Dave Taylor beats the dead PR horse

First let me say that Dave Taylor's Intuitive Life Business Blog is always a good read and full of insights. As most any passionate blog will do, he has just posted something with which I must completely disagree.

Evidently he was presenting at the recent Blog Business Summit and declared that PR is Dead. Well, here is my reply to his post:

Dave, With all due respect, anyone that claims anything is dead is oversimplifying their assertion to quickly make their point. It's tired shtick and surprising coming from you.

You are focused on one tactic within one element of public relations...media relations. If that's all people are using their agencies for, I feel for all involved. I suspect everyone you spoke with was dealing with press agents and press agencies...companies focused solely on media relations vs. full-service pr agencies, or integrated marketing communications agencies.

There is a lot more to public relations than dealing with the media. To name a few...internal communications, events, crisis communications and creating an array of content to help raise awareness with target audiences. This is not controlling the message; it's helping to get it out there in the first place. Most any product needs a package. They're designed to help the consumer understand what they're getting in the first place.

When everyone makes the sensationalist assumption that the public relations industry is here to spin the truth, it is clear to me that the loudest people in my industry are unfortunately the worst examples of how public relations should be conducted.

The organic anarchy you are proposing as it relates to creating messaging for a company would be fun to watch.

Everyone reading this, please say the following aloud:

Blogs are a tool.

Look back through history and you will see that new technologies do not clobber old ones out of existence. Usually they force the others to adapt and improve. Blogs do not slice, dice and julienne fries; blogs cannot cure the common cold or clean my oven. They are an impressive tool that several industries need to embrace and understand to be more effective in the future.

And this is all the Google Juice I will give to this topic at this time.

tags: public relations, media relations, blog, PR, advertising marketing

Comments

[David Phillips]

Its just that so many people have such a narrow view of PR. Lets start thinking of how PR changes value (and values). This makes PR the only management discipline that is designed to create wealth as the Relationship Value Model shows. I agree that most PR people don't see it this way yet but that is where the bacon is and it starts with grounded theory which is becoming more acceptable as more graduates enter the profession. Hype, spin and conspiracy is not PR.

[Lisa O'Neill]

First, nice response Kevin - same to you Vy. All I know is that this blogging stuff sure is overwhelming. How in the hell do you keep up & do your job well? Since I'm the lone PR gal in an advertising & branding shop, I check these out primarily to fill my conference void (OK, no void there!). And if I have a speaking engagement, it sure provides good research.
I'm just trying to stay relevant, but feel pretty good that 15 years of a broad range of PR experience, from media relations -- the bread & butter, let's face it -- to community relations, a touch of crisis (fortunately not a bite), internal relations, public affairs, blah, blah, blah, this industry is doing more than A-OK. And, like every other industry, we have our fair share of goofs.
Better get back to work...