I had a great chat with Martin Waxman today who runs a PR shop called Palette. Very charming and likable fellow. We talked about feeling like ‘outsiders’ in the social media scene. While we both blog and lead active social media lives, we both feel that this elite ecosystem made up of media, PR people, marketers and some corporate types seems to have a vernacular and secret handshake all on its own when it comes to social media.
My complaint to Martin was that the PR blogs I read regularly seem to focus so heavily on the subject of blogging and social media. It’s as if we found a new toy and we can’t stop talking about it. Quite frankly, I’m bored reading about podcasts, wikis, blogging, word of mouth … yawn.
Yes, our industry is in a topsy-turvy time as citizen journalism is creating new issues for us and our clients and social media practices must be addressed. However, little is being written or discussed about real and pressing issues affecting our industry. This may be due to the fact that there is a lack of senior PR voices in Canada on the blogosphere that can address these issues in an open collaborative environment. PR blogging, I believe, can be more meaningful and valuable to our community if we open up subject areas that move us off the social media phenomenon and into genuine issues affecting our business.
I would love to see PR blogs discuss topics of interest including:
HR: Where is great PR talent hiding? How are agencies attracting talent? Are we poaching from the same shops all the time or is anyone out there doing anything innovative in the HR arena? What are some great retention strategies? Are Gen Y’s that different from the rest of us?
Compensation: When do you say enough is enough? How are agencies tackling the issue of booming salary expectations? Does anyone have interesting compensation models? Any cool rewards you want to talk about, what's worked in the past? Let’s share some best practices once in awhile.
Work-Life Balance: Where do we start? How are some agencies creating sustainable work-life balance for staffers? Work from home? Nap rooms? Confess … we want to know and learn from each other.
Employee Mentorship: How do some firms mount mentorship programs? Do they work? Can your client be your mentor?
This is just the start of some online conversations. I’m hopeful that some PR bloggers will take it upon themselves to shelf the “blogging blogs” for a little while and get down to the business of PR. And yes, I’ll be leading the way for sure. Stay tuned …