From www.honesttea.com
I never, ever thought I’d write a post about the value of traditional (I don’t put PR in my title much any more; I prefer the business-to-business social media marketing moniker.) I was all up in arms over a he got from a PR firm about a new buzz word its trying to create, called “PRkting.”
That threw me into a tailspin, and here’s why:
Public relations is its own discipline. Yes, now more than ever with marketing.
Ergo WE DO NOT NEED TO CALL OURSELVES A CUTESY B.S. DESCRIPTOR.
Maybe the ergo was supposed to swing the other way; in this instance it swung…directly into the quagmire of bad ideas.
Public relations practitioners have gotten, get and will always earn a bad rap; especially if they’re behind the . If you’ve been following any posts , at , at or at , then you’ll know how bad it’s been for we in PR.
Putting a stupid, trendy buzz word moniker on what public relations should be to disguise all the bad and to tap the good from marketing is not the answer. What is the answer is doing good, traditional PR to earn respect. That way people in marketing and business and the C-suite and corner office can understand the value of public relations.
Good Old Traditional PR
An , cofounder & TeaEO of Honest Tea, July 23, 2012 is a perfect example of traditional public relations at its finest.
Mr. Goldman, to be sure, did not pick up the phone and pitch the op-ed pages of the Wall Street Journal all by his lonesome. After all, he’s “TeaEO” and that’s his title, no lie.
The TeaEO of wouldn’t have thought of aligning a current business issue in an op-ed based on a proposal by NYC Mayor Bloomberg to ban sugar-sweetened drinks in containers larger than 16 oz. After all, Mr. Goldman is in a corner office running his business.
Mr. Goldman, TeaEO of , is likely not the brilliant writer depicted in the Wall Street Journal op-ed, although one cannot be sure. His smarts are more than likely attributed to solid business sense to “launch Honest Tea 14 years ago with five thermoses and a belief that consumers were thirsty for a lower-calorie natural and organic beverage.”
And, so, I bring you three solid reasons why traditional public relations is squarely behind 75 percent of op-eds you read in national newspapers (that stat is totally unsubstantiated).
Do you think the TeaEO (I bet you’re tired of hearing that title, eh?) of an entrepreneurial company knew innately how to land an op-ed in a national print daily business newspaper or did he perhaps rely upon professionally trained, strategic public relations practitioners who knew to:
- Seize Mayor Bloomberg’s timely proposal about anti-sugar drinks in large containers and make a case for Honest Tea which already has made a sizeable capital investment to conform to current New York City regulations?
- Challenge the NYC mayor to consider and reverse his expensive business proposition that would wreak havoc on a business that provides tea in 16.9 oz bottles to city restaurants.
- Write a coherent and thoughtful op-ed with action orientation that has readers siding with the TeaEO.
- Pitch the piece to a department in the Wall Street Journal typically so absolutely unapproachable AND get it accepted for publication.
Eh?
Perhaps you hadn’t thought of what goes on behind an op-ed until now. Trust me when I tell you, that public relations by strategic practitioners make these elements happen on a daily basis; it’s just that you don’t know it. And, trust me when I tell you this…when you see a PR person trying to appear on the frontlines and earn credit for this type of work, run the other way; fast.
Our role is to make our clients and company spokespeople look good on the frontlines; we’re never in the limelight ourselves.
Love it when you get fired up.
@jennwhinnem Thanks for saying; look at that — took all day for someone to comment. This goes directly to this week’s post about blogging for community or clients. When you go expert, few commenters; when you go light and airy, everyone chimes in. So, I’m all over the place as I typically am and won’t go changin’!
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Curious to learn more about “And, trust me when I tell you this…when you see a PR person trying to appear on the frontlines and earn credit for this type of work, run the other way; fast.”
Otherwise, no idea where everyone else is – I just had time to read this. Just nodding my head over here.
@jennwhinnem If you encounter a PR practitioner who wants limelight as a spokesperson for a company, product or service and wants their name first in a company then that person does not represent the standards of our profession.
If, on the other hand, it’s their job to be a spokesperson and be quoted in media instead of the CEO or other executive; fine.
We who also do media relations have the opportunity to be quoted all the time. Once I was quoted in the New York Times instead of a client and was absolutely mortified that I would lose my contract.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing I loved that piece. More please.
Amen.
As if we needed more buzz words, right Jayme? You’re upset for good reason. Preach it!
@annedreshfield Huge grin on that note, Anne! Thanks for sayin’!
Ok. You baited me here via twitter so here I am.
The only thing I really understood was “Eh?” and luckily I am Canadian otherwise it would have been zippo!
I know that the etiquette of blogging is that if you have nothing intelligent to add then don’t comment BUT I have never been much for conventional means. And i want to ensure @Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing has sold ground for teasing.
I read Danny’s post.
He is one funny guy. I have hopefully interpreted his point as well as yours correctly.
There are a lot of amateurs in every industry and they dilute what a real professional can bring to the table. And more over it hurts more on the financial side because some clown will sell their services at cut rate fees and then can’t back up their BS business acumen with real solutions that make sense.
Sorry, this stuff riles me up a bit because I see it IRL in my industry every damn day and it hurts the industry as a whole. Real value is diluted and we ALL suffer.
@rdopping Hahaahaha. We are not so different, Ralph! We both suffer the jamokes who devalue our professions with huge consequence to we who do it well. Thanks for being the catch to my bait!
Hey, @honesttea honesttea ! Wanted to give you a chance to read some good stuff about your PR team; sadly, your Twitter stream is unresponsive. So, I’ll try here. You have some kudos happening in my stream re your op-ed, too. You might want to add this post to your results folder. Eh?
honesttea Thank you, HonestTea for the tweet…they told me it was the foresight of the TeaEO who made that op-ed happen. W00t!
Good grief. Leave the naming to the copywriters, at least… Anyway, as I tweeted, I could barely read the thing. That says “Stop. Go back to where you were ahead, because this ain’t the spot” right there. And your argument needs to be written 50 times each by every member of the firm. Indeed.
@ShakirahDawud Oh, Shakirah; how I love thee. You’re such an incredible brainiac and I smile every time.
Here here! Well said, Jayme. 🙂
That is what I noticed about these fields like pr, marketing and advertising. We pull strings, put in tons of hard work, but we do not necessarily get the recognition. Nor is it our place to take it. We succeed when our clients do. Sharing in their triumphs. Our work is invisible, but creates a big impact. Sometimes we need to give ourselves a pat on the back. Remember how much we do every day that moves our business forward.
I would not even sweat this guys trying to cover that up with some new “buzz” word. They will fail if they cannot find a way to make that term transparent. I say call yourself whatever you want, as long as the meaning can be easily understood by the people who matter most to your business.
@susansilver I love your practicality. It’s very refreshing.
Well, now I’m hooked on your blog. I’ve seen your insights before and remember being impressed, but this takes the cake. I bet we’d be friends IRL.
Thanks for the post!
@cmtrapolino Wow. I wanted to “like” your comment about 10x, but I could only do it once! You just said a #RockHot, Lady, and how cool are you?
Thank you for sayin’ and I’m going to try to live up to your standards!! Appreciate you stopping in; please leave your blog url, so we can all come visit, too.