By Kevin McCauley
Media pundit Jeff Jarvis today challenged the audience at PR News’ social media summit to practice “reverse PR” by representing the “public to the brand rather than brand to the public.”
A company needs to view the public as collaborators rather than customers, according to Jarvis, who stressed “public-ness.” A PR department has conversations with the public, rather than “worrying about what they are saying about us,” he said.
Jarvis called his presentation, “Turning PR Around: The Public Can Speak for Itself.” He downplayed the role of influencers and experts, gaving his 2005 BuzzMachine posting called “Dell Lies. Dell Sucks” as an example.
Jarvis panned his new Dell laptop as a “lemon” with lousy in-home service. The posting didn’t go viral because Jarvis is a computer expert, but he believes the blog registered because many other people experienced “Dell hell.” That message is what gave Jarvis the authority.
Jarvis urged the audience to pay close attention to “complainers” because they care about the product and want to help make it better.
On the media front, Jarvis sees the future of media as “platforms for communities.” Self-contained articles give way to “assets” and “paths.” For instance, a reporter would buttress original content with background information from Wikipedia or The Economist and provide paths via links. He called it “elegant organization.”
The media with the best combination of content, assets and links will survive the shakeout that is upending the journalism world, according to Jarvis, CUNY graduate school professor and author of “Public Parts: How Sharing in the Digital Age Improves the Way We Work and Live.”
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