The beginning roots of public relations contains a history filled with efforts to manipulate and persuade people to do something. A recent history (2001+, give or take) of public relations chronicles attempts by PR people to engage their audiences in conversations to find out what makes them tick, and then presumably find the golden key that will be used to persuade them to do something. Persuasion vs. Participation. Or have we actually entered an era of participatory persuasion?

Now before you challenge me with the argument that convincing people to eat a hearty breakfast of bacon and eggs has nothing to do with reaching out and inviting someone to participate in a social media campaign, let me explain.

In the recent history, public relations has embraced participatory social media to reach audiences and gauge their needs, values and wants. At the core of participatory persuasion remains ability to shape the credibility of an organization, product or event through generating trust, credibility and goodwill. In the process, various strategies and tactics have been used to encourage people to share their thoughts, photos, comments, etc. to further the goals of the PR campaign. Widgets have been created, fads have come and gone, and through it all, people have been persuaded to participate. These tactics key in on the goodwill factor: people are inclined to participate if they feel as if they have a stake in the message. Through the participation, they feel empathy and respond to further the online involvement.

Just as Bernays convinced young women to hold up “freedom torches,” countless people in the social media age have been persuaded by public relations professionals to accept free cameras, sample wines, post vacation photos from their phones, and take part in countless other social media campaigns under the guise of social media joining a ‘conversation’.

And it has drawn people in and persuaded them to ‘trust’ the messenger. People started talking about Nikons, sharing software invitations, drinking South African wine, wearing funny hats or peas on their noses, and taking part in countless other efforts to push products, causes and events. In these efforts, they feel like they are sharing in an experience, and they are more than willing to share this goodwill through blogs, SMS and other social tools.

And even if these people argue they were invited and not coerced or forced to participate, in the end, something persuaded them to join. Sure, they may have felt like they persuaded themselves, but they were still manipulated through prompts, herding, peer pressure, trust, goodwill or empathy to participate in furthering the goals of the public relations campaign. The participation only enhanced the goodwill, which built upon the other two keys of persuasion, trust and authority. Effectively, by using participatory persuasion through social tools, public relations is furthering the use of persuasion to further adoption of the idea, product or organization.