Saturday, September 22, 2007

PR 2.0 Essentials Made Easy

This may seem very simple-minded to those that are technologically inclined but this guidebook seriously turned a light on upstairs for me. As we all know the social media world is changing ever so quickly, and it is our job as the communicator to be involved and understand these new medias. Todd S. Defren, a principal at SHIFT Communications said:


"As the consumer-generated media wave continues to crest, it will be incumbent
on the PR industry to stay current, in order to remain a relevant source of
story ideas for the media."

This guidebook was created for the employees at SHIFT Communications. It has all the basics about social media tools, such as podcasts, wikis, blogs, and many more interesting tools. Although SHIFT Communications has geared this guidebook towards the business aspects of these media tools, I related to them for use in personal, everyday blogging. The section on blog commenting can really be used in all aspects of blogging. We all want to have the same blogging etiquette whether we are blogging professionally or personally.

These essential tools for PR 2.0 can be mistaken for the definition or interpretation of PR 2.0 itself. PR 2.0 is not the tools being discussed in the guidebook, its an event or an entire overlooking theme in today's public relations field . Brian Solis of the PR 2.0 blog posted:

The concept of PR 2.0 as I defined it, is the evolution of industry practices
forced by the shift, and the process, of influence in a social economy that has
created a new layer of influencers. I'm not a proponent of labels, but for the
time being, it is different and requires explanation.
With these two points of view, I was able to see that the guidebook was the perfect explanation for the tools of PR 2.0 and not a guidebook for PR 2.0 itself. Now I feel much better about using the tools of PR 2.0. I also have a better understanding of the difference between the tools and the actual concept of PR 2.0.

3 comments:

Lauren Groblewski said...

SHIFT Communications really does a great job staying on top of the changes in social media from a public relations standpoint.

First, they released the SMPR and made a format available to everyone online, and now they have this guidebook for those practitioners who are not as up to date with the tools of Web 2.0 as they could be.

I really applaud their willingness to share ideas and make information easily available, and I think it reflects the movement towards interactivity among those who embrace Web 2.0 and PR 2.0 alike.

Brian Solis said...

Very nice piece and it's refreshing to see that the differences between tools and process are resonating in the industry.

Ultimately I started using the term PR 2.0 to describe a new hybrid breed of PR and web marketers in 1997 or so. The Web and multimedia was redefining PR and marketing communications, while also building the toolkit to reinvent how companies communicate with influencers and directly with people.

It was a chance to not only work with traditional journalists, but also engage directly with a new set of accidental influencers, and, it was also our ability to talk with customers directly (through forums, bbs, etc.)

Eventually new PR (aka PR 2.0) will simply become Public Relations once again.

Keep up the great work! I'm really encouraged to see that the future of PR is bright indeed.

http://www.briansolis.com/2007/02/pr-20-is-not-web-20.html

Unknown said...

Thanks for the kind words! It's an on-going challenge to help educate folks, and it is a lot of work (as Brian can attest!), but, it's always worth it when you see posts like this one.