Category: General

A Blogger Evangelizing Mobile Products is a Moron

Now that’s an interesting headline for Monday’s RSS readers. Of course I took a liberty with it because I’m sure that most bloggers evangelizing mobile products aren’t morons but one of them is borderline.

Now as the few poor regular readers of this blog know, I am never shy calling foul on silly, ignorant or mis-guided attempts at PR and/or blog relations. On the other hand, I also strongly believe that when someone makes ill-founded criticisms of our profession those criticisms should be addressed.

That’s the subject of this rant.

Russell Beattie is a self-proclaimed saviour of the blogosphere. He is on his crusade armed with nothing more than ignorance in his left hand and irony on his right.

Russell tells us in his post last Friday that:

PR People are Morons

“Russell the brave” tells us:

“But arrived they (PR people) have and now the signal to noise ratio seems to be skyrocketing in the wrong direction. I mean, the great thing about blogging is we were finally able to cut out these morons and get to the opinions and ideas of the people who actually contribute to the world! Yet now these bullshit artists are sort of weasling their way back into the conversation somehow and it’s annoying. And don’t misunderstand, these people aren’t trying to participate in the conversation, they’re trying to “influence” it.”

He continues:

“But beyond these morons, are the PR Bloggers who claim to “get it” or at least understand blogging in general and are now spewing uninformed idiocy out onto the world. Follow the links on these pages and it’s essentially, a how to guide on how to manipulate bloggers, or how your company should start a blog and how that would in turn help you manipulate your customers and media. These blogs aren’t worth the kilobytes they’re taking up on some hard disk somewhere.”

Now let’s start at the end.

Ladies and Gentlmen, I am a PR blogger and I have been blogging for over three years. In those three years and thousands of posts I have never, ever claimed that I “get it”. In fact reading other PR blogs in the intervening period I don’t recall any of the hundreds of PR bloggers claiming they “get it”. But Russ (pronounced Russ) never let’s the facts get in the way of a good post.

So here are some salient points for Russ, unfortunately he’ll never read them because visiting this URL would only soil Russ’ clean and ethical browsing experience:

  • Who appointed you keeper of the blog flame?
  • If you took the time to step out from your rash generalizations and (shock horror) did some research you’d find that most PR people share your sentiments regarding untargeted pitches and the sometimes uneducated practices of other PR professionals.
  • Clearly from your post, you believe that you “get” blogging. To be honest that’s hardly a claim to intellectual superiority is it? I mean there are twelve year olds who “get” blogging – it’s not very hard Russ
  • Why is it that you believe that people (not very different to you) working in PR can’t “get” blogging? – Were you bullied when you were a PR intern at IBM? – Were YOU a moron then? Are you a recovered moron now? Were you just not very good at your job?
  • According to your very detailed resume, you are currently an evanglist. Doesn’t that mean your are peddling your employer’s mobile services and products for a living by communicating with people? How exactly does that differ from PR? How is what you are saying more trustworthy?
  • Have you told your colleagues in the PR department that they are morons? Are you a popular co-worker?

OK Russ here’s some reality for your little blog ivory tower:

  • PR has its problems, you can read about them here and on any of the many blogs on the left hand side of this page. We address those problems regularly and constructively.
  • Good PR people are getting involved in conversations. They are helping companies to communicate effectively with their audience(s) using a wide array of channels from internal communications, to face-to-face meetings, to analysts, the media and sometimes even blogs.
  • There is no barrier to entry in blogging. There is no intellectual challenge in starting a blog and sharing your opinions. To insinuate that your world of blogging is superior to someone else’s based on their career is crass and stupid
  • There are many examples of ham fisted attempts by PR people at pitching blogs – there are also examples of PR people who have done a good job building conversations with people via blogs – at least the PR people who write blogs acknowledge these things
  • If you are going to “delete e-mail from PR people and not link to their sites, does that constitute building a conversation Russ? I link to people I agree and disagree with. I don’t typically have my head that deep in the sand.
  • Finally, given you are paid to “evangelize” your employer’s products and services, can you explain to a simple-minded PR blogger how what you are saying is more relevant, trustworthy and interesting than anyone else paid to promote products and services on behalf of their employer?

I don’t expect a response Russ, I am a PR blogger. In your world that means I am a moron. Unfortunately we morons have opinions too and just like you, we can post our ill-informed nonsense on the Internet. This blogging thing is a real bummer isn’t it?

Evangelize that

Blog Relations… it's time to grow up..

It’s fair to say that the PR blog authors you see listed on the left hand column of this page, regularly defend our profession against claims that we are unethical, lazy, unprofessional and dim. This blog often takes a stand to try and educate people that PR isn’t all about spin and Tom Cruise. It’s often a difficult pitch.

For as long as I can remember, and that’s quite a long time, journalists have bitched and moaned about the inadequacy of Public Relations. They are inundated with badly written, badly pitched, irrelevant stories and ideas. No matter how much they give out however, it never seems to change. That’s not to say there aren’t fantastic pitches taking place every day – there clearly are – but there are just as many poor pitches.

As blogs continue to proliferate, it should be no surprise that the art of poor pitching has migrated to the world of blog relations. We regularly read bloggers giving out about poorly thought out pitches. Furthermore, these inept PR pitches are potentially far more damaging than their media counterparts, because bloggers often name and shame the perpetrators – wouldn’t that fact alone make you think twice? Obviously not.

Anil Dash has written about a recent episode and has provided some guidelines on how to pitch a blogger effectively. It would be great if we all took the message on board, unfortunately I imagine the only people who will listen were the same people who would prepare a proper pitch in the first place. Maybe we should encourage an environment of name and shame?

Steve Rubel, David Parmet and BL Ochman have commented further on Anil’s post.

For anyone interested, here are some assembled links to more guidance on how to pitch a blogger:

Analyst Relations Extra…

Following yesterday’s post on changes to Gartner’s Magic Quadrants, ARmadgeddon has posted some thoughts.

While we’re on the subject of analysts, Alice Marshall points to research firm CMS Watch who cover the content management and enterprise search markets. They guarantee vendor neutral research and advice by their committment:

To retain our independence as a vendor-neutral analyst firm, CMS Watch works solely for solutions buyers and never for the vendors we cover.

It’s an interesting departure. Research Firms would be well advised to re-evaluate their business models and how well those models are serving their customers – be they end-users or vendors.

In the past,James Governor at research firm Red Monk proposed the idea of Open-Source Research.

Changes to Gartner's Magic Quadrant

For anyone working in technology PR, who is involved in analyst relations, Duncan Chapple has some interesting analysis of some recent changes to the process behind Gartner’s Magic Quadrant (MQ).

For the unitiated, Gartner’s Magix Quadrant is probably one of the most stressful events in the Analyst Relations calendar as it positions every major vendor against their competitors in their specific market category.

When the MQ is released it is usually followed by heated discussions among 80% of the vendors who are unhappy with their position on the quadrant.

The new changes are to be welcomed, however I think it’s only fair to point out that:

  • Many Gartner analysts strongly dislike the whole Magic Quadrant process – they believe that most markets are too complex and fragmented to support a simple matrix representation.
  • From Gartner analysts I’ve talked to, they feel under a lot of pressure from their clients to publish them – often if they had a choice they wouldn’t do it.
  • I have to say I found Gartner to be very open and fair in their discussions around the last Magc Quadrant I was involved with – though obviously that can differ between analysts.

More on the Magic Quadrant changes from Armadgeddon and Gartner Watch.

Why a career in PR?

Someone asked me over the weekend would I recommend a career in Public Relations. I immediately said yes, but when they asked for specific reasons why, I actually had to stop and think about it.

Our profession is widely misunderstood and often mistrusted, I thought it might be a useful exercise to pool our thoughts on why PR offers a rewarding (or not) career.

I’ve penned some themes below, please feel free to add your thoughts and questions in the comments section or e-mail me them for a subsequent post. After all good communication starts at home!

Challenging
A career in PR is challenging. It’s challenging because the work you’ll be doing changes from day to day or even from hour to hour. You can move from writing a speech to pitching the media to dealing with a full blown crisis in a couple of hours. While the constant change can be stressful it’s also invigorating.

Skills
The ranges of skills you need to hone to be a successful practitioner are broad. You need to be a great listener, a skilled communicator, a great writer and most importantly be able to think quickly and clearly, making decisions on the fly. The fact that all these skills are used and required on a daily basis makes for an intellectually challenging career.

Diversity
PR transcends market- and geographic barriers. It is practiced in every single country on the planet and it is practiced in every market sector in those countries.

The differences in PR practiced in different markets are often marked. For example the daily responsibilities and tasks of a practitioner in the fashion or entertainment business compared to someone working in manufacturing or business-to-business technology market are often polar opposites. This means that the profession attracts a wide diversity of personalities. I’ve had the good fortune to meet with practitioners in different industries and countries and while their jobs are often markedly different to mine there are many common elements that bring us together.

The fantastic thing about this diversity is that regardless of your interests there is probably an area of PR suited to your skills.

People
Related to the last point, the people attracted to the world of PR vary from star-struck fashionistas to accounting majors. There is an amazing diversity of people, but for the most part, regardless of the industry or geography I’ve always been impressed with them. Like any profession there are those who bring it into disrepute – and in PR those practitioners are often high profile – but 99% of practitioners are impressive people and professionals.

Education
One of the most refreshing elements of Public Relations is re-education. PR is a dynamic profession, it’s always changing. Our audiences change and as a result we must respond. This constant drive to map changing attitudes, behaviors and habits is invigorating. You simply never stop learning.

Achievement
Finally, when you’ve done a good job, the planets are aligned and your zodiac is balanced there is a fantastic sense of achievement when a campaign comes off successfully. I still hear people talking about the buzz of success. You can’t get that in every job.

So there are some initial reasons why I’d recommend a job in Public Relations.

Of course it’s not all wine and roses. It is hard work and it doesn’t necessarily get any easier. It can require long hours, it’s regularly stressful and you are often dealing with elements that are out of your control. But even taking that into account, PR is a rewarding, invigorating career choice. As a raw marketing graduate my perception of PR was all “Absolutely Fabulous” I wanted nothing to do with it. Fourteen years later I can only smile at my ignorance. I was lucky that I fell into it.

Update on Corporate blogging

Further to my post on corporate blogging yesterday, Chris Thilk suggests some additional tips on corporate blogging.

Meanwhile, EDS have kicked off a new corporate blog called “EDS’ Next Big Thing Blog” where EDS Fellows discuss new technological developments. As part of the exercise they have also included a number of guidelines for readers outlining their approach to the blog. These include:

  • We will tell the truth.
  • We will review all comments for content before they are posted.
  • We will try to respond to comments as fast as possible.
  • We will link to all of our online resources directly.
  • We will respect your comments and disagree with them where appropriate.

[Thanks to BL Ochman for the link]

Corporate blog realism…

Morgan McLintic recently wrote about an enterprise software firm who were canning their corporate blog because they didn’t have time to publish stories every day. Morgan counselled him that:

“The point I made to him is that a corporate blog doesn’t need constant maintenance and daily posts. Just regular updates as and when the company has something new to announce or when there’s a specific topic it has a fresh opinion about. He felt that to be valid the blog had to be a destination news site which visitors would return to regularly. Instead, all it really needs to do is provide an additional channel of communication. If you haven’t got anything to say – don’t open your mouth.”

It’s an interesting point. As the number of corporate blogs grow there needs to be some clear planning in what you are hoping the blog will achieve – and part of that is some realism regarding how many readers you will attract and how long it will take.

Corporate blogs are about communication
There are a host of reasons why you (or your clients) should look at the possibility of publishing a corporate blog. But besides benefits like search engine optimization and becoming a reference for the media, the first objective of the corporate blog must be focused on building a new and often more effective communication channel with your audience(s).

To ignore this single primary objective will adversely effect your blogging efforts.

It takes time
Building an audience for a corporate blog takes time – and as more blog appear it will likely take longer. Build a realistic promotion plan around your corporate blog. Promote it via your website, promote the content via your newsletters and e-mail signatures and reach out to other blogs, journalists etc. where relevant. By all means measure the success of your blog but be realistic.

Measure it
Blogs provide a range of measurement tools, use them. Measure visitors, RSS traffic, in-bound links etc. These are great indicators into how well the blog is communicating and attracting an audience.

Content
The single most critical piece to a corporate blog is the content. Everyone has opinions, use those opinions to provide context to your market. You don’t have to be funny, witty or even controversial (though sometimes all three help), but you do have to provide honest first person perspectives. If visitors are getting value and information from the blog, they’ll keep coming back.

Regularity
The most common stress I see associated with corporate blogs is the perceived need for new posts every day. That is a misnomer. The important thing is that you establish a regular pattern of entries. For example, Richard Edelman posts just once a week. It works because people know he only posts once a week. Yet while the rest of the PR mice (me included) are scuttling around firing posts out, Edelman’s blog is probably the most widely read (with the exception of Mr. Rubel).

The key is establishing how often you won’t blog :-). Also with the growing adoption of RSS, people can subscribe and be alerted when you’ve posted an item making concerns about the volumes of posts less important.

Make it interactive
Corporate blogs provide a great opportunity to engage your audience in conversation. Too many blogs don’t solicit comments or feedback. Look at ways your blog can engage with visitors. Run competitions, propose new product functionality and ask for feedback. These are all useful interactive activities that will help build an audience.

The key point here is that corporate blogs are a fantastic resource when used in a realistic manner. Put together a plan for your blog. Establish realistics goals and resources both internally (number of posts etc.) and externally (number of readers etc.) and measure your progress.

If all you are doing is using your blog as a surrogate press release distribution mechanism, I wouldn’t bother.

PR Miscellany – July 5, 2005

  • Keith Jackson points to a recent speech given by Professor James Post of Boston University to Australia’s Centre for Corporate Public Affairs on “Governance and the Stakeholder Corporation”. It’s a very very interesting talk with a whole range of themes that are relevant for any PR practitioners. Print it and read it…
  • Mark Borkowski points to an interesting profile of Bernard Doherty, the PR practitioner behind Live 8.
  • The world of PR podcasts is growing nicely. Hot on the heels of Steve Rubel‘s first podcast, Shel Holtz and Neville Hobson have released podcast #47.

PR Miscellany – July 4, 2005

Happy fourth of July!

Couple of interesting stories to report:

  • Long time tech journalist and industry curmedgeon John Dvorak[blog] took time out at the JavaOne conference in San Francisco last week to fire a broadside at PR. In a generally critical interview about Sun, it transpired a pre-arranged meeting for Dvorak with Scott McNealy was cancelled by Sun’s PR folks and he was clearly not impressed. About 22 minutes into the interview he let’s rip with some of the usual stereotypes:

    “When the CEO gives up his manhood to some squirly PR person whose intimidating everyone and lording it over everyone like she’s the big expert because she worked for one of the agencies for two years, is a pathetic indictment.”

    [Fast connection required]

  • Steve Rubel [blog] has launched his first podcast.
    It’s just over twelve minutes and provides some opinions on RSS and blogs as well as addressing some recent criticisms. A worthy download to get your week started.
  • Piaras Kelly reports that the BBC have released editorial guidelines for its financial journalists. They have also published guidelines on conflicts of interest.
  • John Cass and Backbone Media have released the findings of a recent blogging survey which included responses from over 800 people. The report includes both quantative results (59% of respondent bloggers had been contacted by the media and most of the bloggers were over 30) and qualitative results including interviews with a number of companies who are already blogging.
    It also includes some interesting results on why companies start blogs and what kind of return they are getting from the investment.

Welcome to a new look PR Opinions

Well after a lot of hard work, Internet searches and tweaking, I’ve finally managed to migrate the PR Opinions blog to Moveable Type.

I’ve left all the old blog entries online for two reasons. Firstly to ensure I don’t break any incoming links and secondly because the import process from Radio Userland meant that many of the imported posts are formatted incorrectly.

I have a full index of all the old Radio Userland posts here. I’m still working through some teething issues, if you spot anything let me know!