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Jun

23

How the New Web is changing PR

Insights, Internet, PR, Social 

Steve Rubel explains on PBS’ PublicEye:
… our practices are becoming more public. All of us who work inside PR agencies recognize that we need to build transparent bond with the public directly and not just serve as corporate intermediaries…

As more PR professionals and corporations blog, we will increasingly use the medium to co-create and build memes with our audiences that openly influence the news. At the same time the media will follow your lead…
Transparency in PR and in journalism means a more open dialogue and ultimately stronger editorial products and services. The media will become more relevant because it listens and responds to create a better product. Smart corporations, meanwhile, will become more relevant as well because they will — through the assistance of their PR agencies — create a more open dialogue with consumers.

We’re seeing a dramatic democratization of the Web. With the first-generation Web, we first became aware of the power of information. With the next generation, we saw traditional media move online (mostly print media) and replicate more or less the same real-world model online. Finally, a couple of years ago, tools and services that put publishing power in the hands of individuals completely changed the rules of the game. We went from information to analysis, and from analysis to opinions. Influential individuals built up a readership that only Big Media once enjoyed.

That influence and readership created something that’s caused the paradigm shift in PR that Steve’s talking about - and that something is transparency. We aren’t dealing with mere articles with faceless journalists behind them; we’re dealing with real people, real opinions, and are forming real relationships and influence-hierarchies online. This transparency turns PR on its head:

One, information is too freely available for anything but the truth to sustain itself.

Two, once the audience interacts with personalities online, they’ll only accept real, frank, objective dialogue. Standard stuffy, stodgy press releases, declarations and advertisements just won’t make the cut. What you tell your audience has to be what you truly feel, mean, and do.

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