ANAHEIM Calif. - PR is about to get a new shot at glory. Gone are the days of explaining its function to management or having the uninformed confuse it for advertising. The Internet, with its focus on content, is PR's medium and is expected to do for promotions what television did for advertising.
Hopefully.
But, if what was said at last week's PRSA's International Conference has any effect on the future, the Internet will change the way promotions are done forever. The conference, titled Surfing The Information Tidal Wave, centered on PR's obvious need to master the World Wide Web.
PRSA Chair Phillip Wescott illustrated this need by welcoming the 1,700 PRSA members and 750 PRSSA students to the general conference while clad in full beach gear - surfboard included. The conference's intent, he said, was to give all a "deeper understanding of IT" and become "equipped to apply that insight."
In Monday's session, "How to Manage Online Content and Community," group leader, Michael Bayer, president of Mike Bayer Public Relations, with panelists Mitchell Friedman of Mitchell Friedman Communications and Mary L. Wehmeier from Incue Online, spoke on the evils of having Web-challenged clients. "The Internet has completely changed the playing field," said Wehmeier, "and the global conversation has begun. If you and your clients aren't having serious conversations on the Internet with your customers and the media - you are missing the boat."
By missing the boat, Wehmeier meant using the Web to create a dialogue between your client and the outside world. Companies that don't communicate with their customers are pulling themselves out of competition. To avoid this problem, she suggested building an online community, then getting out of the way to let the conversations flow naturally. Says Wehmeier, successful online communities:
- House a common interest where users return repeatedly go to openly discuss the topic.
- Have a specific personality that is influenced by its users.
- Have rules of conduct and are stated up front.
- Are trustworthy. Users can depend on their conversations being private.
- Are in a state of fluid motion. They are always changing.
The bottom line is that the site must be interesting. That means having compelling content - a good Web site is worth returning to. To learn how to create worthy content, Bayer suggested researching porn sites. Though this counsel did turn a few complexions a crimson hue, his words did have merit. On the whole, such sites do make money and are good models to learn from, because content is what makes the Web go 'round.
Another session on Web content dealt with making it interactive, i.e. a Webcast. Michael Hill, president of News Broadcast Network, outlined how the Internet differed from other media by meshing them together.
The Web takes the words from print, the sounds from radio, and the visuals from television. Executing an interactive event takes the resources from the other mediums as well.
It needs writers, editors, audio producers, voice-over artists, camera crews, video editors and producers.
But there is a downside to Webcasts. They crash. Companies need the bandwidth that can handle all the streaming while other workers are online. Also, IT needs a heads up before the event so firewalls can be deconstructed.
Hill also said that Webcasts alone can be boring. Looking at the video of a CEO announcing this year's financials can become a bit ho-hum.
To lighten the mood, he suggested giving the cast an interactive bent by allowing the user to pick and choose what they want to hear.
Advertising's Undoing
"TV worked by taking your attention hostage. That won't work online," said Gary Hamel, co-author of Competing for the Future and Sunday's general session guest speaker. He raised the idea of the Internet doing for PR what television did for advertising.
Take the plight of the couch potato. For years he sat wide-eyed with mouth agape as televised images danced before him. Then, with little or no warning, the picture would change and the potato was suddenly forced to endure commercial breaks that were pushed upon him without his consent.
The Web, on the other hand, pulls the potato in. If he doesn't like what he sees, he clicks to another site that interests him. This forces online promotions to be more engaging than the fatigued buy-one-get-one-free scenario.
Hamel also raised the issue of how surfers can filter out advertising on the Internet by downloading easy-to-get software, but keep PR-generated content streaming through. This alone could kill online ads.
It's no secret the Web is drawing users in by giving them what they want. And anything smelling like self-interest gets cast into the nether reaches.
(Michael Hill, 212/684-8910, [email protected]; Mary Wehmeier, 909/860-2494, mwehmeier@ compuserve.com; Phillip Wescott, 610/388-2560, [email protected].)