Went to a meeting tonight for work. There was a lot of networking. And a lot of pink bubbly. And a lot of talk about new media (which was to be expected since so many newspapers seem to be falling apart left and right, forcing all of us PR folks to wonder who or what we will be pitching to in the future and if the failure of print media will eventually lead to the demise of PR jobs).
People kept bringing up blogging and Facebook and Twitter. "The wave of the future," they said.
And they kept talking about "authentic" communication that doesn't rely on "messaging" or "talking points."
And they kept saying what a "risk" this was and how hard it is to blog because you have to respond to people's comments.
Sometimes, the PR stuff is too much for me.
Blogging and Facebook and Twitter are not the future. They are the present. Any 15-year-old can tell you that. And by the way, creating a Facebook page for your winery doesn't mean that anyone is actually going to look at it. (I know -- I tried this.) You've got to be better than that.
And blogging doesn't have to be scary. Yes, it is sort of strange to think that you are writing something and sending it out there to be read by a bunch of strangers. But this is only if you're lucky -- you can't just create a blog and automatically expect a million people to read it! I know because -- surprise! -- no one reads this blog except maybe the five people who know it exists! (Also, you can't create a blog and not update it regularly, or else those few people who read it will stop reading it, which probably is part of the reason no one reads this blog. I am not the best updater.)
Also: What is so scary about responding to people's comments? (I get excited when anyone comments on my posts because, as I said, I probably have a total of five readers.) Yes, sure, someone out there is going to disagree with you, but wouldn't you rather have that opportunity for discourse? Wouldn't you rather know what the criticism is than live in a bubble world where you mistakenly think everyone loves you?
Sometimes I think us PR folks would all fare so much better if we thought more like normal people instead of like PR folks.
2 comments
I always assumed that PR people were way ahead of the new media curve. It's funny to see that they're just like the rest of corporate America.
And you're right; blogs are hard! It's fun, though, or I wouldn't do it.
Actually, I think it's largely the wine industry. For the most part, we tend to think very traditionally. This is not surprising -- I organized a Sauvignon Blanc focus tasting for work last month, and every writer who attended, with the exception of one very fashionable woman in Prada flats, was an older man with white hair. This is the kind of audience we've been "trained" to target for ages. It's time to re-think that!
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