A Must Read Survival Guide for Traditional PR People
November 5th, 2007 by Sterling Hager
Thanks to this blog called protocolinpractice, which is focused on a conversation about protocol and how we relate to each other in business and social environments, I was made aware of an item by Brian Oberkirch entitled: What PR people should know about social media.
Mr. Oberkirch is marketing consultant focused on social media and product/service development. Caution: if you are linguistically squeamish and react badly to the f-bomb being used in a post, don't go to Mr. Oberkirch's piece. But if you don't go, you'll be missing out on a great piece about the traditional PR world's problems with social media. If you do go, after you read the piece, be sure to check out the comments left by readers. One of my favorites comes from Francine Hardaway who writes:
You’ve been too kind. We have to perform an intervention on the entire field of PR, client side and agency side. Wish agencies had more guts to advise their clients, and clients had more guts to try new things. But neither will be true unless you hit ‘em upside the head… I know this from having been in Pr for sixteen years. It’s why I got out. Bad dynamic.
Enjoy!
Sphere: Related Content
Tags: Corporate Blogging, Anti-Establishment, Legacy PR, Social Media
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November 7th, 2007 at 12:02 am
I’m glad you picked up the story about PR people and social media from my blog. I was also very interested in the article because I have a foot in both camps in a way. Well one of my business partners is an out-n-out old guard PR guy and the other a young website developer.
I am in the middle and I am the one who tries to convince clients how important blogs and web pr and newsletters for their websites are. I try to show them a BIG picture.
Well, here in South Africa they are not yet convinced that using their annual report and putting it on the www isn’t the best way to go!
Key words, SEO, Page Rank… that’s hocus pocus that just costs the client extra.
So we gird out loins and go into battle against the unbelievers day after day!
November 7th, 2007 at 11:31 am
Hi Karen–
I’m so glad you wrote in. I was going to mention your name in connection with your blog so you’d get some degree of celebrity here in the U.S. for being the author of that fine item.
Like your old-guard business partner, I, too, am an old, old never was of has beens in traditional PR and my business partner/co-founder is 25-year-old high tech, high-hip Dave Cote. But at least we’re in sync since I refuse to continue doing things the old-fashioned way like trying to reach a million readers of a mainstream media pub when my client really needs (and now can) directly reach the 300 people that matter!!
Good luck, hang in, never surrender, we’re in the right place at the right time if you ask me and soon the rest will awaken.
Thanks again,
Sterling