As the 2004 PRSA National Conference approaches, the orgnanizers have agreed to host a blogging workshop at the last minute. And they scheduled it at the same time as a workshop already on their schedule for months on Internet strategies for PR Professionals that covered blogging as a PR tool. Why did they do this - they were influenced by blogging.
There are several good PR lessons to be learned here:
Always check your facts before you make accusations or statements. B L Ochman looked through the conference agenda and saw no reference to blogging, so she accuse PRSA of being asleep at the wheel and pushed for a blogging workshop. Just a little more research would have revealed that there was indeed time devoted to this important new PR tool. PRSA should have made it more visible on the agenda, but the fact remains, it was there.
Blogging can push you in a direction you had no intention of going. Bloggers have an audience. They get noticed. They can influence and sway others.
Have absolute certainty on your own position. Have full backup to protect your actions so that if you are attacked or accused, you can 'dead agent' the attacker. All PRSA needed to do was publish the outlines of the workshops where blogging was well covered by a reputable blogger and the barbs about PRSA being asleep at the wheel would have been shown to be absurd and false.
Perhaps what PRSA really needs is a workshop on how to handle black propaganda and baseless attacks on your reputation.
