Brand Central Station

(Editor’s Note: This is one of my favorite blog posts – not just for the comments it generated but for the way it addressed a re-occuring theme: that, somehow, PR is dead and Social Media killed it.  C’mon people.  Get over it.)

I’m going to try and infuse something that’s been missing from this whole “Social Media is killing PR” meme that seems to be sweeping through the Blogosphere/Twitterverse lately. 

A little common sense.

This maelstrom has been whipped up, primarily, by PR’s and journalists/bloggers working in the technology space.  And the echo is practically deafening.

While there have been plenty of valid points raised about the nature of public relations, the profession’s current and future place in the enterprise, the role of blogging and other Web 2.0 apps in brand building, sales and CRM – I’ve come to one major conclusion:

Social media “experts” need to get over themselves and PR people need to stop looking over their shoulder to see who’s trying to do them in.

First, a little history
Thanks to Al Krueger and this post on his Comet Branding blog.  Al was actively pimping his online radio show via Twitter yesterday (listen to it here) by sending out about a dozen tweets to his followers (I’m one of them) including a re-tweet of a pimp from some other Twitterhead shilling the podcast.  While I’m not crazy about Al’s method, I was curious, so I checked out the podcast and an earlier post and podcast, from September, on the same subject (you’ll find the post here and the podcast here).

Al did a good job of linking to several posts by bloggers (Scoble, Calacanis, Ruebel and Arrington) and a journalist (ZDNet’s Jennifer Leggio) raising questions about the value provided by PR people who either don’t know how to pitch a story or, worse still, don’t know how to take “no” for an answer.  Look, it’s not vinyl siding sales folks, it’s public relations – show some discretion and restraint.

How “death” looks to the PR profession
All of these bloggers, journalists, PR folks and social media experts seemed to agree that the profession has some serious issues that need to be addressed.  The conversations on the podcasts seemed to sum up this way:

1. PR – as a “brand” – is going through a crisis of identity.  No one seems to know what it means, anymore.
2. The practice of pitching stories can’t continue today the way it was done years ago as a result of social media effectively removing the PR person as the filter between the journalist and the story.
3. Social media requires its own kind of “professional” in order to be effectively used on behalf of a company or brand.
4. There needs to be more professional education and standards in the PR profession that will help re-establish its credibility.
5. PR pros are often in a “no-win” situation when it comes to dealing with journalists who don’t need them nearly as much as they need the journalists.
6. Start-up companies with a dynamic CEO probably don’t need a PR person’s help.

Now a big part of the problem with this entire discussion is that most of the offending PR folks, complaining journalists and put-out bloggers deal in the tech industry.  This is an industry that adopts technologies (like social media) early and falls in and out of love with digital solutions in a never-ending quest to find the “next big thing.”  It’s not the real world.  It’s the echo-chamber of the tech world.

That’s why I was glad to see level-headed analysis from bloggers in the space like Jeremy Pepper get back to the basics of PR, discuss the value of social media as a tool for media relations and offer some basic rules for its use.

The report of PR’s death is an exaggeration (with apologies to Mark Twain)
Let’s take a look at each of these mortal symptoms and evaluate them in a little more detail. 

But before we do, it’s important to make one significant distinction between this screed and many (if not most) of the others you’ll read online: my perspective is that of a person who works with clients almost entirely outside of the technology space.  That’s where most of the people in this world live and work today and it’s to those businesses this blog (and this post) is directed.

First, PR’s identity crisis.  It’s nothing new.  If you’ve worked with PR people in the past you know the good ones are always a little paranoid – always worried about what other people think and if they’re doing everything they can to ensure a positive outcome.  That’s good. That’s what you want in a PR person.  Unfortunately, that trait also leads to a perpetual, professional self-esteem issue that’s maddening.

It’s this constant self-questioning of PR’s value as a discipline that leads the profession into episodes of mental masturbation over “advertising equivalency values” for story placements or obssesive arts and crafts projects that result in massive, three-ring binders full of clips.  I attended a presentation once where a senior PR person said “all we do is generate oceans of ink for our clients.” 

Yuk.

PR is more than that.  PR is about helping clients get their “story” right so it accurately conveys the essential qualities of their brand in a meaningful and engaging way.  And that story has to be told to several “publics” (hence the name Public Relations) which include employees, customers, shareholders, communities and other groups of vital interest to the client in addition to the press.

Second, the process of pitching stories has got to change.  I don’t disagree with that at all.  But the focus shouldn’t be on the pitching process (the number of calls made or the tools used) but rather on the quality and relevance of the story itself.  Not only are PR pro’s often guilty of being lazy and not finding the best angle to present to a reporter, blogger or editor – those same journalists are often unable or unwilling to consider well-crafted stories from brands they’ve never heard of or PR’s they don’t know.

If there’s a reason to take a closer look at the impact of social media, this is it.  Social media can put a journalist in direct contact with a source and eliminate the PR “filter” – there’s no arguing that.  But that same media channel can put the brand in direct contact with the consumer and eliminate the need for the journalist.

It’s already happening.  They’re called “bloggers” – maybe you’ve heard of them.

Many bloggers wear dual hats of journalistic hack and PR flack.  The debate of exactly who or what social media is killing should probably be expanded.

This gets me to the third point about the need for a social media “expert” or “professional” to effectively use the channel.  I don’t get this.  It seems that “social media” by its very definition should be usable by “society” – right?  Having to hire a social media expert seems a bit like having to hire a professional cocktail party gadfly to flit about telling people what needs to be told.

But who decides what needs to be told?  That’s where the value in the profesional relationship is, isn’t it.  Whether that’s the domain of a public relations professional, a marketing consultant, a wise dutch uncle or your consigliere – that’s a call made by the business, not by some professional standards board or association.

Which leads into our next item – and PR folks are famous for this – when all else fails, make a call for more professional standards training and pseudo-academic credentials.  Whether it’s an IABC credential or certification from PRSA, the only thing that establishes credibility is performance.  CPA, JD, MD, PhD after a name may mean something to some people.  But when your accountant, lawyer, doctor or professor screw up, you find another one and make the change.  Your opinion of that one “bad apple” doesn’t spoil the reputation of the entire profession.  Unless, of course, he’s a lawyer.

The fifth point is part of the age-old pity party PR folks throw for themselves when it comes to their relationship with journalists.  Social media (or its absence) won’t change that.  If PR folks do their real job (not just pitch stories willy-nilly), they’ll quickly realize their value with their client exists before they ever pick up a phone or send an e-mail to a journalist.  That self-confidence (and a well-crafted pitch) make the roller coaster ride of rejection and eventual acceptance by journalists easier to take.

PR flacks are going to get told “no” a lot.  They’ll get lied to frequently.  They won’t get their messages returned and they’ll occassionally get a scolding.  Deal with it.  It’s the job.

And finally, some companies don’t need a PR person or firm to help them.  A lot more think they don’t need a PR person or firm to help them.  Whether they’re right or wrong, it doesn’t matter.  You see, they’re the client and it’s their money and their problem.

PR people should work with clients who want to work with them.  This doesn’t mean these clients will understand what PR is, how it works for their business or what a PR person does.  But if the interest is there, that’s something you can work with.

And it won’t kill you.