PRWeek Blog Competition And 4 Reasons I Love AND Hate PR

My blog was recently chosen among 32 top blogs in the PR profession to be part of the PRWeek Blog Competition. Before I tell you what I love and hate about PR, if you’re a consistent reader of this blog, can I shamelessly ask for you to please vote for me here? I sometimes find it a great irony that my blog is placed into the public relations category when everything from it’s title (Influential Marketing) to the subjects I talk about usually extend far beyond the domain of PR. Still, when it comes to agencies, I have worked in advertising, marketing and now PR and I have learned to love PR and approaching communications challenges with a PR oriented focus. Still, there are some very pronounced down sides too – so this post is not just meant to ask for your vote, but also to share a few things I love and hate about working in PR.

What I Love About PR:

1. Successes are "earned": Just think about the term "earned media" for a moment. It’s a brilliant way to describe the output of any marketing activity, because it is so much more meaningful if you had to actually do something noteworthy to get it. Whether this refers to a great media hit that lands you on the front page of the NY Times, or a word of mouth endorsement from a mom blogger in a product review on her blog … the idea is that success is sweeter when you earn it.
2. Content/Substance Focused: One of the most interesting developments in PR over the past several years has been just how much the entire industry has started to embrace blogs and social media on a much faster curve than many advertising professionals or agencies. A key reason for this, I believe, is that so much of social media is content focused and PR pros understand this naturally. Whereas many advertising professionals are focused on creating a promotional message or tagline, PR can think bigger than that.

What I Hate About PR:

1. Smaller Budgets: There is no denying that public relations often gets one of the smallest pockets of budget in the marketing mix for many companies. Despite signs in the market that this percentage may be growing, there are often situations where we could do so much more if we had just one twentieth of the budget that is currently spent on television advertising redirected to PR.
2. The PR Inferiority Complex: Relating to this lack of budget issue noted above is the concept of the "PR Inferiority Complex" that I have written about before and feel strongly that PR as an industry needs to get past. If PR is going to continue to get a bigger seat that table, we need to demand more from our clients and offer a stronger point of view. Just about every person working in PR deserves more budget, resources and support than they are currently getting. Let’s all stand up and ask for it.

Though this post is entirely meant to be a plea for your vote, I wanted to still stay true to my main goal for this blog to offer useful and actionable content for marketing, communications and PR professionals. If I can do that even in a self serving post like this one, then I feel better about taking up an entire post to ask for your support.

PS – If this is your first time visiting this blog, below are a few other PR oriented posts that you may enjoy. If you have a chance, please also consider picking up a copy of my new book Personality Not Included for lots more ideas on marketing and communications in the age of social media.