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April 07, 2005
Your PR Stinks
Speaking of the IAEM Annual, I'm tentatively scheduled to moderate a session on PR, titled "Your PR Stinks".
I've been battling with PR firms going on 25 years. And I've yet to find a single one that did much more than issue releases and organize press junkets. No real help with special events. No help with search engines. No help with online communities. Some of them never even called on editors to follow up on why releases weren't carried. And my managers (and even clients) thought I was asking too much.
Case in point, just last year, in the press room at an event, I had to tell the ranking PR person at the show that there were sites would publish newsfeeds and photos from the show in almost-real-time. They didn't know. Yet their retainer was twice mine.
Anyway, enough about my gripes. Seems B.L. Ochman has come up with many of the same conclusions.
So if you want to know what my PR session will be about, B.L. has about summed it up in one paragraph:
Thinking that press releases are still among PR’s principal reasons to exist is overlooking tools like search engine optimization, blogging, content sponsorships, events, email and podcasting, which most publicists don’t utilize.
Well, we're not going to get into podcasting, except as it pertains to viral marketing. Yes, PR firms ought to know about viral, too. I'll tell you why when you get to the conference eight months from now. The situation won't change between now and then.
10:57 PM in Trade Show Marketing, TSMR Rants | Permalink
Comments
As the recipient of all too many press releases that say nothing meaningful and/or are not at all related to what our magazines are about, I say, "Amen." And thank you.
I might glance at a press release before tossing it, but if you e-mail me links to customers blogging about your product, then you'll get my attention (as long as it's real customers saying real things and not fakes, which would really tick me off and make me want to never write anything about your stuff ever again.)
Keep banging the drum, guys. Sooner or later, maybe things will start to change.
Posted by: Sue Pelletier | Apr 8, 2005 2:47:21 PM
I'm a recovered publicist. I ran my own PR firm for many years before turning to Internet marketing in 1995. My work sometimes includes publicity, but it almost never includes press releases because they are a colossal waste of time.
I never did plain vanilla PR and a lot of other publicists don't. But the vast majority operate at such a low level that that whole industry has suffered.
I've written extensively over the past 10 years on this topic, including my report called "Press Releases From Hell and How to Fix Them," which gives 15 before and after examples of releases and email pitches that will end up in the trash and ones that will be read.
I guarantee you will hard from publicsts who say your post and mine are too harsh.
Posted by: B.L. Ochman | Apr 8, 2005 11:21:44 AM
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