More on the StoweMeme, Longtail PR, and Other PR Blog Jots
Blogs Not Widespread Enough to Replace the SMPR
Phil’s Blogservations
Edelman’s Phil Gomes joins the fray responding to Stowe Boyd's calls to replace the social media press release (SMPR) with company blogs. Gomes argues that not enough companies have come around to embracing the blog as a valid form of communication. He calls the SMPR one of the many “transitional” tools that PR execs are using to guide their clients into the social media world, and notes that dismissing even traditional news releases is not the best way to encourage change in the industry. “As I've said before, the news release is a communications metaphor that nearly every communicator understands. Efforts to improve and modernize the news release — even *gasp* imbue it with social-media-friendly elements — is a step that slow-to-move companies could be willing to accept. It's certainly more commensurate with established practice than a blog would be. Further, the two aren't mutually exclusive.”
Broadcasters Slow to Adopt RSS
Micro Persuasion
Steve Rubel speculates today that broadcast journalists are not using RSS or newsreaders to stay on top of stories, but rather scanning major newspapers to decide what topics to cover in televised news. He argues the situation is probably quite different for print journalists, however. “I suspect that for online, print and newspaper journalists, the situation is completely the opposite. There's much more pressure on them to avoid getting scooped. So with that they're going to make sure the scan blogs and RSS goes a long way to helping them.”
PR's Ethical Questions Explored
The Flack
Peter Himler links to a review on Slate of the new book Unspeak, which examines how public relations and spin use words and messages to confuse people into going along with a particular idea or campaign. Himler uses the opportunity to argue that PR should not be about deception, and that practitioners should try to increase their standards, just as journalists should try to hold those spinning the truth accountable for their manipulations. “From the perspective of PR practitioners, e.g., those typically accused of creating unspeak, PRSA or some other industry organization should also lay down the gauntlet...to distance the industry from the Beltway spinmeisters who have increasingly tainted the profession. Honest advocacy does not have to be an oxymoron.”
PR 2.0
Brian Solis links to an explanation of "Long Tail PR", conducted without dealing with the mainstream media and only through social networks, blogs, news aggregator websites and other tools of “new PR.” Solis points out that by spreading the right message through the right channels, it is certainly possible to run a public relations campaign entirely free of the mainstream press, but that one should take the audience of their message into consideration beforehand. “By sparking conversations using a well constructed, on target SMR, blogs, video, etc., will hopefully entice the first rank of bloggers to help carry the message, which will in turn ignite conversations in the long tail. But, we all need to keep in mind that one umbrella message doesn’t work across the spectrum. The longtail is comprised of groups which require individual attention to specifically address the unique needs of different people.”
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