PRSA International Conference
PR Pros Embrace Social Media
When Mary Henige, Director, Executive & Strategic Communications at General Motors spoke at the PRSA Detroit Conference, she stated to fellow PRSA members, “Most people when they heard the PRSA Conference was in Detroit said…Ewww Detroit,” I have to admit that I was among the people who shared that sentiment. However, I was pleasantly surprised at my arrival that the accommodations, the City’s sites and by the pride of the Detroit people that my perception had changed. Of course, as long as I didn’t watch the news, Detroit’s ranking got higher in my book.
The PRSA event focused on strategic public relations practices and the (r)evolution of socialized media. From the exhibit booths to the speaker presentations, there was a tremendous fascination, excitement, and, in some cases, concern as to a best practices approach for use of these social media tools. I was in the Marketwire booth (for the second time this year) signing my PR 2.0 book. What a fun and easy way to spend a few days. I spoke to so many different Communications professionals about the changes in the public relations landscape and the challenges facing their brands in today’s markets. I especially enjoyed seeing all of the young aspiring PR professionals who look like they are ready to tackle the world!
Most of the discussions I had surfaced around PR 2.0. Being in the Marketwire booth was a natural fit for this discussion. Marketwire is a very forward-thinking and progressive wire service. As a matter of fact, one of their new offerings is PR 2.0, which incorporates social media elements to optimize your communication (through blogging, viral marketing and social networking). Marketwire has a social media release that allows your news release to “Go Viral” in the blogosphere with tools including Digg, Del.icio.us, and Technorati, to name a few.
I think that in general, PR service providers have to take the pulse of the market and I was impressed by many of the services that I saw being offered in the PRSA Exhibit Hall. In addition to Marketwire’s innovative approach, I also found the following companies of interest:
- Burrelles/Luce: I’m happy to share that the company is upping their game and updating their approach to monitoring with iMonitor, a new monitoring service that lets a brand access all information from a single portal. iMonitor provides users with the ability to organize, share and tag coverage and use unique tools to analyze various metrics.
- Radian6: I had a demo with Radian6 and I think they have a great dashboard monitoring service. Radian6 has a social media monitoring solution that allows you to identify your key words, discover the abundance of communication on your brand and then analyze and engage with customers.
- dna13: Although much larger than the needs of my small agency, I can see why Edelman has adopted the dna13 platform. Dna13 allows you to manage media monitoring, directories, analytics and reporting.
- Influencing.com: With a similar and proven format in Australia (for the past eight years), this company states that its social wire tool reinvents the wire. It uses a Twitter-like format and offers two-way interactive communication between Influencers and businesses. The basic service is free and it looked interesting enough to warrant a test drive for potential future use.
Overall, the PRSA Conference was an event jam packed with more knowledge than anyone could possible absorb in a few days. I heard grumblings here and there about the ways that the conference could be improved (for example “Blogspot” didn’t have enough computers), but other than that most attendees walked away with more knowledge, new contacts, better strategies and hopefully the opportunity to improve their PR practices.
October 30, 2008 @ 4:46 pm
Hey there Deirdre, really glad you were able to meet the gang at the Radian6 booth. Darn, I was hoping to meet you in person finally at a show and I missed out on the opportunity. Perhaps at another show then,
Cheers. David
October 30, 2008 @ 6:28 pm
Hey David – I’m so sorry that I missed you at the show. I would defininetly would like to meet you in person. You guys are doing great things…keep up the good work!
dna13 (dna13)
October 30, 2008 @ 6:52 pm
@dbreakenridge dna13 appreciate the mention Deidre! Too bad we didn’t get to meet in person. Next time? http://tinyurl.com/572gq5
October 31, 2008 @ 2:59 am
Deirdre, thanks for the report on the PRSA International Conference. I have two major kvetches with the event. First, the lack of wifi in the meeting rooms is pretty indefensible. It completely disregards the professional responsibilities of the participants and ignores the essence of the content — the idea that connectivity and interactivity have been integrated into every aspect of a communicator’s life. And second, it was really annoying that in each of the social media sessions started with a lengthy explanation of what social media is and why we should care. Umm, we’re years into this — we don’t NEED that precursor anymore…let alone need it over and over again in each and every SM session I attended. I urge those who respond to the PRSA survey on the conference to urge them to designate levels for future sessions, so those going to an advanced session (201 or 301) can be assumed to have a base understanding of the subject matter, while offering 101 level sessions for those who do not.
October 31, 2008 @ 1:48 pm
Hi, thanks for commenting. I agree, there should have been the connectivity and interconnectivity that enables us to be a part of the new PR landscape that we all talk about. With respect to the sessions, I would say that half of the one’s I attended started with what’s social media and why is it important. I’m wondering if the presenter’s need to up their game or is it because professionals are still asking basic questions in some cases? I’m finding that PR practitioners adapt to technology at all different rates and the industries they live in affect how quickly they engage (both for themselves and their brands). I sat in the marketwire booth and met some incredible advanced PR folks who probably felt the same way, but there were others who may have been happy that those questions were answerer. You make a great point that PRSA needs to organize the sessions better with beginner, intermediate and advanced and then find the appropriate speakers. When you bring 3,000 people together, you will find their knowledge and use of social media run the gamut. However, I still think that there were speakers who imparted good knowledge that was beyond the basics. It would be great to let PRSA know how we feel to make the conference even better next year. I’ll do my part!
October 31, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
Hi Deidre,
Great to meet you and find out that you have another book on the way! Also glad that you liked the new BurrellesLuce offeirng, iMonitor. Looking forward to catching up with you again in person soon.
October 31, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
Hi Deidre,
Great to meet you and find out that you have another book on the way! Also glad that you liked the new BurrellesLuce offering, iMonitor. Looking forward to catching up with you again soon.
October 31, 2008 @ 4:24 pm
Hi Gail, thanks, it was great meeting you too. I hope we get another chance to meet and talk more. It’s good to see the new and innovative ways Burrelles/Luce is helping companies monitor coverage.
November 5, 2008 @ 4:38 pm
We appreciate the call out Deirdre. Sorry we didn’t get to cross paths at PRSA (the pink wig was covering my eyes).. Interesting comment about (everyone) getting excited about social media and the whole PR revolution. It is extremely exciting for us, as we are on a continual learning path. It seems like new technologies are developed daily. Plus the requirements from our Fortune 100 customers keep changing too, as they embrace PR 2.0. I think we’re going to have to start looking at a Digital Media Best Practices Guide for Global Companies!
There is so much technology and so many great ideas out there to take advantage of, that it is often difficult for PR professionals to wrap their head around. Kudos to those that are on the leading edge. PRSA was a good place for that.
Thanks again,
Alecia
dna13
http://www.dna13.com