(This week, PR News editors Phil Hall and Courtney M. Barnes discuss how certain PR-fueled blogs are attempting new practices and creating new territories for
corporate marketing.)
PHIL: Kids do it. Celebrities do it. Even American soldiers occupying Iraq do it. It's blogging, and it seems PR people are also doing it. Or at least enough PR
people are doing it to create a commotion. Paul Conley, noted B2B publishing industry commentator, expressed alarm that the PR folks are doing an end-run around the journalists
to reach the public (you can see his comments here: http://paulconley.blogspot.com/2005/11/public-relations-departments-dont-need.html). Conley cited some PR-fueled blogs,
including the General Motors FastLane Blog (http://fastlane.gmblogs.com/) and a quartet of blogs published by the organic dairy producer Stonyfield Farm (http://www.stonyfield.com/weblog/). Conley declares: "Now PR pros are learning new, more sophisticated ways to get their message
across, build brand trust and keep us out of the equation" - the "us" meaning journalists and editors. Is Conley on target here?
COURTNEY: There is certainly some wisdom behind Conley's words - PR pros are, finally, learning new, more sophisticated ways to get their message across (some better
than others) - but it's not a means of bypassing journalists and editors. It's a means of staying afloat in this changing media landscape. Conley's comment that "One role we
journalists play in the marketplace is as a filter for public relations" is degrading - not only to PR practicitioners who see the media as a conduit, not a filter, but to
journalists who surely would prefer not to be seen soley as a filtering function. Part of the intrigue behind the new blog culture is its accessibility to everyone; because of
that, it appears (albeit falsely) to pit citizen journalists, PR execs and professional journalists against one another as they vie for a space to comment. Is there some level of
contradiction here?
PHIL: Only if you view the blogosphere as a gladiator pit, which too many people are doing. The savvy PR professionals, however, are using blogs to go in very
different directions. The Stonyfield Farm blog site is a case in point: It consists of four blogs relating to distinctive subjects (infant care, women's health, nutrition for
school children and organic farming). Each blog is set up to be its own little community, where like-minded people are invited to share commentary and observations on the
respective issues. As of today, Stonyfield is seeking a volunteer to serve as host blogger for the nutrition section - they've moved away from old-fashioned PR pitching and
created a genuine sense of consumer participation in their PR message. In the blogosphere, there is the chance for dialogue between people from all over the world. In
traditional media, there is only a monologue: The journalist telling a story.
COURTNEY: Then Stonyfield has the right idea, as does GM, which features commentary from executives throughout the operation, and Boeing, with its "Flight Test
Journal." Conley does acknowledge the strides made by PR managers when it comes to the burgeoning art of the cyber conversation, but the challenge remains making blogs genuine,
engaging and aptly targeted. This seems to be where Conley's struggle with the journalist-PR-blogosphere love triangle kicks in. But communications and media don't have to
operate under the separation of Church and State dogma when it comes to blogging; the progression of PR's adeptness with blogs isn't a means of usurping journalists, but a means
of furthering interactions with them. Don't you agree that both journalist blogs and PR blogs can exist without being mutually exclusive?
PHIL: Indeed. And I love the fact the GM blog prints the negative feedback from its readers without censoring their input. These corporate bloggers are taking PR into
new territory, and it appears the feedback is very, very promising.