Point Oh!

Although I tend to like many of the people that Strumpette bashes, I do find her/his commentary on the PR industry to be, at very least, a healthy dose of reality in a waiting room of irrational euphoria. As it turns out, Strumpette retired or something but now she’s back…or maybe she isn’t. To be honest, it really doesn’t matter. What does matter is that she brought up some great points in her latest rant against the industry. Let’s take a look at her “10 headed hydra that is easting the PR industry” point-by-point, shall we?

1. Case vs. Opinion — PR is (should be) the business of making the case to the public on behalf of a client. Exclusively! Period.

Agree, mostly. PR should be making a case to the public in a creative and convincing way and all too often the idea of “conversation” is used as an easy escape hatch. I don’t think this means that conversational marketing can be dismissed but it’s an interesting point that very few have surfaced.

2. The Race to SEO — Search Engine Optimization is NOT communications.

Disagree. Search is a media channel whether or not anyone likes it. Google changing their algorithms isn’t that much different from a publication changing their editorial guidelines. Depending on the research you trust, 75-85% of brand awareness online is driven by search so if you’re not going to optimize for this space then you’re really just playing to the cheap seats. There is a lot more than just technology that goes into SEO/SERM and communications professionals definitely need to be involved in this process to ensure that messaging is being preserved and certain ethics are followed.

3. The Capricious and Radical Flattening of Hierarchies — Hierarchies are socially natural and necessary. But today we are rapidly tearing down those institutions and replacing them with a system (the Web) that doesn’t vet information well and certainly does not learn.

Agreed but I don’t think the Web is quite the level playing field that it is being made out to be. How many people would be talking about Hulu today if it wasn’t for the marketing muscle behind it? The Web may be more democratic than any media to date but let’s not trick ourselves into believing that the hierarchy is gone.

4. The Rejection of Healthy Discrimination — Along with rejection of natural hierarchies is its sinister companion, i.e. the wrongheaded liberal rejection of ALL things discrimination. In a world where all things are equal, Regent University is in the same client portfolio as Girls Gone Wild.

Completely agree! I often wonder if a big agency would turn down a porn site network if they had a $500k/year budget in their RFP. It’s seems like anyone is fair game as long as they’re not competing with your biggest client. If the benefit of signing on with an agency is to tap into their network and gain access to new opportunities then it would make sense for agencies to focus on verticals or at least a certain level of brand to reinforce some sense of purpose, at least internally.

5. The Betrayal of “Trickster” — As we’ve lost that ability to write, discern and make a case, we’ve found comfort with the radical transparency fascists. We’ve become an industry of bad lairs so we throw the baby out with the bathwater and discard the ART of Public Relations.

Agreed but I think this would better be titled “The Death of the Pitch.” Too much creativity goes into winning new business and then the actual servicing of clients becomes systematic and rote. It’s no wonder that true innovators, like Google, usually feel like they don’t need outside PR support to tell their story.

6. The Nonsense of Proprietary Common Sense — “Com”-munications starts with the prefix meaning “together, with, jointly.” Communications is the common sense. There is no proprietary anything in communications and anyone who tells you that is full of squat. The differentiator in PR is — and will only ever be — intelligence, experience, maturity and grace.

Disagree. The productization of communications services is good marketing and should be utilized by good marketers to promote the way they think. Sometimes you need to dress up a simple idea to make it appealing. This belongs in PR.

7. Pabulum vs. Counsel — We were once not long ago respected business consultants. We are now the creators and purveyors of pabulum.

Agree but I think PR was only looked to as “respected business consultants” for a brief period. The industry certainly didn’t start that way.

8. Value vs. Volume — Today we confuse volume for value. Used to be that a few good business contacts were all you needed to build a respected and coveted portfolio. Then were slid into the 20/80 rule. Today, it’s meaningless website traffic stats and Scoble’s 4,000 “friendz.” Today, it’s the 999/1 maybe rule, at best.

Agreed. Measurement has always been somewhat of a joke in PR, from inflated circulation numbers to pulling traffic stats off Alexa and Quantcast. We’re asked for it so we do it but I’ve never seen a PR professional throw the numbers away and explain the value of coverage in strictly anecdotal terms, which is really the most important part of PR reporting. If you can’t explain to clients the contextual value of coverage or engagement without resorting to flawed impression numbers then you’re not well-suited for this field.

9. Popular vs. Independent Vetting — Today, PR is the business of popularity. As our ability to measure has never overcome the kinda-ballpark-subjective, we’ve become the organizers of the audience driven American Idol.

Not sure. I think this is a reach vs. influence argument but its not entirely clear. I think I agree though.

10. The Dark Side of Empowerment and the Great Seduction — Certainly, repressing talent robs society; but give the keys to the Porsche to a 13-year old and the consequence is totally predictable.

I’m too much of a fan of social media to agree with this one. Yes, we’re in the early stages of consumer generated media and the noise is almost deafening but there are new filters popping up every week and I’m more confident with every passing minute that right content is finding the people that care about it. Sure, reading the comments on Gizmodo on the day that Apple releases a new iPod won’t give you much faith in humanity but screening processes are being developed and things can improve.

Keep ranting, Strumpette. We need you!