Five years ago on July 12 to 16, 2004, 37 passionate bloggers gathered in a virtual convention on the first ever Global PR Blog Week.
Bastien Beauchamp recounts the ideas and discussions of that convention and gives us a good comparative overview of the context wherein the PR industry operated in relation to social media five years ago and now.
The most striking points for me are the changes that ilustrate how social media has impacted PR and became more entrenched in its dynamics — and vice versa. Whereas before, PR created the message, now their role is more about presenting the message (that can be redefined or mediated by social media conversations) and leveraging relationships. Social networks and microblogging have produced a so-called 3rd news cycle that can commence before traditional media and blogs, thus adding to the multi-directional flow of news. Likewise, pollination and aggregation of content is now evident with the way conversations have spread outwardly from sites and blogs pushing them out of the centre spot; and the development of features that can aggreggate all these conversations back into the sites or blogs.
What remained the same, or did not significantly change, is also important. Transparency and authencity are apparently still in demand compared to five years ago. The same counts for the need for measurement of the effectiveness of PR activities.
Anything you’d like to add to the overview? I’m not so sure of the last point though. It’s most likely that the number of women bloggers have increased compared to 5 years ago, but I wonder if there are really any studies made on this. I’d really like to see the gender division for blogging as a whole and for specific industries, businesses or categories.
Thank you for reviewing my post. Transparency and authenticity are clearly the challenge. Craig from Craig’s List mentioned recently that Traditional Media are entering a “Trust Crisis”.
Regarding the methodology to create the chart above (THEN, TODAY). I only took what people were writing about during the 2004 Global PR Blog Week 1.0 and I compared it with my believes of today. Nothing scientific.
Cheers,
Bastien
Hi Bastien,
Indeed, overcoming this crisis of trust is very challenging — even for social media and especially for businesses who are adding their voices to the conversations in the social webisphere. I guess that’s one big challenge for PR professionals – to maintain the authencity of the message. I’m interested in general to the gender factor in blogging and social media overall. But the fact that you and your peers notice that more women are paritcipating in your sector is enough for me to stop and listen and mull on it.
Cheers, Timi
Thank you for reviewing my post. Transparency and authenticity are clearly the challenge. Craig from Craig’s List mentioned recently that Traditional Media are entering a “Trust Crisis”.
Regarding the methodology to create the chart above (THEN, TODAY). I only took what people were writing about during the 2004 Global PR Blog Week 1.0 and I compared it with my believes of today. Nothing scientific.
Cheers,
Bastien