TJ WALKER - THE HABIT INFLUENCER - Personal Development | LIVE STREAM

Welcome to Inside Communications. I'm your host, Mike Baco. Today we go inside the world of public relations and its future. Are we within reach of a golden age of publicity of public relations? Today we go inside with Ken Makofsky to find out why he thinks so. Next on Inside Communications. Welcome to Inside Communications. Ken, thanks for joining us today.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

So we're within reach of the golden age of public relations. How close are we? We've seen so many changes over the last decade or so. Everything from practices to social media to ways that public relations executives interact. But how close are we to this golden age?

I think the golden age is just at hand. If we can meet some of the challenges that are facing the field today, and if we can meet those challenges, I think we are in for one of the best periods that we have ever experienced in the world.

So what are some of those challenges? The world is changing. Technology is changing. How can public relations practitioners adapt to those changes?

Well, you know, I've come up with seven reasons why I think the golden age is just at hand. So let me talk about some of them.

Okay, what's number one?

Number one is what I call one world, multiple opportunities. You know that global village that Marshall McLuhan talked about in the 60s, if you weren't here then, then you've read about it. Well, that global village is here right now. There is no local story anymore. There is no national story anymore. There is a global story. And therefore that multip opportunities for everybody.

Does that also multiply the opportunities to fall into certain PR traps? You mentioned that the world is global with Facebook, with Twitter, with YouTube. How do you guard against getting a poor message sent out about you right now?

Well, look, I think that there is. There's no question that the. And I kind of touch on these in my reasons. But I'll hop into that One first is that public relations is a very low cost tool for a corporation to have at hand from an insurance standpoint. Because we know that today one press of a button by one person who says something that's highly provocative can create a viral effect that affects millions. So most important, I think for every company, and I think this is only common sense today, is really to monitor the Internet and see what is being said about a company. And then once you have that information, you can make judgments on whether or not you want to respond to it.

So the person at home is responding to that. And there's a certain aspect of truthfulness that you touch on as well. Number two, Is truthiness.

Yes. Well, let me talk about that for a minute. Because Stephen Colbert, the talk show host, created this term truthiness. And truthiness is meant to imply a so called truth where there is no logic or evidence that it actually exists. In fact, it could be wrong. So that in effect has shifted the control of reputation from the institution, the corporation, the organization, to the stakeholder. And so now the stakeholder is more in control than ever before. And so I would kind of say Wikipedia is not the New York Times. And what has been created as a result of that is a trust problem. People don't know who to trust. And one of the leading agencies did a trust barometer and it showed that the trust of US business has dropped by about 8 percentage points in the past year from about 56, from about 54 to 46, putting it only within 5 points of last place Russia. So PR, the demand for PR, and one of the reasons we are going to enter a golden age is that we need to rebuild trust in the American corporation. And that's going to create a demand for our services.

How can you do that online? You mentioned that Wikipedia is not the New York Times. But so many people now are going to blogs for their information. They're going to influencers on the Internet. If they're interested in a certain subject. They might not be going to the New York Times technology section. They may be going to a specific blogger if they want to see the new review for the new iPhone. So how do you guard against, or can you guard against all the different areas where people are getting their information from?

I don't think you really can guard against that. I think you can be, you can manage the message and you can go in there by going back to what I said, by monitoring it and making decisions that certain messages deserve to be responded to and other messages don't. I also think the proactivity of the company of getting its message out on the Internet is going to in many ways support the point of view that it has. And it's going to build support among the public, particularly if it's focusing its messages among targets they basically want to reach. And that, in my opinion is. And one other point which I think is particularly important here is in view of the fact that the third, that the stakeholder is in a way in.

Control.

Among these stakeholders. There are people who really do support the corporate message. And third party endorsement is one of the most important techniques for public relations. And for example, a company, a number of companies today go out to bloggers in the Same way that they used to go out to news media and they will have a meeting of bloggers who are commenting on technology or bloggers that are commenting on health and invite them to their, to their corporate headquarters and have meetings with them. And that's a way of getting the feedback that they need from people who are in a sense, new gatekeepers.

One of the ways that technology is certainly affecting public relations, we mentioned blogs and the Internet, but also people watching things on their handheld devices, whether it be a BlackBerry or an iPhone TV. How can public relations people leverage this new form of TV in a way that people are watching it on their devices at all times? It's not just in front of their TV at home.

Well, you know, you hit upon a very important point in terms of how people, how public relations are going to grow. And we go back to that golden age point. There was a professor at the Annenberg School of Communications in California, and he heads up the center for the Digital Future. And I read some work and I spent time talking with him. And he is basically saying that the tv, which has for years been our leisure companion and now it's kind of shifting over to the Internet. He said it's going to return, but it's going to go from the living room to the pocket. And that there's going to be a dramatic increase in usage of watching television in your pocket on your handheld. And that we are going to be able to be the key because we are content creators in public relations. We manage that global conversation that's going to also drive people to utilizing public relations because we are going to be involved in creating the content for that mobile device and also help in the distribution of it to make sure it reaches the various kinds of mobile devices.

And that leads us into your next point in terms of all the technology advancement. Talk a little bit about how, let's just say you're creating content for this mobile TV generation. How about the new other forms of technology that PR people can leverage?

Well, you know, I think that technology is going to have, Mike, a meaningful impact on the public relations field, more so than ever before. And I see it really in two ways. The first way that I see is actually the products and services that we employ. For example, what I mean by that is, in view of the growth of social networks and social media in general, we are going to, and already are needing technology people to bring within our own firms that can help us engineer content and also engineer apps that relate to our client messages. And those people are going to become part of our digital staffs in the same way that graphic designers are today. And as this grows, we're going to have to stop outsourcing technology. We're going to bring it in house. But a second point that I just wanted to make was that there's going to be a wave of technology companies that are born and are growing because of this mobile movement of the green revolution, of the growth in consumer electronics and B2B technology. How much those could be clients of ours? That's the point I'm making.

Speaking of clients of yours, and just the general feel in the industry, is there a pushback or an embracing of these social media tools, these new technologies, by clients coming to you? Are they still just wanting to get into magazines, just wanting to get on the Today show to publicize their products or their new initiatives? Are they seeing the benefit of this social media interaction? Are they valuing views on YouTube, followers on Twitter, likes on Facebook, or are you still trying to sell them on this?

Well, let me categorize it because your answer is a very good question. I would say in the world of consumer products and services, they are embracing it. And the more they can get, the better. And I think you can see that through the reflection on websites and interactivity. There's some amazingly creative stuff out there. Let's talk now on the B2B front. B2B front is growing, it's developing, but it's not where the consumer world is yet. So by B2B, I mean companies that sell products to other companies. And in that world, the print media is still very much treasured, but the social media is growing. And you can take certain industries. For example, in the financial services world, there are compliance issues that relate to social media that come from some of the government, quasi government organizations in terms of regulations.

And we've also seen that with pharmaceuticals and the way that they interact as.

Well with the health industry. You've got that with the fda, who has still not come out with guidelines. And so there's a lot of confusion in that, in that market. But one thing I do want to add with regard to your question, which is, is that I do think that all clients, there is a gradual perspective that they are now looking at the brand. It's more than just what media do I get into, but the brand. Because we know that the first stop for the journalist and for many other people is the website. I want to find out about that company. They go to the website. Well, if they don't have their message right on the website, that they're going to be communicating out through all kinds of other techniques, then they're going to be inconsistent. So the digital component, in my opinion, has changed in a way, the definition of public relations. And I'm extremely excited about that because of the fact that it's opening up a whole new world for this business. And I just think at the demand for our services, again, going back to this golden age point, if we do it right, is just, you know, we're reaching for the rainbow.

You're reaching for the rainbow. You've been in this industry for so long to the point where you've had an illustrious career at hall of fame PR executive. How about from the actual practitioners? Are people pushing back to some of these changes? As I mentioned, you've been in the business a long time. Do people want to keep it simple, status quo, or are they embracing it as well? We spoke about clients, but how about people actually doing it?

I think the talent in the industry is really excited the more, and particularly the younger talent, because, you know, in a number of agencies, you read these articles where they say, well, the younger talent now is the mentor because they know social media better than the older people. So as a result of that, I think that there is a overall excitement. I will say this. That said, I think that there are still a shortage. And in fact, the study that I just read today put out by McKinsey & Co. Said that if you look across many fields where there is a need and it really hits on our field for this kind of talent that knows how to navigate the social media, it's still in a learning posture. We have people who are very strong at it. We have people who are medium, we have people who are just.

Learning. And I'm sure that the successful firms will be emulated, just like in baseball teams that follow the Moneyball principles, other teams catching up. So I'm sure that there'll be some of that learning curve and catching up as we wrap up. What are some of the other key points that we haven't touched on in terms of reaching for that golden ring? How close are we to this golden age that you've been speaking about, that you've been writing about? What else do we need to know about how we get within that golden.

Reach? Well, you know, one point that I would add that I think is very critical, that I did include in speeches I've given and articles I've written, is the fact that the cost of not doing public relations right is getting greater. So because of the fact that one person can start a revolution or as the people. The Cairo protesters said they used a combination of Facebook to schedule, Twitter to coordinate and YouTube to tell the world about the protests. And it happened so fast that if you don't have an insurance structure set up through public relations, you can bring a company down. So I think that that will create a demand for our services. And it's something that I don't think that any sophisticated corporation out there would not do that. It's as common sense, you know, as eating breakfast every.

Morning. You would certainly hope so. And hopefully some of those corporations will follow these seven principles and hopefully we will reach that golden age of public relations. And we'd love to have you back in a year or so to track some of that progress. Hopefully we'll be reaching for that gold ring shortly. Ken, thanks for joining.

Us. It's been a real pleasure. I've really enjoyed talking to.