NYTimes article: the playing field has leveled for PR

By Linda VandeVrede on July 6th, 2009 In Best Practices

Every now and then an important article on PR pops up in the media.   This past weekend’s NY Times article, “Spinning the Web:  PR in Silicon Valley” is one.  You gotta read it. It captures the essence of the “before” and “after” in our profession. 

This is the new world of promoting start-ups in Silicon Valley, where the lines between journalists and everyone else are blurring and the number of followers a pundit has on Twitter is sometimes viewed as more important than old metrics like the circulation of a newspaper.

Gone are the days when snaring attention for start-ups in the Valley meant mentions in print and on television, or even spotlights on technology Web sites and blogs. Now P.R. gurus court influential voices on the social Web to endorse new companies, Web sites or gadgets — a transformation that analysts and practitioners say is likely to permanently change the role of P.R. in the business world, and particularly in Silicon Valley.

Referring to this article, Robert Scoble blogged about the power of grassroots and the power of nobodies.   It’s amazing, he says, that “PR companies haven’t figured out yet that the traffic has moved onto social networks and that journalists and influencers are watching those like a hawk. Want to get on CNN? You better be on Twitter and you better get TONS of Twitterers to talk about your company to @ricksanchezcnn.”

Yeah, the PR role has changed.   Instead of having to know a manageable, finite list of media, now we have to know everyone.   The playing field is now level – pitchers are as important as the ball boys.    Hot dog vendors are as powerful as the catcher. 

My question is this:  who are, and where are, all these PR people who are apparently pitching aimlessly and thoughtlessly in a manner that is oh-so-90s and earning the scorn of people like Scoble?  Can you group them demographically by age? geographic location? gender? training?

NYTimes article: the playing field has leveled for PR

Comments

barry Kluger Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 9:15 am

Interesting piece.It seems to mean more with applications for the masses, such as software and downloads.

for B2B businesses that don’t touch the consumer directly, the standard method(alebit on FB or twitter or a ‘rolodex’) is still the way to go.

Rebecca Armendariz Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 1:52 pm

Again, another insightful post from you about the transition of PR! Valley PR folks should definitely jump on the boat with this advice.

I spoke with Kevin Curran from 12 News the other day about the station’s new evening news format. He mentioned (as I’m sure all of you who watch have noticed) that they are trying out a very different format – much more interactive and geared toward those who are at home and/or frequent social networks. He recommended that PR pros monitor Moms Like Me, Twitter and azcentral.com, as they regularly pull topics and viewer comments from all three sites.

Becky (@rarmendariz)

Matthew Dutile Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 2:31 pm

The article is a great read. While I think some of it is a bit situated to that high-tech market, most of it has real applications all PR people (and their clients) should be keyed into.

Marketing Sociologist Says:
July 6th, 2009 at 3:56 pm

Read the article Saturday and felt terrible I wasn’t as connected as those PR people in the article. Then it dawned on me – communicated last week with two Hannah Montana stars’ managers. One goes, “you know there’s an African American country star who started in rock.” I went Darius Rucker. “Yeah.”

The agent wanted to know who to talk to at Disney’s Hollywood records – I said Bob Cavallo. I added Cavallo’s email address and his dad wrote the song, “Do You Believe in Magic.” Later in the day when Allen Klein, Rolling Stones and Beatle manager, died, I emailed his publicist, Bob Merlis, whom I’ve known for 30 years.

Then Sunday I watched the Hannah Montana hour long version on YouTube 3 hours before it was on local TV. In popped one of my MySpace buds, Malese Jow. Remembered in April she sent photos of the Hannah Montana kitchen when she was filming. It was a surprise to see her on the show for her 30 second appearance.

So, after feeling down about not being connected with the Silicon Valley PR experts, it dawned on me – we all have our expertise.

Richard Kelleher, M.B.A.
Marketing Sociologist
twitter and friendfeed: PhoenixRichard
MySpace.com/MarketingSociologist
MarketingSociologist.blogspot.com
TweenMusic.blogspot.com

Tony Felice Says:
July 7th, 2009 at 9:12 am

I *twittered* yesterday that as I was writing the marketing and PR plan for a new client, I realized that the days where social media had its own section in the plan are gone. Instead, we are motivated to reach specific audiences in support of various strategies by incorporating both the real and virtual worlds. People are having conversations instantly and shaping the way we think about people and brands. This hybrid between print and verbal communication is fascinating. Just this weekend, out with friends, many of them were taking pictures and posting them to Facebook, real time, and talking about where we were and what we were doing, all the while mentioning the name of the restaurant and commenting on the experience we were having–all to the benefit of the restaurant whose owners had no idea we were talking about them. How will this new reality affect not just PR but customer service and experience marketing? Where every second you interact with your customer is more important than ever, because that diner over there in the corner, siting by themselves, is talking about you right now…with thousands.

Pssst…I’m talking about you. « Tony Felice PR Says:
July 7th, 2009 at 9:34 am

[...] read a blog post by Linda Vandeverde today at Valley PR Blog about the changing world of old school PR and this new social media covered by the New York Times [...]

Linda VandeVrede Says:
July 7th, 2009 at 9:45 am

Good point, Tony – social media is no longer a separate “section” in the PR plan. It’s all merged together.
And yet, lately a lot of my old work colleagues are just now – just now — creating LinkedIn profiles. They are only now putting their toe into the social media water.
If I had to break it down into percentages, I’d say 20% have no clue about social media, 20% are extremely active, and the remaining 60% are somewhere in between.

Marketing Sociologist Says:
July 7th, 2009 at 4:46 pm

Love Linda’s last point. Recently posted a question on LinkedIn about using Twitter for PR and advertising instead of print, television and radio. The reaction was like Linda said. “Don’t want to hear it.” “Too soon.” Guess those were the same people that went out of business since throwing me out of their offices after I told them two years ago they needed a MySpace and YouTube presence. I was accused on LinkedIn question (today, not 3 years ago) of being too early of an adapter – I didn’t start with Twitter until last year!

Imagine if I told these people about Digg – which I learned about on THIS blog; Technorati or Alexa – or even HTML. Seems some people prefer to put their heads in the sand. Wonder why the U.S. economy is so bad?

Pat Elliott Says:
July 9th, 2009 at 7:43 am

While the New York Times makes many good points, they missed key ones and focused on surface level aspects of the transition we’re in. Social media tools are just part of a broader tactical tool kit – the need for foundational skills and knowledge hasn’t gone away.
Brian Solis, author of Putting the Public Back Into Public Relations, says it well in his blog post today: http://tinyurl.com/otd6pt

Penny Haywood Calder Says:
July 10th, 2009 at 7:18 am

Great point Pat and thanks for sending me over to Brian’s post.

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