PR is About Relationships, Just Ask Robert Scoble

Hi Moksh, you can reach me at PR2point0 at gmail dot com or brian at future-works dot com.

While the originating conversation really got me thinking about email more, your excellent post brings another whole dimension. What I find interesting is how each of us find different, but equally valuable, perspectives in a random conversations.

I’m interested in following this line of thought into the Personal Branding area. Tying personal PR with communications preferences.

Great post, and thanks for the link!

Excellent post! I agree that we are approaching a tipping point on the convergence of traditional PR and Social Media, but I often wonder how relevant Twitter, FaceBook, Digg and other Web 2.0 sites are to the majority of traditional print and broadcast media. Are you aware of any surveys conducted among traditional media on their awareness/comprehension of Web 2.0 apps?

Thanks.

Chris, thank you. In the meantime, it’s how to navigate the rough waters that is the transition between old and new.

Rick, absolutely. That’s the beauty of all of this. Interesting thought about personal branding…take a look at my recent Facebook article. I basically positioned it as an online hub for presenting your collective online brand.

Mtrigiania, thank you.

Paul, what Twitter represents is a channel into a new world of influencers that complement the traditional voices out there. Reaching each different group requires different tools, and many will change along the way.

Brian, I agree wholeheartedly with the basic premise of your post and I think that your addressing the ‘transparency’ and ‘appropriate platforms’ issue is necessary to really adding value to the ongoing social media discussion.

In making the argument, however, I think on a couple of points you tend to take it to what I would call its “illogical” conclusions.

First, re “Social Media changes the very foundation which PR is built, forcing communications professionals to step from behind the curtain and engage with the people they’re trying to reach.”

The assumption, I think, is that prior to social media, communications professionales have been reluctant to directly engage and hiding behind email spam. The lazy over-reliace on email is a problem in the industry.

But, let me give you the example of a 25-year PR vet I know who absolutely hates email, constantly scolds his employees about over-reliance on it and is forever telling everyone that PR is all about the relationship, the one-to-one conversation with the journalist/communicator.

He’s not on Facebook, he doesn’t Twitter, he’s not even LinkedIn … he gets on the phone and talks with people, he meets them at trade shows and goes to lunch with them. His entire career in PR has been built around the relationship and he does’t know social media from social schmedia. In fact, this person is a traditional PR guy, whose formative years in the business were actually pre-Internet.

Second, while I get the point about “the conversation” being paramount, when I hear a marketing phrase for “the conversation” such as “In the realm of Social Media, conversations are king” I just cringe. Why? I once heard a similar phrase, “In the realm of the Internet, content is king.” And, convinced by that phrase and many like it, I and many, many others drank the kool-aid. And, had the hangover.

What I learned through that experience was that in the realm of the Internet, the transaction was actually king. In fact, all business activities — including communicating, including PR — revolve around the ability to generate transactions (as per my most recent post).

In the case of Web 1.0, turns out it was actually not technology for technology’s sake, but was meant to be a business proposition, one in which a lot of folks invested a lot of money, and when the level of transactions were insufficient to sustain the business, it all came tumbling down.

Web 2.0 may well be all about the conversation, and I’m all in favor of that — I support free flow of information, I support openness and transparency, I support better PR. But unless somebody figures out how transform all the investment of time, resources and energy spent on Twittering, Facebooking and social networking into real transactions for real business clients, I’m afraid there’ll likely be another hangover after this particular round of kool-aid. Sure hope not!

The trouble with all of this is we are starting to suffer from conversation fragmentation, or possibly over-extension. To follow the Scoble conversation you used to have the blog – now you have the Twitter and the Facebook. Fair enough for Scoble to expect people who want a relationship with him to track it all – but he runs the risk of starting to make it too hard and therefore himself too inaccessible. We do all have other things to do.

Personally I have given up on following the Scoble conversation – I just see where relevant bits of Scoble surface elsewhere (like here for instance).

Michael, it’s always good to hear your thoughts. They push the conversation forward.

Regarding your assesment that some points tend to draw illogical conclusions, I must disagree. The example of a 25 year PR veteran is a significant one. If this was the norm and the standard for which the standard of PR was based, then PR wouldn’t have the pitiful reputation it has today and these new discussions would simply be about new tools and new ways to extend those relationships.

And while we’re on that point, let’s look at your second comment. Regardless of the Web iteration, 1.0 vs. 2.0 or social media or traditional PR, relationships are paramount and relationships thrive on conversations, insight, and value, therefore conversations are indeed the very thread that will fuel the improvement of PR as a whole (in an ideal world any way…)

Your last point represents one of the biggest challenges the industry faces. I don’t think we disagree on the fact that PR’s targets are only growing. Mediamap no longer tracks everyone we need to reach. And unfortunately, some people use email, while other “new influencers” populate the various social networks out there – and it’s only growing. It’s not a matter of how we find the time and energy to participate. I think we’re learning and realizing the value and rewards for participating. The trick is figuring out if there’s money to support this activity and the even bigger challenge is finding the people capable of participating.

Francine, I think it may be easier for a veteran such as yourself to participate, but in all hoensty the majority of PR is going to have a tougher time making the transition.

Richard, it’s the great attention crash! But, the introduction of new tools and the people who adopt them isn’t going away any time soon. I’ll take a look at your other post as well.