The word public in public relations is finally, well…public!
According to David Meerman Scott, author of, The New Rules of Marketing & PR, the thanks go out to the Internet. In his book Scott states, “After years of almost exclusive focus on media […] blogs, online video, news release, and other forms of Web content let organizations communicate directly with buys,” (Page 11).
That my blog reading friends, requires a new rule of public relations. Public relations was once a profession that relied heavily (and almost exclusively) on the media to tell their story.
Hence the old rule: Buyers only heard about your company if the media wrote about it.
Now, we shall introduce the new rule: You can talk to your customers yourself.
Scott claims in his book that “if you do a good job telling your story directly, the media will find out. And then they will write about you!” (Page 10).
Despite the fact public relations pros are all really excited about the new rules, it is important to consider keeping the old rules on radar. I consider today a transition period in which there is a wide range of professionals. Some professionals would still prefer receiving a news release via email while other social media friendly would prefer you pitch a story via Twitter. While some day the public relations profession may completely throw out the old rules, for now, it seems in our best interest to be aware of both sets of rules. The key is to KNOW who you are talking to and their preference and niche.
So for now…go talk to your publics!
By Julie Stutzman, Account Associate
Shank Public Relations Counselors 