A few weeks ago on #journchat, we were asked for the definition of PR 2.0. I offered up “connecting your story to your community using today’s social media tools and technology.” Of course, I knew that I would get dissension on that because I was “forgetting” the professional media.
I didn’t forget the media — I just think that many people, especially those outside of PR (and sometimes those inside), forget that public relations has many parts and media relations is just part of the whole. A PR person can work in media relations or investor relations or analyst relations or community relations or customer relations (although this more often is the purview of customer service folks, there is a PR aspect of it), employee relations and a host of other areas. PR people also work in corporate strategy, marketing communications, or research, among others. You even get PR people specializing in blogger relations or social media, or dare I say it, PR 2.0.
It’s almost too bad that community relations is “taken” by the folks who focus on things like civic responsibility and socially conscious programs with a “good citizen” slant — I think it would be a great title for PR people who use social networking tools to interact with their communities online.
How do you define PR 2.0?
Hi Bobbie,
Great post and good idea asking this question. I think your definition is a good one. As I’ve been talking about it, PR 2.0 represents an evolution of strategic communications. PR 1.0 was channel-dependent (relying on target publications to tell your story or publish your ad), static (what was published allow for no reader interaction), siloed (no ability for people to share information), and top-down (everyone had a message platform and focused on getting those out, ie. dictating its story to the market).
PR 2.0 is fundamentally different. Social media and tools are enablers, but now individuals and companies can be – or are – self-publishers. Content that is published by professional media, individuals and companies is interactive. Buyers of products/services are influencing each other through numerous kinds of social networks. And the control that companies tried to have over their messages getting out is being replaced by the need to listen to how the market is talking about them and the problems they are trying to solve, and engaging with them appropriately.
It is true that professional media plays a role, but it’s way more than that now.