Christophe Ginisty

President of International Public Relations Association. Expert in social media management.

Im 49. When I was 24 I dropped out of studying law to create my own PR company. Im a fan of Marseille. I prefer going to the stadium rather than watching the games on TV. Im married, I have three daughters. I admire President Barack Obama as well as Albert Einstein who taught us to go beyond our own limits.

Twitter is the worlds largest PR company

By JORGE PAREDES

FrenchChristophe Ginistywas 20 when Apples Macintosh was launched to the market and his life changed. He dropped out of studying law and started promoting the use of technology. Now he chairs the International Public Relations Association (IPRA) and is a specialist in the use of social media.

e came to Lima for the presentation of the IPRA Presidents Award to Universidad de San Martn de Porres and to promote study and research in public relations which is more and more necessary today with the growth of technology in communications. Why were you interested in PR not such an exciting profession at first glance-? Very simple. Ill tell you my personal story. In 1984 I saw Apples Macintosh launch and that changed my life. I decided to promote technology and asked myself: where do I start ?, what is the first thing you do to inform people? I realized that PR is the foundation of communication and I wanted to be part of the process. From 1984 to date the world has completely changed, how much has PR changed with the emergence of the internet and social media?

In fact, when I started my profession, doing PR was quite easy. You had an organization that wanted to say something and we prepared the press documents, pictures and information, and distributed it among the journalists and then our job was over. Today all of that has changed. We can no longer control what people believe. Before we were a source of information, now we are part of a more complex system, but more one that is more exciting. Now PR students need to learn more, need to know sociology, anthropology, psychology, techniques related to communication in time of crisis Today communication between companies and consumers is more direct and a companys reputation can be brought down by a comment in Facebook, how do you deal with it? Yes, its very difficult but at the same time its much more fun. Never was it so exciting and I love complexity, not because its difficult but because its challenging. Yes, maybe 20 or 30 years ago PR was not so exciting, but now it is. Now companies and we the PR profession must pay greater attention to the public, our audience, and be less arrogant. Do you think Facebook is the worlds largest PR company? I think Twitter is more so. Thats where the cross-referencing of information takes place. There are two types of social media: the ones where you go and stay and the others

that connect you with the rest of the networks, and Twitter is doing just that, its gathering all the rest of the media. Its at the crossroads. Many of my friends say that its no longer necessary to issue a press release, just write a twit. Do you believe that? Not really but it serves to arouse interest. Which are the possibilities and limitations of social media? .........

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In 1984 I saw Apples Macintosh launch and that changed my life. I decided to promote technology and asked myself: what can I do to get so?, what is the first thing you do to inform people?
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Your enemies can build false profiles saying bad things about you. That is big trouble because you can be attacked in any moment.

Among the possibilities, we can access any type of information immediately; we can check and verify information, and we can be connected to people without barriers. But there are also many limitations: the greatest is the difficulty in finding the truth, in distinguishing between right and wrong, true and false. There are organizations that have learned to use social media to manipulate people. How do you avoid being manipulated? First, by training people how to search the internet, teaching them to identify reliable sources. In the digital world, journalists play a very important role, their work is to train people to browse and find the truth in order to fight manipulation. We need to be activists for truth. Networks are also personal spaces where persons promote and sell themselves. Yes, absolutely, and your enemies can build false profiles say bad things about you. That is big trouble because you can be attacked at any moment. There is where PR professionals are called to play a very active role to fight manipulation, information hacking and keep a the flow of information honest. All of this obliges us to back to our roots ethically communication? That is a key point. IPRA was created in 1949 by people who wanted to promote ethics in PR and that mission never ends. Now we need to help consumers to be well-informed and help organizations to provide accurate and transparent information. When I started my profession, manipulation came from the authorities, now it can also come from the public, the consumer. Source: El Comercio Newspaper