Do PR people and bloggers get along? 

If you were to go to Robert Scoble’s blog (www.scobelizer.wordpress.com), you would say no.  Mr. Scoble is faced with family troubles which he writes about freely in his blog and PR people are pitching him regardless.  Here, PR people are heartless and frankly stupid!

If you were to go to the Syndicate Conference taking place in NYC right now, you would hear Richard Edelman defending his PR position in the world of blogging while he alludes to changes he needs to make within his firm in order to stay current and effective. 

If you were to go to a PRSA meeting (a PR networking/educational group), I think many members would say, “what is a blog….we still don’t get it and we don’t want to!” (sorry to those who do get it, but this is the conversation I hear on a regular basis at the local meetings).

While there seems to be tension between the two entities, I fully believe that PR and blogging belong together and will coexist peacefully once the old regime of PR people is replaced by the new.   

The newer version of PR is one where you are spreading an honest message where you are representing a product, message or service that has a true value to many.  A company can no longer hide behind their messaging, their advertising, and their less than stellar product or service.  The world moves too quickly and word, both good and bad, spreads like wildfire now.  The lies catch up and are catching up faster than ever.  Good news does the same.  A good PR person will follow the path that blogging has forged…a path of information sharing that starts with one person and ends with another…it starts with a passion for a certain subject and ends with information gathering and sharing.

I, being a PR person, have put together a conference, www.BusinessSmartTools.com,  based on this idea that PR, Marketing and frankly business in general have a strong partnership with new media.  I believe that if you call yourself a PR executive, you will not be effective unless you understand this emerging technology.  I am forging ahead with the Business Smart Tools Conference with a strong gut feeling that Creative Concepts will no longer be ahead of the game by using these marketing and communication tools but will be the norm in the not too distant future because at some point everyone will know that you have to spread your message in many different mediums in order to gain new business.

Cinnamon and sugar are used in many ways by themselves but when mixed together, they create a toxic, homey and frankly yummy taste that can’t be matched when they are apart.  Not that PR and blogging are yummy but they can be toxic in a good way and homey in a way that invokes trust in the consumer, the employer, the employee, the board, and the investors. 

PR and Blogging belong together.