I’m writing this from Starbucks in the beautiful city of Prague, Czech Republic. It’s a tough life sometimes.

“The Melbourne-based strategist, known on YouTube as “Simontsmall” posted the clip in reaction to losing the account for the New Zealand vodka brand 42Below, to an unspecified London agency.”

He makes some valid points though.

I insticitively thought people in the industry would much prefer office life but from the responses I received that’s not exactly the case. So in poll style, please answer the question which aptly suits you.

I’ve slightly changed the question because asking people if they prefer to work from home rather than work is a little restrictive.

Given that we’re in the business of relationships I’m firmly of the belief that any PR professional is only as strong as his or her network. And now thanks to online comms and social media our networks are growing larger and for the better, albeit if a little tough to manage sometimes. I am connected to hundreds (maybe thousands) of my peers around the world who I have learned a great deal from and who I continue to learn from to this day. I love it.

But…

This blog post isn’t just about praising my online PR network. No, sorry, it’s a bit more self-serving than that. To be quite honest I’m looking to increase my online PR network further by connecting with freelance online PR ninjas for no other reason than to swap notes and see what happens.

So regardless of which counry you’re in, if you live by the sword let’s connect. We might come in useful to each other.

VENUE: THE BARBICAN CENTRE, LONDON
DATE / TIME: WEDNESDAY 1 APRIL 2009, 9AM TO 4PM
TICKETS: £295 + VAT, £245 + VAT EARLY BOOKING / CHARITY RATE

ABOUT THE CONFERENCE (PFD)

The internet has revolutionised the way we seek and share information and has acted as a catalyst for wide ranging social interaction and potential communication opportunities with individuals, niche audiences and mass markets.

In a few short years weʼve seen the rise of social networking, hugely popular user generated sites and bloggers with the influence to make or break brands and reputations.

The Donʼt Panic Guide To Social Media is aimed at senior communicators and will examine the rapid growth of online PR and the social media tools that are driving the revolution.

Delegates will hear the latest insight into how and why social media is an essential part of the communications mix alongside a range of case studies showing how to successfully integrate social media into your communication strategies.

The conference takes place at Cinema 3, The Barbican Centre, London and features an unmissable line up of speakers. Refreshments, lunch and access to presentations are included in the ticket price.

Reading it myself I was shocked at the negativity of the article. I mean SAS anyone? One can’t comment on the author because, like most Economist articles, he or she is anonymous. This anonymity has something to do with the publication’s long held belief that no journalist should be bigger than the news they’re providing.

The following week, as I was reading the hardcopy edition, I noticed in the Letters page a response to the article by Chief of the Defence Staff at the Ministry of Defence, Sir Jock Stirrup, which, as you would expect, ridiculed the article to be nothing more than “utter nonsense” written by “armchair commentators [who] unwisely and without the benefit of strategic insight [choose] to snipe at the commitment and worth of the British contribution.”

As one might expect the response is a well worded reply that defends the complicated role British servicemen are playing alongside the Americans and other allies. However, like blogs, all Economist.com articles have the ability to comment on them and you will often find heated discussions on all types of articles from people around the world.

This particular article is no different and at time of writing it has 62 comments with the most recent being a couple of days ago. Having scanned through each of the comments, however, I can’t see any official response by the Ministry of Defence. This is a cause for concern as it’s very likely that more people will read the article online than in the newspaper edition due to the online version being global, free, accessible and around forever. The dead tree version has a limited shelf life.

Luckily Economist.com also publishes the Letters pages too so the MoD’s response is available online. The problem is though it’s not on the same page as the actual article so the chances that those who read the article via the website will also read the response are slim.

The MoD PR team should have advised on using The Economist’s online edition as well as the hardcopy edition. In fact I would argue that it is more beneficial to add a response in the comments than in the Letters page (obviously you should be doing both) as it provides readers with an official counter-argument alongside the article and thus providing more context.

Quite worrying when it seems the MoD PR team don’t have a grasp of basic online tactics. Unless of course there was an actual reason why no official statement was given in the comment section of the article?

From Mr Shorthouse.

Overview

• The market is small. You can fit the population of the entire state into the city of Los Angeles. That limits the PR scene, but gives a great opportunity for niche marketing
• The industry is young. PR has only been around for 20 years which explains some of the ethical problems
• Online PR is rarely used and is still considered niche. This will be challenged by the upcoming financial crisis and budget cuts.
• Ethical behaviour is questionable in the discipline of digital PR

Use of New Media in Czech PR

In the Czech market it seems there is a lack of exploitation of new media. Blogging and social media in general are perceived as ‘something for the geeks’ by the general public. Factors like the nature of the small market, language restrictions and a low number of early adopters cause social media PR to be left without a broad audience yet.

Agencies and clients predict that as soon as the recession impacts the Czech Republic, there will be a rise in new media campaigns. This provides only little comfort, because the audience problem still remains unresolved.

Some agencies are trying to change that by blogging, even though it’s often an ‘on and off’ relationship with cyberspace. Dissemination of press releases solely online is uncommon, and social media news releases haven’t made their appearance yet. However, given the current situation (like in most PR markets) where journalists are flooded with Word doc emails, one would think that digital press centres would make them happier.

Setting up social media departments seems like a perfect idea to stimulate public’s interest in the online world. However, big agencies will have a hard time justifying time and energy investments into social media with uncertain returns. Thus, I see the future of online PR in the hands of smaller and more flexible agencies. At the very least, every agency can set up a blog and contribute to this development.

Ethics

As anywhere in the world, there are problems with unethical execution of clients’ plans. Nearly a half a year ago, an agency created fake blogs to promote their clients’ products. Worse yet, they lied about their intentions and shed negative light on common PR practices.

Posting biased information on the web under the disguise of someone else was also popular for a while, but since the public became savvy to this wrongdoing the practice has been discontinued. And thank goodness for that!

PR in cyberspace is about creating conversations, full disclosure and transparency. This mindset has not arrived to most of the Czech PR professionals. There is a residue of Machiavellianism amongst the marketers and PR folks. Yes, they are facilitators of public opinion, but that doesn’t mean that they stand above the ordinary consumer. Unfortunately, the PROs in CZ sometimes think otherwise.

“The end justifies the means” perspective dominates the scene. I firmly believe that this perspective is why PR often lacks credibility in the eyes of some. We need to change it fast by educating the young professionals in a different way.

The prevalent philosophy nowadays is “If you behave unethically and get caught, you will be punished.” So far, it did not work, because too many agencies focus on not getting caught, but not eradicating the bad behaviour. I don’t have a universal solution for that, but I wonder what Richard and Karen think about it.

Proposition for non-Czech PR professionals

The door is open for anyone who wants to acquire international experience over here.The Czech PR market offers a blend of large network agencies along with smaller consultancies.

For students and young professionals there is an obvious benefit of putting something extra on your resume. On the other hand, the experienced PROs have an opportunity for self-actualization on an emerging market. The standards are not yet fully developed, so why not to take an advantage of it?

You can find out more about Czech PR agencies from a recent report (pdf) by the American Chamber of Commerce.

Conclusion

For the Czech PR scene to progress, and for up and coming local PR professionals to advance in their careers, it would be more suitable for the industry to adapt a more European approach to the professiona. This is particularly true when it comes to the adoption of new media tools and ethics.

At this point of time, there is not enough peer pressure among the agencies that would help to rid the industry of the unethical behaviour and craft new standards. We should all strive to minimise the social inheritance of unethical conduct and phase it out as soon as we can. It all starts with the individual responsibility.

And finally, even though the Czech PR industry is small and young, it provides very attractive opportunities for grassroots activities as well as niche PR in general. Online PR in the Czech Republic is still a blue ocean but it’s ready to be exploited.