The changing role of public relations is in the news again with an outstanding article in The New York Times Sunday Business Section for Sunday July, 5, 2009.  “Spinning the Web:  P.R. in Silicon Valley,” talks about the impact of social media and social networking in public relations and how these new business practices are actually shaping the success or failure of start up companies in Silicon Valley.  You don’t have to be a start up in Silicon Valley to know that the same truths hold for elsewhere in the world of public relations.  Newspapers and magazines used to be the gatekeepers of publicity for companies, but now social media and social networking is changing all of that.

We created PR-echnology to harness the power of social media for small businesses.  We are steeped in ideas, practices, and experience that leads to the most important thing about the new PR:  community cultivation.  In this blog post, I’ll review The New York Times article and another exemplary article by Brian Solis, the Principal of FutureWorks, an award-winning PR and New Media agency in Silicon Valley.  Solis was interviewed for The New York Times article and he responds to it on his blog by clearly stating what he believes is the essential character of the new PR.

First, some highlights from “Spinning the Web:  P.R. in Silicon Valley”:

This is the new world of promoting start-ups in Silicon Valley, where the lines between journalists and everyone else are blurring and the number of followers a pundit has on Twitter is sometimes viewed as more important than old metrics like the circulation of a newspaper.

In the new world of social media, P.R. people must know hundreds of writers, bloggers and Twitter users instead of having six top reporters on speed dial.

Despite all these new channels, Ms. Burke says it’s still essential to know which mainstream publications to approach.

The Times article excels in bringing attention to three new changes in public relations.  (1)  The people with the most influence are not always who you would expect.  A journalist and a popular blogger may now be on the same footing when it comes to publicity.  (2) Social networking is essential to the new PR.  A web of connections to influential people in diverse areas and niches often serves as a greater advantage than knowing a couple reporters or news agencies.  (3) Power users on social media platforms such as Twitter must be reckoned with and utilized.

It’s important not to get so excited about the new PR that we forget the old one.  Mainstream publications still play a role, but that role is becoming more limited and less of a monopoly.

Brain Solis, who was interviewed for the Times article, revealed on his popular blog, P.R 2.0, that he felt the article missed the point.  He praised the article for featuring PR professionals “who are helping to usher in a new breed of corporate communications,” but underscores that “PR is undergoing a much more significant renaissance that receives almost zero attention in this article.”

Solis has a nuanced understanding of the impact of social media on public relations. He actually looks at PR from the point of view of a technology analyst.  His response to the Times article illustrates this fact.  He believes the new PR aims to equalize the spikes and valleys (of media/consumer attention) which occur as a result of traditional publicity strategies.  The problem with traditional PR, Solis argues, is the focus on news and events.  This leads to a spike in attention, and then a drop off.  Solis sees the role of the new PR, or PR 2.0, as equalizing the distance between the spikes and valleys, while at the same time building “communities of power users who will extend the story across multiple networks”.

It’s the difference between a campaign mindset and one of community cultivation.

The single most distinguishing factor of the new PR is not technology, as one would assume, but people.  Solis writes, “This is about putting the public back in Public Relations, nothing less, nothing more.”  Therefore, community cultivation is seen as the most effective public relations strategy with the best long term results.  By cultivating a community around a product, brand, or website, you avoid the pattern of spike and valley with news and events.  Essentially, the conversation never ends and the public relations strategy is ongoing.

Solis writes:

Every launch or news strategy should be supported by an ongoing program of community building and influencer engagement from the a-list all the way to the Magic Middle (the group of people who reach and impact peers of potential and existing customers and decision makers through blogs, twitter and other social networks).

With this new insight into public relations, we can move forward with PR and marketing strategies that tap into the social web and use it to form long-lasting bonds with consumers.  PR-echnology is at the cusp of these changes, bringing our clients into direct contact with the communities that support them.