Awhile ago, I published a post about this time being the dawning of the age of transparency — or actually, honesty.
A great post by John Wagner/OnMessage Thursday reminded me of that, and helped to continue that line of thinking:
While good public relations is not about deception, it is about being more behind the curtain than about being out front. But, in the age of transparency, full disclosure is expected of PR pros — good PR pros.
It’s our job to stay in the background while we help clients or our employer to be out in front. Get the media exposure. Spread good will. Develop and implement programs that improve their respective reputations. Educate their audiences.
But, when our counsel, strategy and tactics takes our clients or employer into the world of social media, the ground rules are a bit different.
It’s almost as if we’re right along side, with clients in sharing blog time, acting on their behalf — and stating the relationship — monitoring boards, blogs and other sites.
We’re right there in front of the curtain; not directing things from behind it.
That’s a different mind set for most of us. And, as we’ve seen with Edelman, Pierce Mattie and others, switching from behind to in front of the curtain, there will be some stumbling along the way. But, as long as we learn from mistakes — ours and others since the blogosphere can be pretty unforgiving at times — we’ll get there.
– Mike
Technorati tags: social media, public relations, PR, transparency
