Beginning Thoughts

It is inevitable; the PR industry is changing. Technology is changing the way our world functions in terms of how people function in society and even more importantly how business works on a global level. In my opinion, businesses and agencies have two choices, they can fight against technological advancements by continuing to use traditional media and paper press releases or they can reevaluate the situation, jump into the learning circle and use the new technology to improve public relations. I used the term improve, but is it really an improvement? It depends on how you look at it and who you speak to. Technology can be intimating to those who are not comfortable with programs and systems, and, in turn, leaves them set in what is normal and known. When you take a second to think about what public relations really means, which to me, in summary, is about reaching publics and forming relationships to help them understand a message or a product, so if most of the publics around the world are on the internet, than isn’t it a good way of reaching them?

It seems like a logical conclusion, but there are definitely things that need to be taken into account such as the ethical issues. With the internet not being regulated and with the PR industry also not being regulated things could get dirty. I would like to have faith in our industry, but, sadly, when it comes down to it, we get our reputation of “spin doctors” for a reason. Paying bloggers to say certain things or writing a blog pretending to be a happy costumer when in reality you are working for the agency is not acceptable practice. Yes, I know we have all thought about it and it does seem like an easy solution, yet none of us are in public relations because it is easy. Part of the glory is in the challenge. So, put the thinking cap back on and back to the drawing board to find creative ways to use this new technology in an ethical way.

So you may be wondering how effective is new media? Is it worth the hassle of going into the unknown. In my opinion, the answer is YES. As I mentioned above, most all publics worldwide are on the Internet. They are part of social networks such as Facebook and Myspace, they search YouTube for videos and use Google to find just about anything they don’t understand. With public relations revolving around third-party endorsements, the Internet is really our best tool. In the book “The New Rules of Marketing and PR” (Scott, 2007), Robert Scoble tells a story of how effective blogging is by using an example of a time that he told 15 videobloggers news at a conference and within hours it was on hundreds of blogs and only two days later his news was on the front page of newspapers such as the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, magazines like BusinessWeek and on the main page of the BBC website. In total, Robert Scoble was in 140 newspapers around the world with over 50 million media impressions on his name according to Waggener Edstrom (Microsoft’s PR Agency). All of this media came from Scoble casually telling 15 videobloggers at a conference, which resulted in a lot of media coverage. It is a PR practitioners dream to achieve those kinds of results, and it all started with one single blog. The blogging community can be a very powerful tool and can be an outlet into more online resources such as YouTube, Google, and many more online sites.

For more information on case studies involving new media or information on how new media can help visit David Meerman Scott’s website.

Stay tuned for more exciting posts to come!

Scott, David Meerman. The New Rules of Marketing and PR : How to Use News Releases, Blogs, Podcasting, Viral Marketing, and Online Media to Reach Buyers Directly. New York: Wiley, 2007.

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