The MyRagan site is generating a fantastic amount of discussion in its various groups.
I’d strongly suggest that anyone who has ‘any’ interest in business communication sashay over there and join in.
As an example, here is a question posed by one member, Diana, reproduced without permission:
I’m trying to write something to readers who know online marketing but who are fairly new to the concept of PR. So I need to explain – or find reports/experts/videos/audio etc. to HELP me explain – what online pr and social media ARE, how they work, and what they mean in the near future – in very practical, publicity-generating terms. Any ideas? Who should I be talking to, what sites should I be visiting? I’m a novice to much of this, myself.
I would ask “IS there any difference?”
Whereas offline you have access to various channels for delivery of your message, online you have only one — online itself — the rest are just vehicles that travel up and down the channel.
All that a prospect or a target audience member can ‘see’ or ‘hear’ on the internet must therefore be totally in line with the company, otherwise cognitive dissonance sets in and a vague feeling of “something’s not adding up” starts to creep across the prospect/audience member.
I firmly believe that, online, marketing and pr should be the same thing, run by the same multi-disciplinary group (marcomms, pr, bus comms, employee comms) who bring their various expertises together in order to best position the client in front of their various audiences.
Agree? Disagree?
Head on over to the Social Media Club at the site and see for yourself the replies.
What I find fascinating is that sites like MyRagan are not like sites run by organisations — such as the IABC or PRIA — wherein you have to be a ‘paid up’ and qualified member to join in. MyRagan (wither MyMelcrum???) allows anyone to join in the conversation. Whether that will lead to ratbaggery and anarchy remains to be seen, but so far few squabbles have erupted, notwithstanding Angela Sinickas’ recent reiteration that focusing on the ‘bottom line’ is not a devaluation of the employee, which has certainly generated some much-needed debate about how ‘fuzzy and furry’ business comms should or should not be in the corporate world.
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