Generosity
Generosity makes the social web go around and it’s increasingly driving forward best practice in public relations.
I blog as a means of thinking out loud, leaning, sharing ideas, and creating a network.
It’s an entirely democratic form of media. Some posts fall flat on their arse, others continue to be shared long after they were written.
If blogging has a currency it’s generosity on the part of the original creator and the community and conversation that develops around their leadership and content.
The CIPR #AIinPR panel started from a single blog post. It has subsequently developed into a community that has crowdsourced a tool stack and produced a paper exploring the impact of artificial intelligence on public relations.
Platinum, the book celebrating the CIPR’s 70th anniversary of the CIPR, likewise started life as a blog post. Along the way almost 50 people contributed content and support.
There’s a growing number of examples of blogs and communities in public relations built by generous practitioners that are helping drive our business forward. They typically exist outside formal organisational or industry structures without expectation of commercial gain.
Dan Slee and Darren Caveney’s comms2point0.co.uk is a shared learning space for the public sector. It has spawned the Unawards, an antidote to glitzy award shows that celebrate best practice.
#FuturePRoof led by Sarah Hall promotes public relations as a management discipline. It celebrated best practice in NHS communications with a crowdsourced book by practitioners earlier this year to coincide with the 70th anniversary of the NHS.
Ella Minty, a relatively new and welcome blogger to the UK scene, explores issues in organisational communication and reputation via a blog and a weekly Power and Influence Twitter chat.
Laura Sutherland is the founder of a professional community called PRFest that brings practitioners together around a two-day conference and other events, to learn, share, and collaborate.
Richard Bailey and the team at the PR Place occupy the space between theory, teaching and practice, curating a weekly summary of from public relations bloggers in the UK.
If you’re not involved in one of these communities, consider this a call to action to check them out and consider participating.
I’m thankful and inspired by the generosity of everyone I’ve mentioned and the communities that they’ve nurtured and supported. They’re a lesson to us all in generosity.
Thank you.
