From Social Media to Social Commerce – How Can Public Relations Find a Game Changing Platform?

I have been researching into what can possibly be the next level of open innovation that can catapult the Public Relations Industry from its low perception and price challenge and gradually elevate its offerings in the eye of the buyer.
In this era of knowledge economy, with the consumer getting increasingly sophisticated and ahead of the curve in terms of information, the press release and indeed traditional Public Relations as we know it, is increasingly becoming endangered. Absurd as you might imagine this thought to be, just think again – the computer did not serve notice to the Type-writer and Word-processor that it was around the corridor; neither did the mobile phone with its ability for text messaging and data, serve notice to the Pager or the Telex. The old always seats in cold comfort believing that human beings are creatures of habit who are too scared to try something new until the unexpected happens. The new is usually always unheralded until it starts to prove itself, and by so doing, it gradually dethrones the old! Let’s take caution or we might someday wake up to find out that we are yesterday’s fad.

So what do we need to urgently do? The answer is simple, embrace social and not just digital, because digital is just a platform! Your success will depend not just on discovering digital but knowing what you want to do with it! Ask Yahoo and it will tell you it thought it was the next best thing to Eldorado when it commercialised the e-mail, earning billions in online Advert revenue until Google came along. Now Yahoo is in decline and Google is just soaring away. Why? Because Google has continued to reinvent itself! From the Search Engine, to Geo-mapping, to the e-mail (contesting yahoo’s comfort zone) to Android (taking on Apple) to Chrome (taking on explorer and firefox), to its acquisition of Motorola Mobility to even social networking and social search! The Google business model is simply one that defies logic, yet it is working.

So back to what we need to do to gain control of the future as Public Relations professionals, We need to redefine our digital offering by focusing not so much on the platform but more on the possibility it can deliver, how that possibility can add value to what we do and how we can deploy that value to attract fortune. Enter Social Commerce!

Deploying Social Commerce.

How can we use this to redefine the possibilities we deliver? We need to put on our thinking cap. I The challenge is for us as Public Relations professionals to begin to think of what we can do with these new platform to raise the profile of our Digital offering, attract new Clients and with it better value.

Let the thinking begin!

My Daughter’s Hospital Experience

Ever wondered why every profession talks about practice instead of perfection? It is because there is always room for improvement. The rationale for practice therefore is that the professional needs to continue to raise his / her game recognising that yesterday’s answers may not be adequate in addressing today’s questions.

 

Since my daughter went into Intensive Care in January this year, I have learnt how to be a professional better than I would have in an MBA class. Why? Right from the time she arrived at the Intensive Care, the Doctor’s left nothing to chance and though knowing that her condition was life-threatening, they might have been under pressure but it was hidden away from me. They answered every question I posed politely without any agitation and would ask if I needed any more clarification. The nurses were extremely professional, it was as though their ways were choreographed. They administered every treatment on time and did not wait to be reminded their responsibility. They ran shifts and so the hand-over sessions were always dramatic  as they went through the same motion, explaining details of the ailment, prescriptions and timing and also kept a log book and a treatment chart which was filled with details every passing moment. What I saw was excellence, but to the guys acting out this script, there was always room for improvement and this was always raised at the briefing session with Consultants after the ward-rounds every morning.

 

Lessons Learned: 

 

1. We fall short as professionals whenever we allow the service user identify the problem instead of us taking a proactive posture.

 

2. Never take chances. It is dangerous to seek to shorten the cycle when you could have gone through the motion ensuring that everything is okay.

 

3. Attitude is the bedrock of service. A smile, a little joke and a calm explanation may sometimes be all the Client wants and not our cocky know-it-all attitude.

 

4. There is always room for continuous learning as no one can know it all.

 

5. There is no time to celebrate success. Once you are done with one stage, quickly move to another in order to avoid a relapse.

 

From my daughter’s hospital experience, I also found out that the quest of every professional is to strive to be a tree and not a flower.

 

A. Flowers boom at dawn and wither in the evening. Trees start as seedlings, become shoots, gradually begin to look like shrubs and gradually get stronger and stronger everyday by spreading out their root.

 

B. Flowers dazzle with artistry but fall short on performance. They look precious and beautiful but yet so ephemeral. Trees seemingly under-promise in the beginning while surpassing expectations as they grow. They espouse strength and character instead of short-lived beauty.

 

C. Flowers fall at the slightest whisper of the wind and plague of bees. Trees withstand storms and outlive the activities of birds of passage and nestlings. 

 

The question is: what are we? A tree or a flower? We need to think deep and if we find we are falling short of our calling, resolve to change our ways. We owe it to ourselves and not to anyone, for as a Chinese proverb says, “the journey is the reward”. We are no better than the  ordinary man on the street, the difference is the opportunity we find and how we use it. Let’s remember that the only way to stay a winner is to have a winning attitude and a can-do spirit. Warriors don’t quit at the threat of war, they go into it with honor knowing that death will come when it will come. They don’t drive through red lights, they obey the rules. (Samurai’s Bushido – Way of the Warrior).

 

We can make it if we try.

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