Empowerment. We all feel it at some time or another and its driving force to aid in the creation of change. We saw it this past election, we saw it in Joel Comm's Tweet-a-Thon to raise money for Water is Life and we even recently saw it when 180 million Facebook users created a public relations crisis causing the top social network to revert back to their old TOS while it "re-evaluates" its newer version. We throw around the term "word of mouth" a little too easily, underestimating its true power. The power of the people. The power of their voice. The power of collaboration. It all has to begin somewhere with that one person who sparks that empowerment and passion in others. Are we miscalculating their strength?
While the bottom line of PR is always about creating and establishing relationships, sometimes we become too focused on numbers. "What is your circulation?" "How many unique visitors does your blog have?" How many listeners...how many viewers...you get the point. But does that really matter? To me one voice is equally as important as thousands. Rosa Parks was one voice. Martin Luther King Jr. was one voice. Mahatma Gandhi was one voice. Now reflect in awe regarding how many people they reached---how many people they empowered? The "voice" of one person was able to reach millions, a true word of mouth success, viral marketing in its infancy.
When I hear all of this talk about measurement and ROI, especially when it comes to social media strategies, I roll my eyes. I get that clients want something quantifiable, but the world is changing in the way that is accomplished. We are the most interactive we have ever been, the most integrative. In our "now society" we push numbers trying to grasp at something almost intangible while losing sight that one voice can, in effect, create a collaboration of like minds that becomes more powerful than you could have ever imagined.
The power of one transcending into the power of many: this is our greatest opportunity at public relations(hips).
Posted by Shannon Nelson on February 20, 2009 3:28 AM
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