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Apparently PR Pros Aren't Into Seduction

By: Mistie Thompson | 10/04/2007

Last week at BlogOrlando, my colleague Marijean got a great piece of advice from innovation expert/author/seriously smart guy Shel Israel. When asked for advice on encouraging fellow PR professionals and clients to engage in social media, Shel said, "Don't drag. Seduce." After my experience today, though, I'm beginning to think that not even seduction will work with the PR industry.

I was talking with an experienced PR pro, and when the subject of blogs came up, this communicator pooh-poohed the very idea of blogs. I've heard this from others in the industry, so that wasn't particularly shocking. What stopped me in my tracks was this person's next statement - apparently at a recent industry association meeting (I'll leave the exact group to your imagination), a presenter talking about social media had said blogs weren't important to the PR industry because "only bloggers read blogs."

I started laughing, until I realized this person was serious - and my mouth just fell open. Although there's much evidence to the contrary, I hadn't truly believed that the PR industry was watching the social media ship sail by until I heard this, but now I have to admit - y'all are scaring me.

If you won't believe the PR and social media gurus like Shel Holtz and Josh Hallett, look at it from the media's perspective. Here are just a few of many examples that might spark your interest:

--The Atlanta Journal-Constitution has more than 50 blogs on everything from politics to health to Georgia football. I haven't pitched the AJC on anything recently, but I'm guessing that if you try to pitch one of their reporter/bloggers without reading their blogs, you might not be very successful.

--The Dallas Morning News has created HS GameTime, an online community allowing high school football fans to share stories, videos and photos. That "citizen journalist" content is then fed into the newsroom, feeding ideas and even becoming content for the print publication. In other words, the community is helping determine the stories being covered in the Dallas Morning News. Being a native Southerner, I know how rabid high school football fans are - this is a brilliant move that engages (and re-engages) a massive group of Texans across gender and age ranges.

--My colleague Patrick just received (from a reporter, no less) a fascinating blog entry from digital publishing director and media blogger (as well as former reporter, editor and publisher) Howard Owens outlining the "Twelve things journalists can do to save journalism." This entry, as well as a response from Web Pro News writer and editor Jason Lee Miller, gives the PR industry great insight into the challenges journalists are facing, and how industry leaders are working to address those challenges. As Miller says, adaptation has to happen for journalists to remain relevant in this new communications era.

Here's my point - our job as communicators is to help our clients communicate, and it is our responsibility to provide our clients with the opportunity to communicate in every single way that helps them reach their goals. Communications rules have changed forever - companies are getting this, journalists are getting this, and the communities that impact both those groups' bottom lines absolutely get it. If PR professionals choose not to get it, we're doing our clients, our communities and our industry a grave disservice - and we're going to make ourselves irrelevant pretty quickly.

PR pros, you're being seduced by the very people you say are important to you - why isn't it working?

Posted in Social Media, Digital Communications