When I began this program, I set goals for myself. I knew I would be taking classes part-time, in addition to working full-time and all of the other obligations that make up life. I didn’t want to just complete the courses, I wanted to excel in them. If I was going to make this my career, I should at least enjoy learning about it. I set two goals for myself: complete the program within four consecutive terms, and achieve a 4.0 GPA.

Today I officially achieved both goals. Final marks were released for the two classes I was taking this term (my fourth) bringing my GPA to 4.08. I have completed Ryerson’s PR program, and will attending the convocation on June 9th!

From January 2008 to April 2009 I worked hard to achieve my goals, but I would not have had any success without the help of many people along the way. I would like to take this opportunity to thank some of the PR instructors, social media personalities and PR professionals that have helped me. Thank you to:

Irene Tysall

Susan McDougall

Joe Lewis

Bob Cooper

Phyllis Bennett

Lauren Wolff

Boyd Neil

Alan Chumley

Nick Douloff

Anne Grady

David Jones

Terry Fallis

Chris Clarke

Judy Gombita

And to all the other PR & Communications professionals that have offered guidance along the way. Each of you have provided valuable insight and guidance, and I appreciate all the help that you have given. Thank you, and I hope our paths cross again in the future!

This debate stems from a shift in media, and in the way we gather information. The ideas of truth and authority have fundamentally changed from the way we used to treat them.

In the past, the mainstream media was viewed as the primary source of truth. The news, as reported by newspapers or television, was the authority on what was happening. There were a few different sources of information, but most of them stuck to a reasonable journalistic standard.

Fast forward to now; media is abundant and everywhere. Blogs are breaking news faster than traditional media, the 24/7 news cycle still isn’t enough for some, and everyone has access to their own personal soapbox.

It’s not that traditional media isn’t seen as a source of truth, or doesn’t have authority. People still trust the media giants for their news. I personally visit thestar.com and theglobeandmail.com just as frequently as I visit various other blogs and online information sources. And that’s the difference. The ideas of truth and authority have shifted from a few centralized sources of information to an unlimited amount of inputs. Truth is now a collection of information, and authority is now a relative scale.

People now draw their conclusions based upon their own personal collection of information sources. The newspapers, their favourite TV anchor, late night political shows like The Daily Show, Colbert, or The Hour, an industry blogger, a nut job blogger, company websites, facebook rumours, twitter feeds, and many more fragments of information all give their inputs. What the individual believes will be a pastiche of all the pieces they’ve collected.

Authority of one source is now relative to all the others. No one source is absolute. For example, the daily newspaper still holds authority as a trusted and reputable provider of facts. It may have a bigger say in the final belief of the individual, but it won’t have the only say. How much each input is valued is based entirely upon the individual. Some sources are trusted more than others, and this scale can vary completely from person to person.

Truth and authority have shifted from a focused stream coming from monolithic sources to a collection of fragments pieced together differently by each individual.

What does this mean for PR and for companies? I think it’s good news. Everybody can make their voice heard in the new media environment, including companies. Every company can – and should – tell their story directly to their stakeholders. It won’t be the only story the stakeholders hear, but neither will what anyone else is saying. The big mistake here is to stay silent. It’s an even bigger mistake to ignore the other stories being told.

People’s ideas or beliefs cannot be controlled. They can only be influenced, and they will be influenced. The only options for organizations are now to be a voice among the influences, or to stay out of the chorus completely.

There is a LOT going on over those two days, so I was sure to take a look at the schedule to make a plan. Below are the seminars I intend to attend, and why. I won’t be live twittering or blogging during these events either,  I would rather pay attention and enjoy it. I will be sure to take notes and blog afterwards! Feel free to say hi if you see me there! 

May 21

1:30pm –  Podcasting Workshop with David Jones and Doug Walker: I don’t know if I’ll ever produce a podcast, but if this presentation is anything like Shill, it’s a must see.

2:50pm – Digital Activism with Michael Geist: This promises to be an excellent presentation. Geist’s columns are always compelling and interesting, and he definitely knows what he’s talking about.

4:10pm – It’s a toss up between  Private vs. Public or Government 2.0, from Community Participation to Co-creation. Both topics are interesting and intriguing. Any suggestions or recommendations? Let me know! Otherwise, I’ll probably make a game-time decision.

May 22

1:30pm – Measuring Social Media: I’m really looking forward to this seminar. It features, among others, Alan Chumley and KD Paine, two giants of PR and media measurement. I’m highly interested in measurement, so this seminar promises to be one of the highlights of Mesh. It was just announced that Third Tuesday will discuss “How do we measure social media” the night before Mesh, so if you don’t have your mesh tickets, you can get a preview of sorts for free. Hopefully I will be at both!

2:50pm – Building a Brand on the Web: Always a great topic for PR, especially for MarComm or agency work. Plus it has a great group of participants, including Maggie Fox of Social Media Group.

4:10pm – Reputation Monitoring and Management: Another great PR topic, one of the most important aspects of PR in my opinion.  A good finale after two days of seminars.

So there it is! My schedule for Mesh 08. If you don’t already have tickets, bad news, they’re all sold out. Is there any social media scalping going on? Hope to see you there!

While I was absent from my RSS reader, Onedegree added me to their blogroll! I only realized thanks to a healthy spike in site traffic. I’m honoured, many thanks to everyone over there. Full disclosure: there was an open call for the blogroll, and I applied, but I’m still happy to have made the cut.

Now on to some actual content. While researching and writing a final project for a PR class, I found a quote about Issues Management that I think is really poignant. It was in a textbook, but it can also be found on the Issues Management Council’s website. It defines Issues Management as:

“Closing the gap between corporate action and stakeholder expectation.”

I think this quote is really appropriate for Public Relations in general as well, and if you exchange “corporate” for the organization you represent, it’s a great one-line definition for a lot of communications work. It implies the two-way communication model and bridging role that PR tries to embody. It’s not about influencing stakeholder expectation to suit corporate needs, it’s about listening to those stakeholders and working as a mediator between the two. At times that will mean adapting the organization to suit the stakeholders/publics, as much as companies may be loathe to do so.

This is one of those things that I love about PR. It’s not based on pushing products or transactions. It’s about relationships and cultures. It’s about Real People.

More to come about transactions vs. relationships in the near future! Thanks for reading.

It begins with some sobering facts about PR during the last economic slowdown. Full service firms faced 30% declines in revenues, while technology boutiques closed their doors for good. It makes me wonder about the current wave of technology boutiques. There are a handful of social media boutique shops around these days, and I wonder if a slow economic market will shut them down, or perhaps force them to amalgamate into the larger PR or marketing firms. On the other hand, perhaps they will do more business as companies look for innovative and affordable ways to engage their customers and stakeholders? I hope the latter is true, but the former seems more likely to me.

Edelman’s first two points especially ring true for me. Traditional marketing is becoming less effective every day.

His final point and example are good indicators of both Marketing and PR working in new ways to reach people. He references the Dove Campaign for Real Beauty, an Edelman affair, part of which (or related to?) is the Ogilvy “Dove Evolution” video, which was produced right here in Toronto. Both have a similar message, but with different tactics, and both have been very successful.

So check out the link, it’s an excellent read! Hat tip to Stephen Davies, who sent the link through Twitter.