New media in Public Relations- Is the "new" always good?

   “Social Media is about sociology and psychology more than technology.”  

                                                                     Brian Solis

 Revolution. Two-way communication.Social Media. Community.Influence. These are words that you always find in the same sentence when you read about new media and their impact on Public Relations. Everybody knows that PR practitioners use social media and more general the internet to approach audiences and to communicate with the public. I’m not going to start on how social media have transformed the industry or what are their benefits or drawbacks. If you want to know, you can check my previous posts, or the thousands of blog posts, articles and conversations that are being made daily about it. What I was wondering and I felt like sharing with you is the differences between traditional and new media. Since the “birth” of Public Relations the practitioners were absolutely dependent on journalists that were working in newspapers or in general the press, and the relationship between them was sacred. Nowadays, everything’s different apparently. Reading over some books, and browsing some blogs I realized that many people in the industry think that the relationships with traditional media that were really important are not needed anymore. Blogs, social media and social networking can do all the work for you.  But why?

First of all, both kind of media provide the public with news. Their aim is to inform and to influence with their content. But what is that special “thing” that new media offer? Does the term “two-way communication” ring any bells? For the first time whoever posts something on web can have instant feedback on whatever is being said. Comments and observations can be done if something is mistaken or if something is widely appreciated from the public. On the other hands, what are the chances to do that when you’re reading an article in the newspaper that you bought? What? Did I just say bought? The majority of new media offer unlimited information for free. And that is something that we all like. More generally we could say that new media is a huge information “playground” for everyone that wants to inform, get informed, reach audiences, interact and share content. And that is why Public Relations love new media. Practitioners have the chance to control the message without journalists and to reach targeted audiences with limited cost. Sounds like a communications paradise? That is what I thought until I saw a survey that said that 40% of consumers don’t trust online news, until they see it in traditional media. And that was a wakeup call. Because in the “magical” world of social media there are some dangers.  The content of the message sometimes can be inaccurate or can be lost among the thousands of messages. Anyone can write whatever they want and sometimes that leads to lack of trust. PR practitioners know the importance of new media and how to use them towards their benefit. But the question is: Are we ready to leave the true traditional relationships that have worked for years, and to move on solely in the digital era? I know, that is a tough one. What do you think?

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The principles and use of Social Marketing

It’s easy to make a buck. It’s a lot tougher to make a difference. 

                                                                      Tom Brokaw

I recently came across the term social marketing and since I had no idea what it was I decided to research a little bit about it and I found really interesting things. So let me share them with you. Social marketing was “born” when people realized that the marketing principles that are applied in order to sell products, can also be applied for selling ideas and attitudes. Social marketing has as a goal to change social behaviors and not to benefit the sales of a product or a service. If you still find  hard to understand what social marketing is, let me make it simpler for you. For example, if you want to convince people to wear their seat belts or in more complex occasions to make more people become organ donors, then social marketing is your ultimate tool.

A very important aspect of social marketing is of course the audience. It is very important to know what it wants and needs. In contrast with traditional marketing, the product is not consumer goods but  ranges from services and practices to even more abstract ideas like the protection of the environment. As you can understand research is vital. Sometimes people find hard to understand that they have a problem. Social marketing practitioners should make people understand this problem and encourage them to take action. Sounds tricky right?

To make it more clear I found the case of condom social marketing which was emerged in the 80’s in order to combat the spread of HIV/AIDS in many countries. The program focused on raising awareness of the risks of infection and how to prevent it as well as focusing in high-risk groups. What this means is that condoms became easily accessible and “destigmatized”.

Social marketing programs can motivate people change behavior but as you probably understand that is not enough. Sometimes there is an immediate need for change of policy or even laws. The procedure of accomplishing  such goals is complicated and time-consuming  and of course  funds are needed  from  foundations, government grants or donations. Social marketing needs a key strategy that focuses on the audience and plans according to the needs of it. Despite being a very difficult task, the benefits of it have a huge impact in the well-being of society and the way we understand the world.

"Spin"- Lack of trust in politics and the role of the PR industry

                        "I was really too honest a man to be a politician and live"
                                                                                       Socrates

I recently attended a rather interesting debate hosted by the University of Westminster, concerning PR and spin and if they have undermined trust in politics. This was the motion and everybody in the audience had to vote for or against.  Many things have been said throughout the years about spin and the manipulative techniques that politicians and their PR team use in order to persuade the public.  Somebody will say: Isn’t this what PR is all about?  Well, I’m not quite sure. It is hard for me to believe that politicians were the innocent human beings that seek the good of their people and one day PR people approached them, and told them: “Now we are going to make people not to trust you”.

During the debate, very interesting points were made by the speakers, Kevin Maguire, associate editor at the Daily mirror, and Shelia Gunn, former political journalist that was also John Major’s spokesperson, that were arguing for the motion and Lance Price, former deputy communications director in Downing Street, and Francis Ingham, chief executive of the PRCA that were on the opposing side. Do you want  to know who “won”? Of course the majority voted against the motion. The crowd was mostly consisted of PR professionals or students so the outcome was foreseen. I read a comment in PR WEEK's coverage of the debate : “Turkeys voting for Christmas or what?!” That made me laugh because that was exactly what it happened. So we know what the industry thinks about spin, but what do people out there think about PR in politics? Was it PR that made politics shameful? Let’s take a look.

I bet that if you ask anyone in Britain about spin ,  the first thing that will come on the mind will be one name: Alastair Campbell. Campbell,  was the director of Communications and Strategy for Prime Minister Tony Blair between 1997 and 2003 and one of the most famous spin doctors in the history. What made him so special? According to people from the PR industry, he is the one to blame for the loss of trust towards politicians as he was involved in the famous story of distortion of "The September Dossier"  and  played huge role in the Iraq war. If someone’s wants to be the devil’s advocate we could say that he was just doing what he was hired to do. But what implications such acts have in the PR industry? Does such people make the rest of the professionals  look like a bunch of unethical and immoral creatures? And since we live in the era of the total depreciation of politics  are the PR professionals, like Alistair Campbell the ones to blame?

I will borrow a quote from Kevin Maguire : “The spin doctors are taking over. We don’t have a prime minister. We have a prime spinner”.  I have to admit that the comment is quite accurate but should we be so dogmatic? I personally come from a country (Greece) that political scandals are an everyday reality, we hear about politicians embezzling huge amounts of public money , scandals are coming to light daily. I don’t think that these politicians need help to blot their images. Lack of trust in politics hasn’t come up from the persuasive tactics of the PR professionals, it has come in the picture because of the undignified and bumptious behavior  of the politicians that fail to be a good account to themselves.  What do you think?

                       Here is an interesting video I found about political spin! Take a look!

Webcast: Social Media in Public Relations

This is my webcast for my MA in PR. Take a look and you'll find some interesting information on social media and how it can be implemented in a communications strategy.