Yes, Virginia, There is a "PR 2.0"
For folks who despise the "PR 2.0" phrase, I must highlight a comment that came through on my recent post about "Top 5 Principles of the Social Media News Release."
The comment came courtesy of Philip Wolff, the editor in chief of Skype Journal. It was so thoughtful and compelling that it deserved to be re-published as a full blog post...
If Phil's thoughts don't qualify as deserving of the "PR 2.0" moniker, I give up on trying to convince yaz!
I don't know if you find this a little techie but part of the new media release is sharing structured data. Either as a document or database query, or as a stream of structured data.
Examples:
For structured data in document form, imagine an airline's site generating a spreadsheet or xml file of statistics about each aircraft in its fleet, on demand, with the number of miles flown, number of passenger-miles carried, hours since last oil change, on-time record. All data automatically updated by maintenance and other internal databases. So when you're writing about the interview you had on the plane, or the plane crash, or are analyzing safety data across craft of the same type, you've put the latest and best data at the reporter's fingertips. The same data PR people would ordinarily spend days or weeks coaxing from internal line and IT staff. Instead, the reporter asks your web form for data, and is promptly served with hard, fresh numbers.
For a stream, look at Skype.com with its RSS feed of data points updated every few minutes, showing the latest number of user accounts, cumulative downloads, and online Skype users as of each post. Various folks subscribed to that feed, turned it into web charts, set alerts for when critical milestones were approaching (like the 100 millionth download), and used the latest, publicly available stats in narrative stories ("7,031,314 people were online as Skype announced a new partership with...") without waiting 48 hours for PR people to cycle the questions.
Imagine if Skype had a form which said "email me when the number of simultaneous users crosses this number for the first time: (insert your own number here)" or, "email me with stats as of 7am, Eastern, on Monday."
I don't know if you call this multimedia, but they're really not "media assets" in the "media asset management" sense. They are windows into an enterprise's data pulse. And part of the publicity toolkit.
"Windows into an enterprise's data pulse"?!
How very, very "2.0."
Tags: pr+2.0, public+relations, pr, marketing, social+media, social+media+news+release, hrelease, skype, skype+journal, philip+wolff
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Comments
Reporters love stats, and yes, we in PR have had to beg to get these real-time numbers from various departments. Still, there may be a case for PR 2.0 delivery of information, but that is not why I despise the term. I despise it because it is inaccessible to my clients, so therefore I will not use it. Simple.
Also, I believe that the real value of PR is the relationships that we form with our stakeholders. New delivery methods, two-way technologies and other delivery mechanisms are just that, they lie at the strategic and tactical level, but do not really define what we do.
Posted by: Kami Huyse | September 13, 2006 04:41 PM
PS I hope you stop by our meeting in Second Life tomorrow, at least for a moment.
Posted by: Kami Huyse | September 13, 2006 04:42 PM
One of these days, Kami, I am going to fly to Texas, get you liquored up, and convince you to admit that the practice of PR is changing in a fundamental way. ;)
Of course, it will ALWAYS be about communicating & relationship-building... Just as an "airplane" has always been about ferrying passengers from Point A to Point B.
Would you argue that air-travel never deserved to consider itself in a "2.0" period? --- i.e., from the Wright Brothers to the widespread use of air stewards and in-flight meals to the availability of cheaper tickets for the Everyman... Air travel was still always about moving from Point A to Point B, but the technology, the practice, the practicality, the experience, the dynamics --- they all changed. Just as PR is now changing in equally fundamental ways. Yes? No? Maybe so?
"2.0" is not just about TECH, it's about how we form relationships (SL, anyone?), who we form them with (as much about reaching users directly as via MSM?), why we form them (as much about brand protection as brand promotion?), and how our skills must evolve.
Maybe I am smoking dope. Or maybe I should start!
Posted by: Todd Defren | September 13, 2006 08:37 PM
Hey, Let's stay away from the hard core stuff!
Of course our method of delivery is changing radically every day.
I think it is better looked at as the shift from buses, to trains and boats, to airplanes.
Inside each of these changes you can indeed point to some 2.0 moments; however, it was those that realized they were in the "transportation" business, and adapted to whatever was the best way to transport people, that stayed in business.
Same with PR, as soon as we realize we are in the "communication and relationship-building" business, to use your words, and adopt whatever technology and methods we can to effectively deliver on that, then we will thrive. You can call it 2.0, and I do think there is a fundamental shift in the way we deliver our services, but the basic fact remains that we are still in the same business.
And you are welcome to come see us in San Antonio anytime, though I might beat you to it and come to San Fransisco next April. We will have to coordinate our schedules (and get you over from Boston) so we can coordially debate a few issues in person :-) However, I don't think we are too far off in our assessment, it is just shades of gray.
Posted by: Kami Huyse | September 13, 2006 10:12 PM
Huge move for Social Media PR
Business Wire is now doing Social Media distribution and SEO PR through PRWeb. The press release is available here http://www.prweb.com/releases/business_wire/eon/prweb443627.htm
David
Posted by: David McInnis | September 27, 2006 12:14 PM