PR Squared: Has The PR Industry Learned From Bubble-Era Mistakes?

(Via Facebook) Todd asks...
Is the PR industry starting to make the same mistakes as it did during the Bubble Days?


	Cathy Summers: Look at salaries and attitudes vs. experience of most PR people today -- especially younger staffers. 1 year of experience = I know a lot and I am dedicated = pay me $50, 60, 100k. Sadly, some firms are doing just that. Subprime meltdown for PR coming soon!


	Tim Shisler: I wonder if PR folks are drinking the Kool-Aid too fast when taking on new startups and then blowing it when pitching the media--who for the most part I don't think really cares about a new party planning site or way to stalk your neighbors.


	Monica Pandolfi: i think companies whose business plans are based entirely on FB and MS widgets are the dotcoms of 07. the firms that choose to represent those companies are taking a risk.


	Kyle F Flaherty: We see less money for PR b/c 2.0 companies aren't always spending like they did during the bubble, so not sure we'll have the chance to make ALL the same mistakes, but most of the mistakes are already being made.


	Jeremy Pepper: Starting to?


	Kami Huyse: Certainly, Web 2.0 companies have less $ than companies in the bubble era had. I have experienced that my 2.0 clients want everything on a shoestring (maybe that is a factor of my agency size though, you have bigger clients).


	Tom Kuhr: Yes, because the VC's are making the same mistakes and PR is just following the money.


	Cathryn Hrudicka: I would agree with the need for ongoing training and mentoring after the hire, especially in view of the rapidly changing social mediascape. I've worked on both sides—in PR, and as an editor/writer/columnist, and what I got from PR often made me cringe.


	David Parmet: Starting?


	Cathy Summers: I think that we are. Taking clients that clearly have no sales, no sustainable revenue plan, just an idea that having a "Web 2.0" site will bring lots of cash via acquisition. Sounds like 1999 to me.


	Kevin Dugan: Training is always an industry challenge from my experience - $ invested and quality of training available. As far as the bubble days, I think business, media and PR need to be reminded of those days of shell games, IPOs and general circus life.


	you: Too little training is a perennial problem (as Lee notes!) ... the "over-paying" for talent is a Bubble issue, I think.


	Doug Haslam: Is that a problem peculiar to a Bubble?


	Lee Odden: Being on the receiving end of media pitches, I would absolutely say there is too little training after the hire. In our SEO we biz we conduct full team training bi-weekly and individual coaching weekly. It should be no different in the PR biz.


	you: I particularly wonder if PR is starting to make mistakes re: too much money for talent and too little training after-the-hire.


	Mandy Mladenoff: I think this time around we're getting more wood on the ball with respect to keeping clients happier longer. We're still aggressive, but humbler in the knowledge that the economy can turn on a dime.


	Doug Haslam: The PR industry? I think Bubble wasn't limited to PR hype, but VC "irrational exuberance," encouraging revenue-free napkin business plans, which the media ate up (aided and abetted by PR, sure). I think we will make the same mistakes, but not there yet.

What do YOU think? Hit me up here or on my Facebook page! (Go ahead and friend me; I’m pretty easy-going on the “friending” front, for now.)

Comments

My principal concern is that agencies, and companies, start to think there is a recipe for success, that is ultimately based more on smoke and mirrors than actual business plans. That's what happened to web 1.0 and sometimes I see similar warning signs now.

For example,the idea that there is A recipe for social media success (whatever the hell that is.)

Posted by: Susan Getgood | September 11, 2007 07:42 PM

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