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If you have heard of blockchains at all, it most likely has been because you have an interest in Bitcoin, the cryptocurrency that has risen in popularity to the point that you can use them to pay for goods at some mainstream outlets (like Amazon, Target, CVS, eBay, and Dell).

Phil Gomes sees a need for PR practitioners to understand blockchains for purposes beyond Bitcoin; he envisions PR uses for the technology and has elaborated on those uses in posts on his blog. In this FIR Interview, Phil — senior vice president at Edelman Digital — joins host Shel Holtz to discuss blockchains and how they could become a standard PR tool.

Blockchains are databases that maintain a continuously growing list of data records that are hardened against tampering and revision, even by operators of the data store’s nodes (according to Wikipedia). That may sound useful for a cryptocurrency, but Phil has envisioned other uses to which blockchains will likely be put, uses that will have an impact on the practice of public relations.

About our conversation partner

Phil Gomes is widely  recognized for his expertise in global public relations, reputation management, crisis communications, strategic communications, online community engagement, corporate social media, and social business transformation. Phil has an established, consistent track record of identifying trends early (e.g., social media, bitcoin, blockchain technology, and Wikipedia engagement) and contextualizing them for public relations. He brings to his work a unique, cross-industry understanding of the critical intersection between corporate reputation, online communities, online governance, and regulatory matters. In September of this year, Phil developed his role as senior vice president at Edelman Digital. He focuses on preparing clients for advanced issues and special situations regarding online corporate reputation and emerging technologies. Before assuming his new role, Phil spent move than seven years as Edelman’s senior vice president of Digital Integration.

Phil founded CREWE (Corporate Representatives for Ethical Wikipedia Editing), a Facebook group dedicated to improving the relationship between public relations practitioners and the Wikipedia community. He is a founding fellow of the Society for New Communication Research, and serves on the ethics committee of the Word of Mouth Marketing Association.

Resources

• Why I’m Focusing on Blockchain Applications for PR (Phil Gomes blog post)
• Blockchain, Inc. (Phil Gomes LinkedIn post)
• Proof of Existence
• Blockchain (Wikipedia article)

About Shel Holtz

Shel Holtz, ABC (Accredited Business Communicator), is director of Internal Communications at Webcor, a commercial general contractor headquartered in San Francisco. Before joining Webcor, Shel spent 21 years as principal of Holtz Communication + Technology. In addition to integrating technology into communications strategies, his expertise includes strategic communications planning, change management, organizational culture, business initiatives and communications research. Full bio