PR: Is it really so hard to be nice?
I say that in PR you always get the short straw. Being the liaison between journalists (who can be a tad tough to deal with sometimes) and a client who may not always understand how important it is that you get the correct pricing, stockist and hi-res image in 30mins for a deadline is tough.
I’ve lost count of the times I’ve heard “PR is incompetent”. The reality is that you do your best, working on behalf of a number of people’s interests, and always having to put on a happy face.
You can’t exactly say
“sorry, my client thinks you’re Tier Three press and hates your reviews”
likewise to the client
“The journalist didn’t even want to include your cr*ppy product in their feature.”
Despite the amount of un-niceness there is working in public relations, the role implys you can actually relate to the public. Which is why this story about a PR rep telling a blogger that images of them wearning the designer’s clothes were bad publicity had me astounded.
Is it so hard to be nice? It doesn’t matter if you’re a blogger, write for Vogue or just someone posting pics to your Facebook profile. Surely this is not an example of bad practice in blogger relations it’s an example of just bad relating.
Unfortunately when it comes to bloggers there is still an ingrained attitude of agression from PRs. Could we all be a little nicer to eachother?
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RYLsyNBnE5M]
The personal blog is back
Nothing sums up blogging like Gaping Void
Ok, so I don’t have any quantitative research or expert opinion to validate this statement but I’m declaring… The Personal Blog is Back.
Here’s why I’m thinking this:
Reason One: It seemed like some of the original bloggers were quiet for a bit while we media types were navel gazing about the zeitgeist and saying ” But whhhhyyyyyy do they blog? What’s their motivation? Defiiiine them. Raaaank them”. But it’s safe to come out now. Promise.
Reason Two: Twitter is not the new toy anymore
Reason Three: Less techy types warmed to the idea that writers of “weblog diary thingies” are not a bunch of socially inept saddos. Ask your mum if she knows what a blog is. (Or if she’s writing one)
Reason Four: I personally got a little bored opening my reader and seeing the same old search hungry “Top 10 tips …” being generated by some commercial blogs. I started looking for blogs I could enjoy and learnt more about what makes entertaining media by being entertained
So that’s it really. Of course personal blogs never went away. There’s probably no data to show a dip in posts etc. My gut just says it feels like we’ve been through a period of learning and now it’s like the school holidays and we can read & write for pleasure again.
Here’s some that I’m loving.
New PC Pro blog
Just seen that PC Pro has launched a blog. Good example of a “traditional” media outlet getting it right. The posts are short, to the point, and entertaining. I can’t say I’ve ever been a huge reader of the mag (I’m not really their target audience) but once I started scanning through the blog there were loads of posts which grabbed my attention.
Who’s using social media and are you too shy to share?
When i lived in Italy I visited the Benedictine monastery in Subiaco. It’s built around a cave where St Benedict supposedly lived in solitude for three years fed by a shepherd or monk (I’ve heard both versions) who lowered a basket of food down at intervals. The cave is surprisingly peacefully and, depending on your temperament, kind of appealing.
My positive response to the environment demonstrated that people feel different degrees of being intro- or extroverted and it’s something that crops up in questions when I run social media training sessions: who are ‘these people’ ie bloggers, tweeters, social networkers et al and why do *they* feel so comfortable broadcasting their lives?
I’m not sure I know the answer. At a basic level, once you and your friends start using something like Facebook it becomes more standardised and natural, you find yourself adding more personal updates, posting photos etc.
But honestly I still feel a bit like a social media “observer” using tools like this blog and Twitter to engage with my community from professional more than personal desires. As a pretty private person being publicly online makes me feel exposed and I contemplate deleting my accounts to run away to my Benedict’s cave. (Although I wonder if after 30 mins there I’d discover a compulsion to tweet “sitting in cave waiting for @Romanus to stop by with the food basket”).
Making your blog more viral
Outsourcing is a big trend at the moment. I think it’s partly being driven by the current web business boom. Elance.com is a useful site catering to the need for freelancers and potential projects to link find eachother.
They also publish some useful content on there. I spotted this post “Thirteen ways to make your blog go viral”. Mostly just best practice for running a blog but a useful summary for someone new to blogging looking for ways to drive traffic.
I think one of the best bits of advice is around creating resources like “how to” articles or Top 100 lists, much like they’ve done here!
Max’s travel blog, The Guardian, crisis comms?
I’m a bit late to the party with this but a friend told me about “Max-gate” and The Guardian travel blog and asked me what I thought so i did some reading up.
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19 year old writer Max (I’ll leave the surname so as not to contribute to his Google searches damage) starts a travel blog for The Guardian to share his experiences of a gap adventure
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Comments start flying thick and fast attacking the poor lad
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Online paranoia goes into overdrive as it’s “discovered” that Max’s dad has also written for the Guardian Travel Section
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Further conspiracy theories question, via Max’s work on the TV show ‘Skins’ and a bad URL, whether the whole thing is a PR stunt
I think, from my tone, you get where I sit on this. Sometimes the viciousness of online allowing everyone to have their say, particularly when it’s anonymous, really annoys me; this goes double when it’s a target like this. The guy wrote *one* post and people were all over him
Finding a forum for your product
This post over on Attentio raises a subject close to my heart, online forums are fantastic pre-exsiting communities which are discussing and dissecting the latest products every day.
As I’ve said before blogging is not the start and finish of a good new media campaign. Forums offer some fantastic opportunities to get direct-from-consumer feedback, if you’re confident enough that a product can stand up to debate.
All forum activity needs to be carefully undertaken though and comes with a Health Warning: You can’t just parachute in to a community and start bugging them. In addition, they don’t take kindly to fake posts so be transparent!
To blog or not to blog?
“Should we start a blog”? is the first question I’m often asked when consulting with companies on new media. So here’s the short answer – no, don’t feel you *should*.
More importantly you can’t blog in isolation. What I mean by that is a blog is not a soapbox for your CEO to regurgitate corporate messaging. Social media is, well, social. Web 2.0 allows people to interact and engage in two-way, three-way, 100-way + conversations about topics they’re mutually interested in.
There’s many good reasons to start a company blog, almost as many as why you shouldn’t start one. Sometimes something as simple as a webcam can have a far greater reach than trying to talk about the company’s annual results – see Ceddarvision.tv
Before writing you need to listen first.
About:
I'm Darika Ahrens and I help brands develop marketing strategies for Social Media.
My background is in Public Relations for companies like Orange, Microsoft, Philips, HTC, Yell.com, and Estee Lauder. I've worked with and trained some of the UK's top agencies.
In 2009 the Financial Times referred to me as "a new breed of business matchmaker" due to my network of contacts and way I work creating bespoke teams to deliver projects.