Dropping names and…building relationships??

July 7, 2009 | Posted by: Katherine Nellums

This weekend's The New York Times article, "Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley," and subsequent blog posts from tech and PR industry luminaries caused a bit of a stir in our office (and elsewhere in the PR community) yesterday, bringing to light a discussion around common misperceptions that tend to plague our profession - in particular, that public relations is a business of press release writing, party throwing, name dropping and spin. However, if you dig a bit deeper, buried underneath some of this cynicism, you'll catch a common theme that will continue to be the driver for successful PR professionals today and in the future despite what the critics say - the impact of building relationships.

For some folks in the industry, relationships can be built on who you know, be it Larry, Sergey or whomever. But for many, we build our relationships on what we know and how we engage with the people that matter to our clients (their customers!). This is how we provide value to our clients. With the advent of the numerous digital and social media channels, many PR professionals question how to stay relevant when our clients can do much of the communicating themselves - the answer is simple - like we always have! By identifying the users and influencers that are most relevant to their business, our job is to help our clients have consistent, smart interactions with the people who matter on the issues and challenges that matter most to them. Be it through a Facebook community or an interview with The Wall Street Journal.

Reporters are smart. End users are smart. Name-dropping and parties only get you so far. Marketing jargon and spin don't fly. What does fly, however, is building credibility (for yourself and for your clients) by paying attention, staying in touch and providing intelligent, relevant commentary and expertise.

Brian Solis of FutureWorks makes this case beautifully in his response on PR2.0. The post is definitely worth a read, but here is a snippet that we had to share here:

"P.R. is not spin. The difference between PR of yesteryear and Public Relations of today and tomorrow is our ability to understand the pains and challenges of our customers and connect our value proposition to those specifically looking for it, where they're looking for it. Our job is not [sic] deceive or mislead stakeholders. Our job is to establish an interactive channel where we share and learn, directly participating within the markets that define our business. And, we not only engage, but we also listen to and absorb feedback in order to have a meaningful impact internally that ultimately engenders a more customer-focused organization that's in tune with the needs of valuable users."

While Michael Arrington of TechCrunch may believe that "[PR professionals are] just there to spin whatever happened in the most favorable light possible. Then they smile and dial and pray for coverage," frankly, I can't point to one PR professional that I know who has excelled by following that rule of thumb.

It will be our responsibility as PR professionals to learn and adapt to the new ways that reporters, bloggers, investors and users communicate about our clients and their markets, just as it has always been our responsibility to think critically and engage intelligently on the trends and issues that are most relevant to their business.