Where all this started: Phil began with a brief history of PR in the blogosphere. As tech costs have gone down, there’s been an explosion of creativity, self-expression, and access in organizations.
Phil’s magnetic poetry: the usual suspects can’t handle a failure to communicate (in reference to PR people). He shows a clip from “Crazy People” in which Dudley Moore is an ad exec who tells the truth about products (”Buy Volvos. They’re Boxy but They’re Good.”) Makes the point that this is how people want to be dealt with online.
How do I get started? “Information wants to be free” — and a user-writeable Web is inherently profound. The ah-ha moment occurs when you click “submit” and realize you can publish anything to the Web.
Tendency to think of PR in silos — the media relations part, the digital part, etc. You can tell when the digital is part of the overall program or when it’s just bolted on. Digital smarts can’t be siloed anymore. In addition, digital media is no longer a “tech” thing. Now, you can set up a blog, syndicate it, and measure it to an incredible degree … for free.
Phil then discussed what Edelman’s doing to educate its staff, including a week-long immersion (graded) program and on-demand distance learning.
He also contrasted the assistant account exec job description for PR 1.0 (such as administration, coverage tracking, list-building, activity reporting, AP style) and PR 2.0 (administration, conversation tracking, community and member-list generation; team knowledge management, Web style).
“No plan leaves the company without a digital component.” Woe to he who attempts to do so!
Phil also discussed searching URLs in addition to names. For example, if someone says “This guy is a jerk,” with the link on “this guy” heading to Phil’s blog, it won’t show up in a name search, but it is part of the conversation that other people are reading.
What I look for in people who graduate from undergrad programs: Phil shows an “Ask a Ninja” video, then lists intellectual curiosity, up-managing skills, an examined, omnivorous media-consumption life, basic understanding of social media concepts and technology.
Phil’s dream courses include History of Online Communities, Writing 2.0, Online Law and Public Policy, Comminications Technology and Society, Critical Consumption, and Corporate Online Engagement.
Perceived challenges include: struggle to teach technology at the same time serving as an academic institution rather than a trade school; curricula is difficult to change; finding room.
Advice for someone getting into this: “Do things for the first time, all the time” - Don Nielson, Stanford Research Institute
