PR 2.0 & Authenticity

Good evening, my dear reader!

The book PR 2.0: New Media, New Tools, New Audiences by Deirdre Breakenridge (2008) made me think over the authenticity of PR messages transmitted online.

The author speaks of “viral marketing as the “Word of Mouth” of the Internet”. He also calls it “Astroturfing” on the Internet”, giving the term a Wikipedia explanation - “fake grassroots support online”.

Converting this to PR it means that a lot of information published online can be inaccurate. The reason for that is the increased number of user-generated content articles and self-publishing platforms that enable individuals to expose virtually every “truth” that they want to share. So it is really easy to get lost in all this mass of data and to define which is correct and which is more of a personal users ideas and thoughts.

My premise is that in the world of Web 2.0 the function of PR practitioners has changed. It now requires more skills and duties from them and the ones that I’m talking about in this post are: sharing authentic and transparent information, creating word of mouth and building relationships of trust with communities.

For other new skills follow the link below:
http://www.theharteofmarketing.com/2009/07/pr-20-will-double-your-workload.html

And for more information on importance of authenticity in a virtual world have a look at those articles:
Social media: Being authentic in a virtual world
PR has never been truly authentic