Tim Burrowes was kind enough to let me reproduce the op ed I wrote for the latest issue of B&T, so here goes:

Long before “conversations” became the most over-used word on the internet, the public relations industry had a catch-cry of its own: “two-way communication”.

Almost by definition, PR is about having conversations — whether through the media, in town hall meetings, or on the internet.

In theory, the public relations industry should be leading the charge on blogging and other online conversations. In reality, most of the industry is at cross-roads. It’s time for PR to open its ears and embrace social media.

“Two-way communication” might be the catch-cry of public relations, but what does it really mean?

Let’s take a closer look at media relations to bring these ideas to life. PR practitioners don’t just tell their client’s stories to journalists, which would be one-way communication. They also bring public opinion back into to the organisation, emphasising the need to be honest and considerate while telling a story that’s larger than a product brochure. The press release and other one-way communication tools are part of the PR toolkit, but their goal should be to generate a media interview or some other form of two-conversation.

The same principles apply with other aspects of PR, such as government, employee or community relations. In all these areas, PR is about listening as well as talking. It doesn’t matter whether a PR campaign is reaching out to fashionistas to financial analysts, one thing is certain: they will only really hear you once you’ve opened your ears to them.

All this talk about conversations should inspire bloggers and social networkers, because discussions and interaction are also the basis of social media. You use your blog to discuss other blogs. You inspire other bloggers to talk about you. You write on each other’s wall in FaceBook. You leave comments on each other’s photos and movies on Flickr and YouTube. You listen to each other, and organisations earn your respect is by listening to you.

Conversations and two-way communication — it looks like PR and social media are a match made in heaven. From this point of view, talking with bloggers and participating in social media should be a natural activity for PR agencies. However, it doesn’t always work out that way, and I think there are three main reasons.

First, it’s because PR practitioners tend to be “people people”, and conversations with bloggers are often online, not face-to-face. Of course, social media is about people not technology, but unless you’re briefing or having a drink with a blogger you miss out on many of the interpersonal queues that are so important in PR.

Second, it’s because too many PR practitioners have approached a blogger as if they were a journalist, been scolded for being so clumsy, and then withdrawn from blogger relations altogether. Yes, it’s easy to make mistakes when working with bloggers — but it’s also easy to botch an important media interview or a ministerial briefing. A better response to initial failure would be to get back on your feet and learn how to treat bloggers like bloggers, which starts with relating to them as individuals.

Third, it’s because many clients still treat media clippings as a “must have” from their PR agencies, and put most other things — including online PR — in the “nice to have” basket. The solution here is to focus on the business outcome, such as a boost in sales or recruitment, rather than focusing on the clips as if they were an end in their own right.

Whatever the reason, there are no excuses for standing still. The communication environment is changing, and we — as public relations consultants — must change with it. But how? Well, I couldn’t put more clearly than Levine, Locke, Searls and Weinberger in their breakthrough work The Cluetrain Manifesto (1999): “by listening, marketing will re-learn how to talk.”

It’s time for PR practitioners to become bloggers, rather than simply briefing them and expecting them to act like journalists. It’s time to join social networks — to connect with communities rather than merely talking at them. It’s time to unleash our imagination, creating content for our client that is so special and real that it spreads virally of its own accord. It’s time to embrace the internet while returning to the first principle of public relations: two-way conversations.

Personally, I couldn't be more pleased that B&T, one of the bastions of Australia's marketing community, is showing ever more interest in PR and digital, two topics that are close to my heart. And thanks for allowing this reprint rights Tim! (Which reminds me, what do we call reprints when that don't use paper...)