FUD: Thick as Mud More Often Than Not

11Mar06

It’s funny how the fear, uncertainty, and doubt – skepticism, essentially – that is ingrained in most decision-makers within enterprises instantly relegates PR counsel to the bottom of the priority stack. As it relates to emerging communication mediums, PR people are chartered with providing the advice, facts, logic, you name it, that our clients need in order to enter the blogosphere or start experimenting with other forms of social media. But, counsel only goes so far when the FUD is as thick as mud. Often, it seems, it’s not only FUD, but a mixture of that and an overly hierarchal organizational structure that prevents experimentation.

Surely blogging and other social media initiatives are not one size fits all, but sometimes preconceived notions about what it all means, and is capable of, are too strong to motivate change. I think this aspect of PR counsel is one of the more challenging, and one that we certainly are less confronted with as more and more companies catch on to the power of the medium, but one that we continue to face from companies that are entirely traditional in their belief in communication and PR and how it should work.

Filed under: Blogging, Communication, PR, Social Media   |  1 Comment