Will Social Media kill the Dept. of PR Prevention?
So what is the Dept. of PR Prevention anyway? I coined the term years ago, borrowing liberally from Monty Python's wonderful Ministry of Silly Walks skit.
You know you are dealing with the Dept. of PR Prevention where any of the following are occurring:
- A "palace guard" approach to involving top executives in the PR program;
- A paranoid view of media
- A belief that it is better to do nothing and get no coverage than to have something wrong appear in print
- A process of triple-thick screens on all media requests for interviews that kill more opportunities than they fulfill
We don't see this type of environment as much anymore, which is a great relief. It is probably due to the fact that PR itself is changing so much that even PR Prevention Departments are evolving. And since PR Prevention is so much about rigid controls, the current age of social media and connecting directly to customers through multiple channels blows a huge hole in anyone's perception that they can really block or control any type of communication. And any time you have your executives blogging themselves or contributing to blogs, you definitely are removing the middle-man regarding access to that exec.
We always have thought it was a sign of a great PR program when our spokespeople were being contacted directly by influencers. We asked them to keep us in the loop and to ask for our counsel before jumping to respond, but we ultimately feel that the direct connection means we are doing our job. It is not a threat to our job or our livelihood.
There has been a lot of talk lately about PR needing to change radically and, although I know much of this is about embracing social media and moving beyond old school media relations. But I also feel that some of the talk is really about this old school approach -- the PR Prevention style -- that really causes more problems than it solves. Anything that severely limits your opportunities to present your story to your customers through any and all relevant channels is not a winning strategy. But it might make a heck of a good YouTube video takeoff on the Ministry of Silly Walks . . .
