Public relations, social media and word of mouth
Podcast
Delivering the New PR – follow the debate
Nov 12th
Friday was the fifth and final conference in the Delivering the New PR series. And personally I think it was the best yet. We had some great delegates who were excited about the potential and challenges that social media offers to public relations professionals.
There was some fantastic discussion – both on the floor of the conference and in the bars – about Second Life. Neville Hobson (or JJ) was understandably in the pro-Second Life camp. Lydia Mallison-Jones (co-founder and director of conference sponsors Indigo Red), Philip Young, Tom Murphy and me are all still in the sceptic camp – we can see it’s potential and importance, but it’s not all there yet.
I’m with Lydia and am very sceptical about the transparency element of Second Life. For me personally I think it is potentially very dangerous ethically for PR practitioners because of the lack of transparency. In nearly all forms of social media it is possible to hide your identity and pretend to be someone else. But Second Life is the only one that actually FORCES and ENCOURAGES you to do so. That for me is plain wrong.
I’m far more excited by the idea of Cyworld which provides a virtual environment for YOU to participate in. If you do want to meet up with me in Second Life then my name is Stuart Briers, which is as close to Stuart Bruce as I could find.
For me one of the best things about the conference was meeting Roger Haywood. Roger wrote a book called All About PR (I think) which was the first ever PR book I read and from which I learnt an enormous amount that is still useful to me almost 20 years later. During my presentation Roger very kindly stood up and said that he was learning a lot from me.
Another of the big differences between the first conference last November and this one is the number of delegates who already had blogs and have very quickly blogged about the conference.
And congratulations to Sarah Hayman of Indigo Red who has already been inspired to start blogging at Wedblog.
You can find more comment and reports from the Delivering the New PR conference here:
Delivering the New PR – Ertblog by Rob Skinner
Delivering the New PR – London - Simon Wakeman
Quaking & Second Life – Parle Encore by Lydia Mallison-Jones
Delivering the New PR – Part 1 report - The PR Place by Richard Millington
UPDATE: Signed, Sealed, Delivered – Eventualities by Andrew and Nicky Wake of Don’t Panic
If you weren’t at this conference then you missed a fantastic event and an opportunity to learn lots about PR and social media. But don’t worry there will be a second series of conferences starting early next year, with an entirely new programme of New PR to learn about.
Technorati tags: Delivering the New PR Conference, DTNPR, PR, public relations, social media, business blog, blogging, marketing, business
Experts who aren’t
Nov 7th
Shel Holtz (a guy who really does know about business podcasting) tells of sitting in the audience at a business conference listening to a so called expert demonstrate a total lack of basic podcasting skills let alone expertise in business podcasts.
Sadly this is an all too common experience. I was chatting to a prospect the other day who had been told by a senior director at a big PR company that he should “start a company blog, and don’t worry about negative comments because the software lets you censor them.”
When I countered that it perhaps wasn’t the best approach I was told: “Ah, but he works for _Big_Name_PR_firm_ and is an expert, I heard him speaking at a conference.”
UPDATE: Josh Hallett just reminded me of something I say in most of my conference presentations or when I run social media training workshops.
“Nobody is an expert in social media, they’re just a year ahead of everybody else on the learning curve”
He reminded me that it was Jeremy Pepper who originally said it.
Webcameron isn’t as new as you’re meant to think
Oct 2nd
StatCounter tells me how many readers I have and FeedBurner tells me how many subscribers I have. But’s it nice to know I also have fans! I’ve had emails from readers of both A PR Guru’s Musings and Stuart’s Soapbox asking what I think of Webcameron.
Unlike Antony Mayfield I am a politically aligned (Labour) social media blogger, but I still agree with Mayfield’s analysis. Webcameron is a very good initiative and despite its many flaws still beats Labour’s offerings by a considerable margin.
In their venture into social media both Labour and the Conservatives have got a lot wrong (in my humble opinion). But that doesn’t matter so much as the fact they are trying. It is inevitable they will make mistakes along the way, but better to make them now when social media and the web is still peripheral to mainstream politics than later when it becomes far more crucial.
The key difference between what Labour is doing and what the Conservatives are doing is understanding. You get the impression that the Tories get what social media is really about, while Labour still just sees it as a set of new tools.
Simon Collister has some interesting thoughts about Webcameron on his eDemocracy Update blog. He also questions if “Politics needs a sea-change in attitudes, not a ride aboard the blogging bandwagon.”
“In order to become relevant and attractive to the disillusioned, apathetic electorate, politicians and political parties must become more honest, up-front and ‘personalised’ – that is, not hide behind a facade of lofty political establishments.”
That’s not my experience of traditional politics – from any of the mainstream parties. Politics is already a lot more open and conversational than the mainstream media would have you believe. The big problem is that most people get their perception of politics from the political media who paint the picture they want to, rather than what matters and is relevant to people.
Social media as part of the political process is more about taking traditional political themes, such as localism and community activism, and working with them online.
So yes a big part of politics and social media is to bypass the spin and distortion presented by mainstream media. But it’s not that different to the way many of us already practice politics on a local level.
Conversations down the pub and at the school gates are no different to conversations on blogs and other social media. A newsletter delivered door to door taking about local issues and asking for people’s views is just another way of listening and sparking a conversation. A coffee morning with local residents to talk about what goes into your local manifesto is a conversation.
One of the main benefits of social media is that it is that it is much faster, quicker and cheaper than traditional channels of conversation and participation. It’s big downside is that still doesn’t and can’t reach enough people. That’s why we need both.
So political social media and Webcameron isn’t that new after all.
XP: Stuart’s Soapbox
Technorati tags: Webcameron, David Cameron, Conservative Party, Tory, Tories, Labour Party, politics
