Piaras once again has a great post on his blog about the PR industry and possible futures. This will probably come across as talking the guy down but the quality of his blog posts have really risen in the past year or two and his site is now a destination for insights in to Public Relations for me. Piaras’ blog is a great educational resource. It’d be nice to see him get more comments and attention for it. Also, while we’re on a roll, various people in the media keep chattering amongst each other how impressed they are with his professionalism for organising events and launches and getting the press what they need before they even know they need it. (How’s that swelled head Piaras? 🙂 )
Anyway, to my point. Piaras talks about some PR agencies in Ireland that are using Facebook for advertising some events and the PR agency staff inviting people to various launches and parties.
So ultimately will PR agencies win new business based, not simply on their knowledge of communications techniques, but on how well connected they are with specific audiences?
Slattery Communications in Dublin do this for example and it’s really effective as it gets real people inviting real people to events, it feels more friendly that way but also it turns everyone that accepts an invite to advertise it to their network as well and by publicly listing who is also going, it will probably get people to go based on who else is going. It makes these events more networking focused. Win, win, win.
I left a comment on Piaras’ post with my own thoughts but on further thinking I wonder is it also the job of a PR company to make their clients more connected too? Maybe this is already part of their job, I dunno. With the examples of those events on Facebook for example, I wonder should PR companies just run monthly networking events where they bring their clients together to simply network and maybe bring in other people to the event too. Not a sponsored by event or launch of anything event, just a get to know each other event and have their clients get to know more people which can only lead to more connections and a better business environment. PR companies have fantastic contacts as far as I can see and increasing the connections between these contacts would surely enrich everyone?
Off to purchase a box of pins to prick the balloon and bring myself back to earth 😀
Nice one Damien – this is something I’d like to know more about and now I know where to look,
Thanks & regards
Conor
Back your comment on my blog, think for what you have proposed PR agencies would have to share contacts to drive this but ultimately I think there is the potential to drive benefits for their clients. Most effective way to do this could be roundtables, combined with networking opps. Suppose the drawback is trying to get competitors to sit down together for a constructive discussion without it degenerating into arguments or sales pitches.
Interesting thread. PR companies sharing anything has long been a no no but I think this is changing. I see alot more PR people sharing contacts through LinkedIn which is a good trend as previously it was the highly protected black book. Change in this area will most likely not happen from the top down but rather from the newer influx of executives joining the industry who have grown up with the notion of online sharing. I share the feedback on Piaras and his blog. What I want to know is where Damien and Piaras get the time – probably some time extending next generation technology I have yet to discover.
Eoin – It’s called a lack of sleep. Think I need to start buying makeup as the bags under the eyes are starting to get gruesome
[…] spotted an interesting post by Damien Mulley about PR connectors and my eyes pricked up ! He was quoting irish PR blogger Piaras Kelly who had […]