Person-to-Person Communication: The Human Side of Public Relations

(Ed: Today’s Tax Day in the U.S. Are you all squared away?)

I had an interesting (to me) exchange of thoughts with a reader of my own blog recently on the subject of person-to-person communication.

I had written about a reassuring experience I had in a restaurant during which the young woman who took my order had initiated and maintained eye contact every time she came to my table.

Image: bobfranklin via Flickr, CC 2.0

The reader seemed to be of the opinion that “person-to-person” contact was not so important.

That we should be exploring ways in which to improve our online communications. Apparently, to him, that is the area that needs some touch-up.

To a certain degree, I’m on his side…we should pay attention to that aspect of the process.

After all, online communication is rapidly becoming the default means of maintaining contact with friends, clients, media representatives, and other living, breathing entities.

But.

Let’s not throw the whole kit and caboodle out the window just because it’s so much easier to hide behind an electronic persona and not risk sullying our pristine selves with actual human interactions. I’ve written about this before for Waxing Unlyrical, and will continue to sound off when I feel the occasion calls for comment.

Public relations is just that…relations with the public (aka “human beings”) who have a vested interest in what our client or organization is doing.

Impersonally delivered electronic communication isn’t going to cut it.

Yes, you need to maintain an ongoing dialog with your public, and social media communication, as one example, is a way to accomplish that. But at the end (or beginning) of the day, in-person or, at the very least, telephonic (and I’ll add some of the current-day online platforms like Skype) communication must take place.

There must be a real, live human aspect to the communication if it is to be received and perceived as truly being sincere.

I’ve recently noticed…and this definitely is informal research…an uptick in the desire of my students to actually be with their friends, enjoying their company and sharing real-time observations and experiences.

Communicators today must understand the dynamics of interpersonal relationships

of interacting with others in the moment and not time-delayed as is often the case with online communication. They must be able to recognize and respond to someone else‘s reactions.

And that brings me back to my initial thought…that, while we must, no two ways about it, be able to conduct online communication efficiently and effectively, we also must be capable of looking another person in the eye and carrying on a meaningful conversation.

That, to me, is the essence of effective public relations.

As my uncle (according to family myth) was fond of saying when someone would comment on the fact that he didn’t seem too terribly overworked, “Yep, not bothered by too much business.”

While I’m sure he said these words in jest, they have always stuck with me. What’s the value of public relations if you’re “not bothered by too much of the public”???

“Yesterday upon the stair. I met a man who wasn’t there. He wasn’t there again today. Oh, how I wish he’d go away!” ~ William Hughes Mearns “Antigonish” [1899]

(Ed: Don’t forget to join the #measurePR Twitter chat tomorrow from 12-1pm ET… it’s a community edition, so you are the special guest.  Hope to see you there!]