Online Public Relations Thoughts

This story has a lesson for PR, but unfortunately, it doesn't come from a PR agency. An ad agency wanted to learn how to do viral communications, so it took a known event and spun a few - um - theories about it around a fictional student doing his PhD. The event was the legendary Tiger Woods golf shot that somehow got into the hole when there was no way for it to do so. The site they dedicated to the theories is here. All are preposterous, and some are hilarious.

The real lesson is that the agency was willing to take the time to try something new. I have called for many years for systematic experimentation with new techniques and technologies. The resistance to this idea has always been high. No one has the "time." My answer to that has always been that one should take time because there will be an hour soon enough when one can use the knowledge. And, there will be a day when one is left behind for not keeping up.

There is another issue as well that has come up time and again. No one sees any use for a new technology or technique until they learn it. Then, suddenly, uses show up all over the place. It is only through systematic experimentation that one finds new ways to do old processes or new techniques. Your value goes up the more you know.