Working in the trenches of PR, I receive a lot of training-related emails. Vendors like Bulldog Reporter, PR NEWS, Pro Marketers, etc. are constantly offering sign-ups for teleseminars, webinars and other coursework related to “Social Media Bootcamps” and “Getting Started with Business Blogging” and “PR Writing for the Web.”
On the one hand, I am heartened to see our industry’s hard lean into Social Media territories. Every agency gets these emails, which means that even the mom-n-pop PR boutiques are getting the message that Social Media is the future of communications.
Personally, I don’t sign-up for these courses. And the folks at SHIFT who have attended routinely suggest that our internal training is more helpful (but that’s a necessity, given our focus). Still, these courses are not worthless — in fact, I know and respect many of the speakers, so my assumption is that the content is helpful to the uninitiated. I also reason that if the vendors continue to offer these courses, it means that somebody’s buying them: there’s an audience for this stuff.
Yet we continue to see too many examples of PR folks getting it wrong. Spamming. Ignoring the research on how-to succeed in Social Media. Following-up too relentlessly. Sending unasked-for attachments. Leaving anonymous comments in blogs and YouTube. Rushing past the need to create relationships with bloggers and web-native journalists — even cynically (or ignorantly) exploiting their targets’ openness.
I truly do think Social Media is dramatically and relentlessly changing the practice of Public Relations for the better.
I just wish it weren’t taking so long.
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Perhaps we are now entering the era where it’s not new. It’s just people doing it well, or conversely, doing it poorly.
I agree. I think that many PR practitioners are rushing to the social media scene without participating first and forgetting one of the key fundamentals of PR–relationship building. I believe the fundamentals of relationship building (whether it be with traditional media or social media and bloggers) are the same—as many (if not most) of the journalists are moving towards blogging as a mainstay versus print stories. We are always very careful to maintain our relationships, follow our targeted journalists blogs, and recommend the same to our clients.
Todd,
I couldn’t agree more. The amount of spam I get from PR University/Bulldog Reporter and others goes against EVERYTHING that their speakers often preach. They send so many emails that I get copies in both my inbox and my spam filter, many that have come through at the same time.
But clearly, it’s working, as you note.
As to the efficacy of the courses, I have to say that many of them fall short. All to often, one of the panelists has a personal agenda of pushing their services, and tends to shout down or talk over everyone else. This happened during a teleseminar for which I signed up mainly to hear Rohit Bhargava, and he only was able to answer a single question because the one of the other speakers completely dominated the conversation. It was such a waste of money.
And yes, I’ve filled out their surveys every single time I’ve taken a course.
There are so many books and websites out there right now, such as your blog, that are amazing resources. It wouldn’t take an agency that many internal resources to developing an internal training team like yours.
Great post! I receive tons of these emails too for webinars and training courses. And, as you mention, I usually don’t sign up for them. However, I do read blogs and there are several great “free” webinars that one can sign up for if for nothing else, to see who is saying what out there.
I believe PR is stuck in the land of media relations. In other words, getting a hit for a client is the only thing PR can do. PR means so much more. It is experiental, grassroots, media relations, crisis communications and most importantly, it does own a space in the social media arena.
Public Relations is all about conversations and what better place to converse then in a social media setting or on a blog. Building relationships does take time. I am working on a business model to illustrate this process and how we can “shorten” the cycle without losing any of the necessary steps or beneftis that building relationships can reap.
In today’s world of instant access to information, the relationship-building process doesn’t have to take as long as it used to.
Todd,
I think one of the reasons we keep !#%^$&* this up is because there are those (many?) who believe taking a class or reading something in a book or on a blog is a substitute for actually getting their hands dirty and actually walking the talk.
Your closing comment on social media changing PR for the better is, I believe, spot-on. It forces the best PR pros — and those striving to be the best — to abandon the old crutch of “Oh, I’m just the PR person” and accept that the role now requires being and open, visible and active participant in the conversation.
Mike
People probably rushed into TV, radio and print much to fast to establish how things are done right. They still get it wrong with inaccurate reporting and sensationalizing the news.
I think it’s taking longer because most of us are trying to correct the mistakes as they happen and slowly build a good foundation. Patience is a virtue. (gosh I can’t believe I just used that line.) Imagine if all industries were so careful to immediately correct mistakes and do everything ethically and strategically. We should be so lucky!
This mystifies me too. At first, I attributed it to social media being new and people weren’t familiar with it yet. Then, I attributed it to PR people being so busy (I worked for a big agency and know how stretched one can end up feeling) that the time necessary for really learning wasn’t there.
At this point, it’s bordering on PR malpractice to not understand the basics that you’ve outlined.
I don’t know what the answer is…but I agree that it’s taking far too long.
Twitter Comment
Where’s the Disconnect? [link to post] So true, So true .
- Posted using Chat Catcher
Thanks for the great insight, Todd! This is something that is one of my hot-button issues as I come across people in PR (and marketing) all the time who just want to ’sell’ at every opportunity, rather than taking the time to build a relationship first. You can’t sell until you’re trusted! I’m sharing your post here with friends and colleagues.
You’re not the only one Todd - imagine what it’s like on my side of the fence? Oh wait - I wrote about that a few weeks ago and was told I should be more forgiving. Right. After 17 years? I think not.
Todd
Posted on this very topic recently (http://pr-media-blog.co.uk/can-pr-behave-itself-on-social-media/), thanks to some work done by fellow UK blogger, Stephen Davies, via Twitter (http://www.prblogger.com/2009/01/journalist-did-you-get-my-press-release/#more-1498)
What he found was an almost evangelical approach from PR people wanting to do the right thing on social media and not allow the poor practices of the past to leak into the present. What was even more interesting was the relaxed attitude among some journalists about interacting with PR consultants through social media.
Twitter Comment
I’m w/ @tdefren: glad social media 101 Pr training is widespread, impatient that some ppl r still struggling w/ the basics [link to post]
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I really like this post.
I think that there’s a real learning curve to social media that a lot of traditional PR people don’t necessarily grasp.
Leslie raised a great point with PR people being stuck in a “media” environment. Since blogs are becoming another source of coverage, I think a lot of practitioners don’t take into consideration that these individuals don’t have editorial staffs and editorial calendars. People don’t like being traditionally pitched to, no one reads press releases for fun. You have to converse with people and show them the value of your message. Unfortunately a lot of “malpractice” could create a backlash against practitioners when relations between “Pr people” and journalists are progressing rather well.
Todd
I can only agree with you, particularly your concluding paragraphs, it is taking too long for the PR industry to get to grips with social media. The credit crunch is forcing PR professionals to revisit the web and work out how it can be used to interact between organisations and their customers. PR blogs such as yours will help to drive the cause forward.
I feel the same way: These presentations are offered by people I respect, I never attend them, and PR people do get social wrong a lot of the time.
The problem with most webinars is that while the core content is valuable, it is almost always the information everyone already knows - because the new information is what the speaker wants you to hire them for. Indeed, if people want to know what the secret sauce of social media really is, they’ll probably have to pay for it.
As to why PR people get social wrong, my guess is that their thinking simply hasn’t shifted from thinking about one-way communication to a dialog. At its heart, dialog is what social media is all about. Like any real conversation. If you tried talking to someone who was obviously not listening to you, you’d walk away from them too.
While I can appreciate the number of courses offered by PR University/Bulldog Reporter on topic, the constant barrage of emails promoting the courses seems to go against the social media principles they are supposedly highlighting in these courses. It does seem ironic.
“Great post! I receive tons of these emails too for webinars and training courses. And, as you mention, I usually don’t sign up for them. However, I do read blogs and there are several great “free” webinars that one can sign up for if for nothing else, to see who is saying what out there.
I believe PR is stuck in the land of media relations. In other words, getting a hit for a client is the only thing PR can do. PR means so much more. It is experiental, grassroots, media relations, crisis communications and most importantly, it does own a space in the social media arena.
Public Relations is all about conversations and what better place to converse then in a social media setting or on a blog. Building relationships does take time. I am working on a business model to illustrate this process and how we can “shorten” the cycle without losing any of the necessary steps or beneftis that building relationships can reap.
In today’s world of instant access to information, the relationship-building process doesn’t have to take as long as it used to.
Posted by: Leslie Hawk | January 14, 2009 10:58 AM”
That’s brilliant, Ms. Hawk! Can you hear me clapping? Nice way to pull PR jargon out of your backside. Coming from someone with NO FORMAL EDUCATION OR TRAINING IN THE FIELD OF PUBLIC RELATIONS! I happen to work as a PR professional at an agency in Louisville, KY, and if memory serves me right, you don’t exactly work as a PR Strategist as your “blog” purports. A great friend of mine, who actually RAN that agency for a while, was telling me a story about how incredibly inept you were in your job — so much so they held back on giving you assignments and instead “let” you focus more on advertising objectives. If you are, in fact, that Leslie Hawk, I don’t know what goods you’re trying to sell or what persona you’re trying to market, but we ain’t buying. It might do you some good to get a real education in PR before you embarrass yourself any further. I mean really … what kind of “PR Strategist” can’t even secure one blog follower. That should tell you how desired your professional opionion is amongst your peers. Just sayin’.
BTW, great insight Todd!