A Call to Action

The following byline appears in the new issue of PR Week out tomorrow. It is reprinted with permission from the publication. It's largely a rehash of an earlier post and prior calls to action for the PR community to start using social media technologies. Richard Edelman has been blogging on this subject as well. The news today is that the discussion I promised to start is now underway on The New PR Wiki.

So far we have three individuals who work at mid-large size PR firms participating. I would love to see more of us join in the discussion. If you work at a midsize or large PR firm (e.g. 15 or more employees) please email me to get involved. If you're not comfortable making wiki edits, I would be happy to make them for you.

It is my intent to make this process transparent, yet manageable so that those who are participating are actually the ones able to effect change. Once our group has reached a set of best practices and/or recommendations, we will definitely open our ideas up for broader input by the PR community. We are interested, for example, in hearing what ideas boutiques and solo practitioners may have. If you blog, however, I am sure you won't wait for that moment - which I personally welcome.

If you have other suggestions for how we should manage this discussion, I am all ears. The important thing is that we complete it and then take the learnings back and apply them where possible inside our own organizations. Let's go the distance!

PR pros must act on new media lest they get left behind
Steve Rubel

For all of the hype about blogs and citizens' media, the PR community still has a long way to go before we can say that we've learned the bare minimum to stay afloat in these new waters.

The good news is that interest in these subjects has skyrocketed. Attendance at industry events on blogging, podcasting, and RSS has been very strong this fall. The bad news is that we're stuck in the pen-and-paper stage. It's critical that the PR industry - particularly firms - start mobilizing and training its communicators to work hands-on in this new world. It's time for us to go the distance.

While hard data doesn't exist, anecdotally, the number of PR pros subscribing to RSS feeds is probably in the single-digit percentile. And while the number of PR bloggers globally has swelled into the hundreds, we're still a minority. In other words, very few people in our industry have decided to venture into the jungle to learn, the way Jane Goodall did. We're still stuck in our car at Lion Country Safari.

My conviction here is not just a byproduct of my own passion for citizen's media or even of my blog, micropersuasion.com . Rather, it's reinforced by listening to leading thinkers from both the worlds of PR and technology.

Take AlwaysOn's Tony Perkins, journalist and new media pioneer, for example. He recently told me that the PR community has 75% of the skills needed to survive in a world where everyone is considered a “journalist.” He says, and I concur, that we need to start executing on this now. We need to put our knowledge into action by jumping into the pool - what he calls the last 25%.

Tony's opinions are very consistent with what Andrew Bernstein from Cymfony is seeing. Cymfony is capitalizing on the growth of consumer-generated media. Companies are turning to the vendor to help better understand what consumers are saying about their products, companies, brands, and clients. The problem is, many of them don't know what to actually do with this data. Andrew, like Tony, wants to help the PR community go the distance. But, you see, he can't. That's not his job. It's ours.

This is where the PR agencies and internal corporate communications groups must respond - and do so quickly. We need to actively encourage our clients and our teams to put all of this knowledge into action. We don't need more surveys or seminars. That's paralysis by analysis. We need on-the-job blog training - and fast.

We need to show all PR pros how to read RSS feeds. We need to help them get immersed in writing blog posts so they get a feel for what works and what doesn't. We need to show them how to monitor blog search feeds and then, appropriately, respond. We need to go the distance through immersion.

Here are three ideas I put forth on my blog:

Hands-on workshops. PRSA, Ragan, the IABC, and other organizations need to start running hands-on industry workshops - not just panels with bloggers. Rent hotel meeting rooms that have computers and wi-fi, not pens and pads.

Integration. PR agencies are beefing up the ranks in their interactive divisions, but they often remain in a separate fiefdom. We must have every traditional PR pro thinking about how they might use these tools in their current campaigns. Give blogs, RSS, and podcasts just as much thought as press releases and pitch letters. New media is everyone's job.

Encouragement. There's no easier way to get people learning about social media than by getting your own workers to dabble in it. We need to get more agency heads blogging or podcasting, and we must encourage their teams to do the same.

These ideas are just a start. I have publicly called upon the senior leadership of the top US PR firms to participate in a transparent dialogue on “the last 25%” over on The New PR Wiki.

This will hopefully identify some best practices and next steps that we all can implement inside our own firms. This is the only way the industry is going to evolve quickly. We need to think participation and indoctrination, not just education. I invite you to join our conversation.

Steve Rubel is VP at CooperKatz & Company. He runs the firm's Micro Persuasion practice.

Comments

[Jeremy Pepper]

It is too bad that you had to keep out the individuals, the solo practitioners and the boutiques. It seems too much like controlling the message, the one thing blogs are supposed to stop.

Think about it ... the PR people that have grown blogging are overwhelmingly the independents, or boutiques, because they have the freedom to push forward.

With your guidelines, people like me, Tom Murphy, Neville Hobson, Stuart Bruce, David Parmet, Phil Gomes (until recently), Shel Holtz, Constantin Basturea, Elizabeth Albrycht, Jen McClure, Allan Jenkins, Trevor Cook ... well, if I wouldn't mind betting that it's close to 75 percent of the 300+ PR bloggers that are pushing forward that are excluded from this.

Is that right?

[olivier blanchard]

I'm still amazed at how behind PR firms in general tend to be about RSS feeds.

Very cool post.

[Chris Perry]

To Jeremy's point - while I agree that solo practitioners and boutiques are pushing the social media agenda publicly, it would be unwise to underestimate what larger firms are doing to educate their people and clients outside public forums. At Weber Shandwick I've had a blog in place for some time for the sole purpose of better understanding media changes taking place as well as keeping colleagues informed so we can better counsel our clients on traditional and non-traditional media strategies. I'd bet there are many others working in big shops doing the same thing.

[Jeremy Pepper]

Chris, I'm not underestimating what is being done internally, and quietly, at the large agencies.

I'm just questioning the process, and why the cap was agencies with 15 people, instead of 30, 40, 50 ... the individuals have as much involvement and getting clients to change as the large agencies. I didn't mention Shel Israel, BL Ochman, Renee Blodgett, Scott Baradell - just because I was naming names fast, but they are all doing great things as well.

PR is going to change organically, with different agencies and people trying different things. The Wiki is a nice idea, but should be done like a Wiki, not a bulletin board.

Plus, the "we'll let people in later" doesn't hold water.

[Mike Bawden]

Good luck on this, Steve. A number of us will be watching to see what results.

Mike Bawden
Brand Central Station

[B.L. Ochman]

PR agencies have had the opportunity, over the past 10 years, to use the Internet in marketing, to learn to go beyond press releases, to seize websites from the sales department and they haven't done that.

What the world needs now is not a bunch of 15-person-plus PR firms determining best practices about blogging.

While your medium to large-size agency buddies are talking, a very few of us are out here doing cutting edge campaigns.

I've posted about this topic on my blog today. Don't want to take up a ton of space on yours. :>)

[John Furrier]

I just love all the 'real' momentum that is happening here. Great leadership from the folks creating the future. PodTech would love to get involved.

It is the opinion of PodTech that if a company doesn't have a social media presence in the next 2 years will be considered irrelevent by consumers. It's so clear.

Great work Steve!