"Are there any PR people in the room? Are any of them Puerto Rican?"
Giovanni Rodriguez, one of the founding partners of TCG, started his presentation with this question and somehow tied it into Clue 23 of The Cluetrain Manifesto. He IS that good of a weaver (see Deb Shultz) going on to say that positioning is the heart of PR. Even traditional public relations is more about relating to the media, not actually to the public (so why is it called PR instead of MR?)
But first, What is conversational media?
"It's DIY, it's space binding, fungible, inclusive, and time binding," according to Giovanni. But what is it? It can be a broad spectrum of things. And conversational media is challenging the things which we
have previously held steadfast such as our identity, our role, and our
method for growing valuation. This means you have to change the way you engage the market as a whole.
"You need to start thinking about motivations and rewards in order to get people to work together. You also need to think much broader in order to include your competition in the conversation."
Five key questions that companies who wish to improve their role in conversational media should ask :
- who are we, and what is our role?
- who are they, and what is their role?
- what's our bargain with them?
- what about the rest of the market?
- what's the big idea(l)?
Giovanni cited several clients as case studies including Best Buy, Evincii, and Elephant Pharm. Each have an individual campaign to better engage the conversational market. "Today, almost anyone can join a market, and the roles that traditional constituencies once played are collapsing"
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