Business Blog: Hoover’s Business Insight Zone

The other day we talked about how Chris Anderson, editor-in-chief of Wired, took a few hundred lazy p.r. flacks/spammers to the woodshed by publishing their e-mail addresses for all the world to see. This has led to a massive dustup in the p.r.-oriented portion of the blogosphere. The best thing I’ve read from a p.r. person about the dustup is this uber-long post from Brian Solis, who calls on his colleagues to do better by their peers by choosing something better than the easy/lazy way out.

I feel the lazy flacks have learned their lesson as they have all been alerted to the fact that they are the epitome of what’s wrong with PR; well, that, and the fact that [Anderson's] post scared the s*** out of everyone else.

. . .

it’s the difference between building lists and building relationships.

Could we do our job better?

Hell yes.

Could we take the time to make sure that what we want to share is actually important to you?

Yes. Absolutely.

Should we spend more time reaching out to people individually than blasting matrices comprised of those who are simply grouped by “key words?”

Yeah. I mean, it should be obvious. But most PR people, veterans included, are just groomed to make the numbers. But, yes, yes we really need to adopt and live the “less is more” and “quality versus quantity” mantras we hear all the time. More importantly, we need to also push back and ensure that our clients and bosses understand what the collective group of fed-up journalists and bloggers are saying that they will no longer tolerate the status quo.

It’s all about humanizing not just the process of receiving information, but also the process of sending it.

Very much worth a look, even if you don’t have time to read the whole thing. If more of the p.r. business shared Brian’s attitude, the whole field would enjoy a higher reputation.