Public relations used to be about “getting our message out.” Today it’s much more about telling stories that will resonate with certain groups of people — people who have signaled they will care about the story through their affiliations, memberships, community connections, what information they access and where they access it, etc. In other words, public relations is about building relationships with select audiences for clients. That’s because 1) there are so many different ways to get information today and 2) consumers expect and have much greater control over their information sources and 3) numbers 1 and 2 impact each other bi-directionally and constantly, further changing, nearly every day, the communication landscape. (Marketing guru Seth Godin captures this bi-directionality brilliantly and quickly in his new book Meatball Sundae. A taste of the sundae is regularly found in Seth’s Blog, especially and including this recent post called “Dumbing Down.”)

Like any organization, I’ve got a story for Rosenberg Communications that I need to communicate to my target audiences. Problem is, if I’m completely honest about it, I’m having trouble keeping up with the story. I had the old story down pat, about great skill in messaging and real talent for reaching and connecting with reporters. That’s still part of our story. But now it’s also about helping clients build relationships with consumers who care about their story. And communicating how we do that to potential clients is proving just a bit elusive.

Pretty much I’ve come down to this story: We have years and years of experience working with traditional media. We have also invested considerable resources over the past several years in learning new media and Word of Mouth Public Relations. We are now working with clients to tell their stories to important audiences using tailored combinations of traditional and new media.

That’s my story and I’m trying to stick to it.

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