Where PR can be useful
August 15th, 2008 by Benjamin KuoDespite what is a natural adversarial relationship between PR and journalists, I thought I’d continue on the thoughts I posted yesterday on the debate over PR. Even though journalists have a natural distrust of PR, and–from a point of responsibility to readers, have to take all information with a grain of salt– I thought it might be useful to point out where working with PR professionals can be useful — at least, to a more media-oriented and less blog-oriented publication like socalTECH. Those are:
1. Bringing professionalism to the table
Despite what journalists might say or despise about having to deal with PR professionals, I find that there’s a clear cut level of professionalism between those with (reputable) PR firms and those without. That shows up, very concretely, when you deal regularly with early stage startups with and without a PR firm or savvy marketing person. For example, I’ve run into several cases where very naive and un-savvy CEOs have done very, very, stupid things in dealing with our publications; those include a) flaming writers when they don’t agree with what they published in an article, rather than politely disagreeing and asking for correction or clarification, b) told our writers they can’t talk to us because they promised some tech blog/newspaper exclusive rights to all of their news (?!?!) c) promised to provide us with information ASAP but never got back to us. By and large, folks represented by agencies would never, ever do stuff like that. A good, in-house, PR-savvy marketing person could also do this, too. Of course, some publications might like a naive CEO (better to extract info from or poke with a stick), but I personally think professionalism is a better path to take.
2. Helping journalists better connect with executives and companies
One area which I find PR folks do a good job of is help smooth the relations with executives and companies. Despite the value of speaking with reporters and editors, many, many CEOs — particularly those who have a technical and not a marketing background — are often hard to reach, very hard to schedule time with, and often not very approachable. PR folks do a good job of making sure that executives are available to reporters, that they respond to questions, and also are briefed on your interests in the company. When (once upon a time) I was on the marketing side of things at a high tech firm, I found it invaluable to have a PR agency who could help our CEO understand what reporters and editors were looking for, keep them on task and on message, and really getting them primed to talk to the press. From the conference/press briefing side, it’s amazing — especially at startups — how using a decent PR firm can smooth lots of the “back end” issues with connecting journalists and execs.
3. Being responsive to queries from editors and reporters
In our own experience with our press coverage, it’s absolutely a given that a company with a PR agency is more responsive from queries from our writers than one without. Really, companies ought to be better at this, on their own. But, it seems like something PR folks have done right is understand that responding, quickly, to editor and reporter queries is a must. There’s nothing that kills a story on your firm than having a junior marketing person email you back, two weeks later after you’ve called and emailed on a hot story. Even worse is the CEO who won’t call or email you back on a story you’re working on.
4. Acting as a resource, not a pitchman
Journalists (myself included) absolutely hate PR folks who bombard us with press releases we have no interest in, who act as used car salesmen, and won’t leave well enough alone if their company isn’t covered. However, PR folks can add lots of value to journalists when they act as a resource for journalists — whether that is tipping us off to genuine stories of interest, providing information on relevant topics, and connecting journalists with the right people at their clients. (ps. note to PR folks: stop bombarding me with press releases about startups in India and France)
it’s clear — despite a natural skepticism that a journalist has to apply to any information provided to them by PR folks — that PR, done right, can add some value — on both sides of the table, for both companies and journalists.
