« David Grossman on Israel vs Palestine | Main | hRelease » Edglings vs Corporate Centroids!?Stowe Boyd seems to've kicked up a fuss in a post about "social media press releases." I like this: Please, please, please don't talk about audiences when you are theoretically promoting social media. As Jay Rosen has suggested, we are the people formerly known as the audience. Blogging is not just another channel for corporate marketing types to push their messages to markets, eyballs, or audiences. Social media is based on the dynamic of a many-to-many dialogue between people. Yes, people: that's the word that should have been used. Not audience.Also this: I applaud any efforts, philosophically, that are an attempt to shake the corporate centroids into a real dialogue with us, the edglings. However, I don't believe in hedging, over-simplifying, or reusing outdated rhetoric in an attempt to make it easier for the poor, benighted corporate types to make the trip to the promised land without hard work. The core dynamics of webology can't be put aside for the sake of offering PR agencies' clients a baby step by baby step path into the new age of interaction. We are putting aside lying, so let's not even lie to the liers. Let's not perpetuate false and misleading metaphors, like "audiences" and "crafting messages for our markets". Let's get down to the real basics. We are people. We are already engaged in conversation among ourselves. If corporations want to jump in, fine, go ahead. The water's fine. But you have to drop the old line model in its entirety, or you will have zero success. PR people who really get this, like Brian Solis, Mike Manuel, and many others, can be a great help to companies making the transition. But it serves no one's interests in the long run to make the transition seem easy, or to let the corporates approach the effort with an "as little change as possible" mindset. And those that do so are harming themselves, their clients, and their discipline.(I keep running into centroids who seem to get the edgling perspective, which is good.) jon posted this at 3:55 PM |
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