Comments on: Public Relations Professionals Need To Get The Basics Right

By: David Jones

David Jones — Sun, 11 Nov 2007 01:12:01 +0000

@Michael

That’s funny…well the part about getting a CD handed to you is anyway.

By: Michael Allison

Michael Allison — Sat, 10 Nov 2007 04:02:42 +0000

I think Terry and David mentioned that a junior practitioner may be given marching orders and expected to produce results by a certain time–in some cases. And for a newbie not familiar with the correct procedure, something like the above fiasco could result.

For me, as someone who will hopefully be working in PR when he finishes school, it’s slightly terrifying, mostly because if my potential boss handed me a CD with a list full of email addresses and told me to send out a release I probably wouldn’t do it and would end up getting fired.

Is my bellicose view justified, or am I just scaring myself?

By: Dave Fleet

Dave Fleet — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 20:38:04 +0000

Good to hear – I figured you guys would have a good set-up!

You’re right – mistakes will happen and people will be cranky.

Still, I’ve read a lot of ‘these people just did what their bosses told them to do’ excuses. It seems that either those people are refusing accountability, or education is needed right up the chain.

By: Todd Defren

Todd Defren — Fri, 09 Nov 2007 18:47:16 +0000

Thanks for the kind words (again!), and, you are right that the challenges are as much based in Media Relations as Blogger Relations.

I know many PR firms, ours included, have truly in-depth training programs… but people are going to still make mistakes. Fact of life.

You might also keep in mind that bloggers and reporters can be … well, *cranky.* Even if PR pros do everything “right” they may still get dinged because their outreach just occurs on a bad day.