Guy Kawasaki has posted an interview on The Top Ten Reasons Why PR Doesn't Work. The list comes courtesy of Margie Fisher of theprsite.com, who also gives us a practical lesson in how to do PR! Great article Margie, and I'm sure you'll get a lot of business benefit from Guy's interview.
Some bloggers and commenters seem to have read the Top 10 article as being an attack on PR clients. I didn't see it that way at all. The headline is well constructed to get attention. Maybe it would make better sense if it read 'When PR Doesn't Work – the Top Ten Reasons' (more accurate, but nowhere near as effective as a headline). Margie (and Guy) know that PR can (and does) work. Just not always. Understanding what is going wrong when it doesn't work is useful.
Some commenters also seem to think that PR is no longer important. Hmmm. Not so. We work heavily in both PR and online marketing. My observation is that the best of the online marketers know only too well the value of 'old school' publicity. For example, have a look the recommendations on Starting From Scratch, on Under $100 and see how many of the top SEO folk recommend getting a profile IRL (in-real-life). And if you follow the online marketing community, you will see that a focus on online as well as offline profile is seen as very important. So my take is that you need to get your message out, period. Use offline and online channnels. And that means understanding and utilising the New Rules of PR and Marketing.
The confusion around how to do PR in the new online environment reflects the rate of change in the area of PR & marketing- it is phenomenal. I've been almost twenty years in technology and business consulting, and have seen major upheavals in a lot of industries as technology shakes up the value chain. The technology led changes now taking place in the sales & marketing domain are going to make a lot of industry 'revolutions' look tiny by comparison. In sales and marketing, we've only just started. Expect to see dazed and confused marketing & PR managers (even from tech companies) wandering around saying 'what the heck was that?'.
You need to find out about the New Rules of Marketing and PR.
Back in July last year, I asked the question Is the Press Release Dead? That post was triggered by a great eBook just released called The New Rules of PR. The eBook went on to make it into the Marketing Sherpa Hall of Fame for viral publishing campaigns in 2006.
David Meerman Scott has now published the follow on from his eBook, The New Rules of Marketing and PR, and in the process redefined publicity for book launches.
The old rules of publicity apply to getting your story into newspapers, magazines, TV and radio. And publicity in these media is still tremendously powerful.
The new rules of PR and Marketing relate to getting your story out online. Using the Internet to issue press releases is one way. Blogging, Del.icio.us, Flickr and other social media are others that are relatively well known, but there are a dizzying array of new options that are emerging.
In launching this book, David has given a great example of how powerful online book launches can be. If you look at his launch post, you will see he generously cites the input of a wide range of people (myself included, thank you David). Its an authentic step on his part, no doubt about that. But it will also generate huge sales for his book, as bloggers can't help but be interested (even if just a bit) when you blog about them – this post is evidence of that! If you are thinking of publishing a book or eBook, you need to look at the strategy of blogging to involve others. Not only can they improve your content, they may just help you publicise and market it as well!
By the way, I haven't read the book yet, but based on the excellence of Cashing in With Content and the free eBook The New Rules of PR, I think its going to be great.
The New Rules of Marketing and PR are also the story of PublicityShip. We started our online company with a good understanding of how public relations works. Julia is degree qualified in the field, and worked long enough in public relations in Sydney (some years ago now) to understand the ideals as well as practicalities of PR. Jane's experience as both a journalist and editor was then rounded out with our team of freelance journalists.
My area of expertise is business and technology – specifically, how business can use new technologies to address new opportunities. A small experiment in blogging for small business – to complement our publicity offerings – rapidly turned into a commercial product all of its own (and we have taken these down from our PublicityShip site in preparation for dedicated launch sites). Blog enabled websites have turned out to be a hugely effective way for small business to get its message out. And a great platform for online marketing. And as we have invested more in the WordPress platform, we are about to introduce new services for medium to large business as well.
At the core of all this change is the fact that the web log enables a new style of communicating. Personal and conversational communication. Websites are static by nature. Web logs are active. We are only now starting to understand what the new medium is capable of. For publicity and getting a positive message out, you need to consider them.