Pop Quiz! Quick, tell me, what the following people have in common:
Steve Rubel, Richard Binhammer, Geoff Livingston, Kami Huyse, Shel Hotz, Phil Gomes. There's more, but linking becomes so tedious after a while, don't you think?
What they share in common is that in recent weeks, each of them has been the subject of media interviews. Each of them also speaks regularly from the dais of industry gatherings. Each of these is a respected member of his or her community and there are dozens of other folk I could name. They also are all social media stars and you can find them in many of the usual online spaces starting or joining useful conversations.
A few years ago, each of these held in the inauspicious position that so recently was considered the role of the communications person. They carried or sent press kits. They wrote words that other said from the dais-often badly. They called the press to get others to speak to the editors and reporters.
All of this still continues. But something has changed.
We have entered into the Conversational Era when real people who a short while ago were relegated to stand one step back from the official company representatives, perhaps sometimes assigned to get the coffee or hail a cab. Now their position is evolving. They are being trusted by corporate decision makers to have public conversations about the parts f the enterprise they know. This is the time for the freelancer in a home office to build a global reputation because the are interesting in valuable in what they have to say.
Good corporate communicators and PR people speak with passion and accuracy. They often know what the listeners wants to know about and are more prone to give it than many of their clients.
Now, I know what some of you thinking. You're thinking about some awful PR story. Your thinking, as I often do about someone, who pitched you on something entirely wrong for your editorial needs. And so on.
I'm talking about the upper 10 percent of the communications profession. The rest are proof of Sturgeon's Revelation: "90 percent of everything is crap."
To that 10 percent who are moving into stage center, Rock on. This is your time.
