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Monday, October 16, 2006
PR and blogs
Kind Friend sends me a link to a piece about the importance of PR in the context of blogs, and how "[c]orporate brand builders are growing increasingly conscious of the power, and potential pitfalls, of blogging." Sure, but I'm skeptical about how effective PR can be when it comes to bloggers: mainstream media outlets are few and easy to reach; blogs are dispersed and not so accessible.
Also, the bloggers with credibility in the blogosphere are not likely to swallow PR spin as easily as a trainee needing to churn out a quick story at the desk of a newspaper. A classic example is that of how Sprint goofed up with Joel Spolsky. Indeed, if a PR chap ever sent me a product and I chose to write about it, I'd do so only with full disclosure, and I'd be brutally honest about it, as I expect any self-respecting blogger would. So if the product sucks, PR would backfire. And if the product doesn't suck, then, in my opinion, it doesn't need PR.
Expect more articles on the subject, though. It's one of the fads of the moment.
(Spolsky link via email from Ravikiran.)
Update: Gautam John writes in to point me to two related posts on Scobleizer: 1 and 2.
Also, the bloggers with credibility in the blogosphere are not likely to swallow PR spin as easily as a trainee needing to churn out a quick story at the desk of a newspaper. A classic example is that of how Sprint goofed up with Joel Spolsky. Indeed, if a PR chap ever sent me a product and I chose to write about it, I'd do so only with full disclosure, and I'd be brutally honest about it, as I expect any self-respecting blogger would. So if the product sucks, PR would backfire. And if the product doesn't suck, then, in my opinion, it doesn't need PR.
Expect more articles on the subject, though. It's one of the fads of the moment.
(Spolsky link via email from Ravikiran.)
Update: Gautam John writes in to point me to two related posts on Scobleizer: 1 and 2.
