Part II (cont.)
Click here to read “The State of PR, Marketing, and Communications: You are the Future (Part I)”

Public Relations Is So Much More Than Media, Analyst and Blogger Relations
 

Credit: Ghedo

The business of public relaltions slowly evolved away from public interaction and eventually transformed into a mechanism of media, analyst and blogger relations to instill messages and attempt to manipulate public behavior.

Public Relations = Publicity

Continue reading " The State of PR, Marketing, and Communications: You are the Future (Part II) "

This post is long. If you prefer a Word or PDF version, please click here to download: “The State of PR, Marketing and Communications.”

Please take your time … Read it. Breathe it in. Live the change you wish to see.

Source

Modern public relations was born in the early 1900s, although history traces its roots and origins of practice back to the 17th century. Two years ago, the press release celebrated its 100-year anniversary.

While the communications industry has iterated with every new technological advancement over the last century, including broadcast media and Web 1.0, none, however, have forced complete transparency prior to the proliferation of the Read/Write Web, aka The Social Web, aka Web 2.0.

It is this element of fundamental transparency of social media, combined with its sheer expansiveness and overwhelming potential, that is both alarming and inspiring public relations professionals everywhere. At the minimum, it’s sparking new dialogue, questions, education and innovation, and also forcing the renaissance of the aging business of public relations itself.

While some are already predicting the death of public relations, I fundamentally believe that it’s simply the death of public relations as we know it. As long as communications professionals want to learn and improve their craft, then we are positioned for evolution. No matter how much we think we know, we’re now equalized as an industry in order to reset, learn, and define and earn an invaluable role within the business cycle — again.

Contrary to popular belief, social media isn’t killing public relations, but the business of public relations IS in a state of paramount crisis. It’s not without merit however. Perhaps up until now we have been our own worst enemy.

Continue reading " The State of PR, Marketing and Communications: You are the Future (Part I) "

Part II (cont.)
Click here to read “PR Does Not Stand for Press Release: Equalizing Spikes and Valleys (Part I)”

If you’ve studied the behavior and ensuing results associated with retweeting and linkbacks lately, you’d be surprised to learn just how few people actually click through to interact with the shared content, let alone using or referring the product or service contained in the link — no matter how influential you are. Of course, the more authority and trust you possess, the more retweets and shares you earn, but the follow-through never fails to dissipate without fuel and cultivation. This observation is shared in a recent launch comparison by Michael Arrington on TechCrunch.

The point is that if we base our activity on news and events, the results will always produce spikes and valleys, and the distance between them is determined by the cadence of our news releases and the effectiveness in how well we generate presence and corresponding traffic. Unfortunately, as the attention of our customers continues to thin and the competition for awareness escalates, the distance between the spikes and valleys may be the difference between success and obsolescence.

The trick is how to counter the balance and disparity between apex and nadir.

The answer is to create programs that match the results from the initial research of identifying the people and channels of influence within every facet of the customer bell curve — from the head to the Long Tail.

I call this a “Yo Yo on an Escalator,” as your traffic can go up and down, but through a dedicated practice of community, awareness and advocacy programs, the cumulative traffic is always going up — especially in between news cycles.

Continue reading " PR Does Not Stand for Press Release: Equalizing Spikes and Valleys (Part II) "

Every now and again, a public relations meme appears on the Web — almost to the point where you could set your watch by it. This time around, Claire Cain Miller of The New York Times sparked the conversation with an in-depth article, “Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley.”

I respect Claire, and I believe she wrote an extensive article that chronicles the launch of one particular startup and also featured supporting quotes from those public relations professionals who are helping to usher in a new breed of corporate communications.

[Image Source]

While an exposé makes for an interesting read, public relations is undergoing a much more significant renaissance that receives almost zero attention in this article. P.R. in Silicon Valley is far more sophisticated and effective than what’s actually spotlighted in the story, and it’s much more potent than most entrepreneurs, investors and executives realize.

For those truly seeking answers and guidance in regard to the new landscape of public relations and influence, please consider my new book with Deirdre Breakenridge, “Putting the Public Back in Public Relations.” There’s a reason we spent an entire year writing it. Anyone practicing communications, marketing, public relations, advertising, branding, or making sales and marketing decisions on behalf of any company would be remiss not to have read and shared this book. It is the most comprehensive, accurate and practical resource on the subject of PR 2.0 and how the social Web has transformed the world of communications, word of mouth and authority. And it will be relevant and poignant for years to come.

I met with Claire a few weeks ago while she was working on this article, and to be honest, the elements that surfaced in our conversation offered far more value, insight and direction for both public relations practitioners as well as company executives seeking to rise above the noise in traditional and social media. Perhaps it’s merely shelved for a future article, but unfortunately, now’s the time to place the focus on what works, what’s changing and how to contribute to the (r)evolution instead of simply talking around it. As my quote in the New York Times alludes, public relations is much more than what most think it is. While it’s clever, even the headline of the Times article suggests “spin” in the era of the Web. But as my book highlights, and as discussed with Claire, what’s going on right now is so much more important than what public relations used to be — even though it’s still practiced today. This is about putting the public back in public relations, nothing less, nothing more.

Continue reading " PR Does Not Stand for Press Release: Equalizing Spikes and Valleys (Part I) "

The Conversation Prism debuted in August 2008 to provide a visual representation of the true expansiveness of the social Web and the conversations that define it. In this short time span, over one million people have crossed its path.

When Jesse Thomas, of JESS3, and I initially mapped “the conversation,” we recognized that the act of categorizing social networks within a visually rich graphic would be momentary at best, demanding endless iterations in order to accurately document evolving and shifting online conversations as well as the communities that promote them.

Continue reading " The Conversation Prism "