The Times It Is a-Changin'

Apologies to Bob Dylan...

I spent a lot of time last week thinking about Word of Mouth Marketing with a team of really talented PR-turned-WOMM (Word of Mouth Marketing) folks from Edelman.  One thing we worked on was how to communicate externally why the nature of PR is necessarily changing. My personal take: There is a gathering backlash against authority in America.  People have begun to question their teachers, their doctors, their parents -- in short, independence is thriving.  (To the dismay of some - like the conservative groups that objected to the SmartGirl slogan, "Smart girls decide for themselves".)

The Internet facilitates this anti-authoritarian streak, because it allows people to get second, third and hundredth opinions with a few clicks.  The Internet enables many-to-many networked communication that challenges the traditional broadcasting model.  There are now millions of choices for information and entertainment sources, and many of those sources are just other people with similar interests.  Edelman's Trust Barometer 2005 shows the average person's faith in "a person like me" jumped dramatically from 2003 to 2005, while their trust in corporations, traditional media and the government declined.

The "Old PR", or working mainly with journalists, though not in mortal danger as some doomsayers insist, must consequently now share some shelf space with Word-of-Mouth Marketing, in which companies actually have a conversation with their customers, and give enthusiastic customers whatever help they need to spread the word.

Here's one of my ideas for an explanatory slide (this one didn't make it into the deck):

The old clip:

The new CLIP: Connect, Learn, Interact, Participate.

Comments

[Sean]

Isabel:

Great to hear you are workin with the Edelman's (I love their blog). Also take a look at Steve Rubell's blog (he is a PR guy who is popular in the blogosphere/conference scene (I saw him at this years Gnomedex) regarding the use of blogs in PR. He has done some dumb things in the past (like asking someone who hated Microsoft to try a smartphone) but his blog is pretty good. http://steverubel.typepad.com/

[Phil Gomes]

Why didn't that make it in? It's in lock-step with the "Golden Rule" I've been evangelizing around here.

[Iz]

Well Phil, we can't win 'em all, can we?