Alright, I got the point! I love Facebook, and am sure it eventually will develop a thriving advertising model. I’m actually routing for it. However, that ubiquitous Visa promo with all my friends avatars’ inside is getting old and little annoying. Speaking of my friends, Nigel Hollis, brand guru at Millward Brown, is the latest identify inserted into the Visa-Facebook ad rotation. What do you think?
In this new-media age, public relations is broken. Steve Rubel says his high-profile blogger status makes him an especially powerful lens to gauge the hurricane the PR industry is in:
As a relatively high-profile blogger, I get to see things that others in PR, even those who blog, don’t experience. One of those is my Gmail inbox. It’s my barometer for how the public relations is adapting in this era of change. The forecast? We’re smack dab in a cat five hurricane.
Every day I am deluged with hundreds of PR pitches. They come from everywhere: startups, big companies, competing PR firms and, occasionally, from people inside Edelman where I work. I read all the emails but delete 99.99% of them. I don’t even respond. I feel bad about it, but they’re so off base I can’t even begin to tell you how bad they are.
…So what then for PR? If this is a universal truth - and I am not sure that it is - does it make us obsolete? If we don’t adapt, yessir.
I replied to Steve:
In many respects, you’re actually a poor barometer, because you are such a popular blogger. I’m a much better barometer, because I’m a relative nobody. Still, I confirm the hurricane you describe.
My Gmail inbox is filled with irrelevancy from PR people. In fact, it’s tough to differentiate pure automated comment spam from the human prbot pitches.
There’s a pattern among the companies you claim get it right all the time: they’re selling you information and, usually, an angle or point of view. They’re more often storytellers and trend watchers. These information companies have just as much of a sales agenda as anyone else, but they have a far easier job with the types of products they’re hawking. Regardless, all PR people should note the inherent value in the assets those information, research and analysis companies provide in their PR interactions: often trusted information and a point of view. Bloggers and press usually love that.
Lesson for PR people? Emulate the classical information providers. Transform yourselves into information thought leaders and strategic solutions providers.
It seems far too many PR people are nothing more than used-car salespeople. Not brokering value and mutual benefit, but indiscriminately pushing waste off on others.
There’s nothing wrong with selling, but selective, strategic selling is best way to achieve mutual benefit for the companies you represent and the communities of press, bloggers and other stakeholders you must serve in parallel, arguably with greater priority.
One other important note: these are principles that all company employees and agents should embrace. We’re in an age where all employees contribute to the PR function of the organization.
I believe one of the biggest roots of these problem is the agency-client relationship and agency business model.
As a result, agencies may be more appropriate in some client situations and not others. When it comes to proactive outreach — aka “pitching” which Steve describes — it is important for companies to think about what their message REALLY becomes, when their actions become nothing more than SPAM.
Thoughts?
One cardinal sin in a professional kitchen is to wash your hands in the same sink where you wash dishes or prepare food. Why? It’s unsanitary. Hands carry lots of germs. That’s why professional kitchens have separate sinks dedicated to hand-washing.
Well, that rule shouldn’t fade in home kitchens. My home kitchen is where I prepare food and wash dishes for my family, which includes two kids under two years of age. In my home, we have bathrooms and powder rooms, with separate sinks and hand soap, so you don’t have to wash your hands in the kitchen sink.
Please be sanitary. Don’t wash your hands in the kitchen sink.
This post was motivated by a surge in violations in my own home amidst all the kind visitors for Baby Celeste.
…you walk in and tell the sales rep the hi-end model they have for sale is actually crap, she agrees wholeheartedly, then recommends the cheapest model which works best, has an unbeatable five-year warranty, and happens to be the one she uses herself.
That happend to me yesterday at Tekserve, “the old reliable Mac shop,” which “doesn’t sell on the Internet.” I’ve been using one of the beautiful but poor performing wireless bluetooth mice from Apple. The $69, high-end Mighty Mouse burned through two AA batteries every two months, the scroll ball always got clogged with debris, and, last week, the scroll ball simply stopped working. The rep at Tekserve agreed with its problems, and pointed me to the Logitech optical wheel mouse, priced at $19, which she uses. It’s ugly and adds to my desk’s cable clutter, but it works very well, fits my hand better, and includes a five-year warranty.
I got through the past 14 days on adrenaline. All great life events, but too many at the same time: baby Celeste arriving (most important), family adjusting at home and facing one of the busiest work weeks in a long time, with a lot at stake and a positive outcome. While the family is adjusting, we still have far to go to achieve the optimal zone of efficiency. Everyone told me that two kids under two years of age is actually four times the work, but now I see why: the new baby is one unit of work, while the toddler becomes needy and demands three units of work. From a work standpoint, I’m trying to pace myself, while catching up with deadlines and commitments I’ve neglected (and begging forgiveness along the way).
I don’t say this often, I’m not one to complain. I only have reason to be happy. But I’m exhausted. I need a recharge.
