Technology — what is commonly called Web 1.0 (web sites), Web 2.0 (interactive web sites) and Web 3.0 (Second Life and other highly advanced, game-oriented computing and cloud computing) — has transformed (but not killed) public relations. If public relations is concerned with relationships, conversations, negotiation, listening, research, engagement, crisis management, influence and reputation, then we only have to turn to Facebook to note that that site has more than 350 million users, and that Twitter is now valued at $1 billion.
Technology thus has implications for media relations, investor relations, marketing communication — you get the picture.
This chapter covers the impact of technology on public relations. The chapter also turns the light on the emergence of the globalized economy — Toyota makes some of its vehicles in locations around the globe, with local materials and labor; Starbucks baristas serve up latte in Beijing and Berlin. In fact, a Case Study is about Starbucks opening stores all over the globe and seeking to become a global brand — like Coke and Chevy and Madonna and Obama.
If the Internet hasn’t obliterated PR, it has certainly changed PR’s “two-way” communication to a multiple-perspective, 360 degree approach to communication.
Check out Laura Fiton’s Pistachio consulting, C.C. Chapman’s podcasting business, Brian Solis’ PR 2.0 and read Clay Shirkey’s Here Comes Everybody. Visit Guy Kawasaki’s blog. These are among the new rock stars of public relations, as it has converged with marketing, advertising and interpersonal conversation.
For this reason, these brilliant folks — in their 20s and 30s for the most part — have had a huge impact of the very nature and practice of public relations. And while some provocative bloggers have pronounced the death of PR, the reality is probably just the opposite: They’ve expanded and multiplied the power and importance of public relations in the early years of the twenty-first century.
For more about public relations, check out my blog, www.gatheringthelight.wordpress.com
