I was first asked to put pen to paper (now there’s an old fashioned idea) on the groundbreaking topic of ‘PR and the internet’ sometime in the mid nineties.  I’m glad to confirm that the editor who commissioned the piece was none other than Tony Murray – yes, he of the alternative weekly wrap. 

In the article I confidently predicted that one day people in PR would be e-mailing journalists on a daily basis. 

It didn’t seem such an obvious claim at the time.  Almost no-one had their own e-mail address.  It was usually the job of the office junior to check the company e-mail once a week, if necessary print off a missive and put it on the desk of the lucky recipient who then crafted a reply with quill and parchment.

Things have moved on a little.  Society is changing and this combined with the revolution that is web 2.0 – means that communicators must adapt.  

No longer is it possible to put out a well honed message or creative idea and wait for the consumers to pile in.  There are public discussions taking place on-line in a whole host of different places and there is an opportunity perhaps even an obligation for brands and organisations to take part in those discussions. 

These channels reach wide audiences and on-line communities talk and engage in a new and exciting way.  The whole environment is evolving at break neck speed.  It’s where young people are going and de facto it represents the future. 

Self styled visionary Mark Prensky coined the terms “digital immigrants” and “digital natives” to refer to the old and the young as far back as 2001.  It was later adopted by Rupert Murdoch – showing how mainstream this idea has become. 

As every year passes the digital natives represent a greater part of our audience.

The term PR 2.0 (sometimes called the ‘new PR’) has been current for a couple of years now.  Not everyone likes it, but it’s a good piece of shorthand for explaining how PR works with web 2.0 content. 

A Zucker for 2.0

Some would go further.  Long time blogger and digital PR expert Stuart Bruce has called PR 2.0 “garbage” adding that “what I’m doing is what I’ve always done”.   

I believe he is right up to a point but there are new skills and new languages to learn. 

Wiki’s, blogs, blogger engagement, RSS, podcasts and social bookmarking should be staples for the forward looking PR person.  Words are as important as ever but images and video are increasingly at the PR person’s disposal with the barriers to broadcast being ripped down.  More than ever content is king.  Humour is a powerful currency but so is insight. 

Take a look at the Dove ‘evolution’ clip on Youtube and you will understand why so many people have viewed it – what’s more it’s bang on brand.  Take a look at Gok Wan promoting Arial and Indesit and you will see why old style communication doesn’t work in this environment – actually if you can avoid it don’t look as it will only add to the paltry few hundred viewings that the clip has generated.

I’ll leave the last words to Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg; “for the last 100 years media has been pushed out to people, but now marketers are going to be a part of the conversation.”  In the meantime I’m off to update my status.

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