I joined in on a webcast last Tuesday presented by the Public Relations Institute of Australia (PRIA). I even managed to find a meeting room at work and drag a few colleagues in to hear Shel Holtz give his global perspective on blogging for business.
F…

My goodness — HASN’T there been a lot of emotion here! I have to say that I *really* do appreciate Andrew weighing into the conversation — I didn’t expect that, thank you Andrew! I take it from your tone that you are a member of the PRIA executive, for which I commend you for your involvement in this conversation.

As for the two anonymous commenters — I appreciate, too, your involvement, but the blogosphere is much more likely to take your comments credibly if you give us your real names (see my post http://leehopkins.net/2005/09/28/we-move-from-evangelism-to-evangelist-educators/)

But I accept that your heart is in the right place and so I welcome you to the conversation and look forward to hearing that you, too, have started your own PR-focused blogs. That will definitely help your credibility, rather than (as it appears at the moment) that you have ‘joined the conversation’ as partisan interests. One cannot help feeling that the ‘PRIA member’ tag of one sort or another means that people were ‘roped into’ offering some sort of opinion without necessarily having the full background information on which to base it.

I would love to hear from Annabelle herself, but understand that her business interests may keep her away from the blogosphere and from entering into this discussion.

Let me reiterate — I am not a PR practitioner, nor never have I strongly proclaimed myself to be one. For some bizarre reason everyone seems to keep lumping me into the ‘PR’ bracket — I consider myself, primarily, someone who is an evangelist for online communication IN WHATEVER FORM, be it internal or external to a company. My biggest ‘communication’ love (apres internet) is for internal communication.

My PASSION is for finding ways for companies and individuals to ‘tell their story’ honestly, openly and frankly, in order that within the new paradigm that the internet operates under they might find new souls equally interested in their passion.

I have no doubt (and those who have *actually* read my blog before and listened to my FIR reports would easily attest to this) that Shel would be the perfect person to interview regarding ‘business blogging’.

What I find egregious is that no ‘local yokel’ was also asked to add their two cents’ worth. PLEASE correct me if I am wrong.

I have been fortunate to be invited to be a guest presenter on a panel with several other PR folk — including Ross Monaghan and Dr Collette Snowden (http://leehopkins.net/2006/08/30/public-impact-seminar-15th-august/) .

What stunned ALL of us is that not ONE PR person was present in the audience — despite Ross having visited several major PR companies here in Adelaide the day before. This was an event that was heralded much in advance, yet no PR person deigned to show up.

It makes me wonder how much the Australian PR industry (which I am not a part of) is keen to bury its collective head in the sand and pretend that newspapers, TV and radio are the only media worth worrying about.

In which case the PRIA has MUCH work to do in Adelaide if it is to bring the SA body into line with 21st century communication practices.

Even an old-salt journalist at the seminar, from Murdoch’s ‘Advertiser’ rag, commented that she uses Google to find her ‘experts’. Ask Shel, Trevor Cook, myself or any of the aforementioned folks in this original post about how blogs are very ‘google’ friendly…

I look forward to hearing what the PRIA is doing in South Australia to bring its membership into the 21st century.

My goodness — HASN’T there been a lot of emotion here! I have to say that I *really* do appreciate Andrew weighing into the conversation — I didn’t expect that, thank you Andrew! I take it from your tone that you are a member of the PRIA executive, for which I commend you for your involvement in this conversation.

As for the two anonymous commenters — I appreciate, too, your involvement, but the blogosphere is much more likely to take your comments credibly if you give us your real names (see my post http://leehopkins.net/2005/09/28/we-move-from-evangelism-to-evangelist-educators/)

But I accept that your heart is in the right place and so I welcome you to the conversation and look forward to hearing that you, too, have started your own PR-focused blogs. That will definitely help your credibility, rather than (as it appears at the moment) that you have ‘joined the conversation’ as partisan interests. One cannot help feeling that the ‘PRIA member’ tag of one sort or another means that people were ‘roped into’ offering some sort of opinion without necessarily having the full background information on which to base it.

I would love to hear from Annabelle herself, but understand that her business interests may keep her away from the blogosphere and from entering into this discussion.

Let me reiterate — I am not a PR practitioner, nor never have I strongly proclaimed myself to be one. For some bizarre reason everyone seems to keep lumping me into the ‘PR’ bracket — I consider myself, primarily, someone who is an evangelist for online communication IN WHATEVER FORM, be it internal or external to a company. My biggest ‘communication’ love (apres internet) is for internal communication.

My PASSION is for finding ways for companies and individuals to ‘tell their story’ honestly, openly and frankly, in order that within the new paradigm that the internet operates under they might find new souls equally interested in their passion.

I have no doubt (and those who have *actually* read my blog before and listened to my FIR reports would easily attest to this) that Shel would be the perfect person to interview regarding ‘business blogging’.

What I find egregious is that no ‘local yokel’ was also asked to add their two cents’ worth. PLEASE correct me if I am wrong.

I have been fortunate to be invited to be a guest presenter on a panel with several other PR folk — including Ross Monaghan and Dr Collette Snowden (http://leehopkins.net/2006/08/30/public-impact-seminar-15th-august/) .

What stunned ALL of us is that not ONE PR person was present in the audience — despite Ross having visited several major PR companies here in Adelaide the day before. This was an event that was heralded much in advance, yet no PR person deigned to show up.

It makes me wonder how much the Australian PR industry (which I am not a part of) is keen to bury its collective head in the sand and pretend that newspapers, TV and radio are the only media worth worrying about.

In which case the PRIA has MUCH work to do in Adelaide if it is to bring the SA body into line with 21st century communication practices.

Even an old-salt journalist at the seminar, from Murdoch’s ‘Advertiser’ rag, commented that she uses Google to find her ‘experts’. Ask Shel, Trevor Cook, myself or any of the aforementioned folks in this original post about how blogs are very ‘google’ friendly…

I look forward to hearing what the PRIA is doing in South Australia to bring its membership into the 21st century.

Thanks to Shel for a great seminar and the PRIA for putting it on.

Thanks to Shel for a great seminar and the PRIA for putting it on.