Our tag phrase, see know..., hear know..., speak know.... What's that all about?
Four years ago, I sat in a ballroom at the PRSA World Congress event in Chicago in what was being billed as their first ever half-day seminar devoted to high tech PR. It was an informative meeting, but I kept getting the sense that the field of tech PR was still trying to discover itself, or better yet, make its mark. There was a lot of interaction, with everyone sharing best practices, but the one theme that permeated the meeting, was the need for practicioners to "be in the know."
I keyed in on that phrase and have made good use of it in trainings, presentations, regular interaction, etc. ever since. The reason is because it couldn’t be more right. In PR, as in life, knowledge is king. Ask any journalist what their PR pet peeves are and the odds are very good that there will be a common thread traced back to a lack of knowledge—a lack of understanding of a publication, a lack of understanding of a beat, a lack of understanding of a client and their technology, and a lack of understanding of the industry.
Several years ago, I was on a teleconference with Ned Desmond, VP and Publisher of the former eCompany Now and Business 2.0, when he pointed out this pet peeve. What stood out to me from that conversation was that Desmond said he would actually spend 30 minutes on the phone with a PR rep, regardless of whether they were junior or not, if they could demonstrate a sound knowledge and engage him in a conversation—"being in the know."
I believed that was true for Ned then and I believe it is true for many media today. It’s true for me. Engage me with knowledge, where I can see the value in the conversation, and I’ll more than listen. That’s the power of this new sphere, of "relations"—the sharing of knowledge and contributing to "being in the know." See it, hear it, speak it.