The entrepreneurs of the Internet boom sold us all on a vision where we’d never again have to leave our bedrooms or even get dressed.
We all bought this vision of the total online world, when in fact if we had stepped outside the hype and remembered the lessons from history we would have realised that oftentimes new innovations take their place alongside the incumbents rather than replacing them.
So in the PR world, the Internet is now another medium which sits comfortably alongside our newpapers and magazines, our television, cable and radio.
What the Internet has done is to make the job of a PR practitioner more complex than before. We’ve a host of new tools, thousands of new media sources and our greatest challenge yet: creating conversations with our audience.
As all the marketing disciplines have become more sophisticated, so has the consumer. Where the Internet was heralded as a means of creating instantaneous sales (and in some cases such as books it has), consumers today expect companies to work harder for their dollars.
Think about my recent purchase of a PDA as a case in point.
In the past, I might have got a couple of brochures from some manufacturers, visited a couple of retail outlets and made 
a decision. Today that purchase process is far more complex.
I’ll search for all the manufacturers. I’ll go to all their sites and read their literature. I’ll visit the relevant magazines and read the reviews, visit mailing lists, consumer opinion sites. I’ll still pop into the retail store and finally I’ll make my “educated” opinion. Then, once I’ve parted with my cash and my post-purchase cognitive dissonance sets in, I’ll re-visit my chosen vendor’s website to be reassured that I made the right decision.
That is a longer and more demanding sales cycle.
It seems to me that as the ticker price rises, the purchase process for the educated consumer becomes longer and more complex with the Internet. That’s a real business issue.
So how is Public Relations responding to this new demanding consumer?
I think the jury’s out, but given the growing need for PR to make a direct contribution to an organization’s bottom line, it is something that every practitioner should be thinking about.
We need to understand the complex purchase process and how we can communicate more effectively during that process.
Then there’s the Cluetrain effect.
Every company needs official content, data sheets, backgrounders etc., but there is also a growing need for companies to reach out and connect with their customers. The Cluetrain declaration that markets aren’t about products or services but about conversations, is more relevant today than when it was published.
Organizations that can connect with customers in a real and meaningful way have a strong advantage over those that hide behind corporate speak. Weblogs offer one tactic to help firms reach out, but weblogs continue to be in their infancy and as a result, firms are struggling to understand how they can be best deployed.
Trevor Cook reports that Microsoft, a company facing a challenging market, now has over 400 employee blogs. Many of these blogs are well written and do show a positive human side to Microsoft. However, many are written by individuals who have drank a little too much Kool-Aid and are a little too fond of quoting the “great human resource benefits” at the company.
I have no concrete answers to these questions. It’s too early and I’m always suspicious of people who declare they know the code.
However here’s an exercise for you.
How well do you understand the typical purchase process for your client or employer’s product? Do you know and understand where those customers find information? Are your PR activities tailored to meet those needs? Are you trying to create conversations?
The Internet is all about communication and therefore it’s all about Public Relations. PR can play a central role in helping firms deal with the educated consumer. It’s a great opportunity.
We’re all busy, we’re all under resourced and over worked (A great illustration for the dreaded “Sharpen the Saw” metaphor).
However, sometimes it is useful to step back and look at the business problem, it could help make your PR programs more effective and a prominent contributor to the bottom line. The difficult part is that the media and the audience continues to change. Success will require some new approaches.
You have to love coincidences… After posting my rant on the educated consumer I spotted a story about how Internet “strategy” firm I-ology has launched an online PR service.
Murphy's Law 