The Council of Public Relations Firms has just released a white paper in which the number one finding, based on industry research, is this:

The public relations industry is poised to excel in the era of social media due to the fact that public relations has always been about social influence…

There are two questionable assertions in that statement. One, the PR industry isn't poised to excel at anything. PR's reputation for doing good and doing right and being valuable is about on a par with people's faith in astrology. Two, PR has been about media influence, not social influence. Traditional PR people have always preferred to keep their hands clean dealing with journalists, not the unwashed masses. A community of average people with heavy-duty b.s.-detectors have been, are, and will continue to be quick to tell PR people where to stick their talking points.

Come to think of it, talking points is kind of a weird phrase isn't it? Most spin doctors mean by it that they talk and you listen. They aren't called "conversation points" now are they?

Don't see the difference between media influence and social influence? Media influence is talking about things that interest a reporter for The Wall Street Journal, for example. Social influence is talking to ordinary people about things that matter to them. The reason social media happened is because mainstream media failed its audience… it writes about a lot of things people don't care about and it misses tons of things people do want to know about. Mainstream media writes it and you read it…and if you have a problem with that, or you find it biased, or wrong, well write a letter to the editor.

It's true that some PR people will get it; will make the transition; will figure out how to bag the baloney and start honestly conversing with people. But to say the industry is poised to excel in this arena because it has been butt-kissing journalists for years and years is ridiculous. Let me put it to you this way: my primary function as a traditional PR professional for twenty years was to douse pigs with perfume and hope the fragrance masked flaws with which everyone inside a company was familiar. In social media, the swine are held out as is while everyone holds their nose and decides, on the basis of this full disclosure and transparency and authenticity, if they want to eat bacon or not.

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