PR's Limiting Nutrient

In biological processes, nitrogen is often the limiting nutrient – the nutrient in finite supply that will limit cellular growth. The increased amount of nitrogen in plant fertilizers creates an abundance of what was supposed to be a limiting factor resulting in larger and more common plant growth because there is now more than enough resources to sustain life.

The downside to nitrogen fertilizing is that plants grow lots of shoots above ground, but not very strong roots. Eventually they become top-heavy and vulnerable to environmental elements such as wind, strong rain. Gravity.

Today, Todd Defren’s post at PR-Squared described a common frustration among public relations professionals - the beyond-fast-paced frenzy of social media advancements. It’s possible the confusion comes from looking at the wrong end of the plant.

Sure, like nitrogen-laced fertilizer, social media gave us the opportunity to reach more people than we had ever imaged, in more ways than they would ever want. We saw it with radio and TV. We saw it www.

But perhaps it’s time to again evaluate what our limiting nutrient truly is so we can return our focus to growing strong, uncompromising roots.

The standard way of determining which nutrient is limiting, is to increase the concentration of each nutrient, one at a time. Only an increase in the limiting nutrient will cause an effect.

So let’s look at the myriad of tactics available in today’s public relations portfolio, including social media. How much change would you expect to see by only adding another social media platform to the mix? Technology needs something behind it to work and bring value. Adding another social media tactic to the mix makes no difference without increased attention on timely communication, transparency, engagement and accountability. These are the ingredients of mutually beneficial interactions.

These considerations must be in place before social media can effectively sit down at the table.

Relationships, therefore, appear to be our limiting nutrient. And dare I propose – they always have been.