Going Behind the Curtain (and Other PR Blog Jots)
PR Squared
Todd Defren recently Twittered an important question: what is the single biggest challenge facing PR practitioners in the 2.0 world? Amanda Chapel replied that PR will no longer be operating behind the curtain of secrecy, that adapting to transparency will ultimately be the biggest challenge we face. “Now our audience is growing exponentially large. We can talk directly to them. The good PR firms can be as smart and funny and accommodating to the ultimate audience as they had been all along to the media. We can be strategic in the sunlight.”
Communications Overtones
Transparency must be the nature of all online communications, not simply to avoid a scandal, but also because of the potential for networking. Kami Huyse discusses the recent flap over Topaz Partners ghost-writing a client blog, pointing out that the blog’s lack of transparency about its authors shut off possibly networking contacts. “One of the great benefits of a blog is that it connects you with those you may have never known. It is an incredible networking tool. Over the last year, I have partnered with several bloggers in projects for my clients… I have also gathered a vast network of my peers that I have called upon when I needed advice or even resources.”
PR Blogger
Examining figures from Technorati CEO Dave Sifry, Stephen Davies aptly points out that blogging may not be as booming as some claim. He notes that of the 70 million blogs tracked by Technorati, only 15 million or so have been updated in the previous three months. This, argues Davies, may prove that while blogs remain as important as ever as communications tools, they are not necessarily for everyone. “People have active social lives, children to look after, outdoor hobbies, two jobs etc. And this statistic shows that a considerable number have given it a go and decided it’s not for them. Just because people have the tools to create their own media it doesn’t mean they’re going to.”
BL Ochman’s What’s Next
With the quality of writing in public relations deteriorating each day (if the posts over on the Bad Pitch Blog are to be believed), BL Ochman offers an important reminder to PR pros: it’s all about brevity. Pitches should be crisp and succinct, and avoid long rambling sentences and hyperbole. “Dear PR People: Please make your pitch in a couple of quick sentences, without superlatives, CAPS for emphasis or lots of exclamation points. Explain WTF it is you're writing about in the first sentence as artfully as possible. Do not blather on.”
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