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I've done this about 4 times today, but I think the PR industry and entrepreneurs need to learn from their more expensive cousins, Lobbyists.
Good Lobbyists know how to build grassroots support for a cause (community) and motivate "grass-tops" (bloggers) to join them. They are also experts at maintaining personal relationships. No three tools are as valuable as a contact list, an expense account, and OpenTable.
They also don't lie. I know that's the reputation the industry has, but the truth is (I'll say it again here) that once you've given a Member, staffer, or journalist bad information, you're done. Your job, whether a PR person, entrepreneur or Lobbyist is to build real relationships with and gain the trust of stakeholders (the community and leaders, aka grassroots/grasstops or userbase/early adopters/bloggers, or staff/members) and become an expert on your product, be it a website or piece of legislation. Once you do that, people will make decisions based on your information. If you, even once, mislead, omit, "forget" or lie, that door is forever closed.
http://www.friendfeed.com/zee
But . . .
Great post!! Very insightful.
http://www.friendfeed.com/zee
So all of these tips will actually make sense and be usable IF the PR person actually starts blogging/twittering/podcasting etc.
Do you know anyone who truly gets it and does not use at least one of the social web tools decently? It must be possible, but not too probable.
(1) Funny, but throughout the article it was "bloggers and reporters" time and time again. Huh? No doubt where this was headed. Well, that is, until supposed "Secret #5" (don't release on Mondays). Now all of sudden it's "journalists and bloggers".
Go figure.
(2) Robert - "Brian Solis just wrote a guest post for TechCrunch in which he gave away many of the secrets of the PR industry. Every entrepreneur and even every product manager inside a big company should read it and understand the tactics discussed there. Don’t miss the additional video by Seesmic’s CEO/founder, Loic Le Meur in that same post’s comments. Loic is the best at this in the business."
There is SO much wrong with this. But well, at least you are open to what you are - a PR guy who actually believes he is saying something important and unique.
First, Solos did not "give away" a single secret. He spoke simple common sense while pushing his agenda of "blogs matter big time, provided you do it with an agenda that I can help you with".
Second, no entrepreneur - and particularly NO product manager inside a "big" company needs to read this drivel. Nothing new here... move along. Same old same old. And yeah - and person who has moved up to product manager in a "big" company is shaking their head and laughing. This is *pure* PR serving PR crap.
Kind of like your PR bullshit in 2003 when you said I'd lose my job to somebody in India if I didn't attend the PDC. PR hype always dissipates like any smelly cruft when there's anything close to a breeze.
But finally? You have the nerve to (yet again) claim a (must view) video from someone I could care less about.
Drivel.
(3) PR now stands for “Professional Relationships.”
Not for 90% of the working professionals out there. Sure, maybe for 90% of those PUBLIC RELATIONS people who have to somehow come up with yet another "new and improved" way to make a living - like you. But to the rest of us working grunts and entrepreneurs and middle/upper level managers at "big" companies? Um, no.
(4) The new PR is about creating visually-rich experiences.
I see. Would that be PR == professional relationships, or PR == public relations?
Question Robert - just taking a stab in the dark here - but did you know that this newfangled thing called "television" is over 50 years old?
My point is this. A few weeks ago you post about how 90% of the public doesn't know what RSS is and have no clue of these things called Twitter, FaceBook, and even MySpace. Yet right now you over-hype (yet again) something self-serving TO YOU, totally ignorant of what is reality.
Just because you have this need to, um, "PR" the fact that you've gone "visually-rich" doesn't mean you're anything even close to the mainstream. Nor does it mean you aren't so close to this subject to avoid hype!
But I'm glad you aren't breaking into tears like you did in March. And again, I'm glad you aren't arguing with me the I'll lose my job to somebody in India if I don't become "visually-rich".
(5) You don’t need PR at all if you have a great product.
Truth. Spot on. Gospel.
Which is why I don't understand what value you see in the post by Solis - which is simply yet another rehash of decades old thoughts.
(6) You gotta go meet bloggers, journalists, and influentials. Often. Early. They won’t come to you, you’ve gotta go to them.
Yes. And yet, no. There's a time to proactively meet and greet. But please, have a product first! Not an idea, not something on paper. Don't meet them with demos or prototypes. Meet them with something beyond beta.
(7) But really, this only matters if you have a great product that people want to tell other people about.
I see you agree!
Now to professionally stalk people, er, 'build relationships'...
Because we call it 'build relationships' this is somehow different? Come on, if you want to build a relationship with me, help me move/hide the bodies. Maybe babysit for me.
I know full fucking well the only reason people build relationships with any of us is because of our past, present, and future.
Of COURSE someone is going to build a relationship with someone with 20,000 points of data, duh! Well of course, after step 1. "Build great product"
We are just the newer generation of a very old thing. Second verse same as the first.
Some of the comments above have a point, there's nothing revolutionary here, but the underlying message is change. PR is changing and so is media. The sooner we step up and play the better the industries will be for it.
Current customers are your best advertisers, and "customers" extends far beyond the edge-case tiddly-wink termites that chew on the internet. PR should really be CRM, but instead it's all about the quick hits, the big highs, but like too many Red Bulls, a crash-down comes hither, so any real long-term impact is best framed in terms of an overall multi-tier strategic plan: Advertisements, Placements, Field and Event Marketing, Cross-Marketing, Sales, Give-Aways/Contests, Sponsorships, etc. etc.
Visually-rich experiences? Maybe for cell phone cam bloggers and TV journalists that can't write, but CEOs and customers need hard-data, ROI and test-cases, not video gee-whiz demos. Plus, duh, not like TV hasn't been around for ages.
Relationships? Only to the top-tier data hogs, and the relationship stops (or slows down) when you stop helping, and become a hindrance, which is usually about 3-5 weeks, the amount of fill your attention span can hold. A relationship that only demands, and never gives, is not a relationship.
Would counterpoint this fluff serious, but I see others beat me to it, so fill-in-the-blanks with what Dave said. Plus, it's all so much rot, everything works, and yet nothing works, Apple is seriously downright rude and mean, and yet they induce cult-like behavior, Microsoft is quite warm, yet everything consumerish, goes cold (or requires a bail-out).
You really gotta work on that counter-argument thing there.
Plus, one of these days, I will agree with you, statistically it's bound to happen.
One thing about Loic. Community is essential but his community was built partially due to his personal status in 2.0 land. A start up like ours has a good quality network but will need PR to generate a community of meaningful size so that we can then take Loic's lead and listen to them.
Ps - judging by your definition of experiences Robert, I'm glad my co-founder has a fantastic cellar!
if you get that, and are clear about your motivation, then you have done the hard part, because all communication is infused with motive, and we run away from the greedy and selfish ones
Stop making me pay for the Swiss press calling you Robert Sciable back in 2006 ;)
As a start-up you are nobody.
So you can write many PR's and hoping for one to catch on.
Or you can try to leverage on somebody else's "fame":
- becoming good friends with a journalist or blogger
- partnership: where the PR mentions the other company
- participating in a contest - award: the PR of the organizing party carries your company or solution
Or write a controversial PR - where you get a lot of comments on in blogs.
After that I believe its all about quality
"One monkey equals No monkey"
I propose we use the term "Primate Relationships" as being more accurate, both emotionally and professionally.
Dennis Foreman
So all of these tips will actually make sense and be usable IF the PR person actually starts blogging/twittering/podcasting etc.
Do you know anyone who truly gets it and does not use at least one of the social web tools decently? It must be possible, but not too probable.
--
I am a medical student who has ambitions to visit the Eiffel Tower and Great Wall of China!