Giving PR a Bad Name :-)
...as if it wasn't bad enough already.
I've been bouncing back on forth, here and in email, on the challenges – perhaps even the viability - of the emerging relationship between PR and blogging – if you can even call it a relationship.
This is probably going to end up a fairly long post. If you want to go straight to the punchline: follow this link. Or stick with me, as I thread it out…
A week or so ago, I wrote:
“…there's still just so much cluelessness in the PR industry….most agencies don't get it. And those that think they do can sometimes be even more clueless and dangerous…The idea of "pitching" blogs, for example, strikes me as an exercise doomed to failure…most self-respecting bloggers would be much more likely to marvel at the deed than consider the actual content of the pitch.“
I’m still circling this one, still trying to figure out whether there can be any kind of functional relationship between these two worlds. I’ve been asked to write an article about this stuff too – so there’s now some direction to my need.
So I asked a bunch of people via the Blogrollers list for their opinions. The only response (so far) was from Chris Pirillo, who nails a description of many, many of the people in my industry.
Chris calls them (us?) “PR Parrots”, and says:
“By definition, they've already lost. PR is all about spin - it's all about telling the world that your shit don't stink. If a parrot tried to abandon that "tenet," (a) his or her head would explode; and (b) they'd get fired. Parrots long for the viral nature of blogging, but for that to happen, they have to let go of one thing that keeps 'em in business: control.”
As a Parrot myself, you’d think I should be getting all righteous and indignant round about now and launching off into a characteristic Michael rant. But the truth is, I find it hard to find fault with Chris’s analysis.
I’m conflicted as all hell here. I can’t disagree with Chris, and yet I feel I should be leaping to the defense of my trade. But then just as I’m struggling to build words around a possible case for the defense, along comes something that weighs heavily, heavily on the side of the prosecution.
Some background on the dramatis personae, first:
Elizabeth Spiers, a NY freelancer, keeps an enormously popular, and unfailingly entertaining blog called Gawker, which consists mostly of a daily trawl of mainstream media items, commented on with spicy cattiness.
If Elizabeth’s blog had a tagline, it would be something like “Diligently Frivolous”. It’s deliberately frothy, and that’s the whole point – she’s really good at it.
And yet Gawker is a pure big 'b' Blog, in the best sense, and not lightly to be pitched by misguided PR Parrots.
In the opposite corner, is the new online publishing vehicle set up by Tony Perkins of Red Herring fame. Tony’s AlwaysOn has already been puffed up and picked apart in a number of places now.
AlwaysOn really didn’t strike me as that bad an idea, to be honest. I don’t know that it actually qualifies as a blog, per se, and I think Tony comparing it to Slashdot is a colossal stretch – but my first impression was that there was something of merit lurking in the heart of this thing; something that made it worth bookmarking to check in on from time to time and watch as it finds its rhythm.
But then I'm afraid the stereotypical PR Parrots get into the picture, and it all goes frigging pear-shaped.
Tony hired an agency, MRB, to help promote AlwaysOn. In a completely clueless misreading of the nature of blogs and blogging, the Parrots decided it would make sense to actually pitch other blogs in hope of generating some linky love.
One of the targets of the pitch was, you guessed it, Elizabeth Spiers – whose reaction nicely proves my earlier hypothesis. She posts both the pitch email:
“…We wanted to explore the possibility of having a link posted on the AO site for the same on yours. Please let me know how to pursue. Thanks.”
…and her “Thank you, but FOESAD” response:
“…This is first time I've ever seen a blogger hire an actual PR firm to solicit links from other bloggers. I'm not saying it's definitively a bad practice, but it seems a bit like having your mom run around the playground, asking all the other kids to be your friend.”
Nice.
Yet again, knowing that there are PR people out there who do this kind of thing makes me faintly queasy about what I do for a living. But then, there’s flacks and there’s flacks. You’ve only got to take a quick peek at the front of the MRB Public Relations, Inc. website to get the measure of the firm.
“A properly managed public relations campaign can offer your business the highest return per dollar than any other marketing venue.”
Oh. Right you are then.
And I’m wondering how many of the “clients” listed in the “catagories” on this page even know they have MRB working for them, if you see what I mean.
But as I work for a competitive PR firm, this is really a pretty underhanded and snarky way for me to be behaving. Sorry. For the record: I know a couple of tech firms who’ve worked with MRB in the past, and I’ve never heard any specific negative feedback about them.
But pitching a high profile blogger like this? Guys…jeez. You make us all look dumb. Forget about trying to pitch bloggers – get your own damn blog, fercrissakes. Turn your homepage into a blog. Try and figure out how this stuff works. Get with the goddam meme.
It’s enough to make me hang my head. But this stuff keeps happening. Maybe Chris is even more right than I thought. Maybe the Parrots are doomed to die – selected out of the corporate ecosystem by their own inability to adapt - or even demonstrate an iota of clue.
I’m going back to read Gonzo Marketing again – see if it says anything about a Gonzo PR path to follow. There’s got to be some way to get this stink of death out of the business…
