Is it time to retire the “PR” jersey?

Public relations had a long run as the name for an important communications discipline.  Management always understood what you meant when you said, “We can PR that,” or “Let me talk to the PR people and get back to you.”

Then came Google, and everything changed.

For a discipline built on the assumption that you could not only manage but actually mold the perceptions of all of your key audiences – or “publics,” as the earliest PR practitioners of a century ago called them – Google has upset the paradigm.  It’s much harder to control information.  It’s much harder to get out ahead of bad news.  And every piece of public information about your company – the good, the bad, the ugly – lives on the Web more or less forever.   

Don’t believe it?  Then think of all the Google Alerts turning up on your electronic desktop…and your customers, vendors, employees, analysts, shareholders, regulators and everyone else capable of typing your company’s name.  How many of them are the result of something you or your company directly control?  Not many.

What does it mean?

That there really is no such thing as a secret anymore.  One high-powered private equity manager learned that when private information about an important alliance popped up in a simple Google search.  Turned out that a young associate at the law firm of his company’s alliance partner popped the information into his website bio to make himself look more important.

That the media is now using Google as a primary news source – and often the only one – in its coverage about you and your company.  That’s what a well-known media investor discovered when a West Coast business journal printed a fable about his current business strategy based on what had happened in his career almost two decades ago without ever calling him.  When asked why, the young reporter said, “Well, I found it all on Google.”  So it must be true.

That Google allows you to become the story in ways you could never anticipate.  That’s what a partner in a high-profile private equity firm found out when a former colleague reminisced in his blog about their shared time together as young, overworked associates at a major investment bank.  The occasion – running into each other at the marriage of a third former overworked associate at a major investment bank.  Google found the entry – with details and a picture – only hours after it was posted. No harm done…but no control over it, either.

So what can you do about it?

First, find out what Google is saying about you and your company.  Go online now – you may not like what you see.  

Second, increase the flow of “good information” to Google.  It’s time to start thinking like a Google Alert – start a holistic campaign that surfaces good things about you, your company and your products.  Use press releases, media coverage, speaking events and bylined articles to get the word out.

Leverage the power of the new media.  Can a well-placed item on YouTube help sell more product?  Can a sponsored blog support your litigation strategy?  Is it time to think about Google Ads?  And don’t forget the piece of new media real estate you directly control – your company’s website.

Now that’s Google Relations.