I love hearing about people's experiences of working with PR companies, they vary so wildly. Most people, regardless of whether they have worked closely with PRs or not, consider it to be an industry full of one-sided agendas, manipulation and what my PR lecturer called The Dark Arts of PR. One such complaint has recently come to light from a Tech Crunch journalist talking about the Facebook PR team. He goes as far as to say:
In Siegler's post he starts out by bemoaning the fact that there are now 3 PRs to every journalist, citing this source. There is a simple misconception of the role of PR straight away; being a press agent is only one function of a public relations department/agency. With that in mind, 3 PRs to every journalist doesn't seem like such a shocking figure, in fact it is pretty much irrelevant.
But for all of his slating of PR, there are some important lessons to be learnt here, especially for someone like me just entering the world of PR. To many journalists/bloggers PR people are seen as pushing their own agendas, that must be kept in mind when selling stories. You are starting from a standpoint of negative reputation within the writers world without opening your mouth.
Journalists/bloggers will also be likely to be loyal to their own rather believe what you have to say. And many will check their facts/loyalties with others in the industry before writing a single word.
There are so many things that Facebook appears to have done wrong in this case-study, of course it is only one side of the story, but it seems important to highlight a few aspects, it would be interesting to hear other views on what Facebook did. Trying to deny to journalists that you are working on a project that you will later launch, and probably need those same journalists to help you launch, seems pretty counter-productive to me. It might buy them some time in the race against Apple, but it will mean a lot more work with other stakeholders in the long run. And not to mention damage to the overall reputation of the company.
Denying to comment when they were reached out to also seems like it was not the smartest move. It seems that Siegler would have, at that point, been fairly open to writing about what they had to say. Not any more. So from the lessons learnt from listening to the journalist side of the wall, and what not to do from Facebook, what are the main Dos and Don'ts for someone just entering the PR arena?
How do I know when Facebook PR is full of shit? Their mouths are moving.That's a pretty strong statement, but from his experience of them, probably a fair assumption. And Facebook PR is giving the whole industry a bad name, considered the smear campaign against Google. But I'm not here to judge what the Facebook guys are up to. I'm interested in what journalist MG Siegler, or parislemon as he goes by in his downtime, thinks of the PR industry in general, rather than his experience with the Facebook in particular.
In Siegler's post he starts out by bemoaning the fact that there are now 3 PRs to every journalist, citing this source. There is a simple misconception of the role of PR straight away; being a press agent is only one function of a public relations department/agency. With that in mind, 3 PRs to every journalist doesn't seem like such a shocking figure, in fact it is pretty much irrelevant.
But for all of his slating of PR, there are some important lessons to be learnt here, especially for someone like me just entering the world of PR. To many journalists/bloggers PR people are seen as pushing their own agendas, that must be kept in mind when selling stories. You are starting from a standpoint of negative reputation within the writers world without opening your mouth.
Journalists/bloggers will also be likely to be loyal to their own rather believe what you have to say. And many will check their facts/loyalties with others in the industry before writing a single word.
There are so many things that Facebook appears to have done wrong in this case-study, of course it is only one side of the story, but it seems important to highlight a few aspects, it would be interesting to hear other views on what Facebook did. Trying to deny to journalists that you are working on a project that you will later launch, and probably need those same journalists to help you launch, seems pretty counter-productive to me. It might buy them some time in the race against Apple, but it will mean a lot more work with other stakeholders in the long run. And not to mention damage to the overall reputation of the company.
Denying to comment when they were reached out to also seems like it was not the smartest move. It seems that Siegler would have, at that point, been fairly open to writing about what they had to say. Not any more. So from the lessons learnt from listening to the journalist side of the wall, and what not to do from Facebook, what are the main Dos and Don'ts for someone just entering the PR arena?
I guess reflecting on kicking off my career I was gungho it is much higher risk to innovate in a corporate environment especially if it is hierarchical where the management are risk adverse. I think the challenge here is that the way we engage audiences and what is acceptable is changing so quickly. From a corporate perspective focus on the research that will validate your approach. Keep an open mind, listen, observe, prepare and find yourself a coach or mentor to accelerate your experience, exposure and behaviours. I'm surprised no one responded to your musings, too biz for facebook and linkedin does not really work well as a publishing engine, maybe their communities would work for you or maybe you just enjoy musing. Luke
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