Social networking "A New Driver to Public Relations" - Quote

I don't want to jump up and down with glee but the temptation is there.

Sir Martin Sorrell and Rupert Murdoch between them are singing my song.

"One of the interesting thing is that the new technologies, the blogs, the development of Web sites, the development of social networking sites, is really I think probably giving a new driver to public relations and public affairs. Paid-for publicity, it is known from research, is probably less effective than editorial publicity." Martin Sorrell interview.

"Our newest efforts, the most exciting of which for me are our digital media assets represent our next generation of growth, poised to become drivers in the same way SKY Italia or FOX News or STAR are for us today.

"In the month of June alone, our web properties at FOX Interactive attained 30 billion page views, second only to Yahoo! and just yesterday served 4 billion ads." Rupert Murdoch Comments.

There are two issues here. Time and place.

I have been far to far ahead of the market and not in the USA which is several months ahead of the UK.

To be really ahead of the market just look back.

Way back in 1995, when I suggested to the Chartered Institute of Public Relations annual conference that the Internet was going to be big, important and pivotal was a pretty bold statement. No one understood a word.

In 2000, as Chairman of the CIPR/PRCA Internet Commission, there were a lot of doubters.

Today, not many people even remember the recommendations. Few took heed. They have suffered along the way as a result and perhaps I have been a little scornful.

Today, I am not going to talk about the economic change that is the digital tsunami; the disintermediation challenges we face or the rigours we shall go through as our client changes in the face of change.

All of that is tomorrow. Today I leave a single thought: Mashups – that bring together two or more data sources to provide original perspectives – are one of the fastest growing phenomena
on the Internet. Almost half of these combine mapping data with other information, helping users to understand where people, things, and activities are located is just the tip of a mega iceberg which we see from our flimsy bark looming in the mists.

Picture: Iceberg