Forrester Forum: Corporate Image in the Age of Social Technologies with Richard Edelman

Every company is a media company now - so sayeth Richard Edelman during his presentation.

Now, full disclosure, I used to work for a competitor, but also interviewed both Richard and the head of the US, Pam Talbot and have a view on the firm (it's below).

His presentation is on how PR is changing, and how we need to change with it. For those basic rules, he points out:

• Transparency
• Dialogue
• Honesty
• Immediacy
• Depth of content
• Updating as you learn
• Journalistic level of accuracy
  

Okay, it has been an interesting speech. While I don't agree with all the hires for the ME2Revolution, Edelman (the man and the firm) has pushed the boundary much, much more than any other agency out there. During my round of interviews with both PR firms and start-ups, I was often asked which agencies get it, and I would say three firms immediately: Edelman, MWW and MS&L. While Edelman gets a lot of the press out there (it's the good stuff you don't hear about, just the Walmart crap), the people at MS&L and MWW have done great stuff.

And, well, when you do good work, it's in the background. You should not know about the campaigns (despite claims of transparency and full disclosure, a good campaign is integrated and smooth, and about getting information out to the right audiences).

The job of PR is to not control, but to help move the conversation (old news, wrote about it in the past via Jack O'Dwyer that we need to be the bridge for media, and not pulling the Heisman).

Embrace the issues, adopt to the new reality - it's about coming together and trust.