Did you see Joseph Thornley's post about Mike Arrington's talk at the Mesh conference? Now, before we get too far off the mark, I'm only addressing Joe's first item, the one regarding Mike's statement about being first to post. I got to thinking about that comment and how that very notion seems to be so pervasive these days. While speed may be important, I happen to believe accuracy is of greater importance.
It's understandable that Mike wants to be the first to write on a hot story as it still "pays" to be first. But IMO, getting the story right is far more important. Too often, people jump on a story without really thinking about it simply because they too feel it's more important to be first.
This is the principle that drives lots of reporting. As PR professionals, you understand this and you have learned to manage the need to be first by either giving exclusives (where that makes sense) or by asking folks to honor embargoes (so that everyone can be "first").
With the advent of social media, now everyone wants to be first. The result? Too many people wind up getting the story wrong - or incomplete - in their rush to be first or among the first to write.
What's interesting is that the now-universal need to be first seems to be forcing some to rethink that strategy. As one of my close PR colleagues recently acknowledged, it seems like there are a number of bloggers and reporters who are now willing to wait for a story to break BEFORE posting themselves. Why? The nature of news distribution has changed. As anyone who has watched a story wax and wane on the Internet knows, it is sometimes the follow-on story - with deeper perspective, and well to be quite candid, the facts and some analysis - that gets the lion's share of attention. And sometimes the big follow-on story becomes the final word if not the first word about a story.
Of course, in the blogosphere there is no "last" word. But the lesson here for bloggers and journalists alike is that in a world where being first often means being wrong, it sometimes pays to be "last".
Technorati tags: PR, Social Media
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