PR 2.0 with Brian Solis

June 18, 2008 :: Steve Fisher

About two weeks ago, Shashi had the opportunity to attend a signing for the book “Now is Gone”, written by Brian Solis and Geoff Livingston.

Brian Solis is Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley. Solis blogs at PR2.0, bub.blicio.us, and regularly contributes PR & tech insight to industry publications. Solis is among the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media. He’s a co-founder of the Social Media Club, is an original member of the Media 2.0 Workgroup, and also contributes to the Social Media Collective.

During the book signing, he and Geoff had a discussion about the transition that Public Relations is going through called “PR 2.0″.

To get some perspective, Brian defines “PR 1.0” as “all about broadcasting and pitching”. He goes on to explain “PR 2.0” that “it is about telling a story and creating relationships that gets people involved and caring about what is happening. The goal is to create a relationship that turns into a buyer but also a loyal long-term customer.”

Here are some key highlights from the interview:

The PR Industry is ready to go through a shake-up

According to Brian, “over the years, the PR 1.0 publicity machine lost its way and its spark. We got caught up in hype, spin, buzzwords, and spam, and forgot that PR was supposed to be about Public Relations. But, its still how many companies continue to approach PR today.”

He goes on to say “for many years the focus has been on farming press releases and seeing how much you could get out there to get a quick hit and hopefully an article mention. PR people are trying to force the old model on to the new one and it doesn’t work. Many companies in the next few years won’t make it and there is a shake up of how PR gets done coming over the next 12-18 months.”

Don’t confuse Social Media with Online Marketing

Enter Social Media and the democratization of the Web and content. Now media and content producers are pushing back, demanding a more targeted and relevant form of outreach. Brian has a unique take on social media and online marketing. He likes to say “for those who confuse Social Media with online marketing, Social Media is anything that uses the Internet to facilitate conversations between people – it is not the practice of social marketing. I say people, because it humanizes the process of communications when you think about conversations instead of companies marketing at audiences.”

Bloggers can be your ally

In the past, many PR people thought of bloggers as noisy annoyance that got in the way of real news reporting. This is changing dramatically with the inclusion of blogger relations into a PR strategy. Bloggers can be your ally but you must work to have a dialog with them. It has become the first step to understand what a community is saying about your company and possibly what you may need to do to prevent further problems or grow what is working with the public.

Learn more about PR 2.0

For more information about PR 2.0, check out Brian’s Blog, PR2.0. Also, for more information about how to engage with Brian to help your firm, check out his firm, FutureWorks, web site.

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