A Little PR for the Field of PR?

Telling someone that you are a PR professional usually elicits a reaction akin to the one you get as a mother bringing a small child on to a plane. In both cases you can feel the people around you thinking “Now why would you want to go and do something evil like that?” Nobody says anything negative outright, but you can feel a sense of quiet hostility focused on you, even if people give you a tight (and decidedly insincere) smile in response.

It’s a matter of misconception and misunderstanding in each case. Ironically, it is due to faulty preconceptions that could be cleared up quite quickly. So here goes a tiny initial foray:

Despite the stereotypes, not all PR professionals are evil masters of spin.

Just as not every child that gets on an airplane is going to scream and wail all the way from New York City to London, we’re not all out to convince you to poison the environment, kill puppies, worship Satan or even to buy insurance. Many of us got into the field because we enjoy writing, we’re adept at putting words together persuasively and, frankly, we’re amazed we’re actually getting paid to do so. And of those individuals, quite a few are working for a business or not-for-profit or individual in which they truly believe. Part of their job is to get you out there to understand why they do and why you should too.

Yes, just as there have been one or two ill-behaved children with exceptionally strong lungs who have made other passengers wary of toddlers, there are a few PR professionals who do have some black marks on their record – and they may have indeed tried to convince you that drinking blood will keep you young .

But this is not the norm. These are the extremes. And we all know that extremism in any guise can get very ugly very fast.

So please don’t assume that all PR practitioners are in fact practitioners of the dark arts. It’s just not so.

The Dialogue Continues…Reaction to PR Secrets for Startups

The amount of commentary that this particular Techcrunch posting by Brian Solis generated borders on astonishing. For a few days, no matter which platform was your playground- Twitter, Friendfeed, etc. – this was THE topic.

You may recall that in an earlier post I mentioned that while Mr. Solis and Mr. Le Meur (whose commentary PR Secrets? bullshit started this avalanche of commentary) were basically in agreement on the main point, though they diverged on many others. They both believed in the importance of the participatory nature of Web 2.0. They both stressed that a good PR practitioner listens and speaks with people and not at them, be they journalists, bloggers or the all-important service or product user.

Well, it seems that Mr. Solis feels that way too. In a post reacting to the hullabaloo following his original piece on Techcrunch, he stated that

Community, participation, and people are everything. There is no one audience for your message, and, people and influencers are NOT targets. You need to participate directly with individuals in order to listen, learn and also share relevant benefits with them – wherever they are

More than ever it seems that public relations is about building relationships. The means for forging those links may change and become more far-reaching as the technology transforms faster and faster but the fundamental importance of genuine person-to-person connection remains the same.

It’s Not a Secret, It’s a Dialogue

Over the weekend Loic Le Meur and Brian Solis had a fascinating exchange beginning with the latter’s comments on PR Secrets for Startups. Mr. Le Meur’s rapid response to Mr. Solis’s piece was entitled PR Secrets? bullshit.

While they had somewhat divergent views about what is necessary for good PR for startups in the Web 2.0 world, ultimately they shared an underlying message: in this much more participatory and less push-based model of the Web, PR is all about cultivating relationships.

True, Mr. Solis’s piece touched on the need for relationship-building with journalists and bloggers. And that’s a piece of PR wisdom that has been stressed for some time. We all know you can’t just call on the media when you want something from them because they just won’t answer that call.

Mr. Le Meur’s piece was less concerned with new and traditional media. His emphasis was more solidly on relating to the public and connecting to the users of a product or service. He clearly believes strongly in community building.

But Mr. Solis didn’t really disagree with that. He also referenced that need in his piece when he discussed how social media has changed PR. And he also made it one of his particular points, albeit number twelve on the list. He noted the need for public relations practitioners to follow conversations carried out via social networking tools and commented on the need for them to join in on those conversations.

In the end, they both stressed that one of the most important things that a PR professional can do is listen. Not talk, not promote, not push but listen.

Yes, there were points on which the two clearly were not in agreement but what is striking is that they both reiterate what many PR professionals need to take to heart and have not yet: in this age of Web 2.0 that PR is about speaking with and not to those using the product or service in question.

And, to my way of thinking, even niftier is the fact that this discussion between these two key influencers demonstrates once again the very nature of Web 2.0. It was a dialog carried out rapidly and through various channels. It started on blogs and ended, quite civilly, on Twitter with Mr. Solis thanking Mr. Le Meur for his comments.

But that’s just my interpretation. What do you think?

Twitter: For the Birds?

To be honest, I was dubious about Twitter at first. Because technically, when you’re writing about what you are doing- you’re actually ceasing whatever activity you were engaged in to type on a computer. Even birds do something while they tweet, right?

Besides, those limited posts are not exactly conducive to elegant prose.

But rather than be a killjoy, thought I’d delve further into the phenomenon of Twitter. I started by asking one of the savviest technical guys I know, a certain M. B., what appealed to him about Twitter.

What he stated made absolute sense. To boil down his much more eloquent and in-depth comments: it is quick, convenient and can be used with your phone- you can take it anywhere and you don’t need to lug along a laptop. (And, if you think about it, that’s what’s been happening in Europe and Japan for years. They have been making much better use of cell phone technology for years. But North America is getting there….finally.)

That’s just in the case of the average user. Apparently Twitter has also been a boon to the Los Angeles Fire Department in terms of communicating during disasters- that’s striking in its cleverness – especially as municipal agencies aren’t exactly quick to embrace change, technological or otherwise.

Now what about Twitter’s use for public relations? Think about those two words- you’re relating with the public – and this is a new way to do so. It’s also a great way to give companies a human face and to connect to their key audiences. Innovative companies are using Twitter for customer service purposes and gaining credibility boosts for their efforts.

The best (and best-known) example of this is Zappos. In fact Tony Hsieh, its CEO, has created a handy and well-written starter guide and tutorial for Twitter.

And Twitter may change the way the industry intereacts with clients. The nifty blog PR 2.0 pointed out just last week the use of a new application named TwitPitch. For this year’s Web 2.0 Expo, social web application expert/author Stowe Boyd was only accepting TwitPitches for meetings with companies. No e-mail proposals at all.

TwitPitch (which may be named ironically- think about it) takes the idea of the conciseness and clarity required of good PR writing to a whole new level. You have 140 characters- go! It will be interesting to see to what extent this catches on and what it means for PR practitioners.

In the meantime, Twitter will have its more mundane and narcissistic uses. But as one of our profs noted, it must be remembered that it’s not the technology that’s stupid, but the way that some people use it.

So for every idiot out there who is going to bars with “Twitter walls” and posting what they are doing so they can see their posts up on that wall –You’re in a bar texting that you’re in a bar texting. Way to go — there’s someone else making good use of the technology.

Maybe those who really want to feather their nests should get tweeting….?