A lot of talk (back and forth – see links) about the recent ‘call to action’ by Steve Rubel in his effort called “GoingTheDistance” at the NewPRWiki.

Admittedly, the goal is a positive one. The intentions? I don’t know. I am wondering if the project’s participants will be properly representative of the PR community. Now, if the goal is solely to improve corporate PR and the employees of PR firms, this is ok. But, the phrase “PR community” – and PR overall – permeates the discussion.

The Thread

It’s Time to Go the Distance
A Call To Action
Wiki Debate on PR Opens to Firms of All Sizes

Notice something missing from that last headline?

Rubel writes “I wanted to make sure we had the right people in the room who can create change on a large scale.” The “right people”?

Think about that for a second. Rubel touts blogs, wikis – all social media – as the greatest new PR practice. The things he touts? Open dialog. Everyone is important. Everyone has a voice. Engage your audience. Then – he doesn’t hold true to the model. Well, he has now flip-flopped – a bit.

“change on a large scale” … Is the 300+ PR blogging community not larger than 15 people? OK, so he wanted a manageable group. I can appreciate that. Why all mid-size to large firms? After all, his own firm is more boutique than mid-sized. (Cooper Katz & Co. – 20 employees)

The incongruous aspect to this? In his mind it is the right move to ‘close the discussion’ to mid-large PR firms, alone. How can you hope to lead when you contradict your own protestations? Practice what you preach. He had to be steered into it. Follow the blog posts and comments.

Now, what is missing here?

Update: Rubel has now opened it up to all PR firms or agencies. Still, no realization that they are not representative of PR overall.

A lot has been settled in this latest flap, but I want my say. So, here goes.

First, most PR practitioners are not at large firms. In fact, they are not at ‘firms’ at all. Most PR takes place by individual practitioners and they are most likely in government, institutions, organizations, non-profits/NGOs and small businesses (not corporations). And, most of it does not take place in major cities. Oh, for corporations with a national/international focus – sure it does. But that does not make it all – or the majority of – PR practices.

I am willing to bet that if you just counted up the number of people doing PR for education – alone – it would come close to – or exceed – the total of 117 independent firms listed at O’Dwyer’s PR/Marcom. That list is a little more that 3,500 employees. It would only take one or two PR practitioners (on average) at each college, university (4,168) or K-12 school districts (14,841) in the US to beat that total. Heck if only 1-in-4 of the total had just one practitioner, you are over the top. As you see, if all of those had just one practitioner apiece – we would be equaling the total PRSA membership. And, we haven’t even added in all the other private K-12 schools or all government PAs – of any kind.

Second, if you look at the PR blogging community, the oldest blogs come from either past individual practitioners or existing ones. Most are consultants and/or have private practices – small practices. They have been setting the standards. They do not link blog, nor do they (for the most part) practice incessant “club chubby” link-buddy tactics. And, they don’t focus on the number of readers they have. They focus on the writing – the thoughts – the best and worst practices to help drive the conversation.

Finally, what about education? I am going to write something here I have never written before. Don’t you dare think this is a pitch to be invited to anything, either.

There are only a few PR educators actively blogging. Tell me if I am wrong, but I’m willing to bet that I’ve engaged more future PR practitioners in the act of blogging than anyone else. Easy to say when there are so few PR educators doing it. My students engage in experiential learning through their blogs. They interact with PR practitioners – every one I appreciate and thank for doing so – in Marcomblog.com. And Jeremy Pepper comments in all their blogs. Now, that – is experiential learning.

Why is that worthy of noting here? Because education is the key to the future. If you are truly devoted to an open dialog with all in PR (or, as Rubel calls it – “the PR community“) – educators and students should be involved too. And, they should not be an afterthought. It should not take contrary critical blog posts and comments to have them – and individual practitioners – included in this discussion.

Do you see where I’m going with this?

This is the type of experiential learning activity being co-opted in Rubel’s meme, and the meme is not new. Global PR Blog Week was doing it two years ago. Rubel was MIA this year.

Constantin Basturea has been aggregating these kinds of discussions and articles in the NewPRWiki for a long time, too. The list of blogs and blog posts about this “pushing PR forward” theme are too numerous to list (except in Constantin’s wiki, of course).

Initially, Rubel had to be steered toward the wiki. Look at his original post. Then, when he finally got there – he had to be steered toward open discussion and a more inclusive practice.

Conclusion

I’ll agree that education in social media and/or experiential participation in blogging (CMS overall) is needed by all practitioners. I am just skeptical about this particular effort.