Internet as a Medium /\ Public Relations of tomorrow

J'aime beacoup lire les analyses politiques de chantal hébert et ce, dans les 2 langues.  Son analyse des médias spociaux sur la "campaign trail" est fort pertinente.  Je vous la partage, tirée du Devoir :

Un mot en terminant sur l'impact des médias sociaux, et en particulier de Twitter, sur la campagne électorale. De l'intérieur, ils accélérèrent la cadence des échanges entre les protagonistes et donnent une allure plus dynamique à la campagne. L'envers de la médaille, par contre, c'est le danger d'une campagne à deux vitesses qui verrait la classe politique, la presse parlementaire et l'électorat le plus engagé à l'égard de la politique s'isoler ensemble dans une bulle virtuelle plus ou moins hermétique au rythme et à la réalité du terrain.

Je suis vraiment loin du terrain présentement, étant situé à 6000km et dans une autre zone horaire. J'espère que les partis, les candidats et les organisateurs du vote vont savoir utiliser le numérique pour autre chose qu'une bulle.  Comme par exemple, faire sortir le vote, d'où qu'il vienne, quel que soit son vote.... Surtout s'il est désabusé et peu attentif en général!

J'y reviendrai surement d'ici le 2 mai et les jours qui suivent.   

"THIS IS A POST I SENT TO MY CLASSMATES AT McGILL PRIOR TO A PRESENTATION I MADE IN CLASS"

Social Media is having a great word of mouth (WOM) lately.   From Iran to Haïti, to spreading news about the false death of Jeff Goldblum, every media outlet suddenly decided to put Social Media on their headlines.  A query for "social media" in Google News will prove you how important of a news item it turned out to be.

Internet is indeed an important part of our lives, on both a personal and profesionnal levels.  Just go through the internet in numbers for 2009 to get an idea.  Or see the most recent Nieisen report on Social Media Usage for another proof.  Oh, and it's not only for kids anymore... 

We are at a turning point of the whole PR industry.  When the press release turned 100, it was already deepply affected in its foundations.  The advent of the Social Media Release (SMR) is only one of the ways our way of dealing with the whole media complex will evolve.

I firmly believe we need to consider all types of media.  More and more journalists turn to Social Media as a way to gather information, identify relevant sources, research, etc.  They start to know about these technologies and the new generation of journalists is already on these networks. Building a SMR instead of the old school PDF sent to a list of persons is the best format to "broadcast" messages nowadays because it takes in account every type of media.  

You give the recepients many options as to how they can know about you (videos, pictures, blogs, etc) and how they can reach you.  But more importantly, you give a new crowd a way to know more about you:  your publics!!!  Building 1 SMR can bring you on to the cover of the Globe and Mail but also on the trending topics on Twitter (don't dream too much, even with the new local trends).  But you still need to be newsworthy to get there.  You gatekeepers are just different!

I could write hours on the subject and tell you the long lists of reasons of why you should be on Twitter (I'm assuming most of you are on Facebook already) and how you could use this tool in any communication strategy. Rather, I'll give you my top 5 facts about Social Media and their culture.  And 2 texts suggestions.

1 - While the first incarnation of the web (1.0) was meant for marketers, Social Media (2.0) is about conversations which is the  place PR is at his best.

2.  The first step in Social Media should always be listening: conversations are already happening. 

3. Social Media does not kill traditionnal media.  It changes it but it is supporting it in many ways. Every medium has it's role in the media ecosystem.

4. You better be ready to read.  A lot.  Despite the apparent shortening of ideas that 140 caracters might induce.

5. You better be ready to write.  A lot.

2 suggested readings from Brian Solis:

http://www.briansolis.com/2009/06/state-of-pr-marketing-and/
http://www.briansolis.com/2009/07/pr-does-not-stand-for-press-release-equalizing-spikes-and-valleys/

And another one about Twitter:

http://socialmediaprclass.blogspot.com/2009/10/you-dont-need-to-tweet-to-get-value-out.html

You can also visit my (bilingual) Twitter profile, my LinkedIn profile and my other (french) blogs.  But not my FaceBook profile, though...