The evolution of PR – what role does it have today?

UPDATE: Jeremy Pepper wins this round of the conversation with this headline: Can I get a big cup of STFU please? He’s right, this meme goes around every few months with usually the same people pontificating and declaring all PR dead. Guess i felt the need this go ’round.

Mike Arrington at TechCrunch has a post up today about the proper role (or lack thereof) of PR within the tech industry, particularly with startups. Worth the read, along with the comments where, as usual, some of the most insightful observations are happening. Wander over an read it, I won’t bother trying to capture the highlights here.

Over the years I’ve worked with both large and small PR agencies, always on the client side, and seen both the best and worst of what Mike describes. I’ve also worked in a PR-like capacity for a large company (Microsoft, though I’m not currently there), specifically tasked with engaging with bloggers, including Mike, in close partnership with our PR agency.

Much of what Mike says rings true, though he is guilty of over-generalization and gets called out on that point by many of his commenters – given how many PR pros are among them, it’s obvious that at least one of Mike’s points, that PR professionals tend not to read blogs or participate in the conversation, isn’t quite accurate.

There’s also a huge risk in attempting to translate so much of what Mike says to industries outside of tech – traditional media relations is alive and well in a lot of places, though in almost every instance I can think of they are being eroded by the same forces of social media and devolution of “message control” that is at issue here.

The bare fact is, PR as a whole is changing, and radically. Steve Rubel, as Mike notes, is really out in front of the changes and does Edelman credit for having him on staff and supporting his evangelism. Steve’s recent post asks if pitching is dying, and I think that gets to the core of the issue Arrington is trying to raise. I think it largely is, but that doesn’t mean PR itself is dying with it – the smart PR agencies are rapidly adapting to become less about pitching stories and more about helping their clients monitor, respond, and engage with the people, from journos and professional bloggers to fans and critics online, who are creating, defining, and propelling those stories forward on their own.

Social media is a channel for stories to be told, though one that is radically different than traditional media. The story might originate from anywhere, and often times from a blog, Tweet, or video creator the PR firm or client have never heard of. If it pushes the right buttons, it may get linked to and commented on rapidly, reinterpreted and recast in 1000 lights in as many minutes, and transmitted globally in the time it used to take to complete one pitch to one columnist. That story has as much chance of being beset by a kind of “social media groupthink” as a conventional wisdom sets in as it does of being horribly fragmented by a vast range of differing opinions.

Because stories about a company, executive, product, or event are being told there, PR has a role. Its role isn’t to generate the story (most of the time at least – that still happens and will always happen), but rather to support the client by being experts are monitoring the story, detecting the twists it takes and who they key transmitters and commentators are, and advising the client on how best to respond, to whom, and when. Good PR firms are employing people who are expert at this, and infusing the lessons learned from it throughout their entire agency (in my opinion there should never just be one “social media” or “blogger” expert on staff – it’s got to be in the bloodstream of everyone if you’re going to avoid some of the “clusterfucks” Arrington hints at that are all too common). There are PR agencies that get this, and many who don’t. The ones who don’t are still giving a bad name to the profession as a whole.