The PR Industry In Need of Good PR As Usual

Sighhhhh....So I was reading some of the industry trades and blogs before going to work the other day, and came across a post in TechCrunch that has the following title: The PR Roadblock On The Road To Blissful Blogging, written by Michael Arrington. The nature of the article - how PR practitioners and the industry as a whole don't have a clue when it comes to interacting with bloggers or executing a social communications strategy.

I'm absolutely fed-up with the lack of respect that PR gets from both traditional (magazine, newspaper) and new media (bloggers, etc.), but I understand it. It's frustrating that traditional PR agencies don't understand that they can't just "cut and paste" the same tired, traditional tactics as they would for online. And really if you think about it, why would you want to? The beauty of digital PR and social communications management is that one has the ability to engage consumers in a two-way dialogue without the middle-man and generate targeted, qualified eyeballs from consumers who not only give a damn about your message, but will carry the torch - and your message - to their network of friends, readers and loyalists. Unlike traditional PR, digital allows for the ability to tailor your message in a manner that speaks directly to the consumer - not at them.

And unlike traditional PR, where many journo-types both loathe and begrudgingly need Publicists, bloggers (for the most part) are pretty down-to-earth, everyday people who are open and willing to listen to, and post your message - so long as you take the time to actually read their blogs, engage by commenting, etc.

What's my point? None really except to my PR brethren: stop taking shortcuts and do some due-diligence to understand who you're pitching at the end of the day; be forward thinking, be strategic, be engaged and be bold. Take pride in yourself and your profession and challenge those that work for and/or with you to live by the same standards. As for Michael Arrington, I don't necessarily disagree with your pov, as I think you raise a somewhat valid point; but let me ask you a question: where does TechCrunch get most of the information that it posts? Hmmmm...

My First Time...

The memory is so vivid - my body trembling, shaking, the tears in my eyes and the sweat that broke out over my body. Get your mind out of the gutter, I'm not talking about sex, but rather my first time experiencing and participating in what has since been dubbed as the ubiquitous and ever elusive "viral campaign." I was working in experiential youth marketing at a big agency working on a big account. One of my colleagues sent me an IM with the link and a note: "you have to see this! It's hysterical!" The link brought me to what was then iFilm, and the clip was as follows:



Yes, that did it for me; I fell hook, line and sinker for that 15-second clip, dubbed "Afroninja,". The first few hundred times I watched it I was overcome with guilty, pleasurable waves of uncontrollable laughter, and to this day when I look at the clip, it brings a big smile to my face and more often than not elicits at least a chuckle or two. In those first few innocent viewings, I couldn't wait to send the clip to everyone I knew, and did so with reckless abandon and gusto. I was so happy to be the guy in the know, the "influencer" sending all my friends a clip that I knew that would enjoy as much as I did. Fast forward years later, after The Dramatic Chipmunk and Chocolate Rain videos, and it turns out that Mark Hicks, the stuntman whose misfortune while filming a Nike commercial blazed a trail throughout the net, may end up having the last laugh. He is apparently making a full fledged movie called Afroninja: Destiny based in large part on that very clip. Check out the great interview with Mark on Wired.