Legal marketing: 10 commandments for the Era of Participatory Public Relations

Legal marketing professional’s should cut out and tape to the wall Steve Rubel’s 10 commandments for PR in this day of participatory and interactive PR.

As evidenced by BusinessWeek’s cover story about Skype, a free VOIP (voice over internet protocol), becoming a major force in the telecom industry as a result of Internet users virally spreading the word, the days of traditional corporate PR are over. Rubel offers his 10 rules for what he calls Golden Era of Participatory Journalism.

1. Thou shall listen – Utilize every avenue available to you to listen actively to what your publics have to say and feed it back to the right parties.
2. Remember that all creatures great and small are holy – It doesn’t matter if it’s the New York Times calling on you or an individual blogger, both have power. Take them all seriously.
3. Honor thy customer – Create programs that celebrate customers and they will celebrate you.
4. Thou shall not be fake – Keep it real; don’t hide behind characters and phony IDs.
5. Covet thy customers – Don’t sue your fans. You will alienate them.
6. Thou shall be open and engaging – Involve your customers in the PR process. Invite them to help you develop winning ideas and become your spokespeople.
7. Thou shall embrace blogging – It’s not a fad, it’s here to stay. Be part of it.
8. Thou shall banish corporate speak – People want to hear from you in a human voice. Don’t hind behind corporate speak. It will soon sound like ye olde English.
9. Thou shall tell the truth – If you don’t tell the truth, it will come out anyway.
10. Thou shall thinketh in 360 degrees – Ask not what you can do for your customer, but also what your customer can do for you.

Great stuff Steve.