%).

Major challenges facing education communicators include using new technologies in a strategic way (62.4%), thinking long-term and staying on a strategic course (43.9%), and maintaining conversations with stakeholders (41.5%).

Respondents’ communications areas of expertise were media relations (59.5%), community relations (50.6%), marketing (44.3%), public affairs (38%) and research (38%).

They said the most important tools for effective communications were the right message (43.8%) and a strong network of contacts (26.3%).

Read more survey results at Educommunicators

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: communication, education, marketing, PR, public relations | Permalink
Posted by paul

Tell the truth and tell it fast

December 17, 2008

now is too late2

Book Review
Now is too late2: Survival in an Era of Instant News
Gerald R. Baron
EdensVeil, 2006. 259 p.
www.nowistoolate2.com

The disastrous shortcomings of FEMA during the early stages of Hurricane Katrina resulted from its leader’s failure to manage during a time of crisis. His weakness as a communicator, his discomfort in facing harsh criticism, and his questionable credentials all played into the story of abject failure reported by the media. As goes the person at the top, so goes the organization.

Now Is Too Late 2 offers this and many striking examples of how leaders fail and succeed in communicating on behalf of their organizations.

Your company may not be subject to the risks and responsibilities of an agency the size of FEMA, but you do have a reputation to protect. And crises happen on large and small scales.

Gerald Baron writes this book for communicators, whether CEOs or PR professionals. He writes mainly about crisis communication, but this meaty book includes the wisdom of practice in several areas, including maintaining healthy relationships with reporters, keeping up with technology, and knowing all your publics and the influentials in each one.

Writing from years of experience as a communicator and consultant, Baron says the most enlightened communication managers make themselves the first and best source of news. Long before a crisis strikes, they put in place processes that will allow them to very quickly gather and distribute needed information.

In fact, he writes that the primary message of this book is speed. That’s because technology has allowed people around the world to get information immediately and to engage in decisions that affect them.

Baron discusses how to prepare a crisis communication plan that effectively weaves together effective people, policies and technology. The single objective of a plan should be to protect, or to build, public trust in your organization through accurate, timely information.

Make sure you have already identified the people whose perceptions are vital to your company’s current business and future health. Whether global or local, Baron says, the basic principle remains the same: A relatively few people carry the present and future value of the organization around in the perceptions they hold about the company.

Leave a Comment » | Uncategorized | Tagged: book review, communication planning, crisis communication, PR | Permalink
Posted by paul

EducationPR

PRs must reshape the profession

Rubel’s ‘Five Digital Trends’ worth a careful read

PRs as boundary spanners

Educommunicators name priorities for 2009

Tell the truth and tell it fast

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