Tom Pick just wrote that he’ll be starting off his presentation at the Blogging for Business Conference tomorrow with the statement, “The practice of PR has changed more in the last five years than it did in the previous fifty.”
Tom Pick writes:
…Prospects and stakeholders no longer want to be an audience for corporate news, they want to be participants. And through various forms of social media—blogs, video, wikis, forums, podcasts, social bookmarking and networking sites—they have made themselves participants.interactive PR, or, if you prefer, social PR or conversational PR. The role of PR is now to start the conversation, which is two-way or many-to-many, then monitor and participate in that conversation…
PR practitioners can no longer practice “microphone PR,” which, as the term implies, is about one-way, one-to-many communication controlled by the PR person. Social media has shifted the practice to
What do you think?
Is Picks’ view:
- Completely off base
- Obviously true
- Intruiging – tell me more!
How hard is it to break the habit of ”microphone PR”?
Not hard at all if…
… Interactive PR efforts are implemented by a person with good table manners. A GenX or GenY professional may be the best person to help a company learn the etiquette of posting in others’ forums and creating its own. Etiquette is a very big deal – at least as important as the content communicated.
… Interactive PR efforts spring from an overall committment to trust-based marketing. Meaning, a committment to investment in dialogue and relationships with key audiences.
… So-called ‘microphone PR’ efforts in past were not as they appeared. If, all along, you or your PR consultant have sought feedback from analysts and reporters before issuing news over the wires, you’ve been investing in exactly the right thing: dialogues and relationships. Your techniques have generally meant behind-the-scenes email and phone conversations and, when needed, group editorial board meetings. Social media opens myriad ways to expand this conversation to engage more thought leaders.
