Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Honest PR

Many people confuse public relations with advertising.  Yes, they are both part of a marketing campagin, but they differ widely.   If  these confused people also happen to be one of your clients, then you are in big trouble because of probable diminished expectations.  I always tell clients that PR is just a crap shoot, sometimes you get lucky and other times you don't.  With advertising, you simply get what you pay for - an ad.  Perhaps it's easier for me to understand media because I was once a journalist who was pitched by PR people. 

I always tell clients this first off before we even get to talk about strategies and the like. The reason I do this is that I too have had clients who expected way too much from one or even a series of news releases that I wrote for them.  Then there is also the problem of importance.  Clients think their service/product/event is the most important thing going on that day.  It can be difficult to break the news to them that journalists don't think that way.  If there's a big say ax murder on the day of your launch, the media won't care two figs about you.  Even in these days of changing media, if it bleeds it leads!

I belong to many (probably too many) groups at Linked-In.  One of these is Freelance Professionals, where Brian Salisbury's post and link to his blog got this line of thought going. He's got some interesting thoughts HERE

If you've found this blog, you might be interested in my other blog: Ann Tracy's Waiting for the Muse, my blog about life as a Sacramento artist and theatre person.  You can find it HERE

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