"My belief is that ... the axis of communication has swung through 90 degrees - it is not what we say about ourselves that matters but how good we are at influencing the conversation that swirls around us, our products and our services."
Source: Philip Young, University of Sunderland
"Online PR is about engaging people in conversations so they become advocates for your organization."
Source: Tom Watson and Paul Noble, Evaluating Public Relations (2nd edition 2007)
"The use of communication technology is ubiquitous in contemporary public relations practice, and often there's no choice but to adopt the newest communication technology."
Source: The Professional Bond - Public Relations Education and Practice, November 2006
"Computing is not about computers any more. It is about living."
Nicholas Negroponte, Being Digital, 1995
- Electronic media is not new: Reuters, 1850s; BBC Radio, 1920s; BBC TV 1930s
- Have you visited the new Experience TV gallery in Bradford?
- Digital media (ie computer-coded data) is new
- All PR is ePR (ie we use telephones, email); what's new is social media
- Core internet technologies date from 1960s (eg hypertext; ARPAnet)
- World Wide Web dates from 1989-1990, invented by Tim Berners-Lee
- Key technologies: HyperText Tranfer Protocol (HTTP), HyperText Markup Language (HTML)
- Key concept: Google PageRank
- Key text: The Cluetrain Manifesto - 'markets are conversations'
- Latest development: the semantic web (Wikipedia entry)
> Social media uses the power of social (and computer) networks
> Social media involves some degree of interactivity (eg user comments)
> Social media is frequently created by amateurs (eg citizen journalism)
But note:
> 'Mainstream media' is borrowing all these techniques - see any news report from the BBC
Mass media | Masses of media | Me media |
Newspapers, broadcast | Digital channels, web | Blogs, personal publishing |
1870s-1980s | 1990s- | 2000s- |
Source: Richard Bailey
1. The age of Surf (eg Yahoo web directory)
2. The age of Search (eg Google)
3. The age of Syndication (eg RSS, Internet Explorer 7)
Source: Scoble and Israel
Web 1.0 | Web 2.0 |
Publishing | Participation |
Stickiness | Syndication |
Brochureware | Blogs |
Content management systems | Wikis |
Britannica Online | Wikipedia |
Directories | Tagging |
Domain name speculation | Search engine optimisation |
Netscape |
Source: O'Reilly What is Web 2.0?
PR 1.0 | PR 2.0 |
Media relations | Stakeholder communications |
Press coverage | Google search ranking |
Awareness | Acceptance |
Tomorrow's headlines | Sustainable success |
Product promotion | Discussion of issues, trends |
Mass targeting | Micro targeting |
Press clippings analysis | Attitudinal research |
Persuasion | Conversation |
Source: Richard Bailey
Article by Marc Prensky (part one; part two)
An 18-year old new student / new elector was born in 1989. They were four when the WWW was new and ten when Google was launched. This is their world.
Digital natives | Digital immigrants |
Grew up with Google | Older than the web |
Multitasking, hypertext | Linear processes |
Parallel | Sequential |
Crave interactivity | Prefer to concentrate |
Learn through computer games | Learn through reading |
Twitch-speed | Discussion of issues, trends |
Graphics before text | Text before graphics |
Source: Marc Prensky
Push | Pull |
Newsletter | Website content |
Website content | RSS syndication |
News release | Word of mouth |
Broadcast | Narrowcast |
Speech | Conversation |
> Open source software is an alternative to private, proprietary code (eg Firefox v Internet Explorer)
> Wikipedia is an 'open source' encyclopedia
> Open source concepts are now being applied to marketing and democracy
> Where is the boundary between work and play (eg Facebook)?
> How can we control what appears in the public domain?
> How can we manage our personal and corporate reputation?
> Mass media is a channel rather than an audience
> But what about blogs - individual or media entity?
Category | Examples | Services |
Social networks | Bebo; MySpace; Facebook; LinkedIn | |
Blogs | Comment is free | Google blog search; Technorati |
Microblogging | ||
Photo & video sharing | FlickR; YouTube | |
Wikis | Wikipedia | |
Podcasts | BBC podcasts | Podcast.net |
Syndication | RSS | Google Reader |
Virtual reality | SecondLife | |
Social bookmarking | del.ic.ious |
> Do you treat social media sites as conventional media?
> Do you use social media for specific campaigns?
> How do you measure results?
> What guidelines do you follow? And who writes them?
Levels of involvement (90% lurkers, 9% contributors, 1% active users - source: Jakob Nielsen)
Legal issues
People and management
List of actions
What's the role of PR in the Web 2.0 world?
- Is the traditional press release dead?
- Are the risks to corporate reputation less or greater today?
- CIPR Social Media Guidelines
Can we control information?
- Could we ever prevent leaks or factory-gate gossip?
- Is the scale of challenge greater given the porosity of online information?
- Is PR about 'command and control' or should it encourage conversations on issues?
What does Web 2.0 mean for newspapers?
- Advertising is migrating to the web (eg Craigslist)
- Google is now a media company, but with no journalists (eg Google News)
- Print is not enough: Guardian now has blogs, audio posts, podcasts, video: in a word mashups
- What does the decline in print journalism mean for PR?
Does blogger relations replace media relations?
- Yes, if blogs have reach and credibility with target audience
- Otherwise, new media complements - but doesn't replace - old media (think radio, TV, internet)
- Blogger relations complements media relations (as does eg analyst relations)
- See Tom Murphy's PR hype cycle
- State of the live web / blogosphere (April 2007)
Should the chief executive blog?
- Rare example of a good CEO blog: Sun's Jonathan Schwartz
- Warning from Seth Godin: Beware the CEO blog
- Advice from Debbie Weil: What should the CEO blog about, and why
- Advice from Antony Mayfield: Should your CEO blog? That depends on them
- Boyd Neil, Hill & Knowlton: Should senior executives blog?
- Why CEOs should learn to love the blog The Guardian, 17 November 2006
Should we prevent employees from blogging and using social media?
- There should be guidelines on blogging where the company is named and blogs are part of its PR strategy:
- Yahoo! employee blog guidelines
- IBM blogging policy and guidelines (pdf file)
- Edelman Managing employee bloggers (pdf file)
Should our blogging be transparent?
- When blogs put brands at risk, Financial Times, 8 November 2006
- Buzz off! this blogger's voice is not for sale Media Guardian, 20 November 2006
- Anti-astroturfing campaign
- Edelman, Wal-Mart flogging campaign
- WOMMA code of ethics
Should we police our Wikipedia entry?
- How clean is an 'open source' encyclopedia?
- Self-penned entry (eg Tim Mackintosh-Smith)
- What about protecting your reputation? Leeds City Council
- Wikipedia's five pillars (including 'neutral point of view')
What tools are needed for PR 2.0?
- All traditional skills (eg research, writing, networking, media relations), plus:
- Social media knowledge (eg Digg; del.icio.us; Flickr)
- New research tools (eg Technorati; Google News; Google blog search)
- New information gathering tools (eg Google reader or Internet Explorer 7)
- Search engine optimisation awareness: Blogging your way to the top of the search engines
- Some social networking experience (if you can't do it for yourself...) Go on, edit this page!
Bailey, R New media sources on PR Books
Pavlik, J (2007) Mapping the Consequences of Technology on Public Relations Institute for Public Relations, USA
Phillips, D ePR lectures
Social Media Resource - by The Friendly Ghost
Social Media white paper pdf format
What is social media? e-book from Spannerworks