Traditional PR is dead - Long Live DIY PR

I stand by my original thesis that PR is dead.

Based on the comments I received, I will modify it as:

Traditional PR is dead. Long live DIY PR!

DIY PR will be the authentic voice of corporations. And it will come from employees and C-level executives doing it for themselves and their organizations and not from the professionals.

We will still need PR people, just far fewer. PR pros that can give up control and teach organizations to communicate with their customers in a human voice will survive; many others will not. And in the long term, the formal boring PR voice, messages and spin will become extinct and replaced by people conducting conversations with their customers and clients.

Comments

Roland - Your opinion is valid, and much appreciated. This is not meant to be a global industry navel gaze and I am glad we have a range of opinions.

That said, if corporations truly evolved to DIY PR, the "formal boring PR voice, messages and spin" will not go away. For some companies it will. For other companies it will grow louder and more boring.

One PR approach will never make sense. There are many companies that give external PR folks the access they need to come up with the honest, effective and exciting messages you're wishing for here.

To blame the dearth of good communications on external PR folks is simply over simplifying things.

:-)

(he notes with an emoticon to stress a well-intended, good natured discussion.)

Posted by: Kevin Dugan at July 19, 2004 08:59 AM

No problem Kevin. I like discussion, debate and pushback. Perhaps my post is more wishful thinking than reality. Perhaps not.

But in the long run whether I am right or not, I think the companies that embrace DIY PR or at least ditch the boring formal PR voice :-) will do better.

Posted by: Roland Tanglao at July 19, 2004 10:31 AM

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Traditional PR is dead - Long Live DIY PR

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