Will social media kill public relations?

That was the question that popped up on my inbox first thing this morning. Not the best way to start the day with all this talk about killing public relations. I think that Maktoob Research (the senders of the email that, presumably, is being read by a couple of hundred PR professionals in the UAE as I write) has either completely missed the plot and doesn't understand public relations and social media or were deliberately trying to push up the number of click-throughs on their one-question survey. If it was the later, then good on them!

From Middle East PRoject

So will social media kill public relations? I don't think so. At least, not as long as public relations agencies are able to adapt and stay one step ahead of everyone else in the social media space. PR agencies should be in a position to:

• Educate their clients: Lets face it, most decision makers struggle to understand the value social media can provide to the marketing mix. We need to educate them
  
• Provide counsel: So company X wants to build its social media presence. Great! While the advertising guys can talk about buying space, us, humble PR folk, should be in a position to provide authoritative advice on who our clients should be starting conversations with and where. As cliched as it sounds, we need to help our clients be part of the online conversation
  
• Implement and execute: Don't think I need to go into details on this point

In my opinion (and I'd be happy to be proven wrong) a PR agency's role in helping a client work with social media should, in its most simplistic form, roughly mirror what it does with 'traditional' media with one huge difference: rather than talking to a journalist, we're talking to Jane Blogger or John Tweeter. Of course, the approaches and processes vary, but the essence remains the same.

PR stunts

Since moving to Dubai, my work's been pretty much all corporate and sometimes, I have to admit, I miss working at Cow PR, where the wackiest ideas were the best. The pining gets particulalry bad when I see videos like this one with Tic Tac Micha (spotted via Direct Daily):

I haven't seen any remarkable PR stunts in the Middle East since moving here but that is not to say that agencies in the region are not capable of them. The Agassi-Federer tennis set on Burj Al Arab's helipad was amazing! Check out the video here:

And here's a stunt that Cow PR created for Chevrolet at Christmas and I had the privilige of being part of. Its called Carmony. I guess that says enough!

Me and Twitter in Media Week Middle East

As I mentioned, a couple of posts ago, I'd written a 500-piece on Twitter for Media Week Middle East. Here it is:

From Middle East PRoject

What's more is that I got two hits in the same edition (I'm becoming a regular media whore) and had my mug (and belly, from the looks of things) featured on the People page with Andreas Keller, Regional Director, Weber Shandwick:

From Middle East PRoject

Twestival: The aftermath

Image via CrunchBase

I have to admit that Thursday's Dubai Twestival was more fun than I thought it would be. It was a bit like meeting old friends I'd never met before.
@BinMugahid and @Esperanca, the two Tweeters I've known the longest since moving to Dubai, were both there. With his characteristic humour and honest takes on life, love and women @BinMugahid is probably one of Dubai's best known Tweeters and definitely its most original. @Esperanca, on the other hand, is a vault of information and does a great deal to steer people away from the oh-you're-on-Twitter-you-must-be-a-bespectacled-overweight-geek-with-no-friends-in-the-real-world image. It was also a real pleasure to meet @PKGulati who was responsible for bringing Twestival to Dubai. As he tell it, "It all started with a Tweet..."
Other people (Tweeple?) I bumped into were @CarringtonMalin, whose SpotOn PR did a brilliant job spreading the word about Twestival and @Abhamalpani, my counterpart from ASDA'A Burson Masteller. I'm really surprised that, besides ourselves (Weber Shandwick), SpotOn and ASDA'A, other PR agencies working in Dubai appear to have ignored Twestival, when they should have been all over it. I could be wrong about that (it was impossible to meet everyone at the event) but I'm sure that it was only these three agencies that devoted time and resources to pitching in to help for the event. If I am right, however, that doesn't say much about the region's PR industry.

The Dubai Twestival

Image via Wikipedia

Having missed the last Dubai Tweet-up, I'm really excited about going to the Dubai Twestival this Thursday. Unlike my Tweeps in London (and other places with cold, miserable weather!) we're having our Twestival at the beach-side Barasti Upper Deck, Le Meridien Mina Seyahi Beach Resort. Hah! Eat your hearts out!!
The organisers (@PKGulati, @DrBaher, @Esperanca, @BinMugahid and @CarringtonMalin) have done a brilliant job securing sponsorship from Le Meridien and Virgin Megastores Middle East. Last I checked, about 120 Tweeple are expected to attend the event.
Its incredible that, less than six months after it was unblocked in the UAE, Twitter is seeing the kind of growth that it is. By some estimates there are now between 300 and 500 Tweeters in Dubai, and its popularity continues to grow. We'll just have to wait and watch to see what the rest of this year has in store for Twitter in the Middle East.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Global Twestival-time (twingly.com)

Mea Culpa

Its been a manic past couple of weeks. Three new media presentations (with a fourth in the pipeline), our first project (we're providing the Emirates Airline International Festival of Literature with social media support on a pro bono basis), a 500 word piece on Twitter for Media Week Middle East (coming out next week) and loads of regular account work for my existing clients. And this is the so-called 'downturn'.
If anything's clear in this blur we call 2009, its that new and emerging media is the way to go and, refreshingly, clients are starting to realise that. Just this morning I presented to the mar-coms team of a leading consumer electronics company (sorry, no names!) who were very receptive to the idea of closing their communications loop with an online programme. The other two presentations were to a food and beverage company and a non-profit organisation. Whether or not fee-earning projects emerge from these presentations isn't the be all and end all of what I'm doing (though it would be nice to see the $$$s come in). I'm just glad that business and organisations across the Middle East are open to the idea of doing something, anything, online.
And that is why I haven't posted anything for the past three weeks (a bit long winded for an excuse but its true...honestly!).

Blackberry One

The Obamaberry is in the news again. CBS News reports that Obama may just get to keep his Blackberry but his team will not be able to IM. Shame. I wonder if he has Twitterberry loaded.

In other news, Reuters reports that the Vatican is launching its own YouTube channel. According to the report "the Catholic faithful or the curious will be able to see Pope Benedict or CHurch events."

Related articles by Zemanta

• Pope launches YouTube channel