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Phil's Blogservations
Monday, January 16, 2006
Posted by philgomes 10:14 PM
PR Is Dead AgainPR Is Dead Again
Yes, people, I did read Tom Foremski's grim post about the future of PR.
I had once said that the "PR flagellation meme" happens every quarter or two. We're right on time!
Tom's argument is basically that, since mainstream media is shrinking, PR must be as well.
This, necessarily, assumes that PR's only job is to seek placement in so called "news holes" and, without those holes, PR shrivels up and dies. (Of course, by itself, raw clip count isn't the best — or even a good — measure of PR.)
It's no secret that the practice of PR needs to change in a very fundamental way. You'll get no argument from me there.
But the problem is this, pure and simple: Many of those who are communicating about this need for change — from even inside the industry — are misdefining PR rather than refining that definition (if they are familiar with PR at all).
Basically:
As Jeremy says, it's about PR not SEO. I can't agree more.
- The definition of PR has unfortunately changed to increasing the findability of a product or service, with defensible credibility as a second-order variable. This is sad. Very, very sad. This speaks to one of my resolutions for 2006 — to help move the discussion toward the craft of writing, argument, and persuasion.
- This trend creates an environment where visibility is easily confused with credibility and even leadership.
- Many voices in our profession not only promulgate this misconception, but actually rely on it as a means of self-promotion.
SEO tricks have their place, but search engine algorithms change all the time. Further, people distrust PR, so it's likely that changes to these algorithms might soon lean heavily toward examining whether an active
PRSEO campaign is taking place. Considering the shifting sands at work here, the only thing you can rely on is (surprise!) generating compelling, credible content in the first place. Then think about "findability."NB: People who equate SEO with PR are killing the perception of our profession.
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This is the blog of Phil Gomes, SVP with Edelman Digital and senior advisor to the Society for New Communications Research. This blog not only discusses PR and media matters, but Phil's everyday observations about a variety of topics. Phil currently resides in Chicago, IL.
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