After writing my quick post on Google’s announcement regarding their realtime search to include Facebook fan page updates, it made me reminisce on the never ending saga of PR vs. Journalists. Ironically, PR folks lose in their own PR battle when it comes to their relationship with the media.
I often wonder whether social media can become the one mechanism that could help bridge PR folks and Journalists together. A chasm exists between the two due to the nature of the media world. I wonder if PR professionals who participate in social media tools (blogging, vlogging, podcasting, etc.) could somehow find a way to break that barrier.
I’ve been in many a debate regarding this issue, once challenging an entire panel of journalists and PR folks in San Francisco during a 1 hour talk entitled something like “Can We All Get Along?” I had high hopes. I thought, “Finally! We are going to get to the bottom of all this nonsense and find out why there’s such a stigma about being in PR sometimes, and why journalists, generally, are pestered by our existence.
Unfortunately, after about 30 minutes of talk from the panel, it became like any other “Journalist/PR workshop” or a “How to pitch a journalist” panel. Every recommendation on “how to get along” apparently was give to the PR folks. We were the only ones committing crimes against the relationship. Though I agree we can be pestering, I didn’t buy it.
I then asked the question no one wanted to: Why do we have to do all the work to mend the relationship? Don’t you need us too?
The panel and crowd perked up. The reaction was amazing. I think I even heard a few chuckles around the crowd. The panel one by one began responding to me, but the basic sentiment was this:
“That’s honestly how it’s gonna be. You work for clients who pay you to chase us and hound us. You have to be the ones to mend your ways and the bridges you burn or half-burn with the media.”
It may not have been the answer I wanted, but it sure made me happy to hear it, as what was very interesting to see was that PR folks on the same panel accepted this set up as a given. I think that this low morale is a big cause for high turn overs in the PR world. At the end of the day, you don’t want to be called a glorified telemarketer and spammer. No fun. PR pros do so much more than just pitch, and yet bad pitches are sometimes all they are remembered for. Again, shooting the messenger is easiest.
Since that workshop I always wondered if PR folks’ embrace of social media could help dispel some of these misconceptions or at least make the conversation more open. It may also help us not have to make bad pitches.
Imagine, a PR pro so known in the world of journalism (or at least their specific client’s beat, say Hi-Tech reporters) that these reporters check out the PR pro’s blog just to see if there’s something interesting they could write on. No need to ever do the cold pitch to the journalist. Maybe all they need to do is subscribe to an RSS. If they see something interesting, they can ping the PR blogger. Set up the interview. And everyone’s happy.
That’s my pipe dream. I hope my blog can help facilitate that somehow, or find a way where social media can benefit the PR industry itself, rather than just PR clients’ industries.
Can we make it happen? Help me experiment. Start a blog and see : ) then tell me about it. Better give me credit for the idea though. Or I’ll hunt you down. haha. I DO know karate…but more on that in another post.
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Anyone heard about google money pro programm? I accidently came accro this website googlemoneypro
author claims that this ebook can teach you to earn money with google adwords. What do you think is it real or no. Anyone bought it? I don’t want to loose money again. BTW sorry for offtopic!
here is website I neeed your opinion
Thanks for the comment, not off topic at all for this website. There are a hundreds of products out there vying for your hard-earned cash and in the internet wild west, it’s easy to be sold by a snake oil salesmen.
As for this particular product, never heard of it until your post. I took a look around, though, and at first glance I could see why you’d be a bit skeptical. There are typos everywhere, the copy runs for ages, and my biggest cause for concern is that the outline of what the product actually provides is quite vague. What do I actually get for paying $97?
The site claims the following:
- Complete step by step methods to show you exactly what to do to succeed online.
- Exactly how to start a profitable online business for less than $100 capital.
- My personal secrets to success which I learned the hard way – from my own trial and error. You won’t find these secrets anywhere else online because they are 100% developed and perfected by me!
- Advanced Google advertising techniques. These techniques will allow you to perfect any advertising campaign letting you beat any of your competitors easily.
- How to easily begin making money online without ever having a website or a product of your own.
- All the information you need to succeed quickly online, including the information all the other guides left out which jeopardized your chances of success!
- Learn how to NEVER worry about losing money and how to always make a profit.
Seem great, but leaves room for a lot of questions. I didn’t stay too long to peruse the entire site, but I would take him up on any free e-books or PDF starter kits just to get a feel of how he instructs, what kind of “techniques” and “secrets” he has to offer, etc.
I’m not one to get in the middle of a man’s online livelihood, but since he is selling a product related to Google AdWords, also know that there are now tons of books that provide basic groundwork for setting up and maintaining Google AdWords campaigns. Until I see right off from the site what differentiates his product from the numerous resources out there, I would hold off on the $97.
Hope this helps and thanks for the comment!
T
Great post! keep them comin… thanks for all your hard work.
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