Ioana Manoiu, GMP PR: PR, as we learned it, is dead
During PR Forum, an event organized by Evensys that took place on 15th and 16th of March, Ioana Manoiu, Managing Partner GMP PR, was present as a speaker, with a presentation that reiterated the fact that PR changed, being totally different from the PR agencies practiced a few years ago.
PR as we learned it is dead. We are reinventing ourselves, we are learning to do another job because, now, a company’s relevant public is the ordinary person that recommends, promotes and customizes content
As Ioana Manoiu said during her presentation at PR Forum, the public is back in Public Relations and the agencies are learning how to talk to the ordinary people.
In what concern the corporate part of the PR, Manoiu said that a company’s reputation is more fragile than ever, as ordinary people can now affect company’s reputation.
Ioana Manoiu also explained that the 15 minutes of shame in the past, related to corporate crisis and that were gone in a week or so, are now online forever, as technology developed and all the info are now available online at any time.
She also talked about Google and explained the fact that it can be assimilated to a reputation manager: if you are in the 1st search page, you exist, as most of the users (90%) don’t reach to the following pages.
Manoiu also said that, nowadays, internal means also external, considering the public can see more inside of a company through the messages published on social networks by its employees.
Different from the past are now the attacks that target deliberately the reputation of companies. Manoiu mentioned the case of a fake Twitter account including BP’s name that was mocking Gulf’s oil spill and the situation created around it. She also mentioned Yes Men!, a company specialized in ruining companies reputation.
Nowadays and to prevent all the above, a few steps Ioana Manoiu mentioned are:
- online reputation audit
- permanent monitoring
- be present online
- identify the possible threats and sources
- listen to the employees
- create a network of brands representative
- advanced planning
When is about corporate communication, Ioana Manoiu said the charismatic CEO is back in business, now that the economical crisis comes to an end and new perspectives are at the horizont.
The charismatic CEO is the authentic manager, that is modest and has experience. Also, the new CEO is the social CEO and the public waits to hear stories and to share emotions with him. Also, the social CEO is not communicating through emails, expressing himself through videoclips posted on own channels, such as YouTube.
In what concerns brand PR, Manoiu said now is the time of consumer to consumer marketing, a time when consumers want to be involved and a time that is also a challenge.
Acording to GMP PR’s managing partner, the intimacy with the consumer reaches at maximum level, with one to one interactions. The consumers yearn for human touch ad the companies get to surprise them,a s it was the case of KLM campaign, that managed, with presents for 28 clients, to generate over 1M impressions in 88 countriess all over the world.
Conclusion? People don’t want campaigns anymore, they want social movements.
The PR specialist is a multidisciplinary specialist as PR in 2011 means public engagement .
In 2011, you must be very persuasive