The
fall of PR and the rise of Community-Centric Communications
By Steven J. Lundin, 01-22-2003
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In his controversial new book “The Fall of Advertising
and the Rise of PR,” marketing legend Al Ries argues that
traditional advertising is taking a back seat to public relations
in terms of effectively delivering customers. As a matter of fact,
Ries’ own assessment is handicapped by an assumption that
public relations remains the most effective form of communicating
third party validation to customers. Traditional public relations
practices are being eclipsed as consumers develop their own news
channels of communication, which don’t rely on the monolithic
media empires that have ruled the information roost for close to
100 years. New technologies have created a category we’re
calling Community Centric Communications, which may render the traditional
practice of public relations as dated as a war correspondent typing
a battlefield report on a portable typewriter.
The intersection of the media
and community
Do the news outlets themselves, the currency with which PR trades,
still hold the power to sway millions? At the turn of the century
daily newspapers influenced our nations. Radio added immediacy to
the equation and television, with its world roaming cameras, brought
Technicolor wars into our living rooms. Communities could be found
in groups connected by meetings and newsletters (a shocking fact
to anyone born after 1985).
It was during the Vietnam War protests of the 1960’s
that the concept of media and community truly intersected. Government
propaganda specialists manipulated information being distributed
to the media, which itself was torn between reporting the truth
and reporting government controlled news. The protest movement grew
out of a reaction to word of mouth reports brought back by soldiers
and actual televised footage of the war. Influencers communicated
anti-war messages during live rallies that were assembled largely
through buzz, college radio stations, leafleting and discrete group
support. The community acted on information from the media, which
in turn influenced large groups of peers. This was a golden period
for public relations, which reached its apex during the 1990’s
tech bubble.
Today’s wired community
The Internet began as a peer-to-peer mechanism and has evolved into
the ultimate Mecca for the online community movement. Despite the
best efforts of traditional print and broadcast media, the sites
of CNN, the New York Times, the Wall Street Journal, and virtually
every other magazine and publication have not dominated the online
world. Just take a look at the ongoing debate over metrics of measurement
and the plummeting cost of online advertising. New influencers---born
on the Internet---are taking advantage of the inherent strengths
of this channel and they have market power. Craig’s List,
the Drudge Report and F**ked Company are just a few of the sites
that illustrate the power of online community interactions.
By now every reporter in the country has “discovered”
weblogs, a phenomenon that has been growing within the community
since the first one launched in 1992. An effective, influential
weblog succeeds where most commercially developed portal sites fail,
they become well-frequented sources of information for a peer-to-peer
community. Notable commercial portals include Yahoo! and Ebay, which
specifically cater to communities and carry content developed by
community members. Just spend a few minutes in a Yahoo! Finance
chat room if you want to get a sense of a modern ticker tape conversation,
and compare this with the news delivered at day’s end by the
mainstream press.
Seminal technology seer Howard Rheingold identified another aspect
of community interaction when he released “Smart Mobs: The
Next Social Revolution” (Perseus, October, 2002). Rheingold
traveled the globe observing “wired” behavior and found
that clusters of strangers acted in concert as they received information
via cell phones, iMode phones, pagers, and WiFi Internet networks.
In essence, on-hand observers of events are reporting it directly
to a peer group, completely circumventing the traditional media,
which may later pick up on the story. If anything, the current T
Mobile camera phone commercials featuring Catherine Zeta-Jones are
capitalizing on and fueling this movement. This is evidence that
the advertising world is aware of what’s happening out there
(of course the use of Catherine also indicates that advertisers
haven't forgotten the old “sex sells” approach). Where
do these new channels of information create opportunities for public
relations?
The waning role of PR firms
Any practitioner who argues that PR is not a relationship business
is either new to the field or hasn’t found the local newshound’s
watering hole. PR firms provide a company with a fast conduit to
news outlets. Traditional PR pros can assess a story, massage it
and work on placing it with the right media outlet for an audience
that is important to the company. The end result is a placement
in a traditional broadcast, print or online publication. If that
placement occurs in the Wall Street Journal, a well-read trade magazine,
or on the nightly news, many potential customers receive the information
at once. The actual impact of the information will occur when the
community starts talking about it.
But what happens when the community doesn’t
get its information from news sources--- which in turn may be receiving
information from these selfsame public relations firms? What happens
is an immediate disconnect between the company and the customer,
who is part of a community. Public relations is taken out of the
equation. In this scenario PR professionals are operating with two
cans connected by a string, while the community is using satellite
phones. The telephone lines haven’t just been broken, they’ve
been permanently mothballed.
Let’s take a look at a local example of a company
that has attempted to control its community perception through traditional
public relations means, and repeatedly failed. Chicago’s own
divine (DVIN) has been the subject of community based chat rooms,
weblogs and online publications that have carried dialogues and
news completely removed from mainstream media outlets. And how has
divine attempted to deal with these conversations? The public relations
efforts have ignored the community, and the company’s slow,
painful fall is a public testament to the ineffectiveness of traditional
media in the face of peer-to-peer communications. Nobody bought
the divine spin! It’s ironic that the company that rode the
wave of the “getting it” mantra, that produces collaborative
business software, that was supposed to represent the “future”
of business has had their PR fire hose pointed at the wrong burning
building.
What does all this mean for the practice of public
relations? It means change or become irrelevant.
Community Centric Communications
Old habits die-hard. Why should any successful public relations
shop change the way it operates? As long as clients continue to
pay for the standard “say it and spray it” form of sending
out press releases and working reporters, there’s no impetus
to change. A few framed national clippings in the company’s
waiting room make everybody happy and the alphabet soup PR firm
can keep that five figure monthly retainer intact. Ignorance is
bliss, and as long as companies rely on PR firms for the proper
guidance the blind will continue to lead the blind. However, in
the valley of the blind the one eyed man is king.
Change will begin to occur when the money starts to follow the trend.
Boutique viral marketing firms that have sprung up around the country,
but no major PR firm has made a name by identifying methods of influencing
community centric communications. And this may be part of the problem.
How does public relations infiltrate a community that is based on
trust and open sharing of information? The very nature of public
relations work involves an agenda driven shaping of opinion, which
constitutes the antithesis of trust. There may actually be no room
for public relations professionals to operate in this community,
unless they recognize it as a viable news outlet, which will in
turn dilute the power of the mainstream media. Egads! Does this
mean that reporters may one day treat PR “flacks” with
respect as they compete with the community for access to company
news? Don’t hold your breath, the world will never change
that much!
The change must begin with a reevaluation of the practice of “controlling”
the news. For public relations to have a role in this new communications
environment, practitioners must become part of the community and
learn how to truthfully engage in the dialogue. This will require
a new skill set, and tomorrow’s practitioners are probably
still in grammar school. This phenomena is still in its nascent
stages and isn’t pervasive enough for the old school PR giants
to take note and make changes. But the day is coming. The first
quarter of the 21st century may literally add new meaning to the
old war cry of “power to the people!" Until then public
relations counselors should spend a little time listening to what
the community is talking about, for these are the sounds of the
future.
----
Steve Lundin is the Managing Director of Big Frontier Communication.
http://www.bigfrontier.org/communicationsgroup/index.asp
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