Church of the Customer Blog
« PR is useless | Main | Five must-haves for thank-you notes »
November 01, 2007
PR is useless
... When actions create the real story.
Karen Hughes spent $900 million of Americans' money to convince the Muslim world that our elected leaders in Washington aren't insane. Worldwide opinion polls say otherwise.
Walmart has probably spent close to the same amount of money trying to convince us it isn't the greediest company in the world. But its actions tell us the real story. Today, it's how Walmart is trying to avoid paying state taxes.
Comcast can say it's "comcastic" all it wants, but when its technicians fall asleep on customers' couches, or grandmothers with a heart condition get so frustrated by the company's inattention they smash up a local office, then no amount of professional PR can mask its dreadful operations.
Hundreds of smaller businesses pay PR firms to spam bloggers with meaningless press releases. That's because they don't know how to tell their own stories with actions, not words. They don't understand that real word of mouth, real PR, is generated at the root levels.
The root levels are the clerks, the sales people, the support staff, the receptionist, the call center people, the on-site technicians and consultants, or the police officers, the clerks at the government offices, or the nurses who take your temperature and blood at the hospital. It's their work that generates real PR.
The best PR comes from the smallest of actions by the root-level people. They smile when they first meet you. They call you by your name. They compliment competitors. They don't blame you for their system's misgivings. When forced to make a decision, they always, always, always do the right thing, even if it's not in the economic or political interests of their employer. They break the rules when it's obvious they must.
That's real PR. It's the total sum of stories people tell about you.
Other blogs that reference PR is useless:
» The Best PR from Force_of_Good
Number one rule of technology marketing is that word of mouth is the number one source of new customers. Now do you generate word of mouth? By turning an organization on its head and empowering those closest to the customer do do the right thing. Why a... [Read More]
» power of the people from ezidocs
Isn't it ironic how poor the reputation of PR is? You'd think PR could do a better PR job on itself. Instead it's not trusted and generally seen as a twister ofthe truth. PR is nowfacin... [Read More]
» How to generate real publicity from Donor Power Blog
Nearly every day, I get press releases by email, with cover notes that start something like, "Because you blog about nonprofit issues...." In nearly every case, it's immediately obvious that the PR flack who sent it doesn't read my blog [Read More]
I agree with a big * nest to the word agree. I'm in PR. I luckily enough work for a firm that truly thinks programs through. We don't take a "spammer" approach to publicizing our news. We set realistic expectations with our clients because why set us up for failure. If they want us to pitch something and it's not news, we'll tell them it's not news. We'll then outline what to expect in terms of legit coverage. It's not that difficult really. If PR flacks would be honest with their clients, our industry could avoid the negative reputation. PR is not about quantity, it's about quality - the quality of our communication, our pitches, our ideas, etc. It's all about finding the right audience with the right story at the right time.
PR people have to be smarter in general. Flooding inboxes worked in the late 90s. Doesn't apply any more. There are way too many people generating content - media, bloggers, broadcast, etc. Maximize PR coverage by being strategic in who you are targeting. It has to be the right fit. Even then, it doesn't always work out as you planned because there's someone else pitching the same person, at the same time, pitching a story just as good, if not better, than yours.
Maybe your headline should have read, PR is all about having good luck. Because that's what it seems like it truly takes these days to rise above the clutter.
(or a massive budget)
;)
A good story well communicated helps to rise above the clutter.
For good advice on how to tell a story you can't go past "Make to Stick" by Chip & Dan Heath. It's a best seller and with good reason. The key messages are: make it simple, make it unexpected, make it concrete, make it credible, use emotions rather than facts and tell a story where you can.
