One of the real pioneers in social media, Steve Rubel, is coming to Third Tuesday Toronto on November 24. When I first started to explore blogging and social media, Steve was already there. From the outset, Steve Rubel had a clear focus of the potential of the new social digital media. Steve staked out his territory and his vision with his very first post on his blog, Micropersuasion, in April 2004:
The proliferation of Weblogs and RSS news feeds has changed the practice of public relations forever. Despite all of the hype about media consolidation, we are no longer living in a mass media world dominated by conglomerates.
Today we’re just as likely to be influenced by something we read on a blog like Scobleizer as we are by an article in the Wall Street Journal or a segment on Good Morning America.
This means that the role of the public relations counselor is changing…quickly. Clients are still looking to agencies to reach key audiences. This hasn’t changed. The difference, however, is now PR pros must not only secure “earned media coverage” but also know how to influence influential bloggers, many of whom are part of the audiences we covet.
The rules of engagement are different in this world of micro persuasion. PR pros now must: 1) continually study how news spreads online, 2) identify and qualify the most influential and vocal members of their audience, 3) know how to reach these influencers and 4) learn how to easily assimilate into the audiences they want to reach by launching and promoting their own weblogs.
Talk about prescient!
Today, Steve can be found not just on Micropersuasion, but on other platforms like Twitter and Friendfeed. Of if you want to know what Steve is reading, you can subscribe to Steve’s shared items on Google Reader. While he (like the many of us) has backed off the frequency of his posts, he is still looked to for his ability to identify and make sense of trends.
This past summer, I had a chance to hear him make a killer presentation at the IABC International Conference on the trends he’s watching. I’m hoping that he’ll talk about this at Third Tuesday. If he does, I know we’ll all leave with a lot to think about.
We know that lots of people will want to meet and hear Steve. So, we’re moving this month’s event to a larger venue, Pravda.
If you’d like to hear and meet one of social media’s true pioneers, RSVP at the Third Tuesday Toronto meetup site.
Thanks again to our national sponsor, CNW Group, for enabling us to keep Third Tuesday a free community-based event.