PR 2.0 Sharing With Your Competition

I’ll tell you a story about how sharing has changed.  A couple of weeks ago, an experienced professional from another PR company reached out to me.  He asked me to help him with a concern he had with his clients.  This is one of many inquiries I receive.  My response: Let me put some resources together for you that will help you better understand ways to educate your own clients about social media.  It doesn’t matter if you are helping the media, a blogger or even another agency…we are all sharing for the right reasons.

Sharing leads to opportunities.  It’s that principle of “Give to the Universe” and it will give back to you.  When I think back in my career, I know that I’ve shared knowledge and even before social media, I’ve worked with other agencies.  We’ve always played nicely in the sandbox.  Of course, there is a definite line drawn between how you share with your peers and competition and what is kept confidential about your business, proprietary processes, and, the big one, what you would actually say about the work you’re doing for a client (always with their permission).

Social media opens the landscape for more sharing and ways that we can work toward building a better industry.  For example, the more PR/PR 2.0 minds that get together around measurement, ethics and policy making for social media communications, the better we all fare.  And, there will always be times that you will need the expertise of another company or professional to complement what you do.

So, I ask you, “When was the last time you shared resources, knowledge and tools with your peers and competitors, and where do you draw the line?”  Just some food for thought for the start of your week!