A Transparent World

Submitted by Mitch Seigel on Wed, 09/07/2011

Public Relations efforts or advertising used to be the way you found out about something happening, whether it was newsworthy or not. When’s the last time someone told you some news and you didn’t know it already?...

Our world is so transparent and full of information, or TMI, that the clutter is making it very difficult to differentiate a business, a service, a product, your skills and more. For one thing it means that you need to be more careful when considering how to expose information, launch a new business, or a new service or product. That means taking time to do it right, not just doing it.

Transparency - Is this a good or a bad thing, or does it matter? Aren’t some things meant to be kept behind closed doors? I don’t see transparency going away any time soon, but I really feel that we need to make sure that future generations understand the value of being ethical and professional when it counts!

Last week we were sitting at a restaurant waiting for our table, and I looked around the waiting area. No one was talking with each other. 90% of the people there were either texting or checking out their emails or other information on the internet. What would happen if all of a sudden we lost our PDA’s? Would the world end on the spot?

What has happened in journalism is that the public are now all journalists and PR experts. The same is true in advertising and marketing. It used to be that there were experts who developed the lion’s share of the stories. Now the same experts are coordinators of comments made by the world on Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites. The word marketing is used very loosely because everyone seems to feel they know the ins and outs of that industry. The same goes for advertising messages.

Transparency seems to have developed a public relations nightmare. It’s what we have, and right now, what we need to deal with.

What are your challenges when it comes to public relations? I look forward to hearing your comments.

Until next time …