In Stowe Boyd’s responses to the latest black list flap, he advocates a totally transparent model for what he terms microPR:
"So, this is an additional argument for MicroPR: forcing PR firms to approach us in the open, on open social flow apps like Twitter, and in the small, where they have to jettison all the claptrap of the old press release model. In the open, that can’t lie easily, or they will be caught on it. In the small, they have to junk the meaningless superlatives, the bogus quotes that no CEO ever mouthed, the run-on phrases, the disembodied third party mumbo jumbo, as if the press release were edited by God."
There is some merit to bringing the entire conversation out into the light, but I can’t see it happening any time soon. There are too many impediments, including, but not limited to, the inevitable control issues. Companies and their PR agencies still think that they can maintain control over the process by managing it in a certain fashion. Wishful thinking.
So while I don’t think every communication between company and blogger has to happen in public, I believe we ought to act, write and speak as though they were. We used say: would you do it, say it if your actions would appear on the front page of the NY Times tomorrow? Well, now, they could spread even wider. Act accordingly. Expect that your pitch will be published in full on a blog. Or used as an example.
More important than where you have the conversation is what you talk about. We have to stop being product centric and start being customer centric. For real, not just lip service.
The blogger isn’t simply an intermediary. He or she is your customer. Instead of asking the question: how can we get the blogger to write about our laundry soap or tech widget? companies, and their agencies, should be asking, How can I help my customer? What information from us would be truly valuable and useful in their daily lives? What can we do for them? I guarantee you, it isn’t that your juice has 25% less sugar than yesterday or you are now at version 2.4.5.x of your software.
Companies should be talking to their customers where they are. If they are on Twitter, and they, like Stowe Boyd, want to be Twit-pitched, great. But if not — if the place is Facebook or MySpace or some other community, that’s where the company employees and PR reps should hang out. Get to know the people, their interests. Let the people get to know them. And then make the customers, not the company, not the product, the center of the story. However you pitch it, public or one-to-one.
"But that’s so hard and takes so long," says traditional PR flack.
Hhmm. Yes. But isn’t talking with your customer worth a little time?
Tags: blogger relations, public relations, pr blacklist, Stowe Boyd
Having a conversation with those you can serve is the most satisfying thing to come around since sliced bread! I am so grateful that there is now an easy way to reach not only our current clients but also our prospective ones. How cool!
Female entrepreneurs in particular are really going to benefit from the bonding and sharing style of approach and it’s just a matter of time before the traditional PR companies have to come along. The business women on my blog are willing to do the new things, to be face to face, to share, and to be transparent. It’s not always comfortable at first to learn so many new things, but it works and it’s so much more fun to do business this way.
Big, structural changes (like Seth Godin talks about) happen. I’d rather be on the forefront than on the drag-butt end. I don’t know about blacklisting, how that could work, or if it would even help, but I believe that the market itself will simply make it too expensive and non-profitable to continue to do the old school techniques. It’s just a matter of time, I think.
Remember: Together, we are stronger!
Vicki Flaugher, the original SmartWoman