Last night's post about press releases, PR, blogging and social media was a typical Jim Benson "why can't we all just see the good in each other" post. I'm so empathetic.
This morning, when I woke up I had a reply from Brian Solis who was very happy with my post. In the last paragraph of his reply, he says:
The only problem is that most offenders in PR probably won't even read these blog posts. Hence why we're trying to bring them into the conversation.
Absolutely.
But in the end it's not just PR people. And this is what Boyd and Scoble really should be on about.
You see, social media is a hungry beast. It's like a zombie with an insatiable hunger for brains. The conversation needs a constant influx of raw material (ideas) and a strong current of synthesis (unique interpretation), to remain vital.
What gets us rolling may be what Frans Johansson called The Medici Effect. Johansson says that innovation comes from the intersections of disciplines, cultures, art -- anything that didn't previously have conceptual contact.
Beyond that, I have found that bloggers in general get off on something equally special but lacking a fancy name - perspective.
When I first started working in software and meeting people in tech from around the world, I thought they would find me dull because I wasn't fully up on tech geek issues. I was pleasantly surprised to find this was not the case.
To this day, my main value to technology conversations is based on my background in urban planning. My personal value in the conversation isn't that I know lots of great Web 2.0 applications -- it's that I interpret them in a (sometimes) unique way.
There are throngs of engineers, doctors, lawyers, flight attendants, cancer patients, abuse survivors, clergy .... human beings ... that are not involved in the conversation who have input that would greatly move it along.
But everyone wasn't a journalist either.
My wife has an unbelievable value to add to the conversation. But she hates to write. We are in the process of starting a blog for her, where I'll basically interview her on the way home from the office and then ghost write blog entries for her. She just has to okay the text.
Bringing PR people who don't get it into the social media world will only inject jaded, usurious, phony people into the conversation. Finding the PR people who DO get it, and getting them involved specifically in bringing people into the conversation who are reluctant ... That is value.
Blogged from the Sai Oak in Ocean Shores, Washington
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