New Media and PR Campaigns – Part II

soft rain drops on the water surface
Originally uploaded by pyrrho.

Shel over at Naked Conversations took exception to my post calling a blog a “tactic.”

I knew that using the word “tactic” would be a bit explosive, but I think our disagreement is more over semantics than substance. Perhaps I should have called it a “channel of communication.”

I agree with Shel that those who successfully navigate new media as a channel of communication must learn how to have an authentic two-way conversation. I touched on this in my post about the authentic voice.

I also agree with Shel that a blog is an awesome two-way power tool that far exceeds the power of a press release. I wouldn’t be in this space if I didn’t believe it. However, blogging is not the end-all solution to all ills. Furthermore, when (not if) something better comes out to reach and interact with customers or stakeholders in the future, I will be the first to use it in my PR practice.

Does this “power tool” change the way things are done? It already has, but it should not change the basic framework of research, planning, conducting a campaign and measuring results. Communicators will have to act in quicker cycles, but in order to be effective and beneficial to our constituents; all of the steps need to be there.

Maybe it is helpful to think of the campaign as a pond. In the pond is the universe of stakeholders with whom we want to reach out and form relationships, inspire brand loyalty and make partners in our endeavor.

In traditional campaigns there are only a few strategies to deal with. Mike Manuel at Media Guerilla had a good description of this in his post on the subject.

But social media is like rain on a pond. There are many “messages” that must somehow meet as they spread out across the surface of the water. Because of this, it is more important that ever to have a framework into which you can put all of these data points and make sense of them.

I suggest that the four-step cycle helps get the lay of the land, plan a strategy, communicate effectively and measure the results of the communication. This cycle is timeless.