Monday, February 7, 2011

Eating Right For a New Attractive (Public) Figure

I’ve just recently started a new nutrition plan.  I’m hesitant to say, “diet” because I haven’t restricted my intake, but have simply replaced pizza with celery sticks.  It hasn’t been without its challenges.  The Super Bowl beer and pizza debacle of 2011 proved to be one of the hardest tests of will power, but I got through it unscathed (according to the scale).  Why do I bring this up?  I’ve come across many PR professionals and students who still don’t believe in social media.  I call them “PR dodos.”  The Dodo birds is extinct because of it inability to adapt, much like some of our PR friends.  Unfortunately for the dodo bird, their time has come and gone.  PR professionals, however, still have a chance to survive in the ever changing social media climate.  These PR dodos typically believe in old school one-way public relations.  In our profession “old school PR” doesn’t carry the same kind of legitimacy as the phrase “old school sneakers.”  Although, some of these PR dodos do see it that way.  PR dodos see their methods as traditional and the way things should be.  I obviously couldn’t disagree more.
So what does this have to do with my new nutrition plan?  Improvements in technology are a constant.  We can always count on advancements in phones, computers, TV's, you name it.  When we come across someone using a rotary phone and a black and white TV, what do we think?  I know what I think, “How on earth have you been doing this for so long?” or “What good can come from being left out of the loop?”  Their response, “I don’t want to change, I’m happy with the way things are.”  My suggestion to them is they need a new social media nutritional plan.  Continue receiving communication but instead of a rotary phone, use a cell phone.  Instead of waiting for the 6 o’clock news, look it up on the internet.  I replaced pizza with celery, PR dodos need to replace one-way communication with two way communication and not take the crash diet method by completely avoiding social media.  We see the person using antiquated technology as a means of receiving information the same way we see the PR practitioner on a crash diet from social media; doing the dodo bird.  
PR dodos who maintain the idea that traditional push PR practices work the best have been gorging on too many pizzas.  Social media is the celery stick they need for their nicer (public) figure.  People who refuse to use social media are like the people using the rotary phone; they are laughably outdated.  If you want to have any credibility as a public relations professional, you have to know the tools of the trade and how they advance and progress.  Moving with those advances will help you stay ahead of the game and maintain legitimacy among your colleagues and your friends.  Social media is an extremely communal activity.  Alienation can occur when purposely crash dieting from the use of any social media channels.  
What is all comes down to is this new way of thinking isn’t completely unachievable.  No crazy meal plans are necessary, just a hearty helping of nutritious social media.  

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