The Loveliest Village

On Monday, Oct.9, Rick Murray visited Auburn University to talk with public relations students about their work with social media. During his two-day trip to the loveliest village on the plains, Murray spoke to three differnt public relations classes, attended the PRCA weekly meeting, and met with faculty from the Department of Communication and Journalism to discuss Auburn’s PR program.

Murray is general manager of Edelman, the largest independently owned PR firm in the world, and president of the firm’s me2revolution. He is an expert on social media and Word of Mouth Marketing. Murray first agreed to visit Auburn’s PR students because of their experimentation with social media in the classroom. “[Edelman is] desperate to find people that get social media…And let me tell you, nobody does. It’s really scary how far behind most schools are and how far ahead, as a result, you guys are,” Murray said.

Murray spoke with students about the rapidly changing nature of the communication atmosphere and the implication for PR practitioners. “Basically we’ve got a world that really is a perfect communication storm,” he explained. Some of the major factors in this “storm” are the increase in accountability for companies, the decrease in efficiency of traditional paid media, the emergence of citizen journalists (bloggers) and online communities, and the increasing availability of simple, cheap technology to enable it all.

Murray spoke about how important the role of bloggers has become in creating and maintaining a company’s image. According to Murray, mainstream media are actually looking to bloggers for information. “When we invite bloggers to press events, the hardest questions we get are from bloggers…They are smarter, more passionate, more read-up in terms of what we’re doing, and they care more about what were talking about than people who are just sort of covering that beat.”

Murray also spoke about the effectiveness of conversation over traditional PR and advertising models and why Edelman decided to launch the me2revolution. “Brands are important, but ultimately what’s more important today is bonding with your consumer through engagement and through dialogue,” he explained. “We’re about conversation. It’s about listening to them, starting them, engaging in them, aggregating them, empowering them, and measuring them.”  For the first time ever, this year’s Edelman trust barometer shows that the “person like me” is the most trusted source of information. The premise behind the me2revolution is the individual as the center of the universe; everything revolves around the consumer, not the company. 

During Murray’s visit, students gave a brief presentation on the development and implementation of their own social media site, The Loveliest Village. Students also showed Murray examples of their personal PR blogs, podcasts, flickr account and work with the social media press release.

After Murray’s presentation on Monday night, students from Robert French’s Style & Design class were given the unique opportunity to talk with Murray on a more personal basis over dinner.

Robert French’s incorporation of social media in the classroom has not only been noted by Edelman. Recently, the Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) published an article about his unique curriculum titled “Blog U” in the summer issue of its magazine, The Strategist. French’s work with the students has also been praised on a number of blogs including Lee Hopkins’ Better Communication Results and the Social Media Club.

Special thanks to Rick Murray from all of The Loveliest Village’s contributers for your engaging and insightful presentation and for taking the time view some of our work.

(Photo courtesy of Edelman’s website)

Click to launch pop up and have the text portion read to you.