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June 10, 2009
PR in a World of Expression
I am delivering the opening speech at the New Media Academic Summit that begins this morning at Georgetown University. This is the third annual confab organized by Edelman and PRWeek to discuss how social media is changing public relations and mass communications. More than 100 professors from the US, Canada, Europe and Latin America are joining for the two day session. If you’re interesting in watching any session live go here. I am using the opportunity to discuss Public Engagement—the combination of policy and communications which enables corporations/organizations to engage credibly in a stakeholder world.
Our traditional business of media relations is affected by the shrinking news hole, as reporters are laid off in response to an unprecedented decline in advertising (digital pennies earned as print dollars are lost). Media is incorporating reader feedback, short-form video, discussion and news aggregation. There is a dispersion of authority, as people shift away from sole reliance on mainstream media or traditional influencers such as government or CEOs, towards those with people with experience, passion and voice earned by knowledge or frequency of their posts. Consumers are moving away from instant gratification toward instant justification--from what they want to what they need. Government is the new “big foot” with an increasing stake in business, insisting on new levels of transparency, reduction in compensation and social benefit beyond shareholder value.
We have no choice but to evolve or die. What is our role in the future?
Public relations people must advise on policy, beyond how to communicate. We should offer a view on all important decisions to be taken by the corporation, from product pricing to supply chain to warranty length. We offer unique insight because we are actively engaged with the newly empowered constituencies, from civil society to employees to impassioned consumers. What you do determines your success in what you say.
The tenets of Public Engagement apply specifically also to the communications aspect of our business. We need to do the following:
1) Integrate Search into the PR: Our work must be crafted for optimized search but also for reputational search and social search (since Google increasingly ranks social content from Flickr, blogs, Twitter etc.). We can prioritize media and blogger outreach on the basis of which reporter/person/outlets helps most in search. We can create “embassies” for clients within social networks like Facebook and Twitter so that there is an outlet for suggestions and complaints. Here is our white paper on search and PR.
2) Mobilize the Influencers: We have always engaged credible experts to provide independent insights for mainstream media. Today, we can uncover influencers of all stripes--the people who are passionately interested in a given area--and provide them with early access so they can publicly discuss product or corporate initiative. An influencer is not someone (like Ashton Kutcher on Twitter) with millions of followers, rather it is a person who is truly ‘engaged,’ based on how many times an individual’s posts are linked to and re-tweeted.
3) Inform the Conversation: We can no longer rely upon readers to go to mainstream media or to client’s own web site. We need to go where the people are, whether in social media or in comments on blog posts (be transparent about your client’s interest!). We must also provide people with relevant utilities, whether through the web, iPhone or Pre (Disclosure: Palm is a client) apps.
4) Every Company a Media Company: Companies can offer real depth of content from their core area of knowledge, such as J&J Baby Center, the Web's #1 global interactive parenting network. We can help clients engage their consumers to co-create their brands, and to curate conversations happening around the web on a given topic.
5) Be Present and Consistent Everywhere: The average person uses eight sources of media each day. That same person needs to hear or see something three to five times from different sources in order to achieve belief. So we need to involve audiences consistently across all mediums, adapting the discussion and style to the specific medium. So let’s collaborate on Facebook, entertain on YouTube and offer customer tips on Twitter. For instance, the Butterball (a client) Turkey Talk-line now offers mobile texting tips, hosted web chats, a partnership with Bravo’s Top Chef show and a Cellufun mobile game.
6) Democratic and Decentralized: Let’s give voice to the people. The Ben and Jerry’s (a client) Facebook page has nearly 1 million fans who can create their own flavors, take interactive polls, give virtual gifts, connect via Twitter, view and discuss videos.
The PR business must move from pitching to informing, from control to credibility, from influencing elites to engaging the new influencers. Trust is established through continuous conversation and appropriate behavior. PR can become the communications partner of choice in the coming decade. We have little choice but to move to seize the mantle.
Here is my presentation (note white navigational arrows on pale gray to the left and right of each slide):
And here is my introductory video at the Summit:
Posted by Edelman at June 10, 2009 8:13 AM |
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Comments
Bravo
Posted by: Dan Koifman at June 10, 2009 10:08 AM
As a truly engaged influencer :) that received your content via other even more truly influencers I may thank you deeply for this summary on ongoing 3.0 developments, spiced up with your excellent PR knowledge and insight. Regs from Berlin!
Posted by: Steve Johnson-Wozowiecki at June 10, 2009 11:18 AM
It is Darwinism at its finest. Seriously though, the industry is changing and we must stay in (or ahead of) the game. Using social media isn't going to cut it.
Posted by: Sarah Evans at June 11, 2009 10:09 AM
Richard - The industry has needed to hear this message from your level for some time. I've shifted my firm away from traditional media relations and towards creating partnerships and relationships that make sense. Not sure there's much of a future for firms which won't make this evolution. Keep charging.
Posted by: Philip Chang at June 11, 2009 10:20 AM
Thank you for this article! With more than a decade in the PR and Marketing industries, I completely agree with you on all points. Now, how do we convince the C Suite?
Posted by: Lisa Willis at June 11, 2009 12:25 PM
Well done, as always. It's exciting to think about where all of this is headed. Those who ignore it will find new careers but it won't be as part of the future of PR.
The messages "be everywhere, be consistent, be engaging" are messages we've been successfully sharing with prospects for a few years now. Clients are beginning to trust that counsel and it's nice to see industry colleagues of your influence further demonstrating the ROI of such ideas.
Christine Perkett
http://www.twitter.com/missusP
http://www.twitter.com/PerkettPR
Posted by: Christine Perkett at June 11, 2009 3:25 PM
I watched two of the live webcasts from the event.
Thank you for tipping us off about it and for making access free to external audiences.
The content provided excellent food for thought.
I was particularly inspired by comments from Edelman's Insight guy in the last session of the day - very insightful, fresh thinking.
Posted by: Ben Caspersz, Claremont at June 11, 2009 5:09 PM
The problem is that business schools adhere to and teach the PR = publicity stunts and coverups myth. Until PR gets serious about educating the freshly minted MBAs coming out of business schools (I should know, I suffered through one of those outdated models) it's not going to happen.
Posted by: Debra Bethard-Caplick, MBA, APR at June 11, 2009 7:23 PM
Dear Richard,
I like the concept, "democratic and decentralized". As a poli sci grad and soon to be PR practitioner, I can see the value of this - corporations will have to be more transparent and I think this is a good thing.
It's obvious that Edelman is taking a leadership role in new media. l am sure the cross between new media and academia at the summit at Georgetown University will help bring credibility and understanding to this important social phenomena.
Posted by: Laura Casselman at June 11, 2009 10:24 PM
This is a very insightful article. As a student of public relations graduating this fall, it is a very interesting time to come into this industry. Although I am not making a career adjustment from ‘the way it used to be’ to adapt to social media, it is the same learning curve to understand and make the best use of the new mediums. It is the role of a PR practitioner to not only be apart of these changes but to lead clients, bosses, or other management to accept the concept of decentralized control and embrace the opportunity to engage with an audience on the same playing field.
Posted by: Laura Bechtel at June 12, 2009 12:36 AM
As a current public relations student I am finding what you are saying to be true. PR must not, and cannot afford to be, one dimensional. With all of the social media tools to utilize, and with the economy in the current state it is in, practitioners and firms must seek new and creative ways to evolve communication and its relationships. Kudos for being a leader in this change and for making the message heard.
Posted by: Nicole Baumgartner at June 12, 2009 8:28 AM
Beautifully written, concise summary of the decentralization of information today. I love the idea of de-"silo"-ization of the PR function to meet the way information flows today (up, down, and sideways). I know PR can and should have an expanded role within our organizations and with our clients, and I was saying to someone today nobody can say we can't - because there is no degree in social media. Who is to say PR is not just as qualified as anyone else to speak with clients, customers, shareholders, policyholders - the very people we've been trying to reach thru the media for our careers? They are no longer declared off-limits to PR and it's great. I think PR gets it. We know we get it. But how do we convince our ad agency bosses and clients that the role of today's practitioner has changed? I'm evolving but feeling held back by employers who still think of PR as press releases and clip books....
Posted by: Sheri Rice Bentley, APR at June 13, 2009 12:13 AM
Richard, as you know I would agree with your outlook on such matters, but what I notice is that compared to last year, the diagnosis and the Rx are pretty much the same.
These days the ‘implications for PR’ discussion is getting stale, in part I think because a lot of the self-styled social media ‘PR 2.0′ punditocracy who occupy a center stage that owes much to their just having been online using the new technology first…to be much admired from a pioneering perspective) weren’t in a lot of cases really on the PR industry stage before then. They weren’t ‘PR 1.0′ people or even practitioners during earlier analogue days in the early/mid-90s. There are some exceptions, but much of this crowd is so into the technology, they can’t map the latest cool new app to the real consulting world.
Then, on the other hand, a lot of the more experienced true-blue PR pros just don’t have the innate grasp of the technology, which changes in a more nimble way than the manner to which they have become accustomed. Most of these folks know that social networks are important, and may even be skilled rhetoriticians making exciting speeches about the brave new social media world, but they aren’t personally comfortable with the pace or the processes demanded by digital communications.
Because many of the people within these two solitudes often don’t talk to each other or understand what the others are really saying at the ‘unconscious’ level (and the generational divide plays a role here), we’re not hearing a lot of fresh analysis lately - especially of the contrarian variety as there's this tendency for busy people to simply remember and then repeat the latest breathless buzzwords.
As always, the backbone of our industry - the 20something account executives on the front lines of publicity - will take matters into their own hands and shape the future as they can fuse their consulting savvy with social media know-how into a new PR DNA.
Posted by: Bob Pickard at June 13, 2009 10:08 AM
Richard,this is a completely new dimension and new strategy direct approach platform for PR industry itself and clients,excuse me - incoming partners. Now it is our turn and historic role to convince our new partners that the things are going to function in this way. Congratulations and rgds from Croatia.
Posted by: Edvin Jurin at June 14, 2009 2:17 AM
Bob,
I do feel that I have taken steps in this speech beyond last year’s concept,
specifically the focus on search, the use of corporate embassies in social networks, distinction between influencers and amplifiers.
But of course you are correct in pointing to need for education of our PR team; that is why we are concentrating our Edelman University resources on this evolution in FY 10.
Richard
Posted by: Richard Edelman at June 15, 2009 11:38 AM
Richard,
Your speech at the New Media Academic Summit and this posting is a step toward your 2/20/09 goal:” We Will Prove You Wrong”, responsing to Jeff Jarvis’ contention that lawyers and PR people cannot evolve their business models “because they have clients. I am not holding my breath, till lawyers even attempt to modify their business model.
Posted by: Hugh Campbell at June 16, 2009 1:36 PM
Richard, I was at Vision in Vancouver last year and heard you speak about the future of PR in the face of new media. It was inspiring then and your work now is a great reference to take to those whom I work with who are reluctant to adapt to new realities. Thanks for being so open with your resources and diligent in your research and education of the engaged and listening.
Posted by: Regan Hansen at June 17, 2009 12:15 AM