There’s big news in the public relations industry this week as the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) recently announced that they are embarking on an international effort to modernize the definition of public relations. Chartered in 1947, PRSA is the world’s largest and foremost organization of public relations professionals and boasts a community of more than 21,000 members across the United States. Their current definition of public relations — “public relations helps an organization and its publics adapt mutually to each other” was last updated in 1982, before Twitter, before Facebook, hell, even before you had a computer at your desk. Technology has changed a lot over the last 30 years. So to have the ways in which organizations and their publics relate to one another, it’s definitely time for a change.

Adam Lavelle, a member of the board of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association and chief strategic officer at the iCrossing unit of Hearst, agrees. In the New York Times article linked above, he says:

“Before the rise of social media, public relations was about trying to manage the message an entity was sharing with its different audiences. Now, P.R. has to be more about facilitating the ongoing conversation in an always-on world.”

Unfortunately, ever since the days of Edward Bernays, public relations has had its roots in “managing the message.” Public relations grew out of propaganda, spin and manipulation — no wonder we’ve had an image problem for the last 100 years! Too many public relations practitioners have become so focused on the message that they have totally forgotten the relations part of public relations. As The Cluetrain Manifesto taught us way back in 1999 (also before social media), “public relations does not relate to the public; companies are deeply afraid of their markets.” From press releases that sound like this and media pitches like this, public relations practitioners have gotten lazy, hiding behind words and messages instead of building an actual relationship.

PRSA (disclaimer: I’ve been a member of PRSA or PRSSA since 2000.) should take this same advice while redefining the definition of public relations. The words might end up being totally accurate and insightful, but if public relations practitioners don’t also change their actions, the perception of the industry will never change. I hope that all PRSA members would realize the perception of public relations is about more than words — it’s about actions. And with that, here are ten actions that I’d like to become part of the new definition of public relations:

Continue reading " More Than Words: How to Really Redefine the Term “Public Relations” "

PR people care about search, Chris Brogan, president of Human Business Works, told attendees at yesterday morning’s General Session at the 2011 PRSA International Conference in Orlando, Fla.

Rather than thinking about how to get more people to our websites, or figuring out if we need to have a micro-site or a mobile site, we need to think about the “human digital channel” and interactions. “If you think about all those other things as the shop, then we’re working on how to make a better digital shopkeeper,” Brogan said.

Continue reading " Chris Brogan’s Keynote Presentation from the PRSA 2011 International Conference "

Join Geno Church for his workshop, Bringing Sexy Back to Offline Marketing, on Sunday, October 16, 2011 3:00 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. at the PRSA 2011 International Conference, Oct. 15–18 in Orlando, Fla.!

During my session, I’ll help you refocus your public relations efforts and evaluate the power of offline word of mouth for your brand.

With all the social media buzz floating around the public relations industry, let’s look at a few statistics:

• 90% of word of mouth happens offline (face-to- face or voice-to-voice) – Keller Faye Group
• 10% of word of mouth happens online (social media, email, texting) – Keller Faye Group
• 93% of retail sales happens offline – Forrester Research report

So why all this focus and attention on online word of mouth? It’s because offline Word of Mouth is very difficult to do. It’s because marketers treat word of mouth as an output (sustaining the conversation) and not as an input (starting the conversation).

It’s time to talk about The 5th P… PEOPLE

Continue reading " Bringing SEXY Back to Offline Word of Mouth "

Oh, the wondrous things we have! We can access so many new electronic tools, gadgets and mobile applications to make our media relations efforts more productive. However, can email ever replace a face-to-face conversation? Can a Facebook page convey the interplay of emotions at a live news conference? How can 140 characters explain the complexity of health care policy or do it without the cynicism that too often creeps into pithy, short bites?

In order to engage reporters, we should not give up our YouTube channels, LinkedIn accounts or Flickr photos. They all are part of the arsenal that media relations professionals use to help tell clients’ stories. However, I do think it is time to refocus ― social media is a means to the end, and not the end goal itself.

Continue reading " Social Media as Starting Point, Not Focal Point "

When you see Katie Paine is going to be on a panel to discuss evaluation, you know you’re going to get the real deal. Katie Paine is considered one of the true leaders of public relations measurement. Heck, she literally wrote the book on measuring public relationships!

So before she started her Tuesday afternoon presentation about “Reputation, Employee Engagement and Other Measures of PR Value,” I cornered her to talk numbers.

Katie Paine rattled off her 3 favorite metrics in this video in a single take without hesitation:

1. Share of desirable conversation as compared with competitors

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