I am a firm believer in reading and absorbing research and surveys done nationally for how old and new media interact. There are lessons to be learned from this national research on how we should interact in our own communities.
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Just when you think you are getting a good handle on social media and how to apply it to your PIO or PAO protocols some new toy comes along to potentially add to the mix.
If Twitters 140 characters aren’t enough room for all the insightful things you have to say, then maybe you’re ready for Tumblr.
At one time they were called town criers. When I was a kid there was always someone in the neighborhood who took the lead on posting flyers at the library on various events or spreading news by word of mouth. You always went to people like this if you wanted to spread the word “virally,” before that phrase was actually coined. Today obviously “virally” relates to having information spread across the web. Today the phrase for the old town crier is a “social informant.”
A couple of years ago one of the guys at the firehouse was showing me how to use Photoshop. I needed to learn some simple skills – specifically how to erase license plates from MVA photos I wanted to send to the press. As a result of boredom over the lesson the famed “sock on fire” trick photo shot was created.
It’s pretty funny when you look at some of the altered images people create with programs like Photoshop, but it is no laughing matter when the press or a news source uses these tools to create something that isn’t really there.
A PR lesson for all of us PIO’s to learn today comes from none other then General Motors. When we write a release we have to look to all of our collateral (website, brochures etc.) to make sure they are all up to date and in sync with what we have written. This is just one of the problems that is plaguing GM for what I consider to be a gut reaction to a marketing scheme that has not taken into consideration all of the ramifications of what they are looking to accomplish.
The PR team at General Motors is spinning their wheels today in an attempt to clarify an internal memo that said employees should only use the word “Chevrolet” when referring to the brand, not Chevy.
The history of the public relations profession in many ways can be considered kind of bland. Don’t get me wrong; what we do is crucial in the dissemination of information. I can’t imagine a world without public relations, but from an historical perspective things sort of, in my mind, just fed off of itself to evolve. The last several years have show tremendous moves forward in the way we practice our profession, but the good old days really wern’t that old at all!
