Sunday, April 6, 2008
PR AND THE BLOGOSPHERE
After reading Mattias' post: Blogging Big Business, but at what price, I was inspired to do some investigation of my own. I found this clip by video caster Chris Pirillo where he discusses PR's involvement in the Blogosphere. He welcomes public relations practitioners to participate in the blog environment, but is clear to lay out 5 rules on the "blogging road".
I find Pirillo's suggestions helpful, but am shocked that he goes beyond assisting PRs about blogging and feels the need to tell professionals how to do their job. Point number four is most surprising for me because it is such a fundamental element of PR... know your public. Granted, there might be a few PR professionals out there who do not direct emails to the appropriate people but that does not mean that all PR agents are careless.
I must admit that I am sceptical of PR's place in the blogging environment. It seems that blogging has the potential to reach a vast number of individuals in a short amount of time making it a viable communication option. If you are clear about who you are (state you are a PR professional) and have something to contribute then possibly PR could blend into the blogging sphere. However, I am not convinced that blogging is an appropriate way to reach the public. Many individuals are already weary of PRs "spinning power". Why reinforce negative opinion of the profession if we are constantly poking our PR noses into blogging spaces.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
4 comments:
Recently I stumbled upon one comment written by one of those Mom-fluentials.. Apparently she gets emails from PR people who (in her opinion) only pretend to read her blog. One of them even mistook her for someone else and congratulated her on her trip to Hawaii (which did not happen). So, some professionals do need the lesson. As for this guy, it seems he would be willing to write just about anything if he gets the product for review. As I see it, he is fishing for bribe
This video is very funny.What he said is true,readers are not idiot, they can tell those comments left by so-called "PR people".
But sometimes you cannot tell who are public relations people who are working for marketing department, right?
Hi Jelena,
Seems as though you are correct...'some PR professionals do need a lesson' in blog etiquette. I find that so unfortunate and frustrating because as a soon to be PR professional I take pride in what I do and how I act within the profession. I do not like to hear PRs giving the industry and other professionals a bad wrap. I say: Shape up or ship out!
Hi Sherry,
I never thought about who is calling themselves PRs and what others interpret as PR. The umbrella under which many 'PR professionals' sit is quite large. Just look at the difficulty those of us within the sphere have at defining ourselves. I guess we can not worry or control the actions of others. We must simply lead by example!
Post a Comment