Comments on: What’s your Game?

By: Benson

Benson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:58:15 +0000

Thanks Nick! That’s a great point! “Strategic communications” is a better way to address what we do in PR. A lot of tactics, such as the town hall meetings or face-to-face discussions (even online “face-to-face” via blogs, Twitter, etc) seem to be placed on the back burner every so often, or minimized into short burst “letter writing” or “phone banking” campaigns. I dunno if you would consider community relations to fall under the agency or client umbrella, though? If I may ask, which do you prefer?

By: Benson

Benson — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 19:51:34 +0000

Hi Kevin, thanks for stopping in! You’ve hit the nail right on the head, many times in fact. We often talk about developing “community” in social media, it might be a better way to convince our bosses and clients to dip that first toe in the lake to address it like that instead of “media relations 2.0.”

One of the questions that’s still rolling around in my head is “how do we convince them to take the time and effort to start and sustain a social media community?” Especially in businesses that live and die by monthly reports or quarterly statements.

By: Nick Vehr

Nick Vehr — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 12:20:58 +0000

Great post. I like to think of it this way. Public relations is a bad name for what we really do – strategic communications. Community relations can be the critical element of an integrated, strategic, online and offline, relationship building program. Of course, the ratio of ears to mouth is just about right for any relationship building or maintenance effort.

By: Kevin Dugan

Kevin Dugan — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 10:36:12 +0000

Perhaps we should be focusing more with clients on how social media is more like community relations vs. how it is different from media relations.

I think that is a key issue in shifting the conversation. Once people realize it’s an ongoing effort — a committment vs. a campaign — I think more time will be spent building the community vs. flying in and posting flyers all over it then leaving.

Regardless of which model you use, I think everyone could use a refresher course in listening.