I’d like to propose that we make every December (see comments) November 1 “PR Is Dead Day.” For at least three years, the “PR is dead” mantra has been a constant with bloggers on the social media right. The latest salvo was fired yesterday by Dennis Howlett, in a blog post titled PR Is So Over.

Dennis’s complaint is a valid one:

“In any one day I field up to 20 PR requests. I can guarantee that 90+% of them have done zero research to find out what I’m interested in. In the worst cases they won’t have done a basic Google search to find out who I am or where my interests lay. In 2008, that’s beyond unacceptable, it’s criminal.”

Yes, social media has changed the world of communications. Yes, traditional public relations is no longer the most effective means for a company to deliver its message to the marketplace. And yes, there are many less-than-stellar PR people out there.

But it’s a logical fallacy to make the leap from this to “the PR industry is in its death throes.” Certainly, public relations is going through a difficult transition. But transitioning it is, with many traditional, old line, public relations agencies now possessing credible social media practices doing good client work, and many other hybrid aka new-media PR agencies, like SHIFT Communications, doing PR in a Web 2.0 world quite nicely, thank you.

It seems every time one of the social media purists receives a lame, untargeted pitch from a junior public relations person, this is a bellwether that the industry is all but gone and forgotten. Please. We encounter incompetence and ineffectiveness everywhere every day. We hate the cable companies. We hate our cellular providers. We hate the airlines. And while many companies in these industries are in trouble and many of them are doing a very poor job, we’re still going to fly planes and use mobile phones. We don’t have to like it (and who does), but it’s hard to make the leap from that to “the cellular phone industry is so over.”

And while the PR industry may suffer from a competence gap, let’s also remember that there are a hell of a lot of people doing really bad social media. Arguably the proportion of social media professionals who don’t know what they’re doing may be larger than that found in traditional public relations.

For that reason, I am calling for December (See comments) November 1 as Annual PR Is Dead Day. I realize that many bloggers are frustrated with the ineptitude of clueless PR people mindlessly lobbing untargeted releases over the electronic fence. So let’s set aside one day a year for some serious PR bashing, leaving 364/365 days a year when we don’t have to listen to this wearisome and not entirely credible complaint.

Tags: Dennis Howlett, PR Is Dead Day

The biggest mistake a PR professional can make is insulting the gentle sensibilities of a blogger. Influential bloggers are the Buddhist monks of the online world. They live simple, serene, ascetic lives and can find even the slightest upset or break with their daily routine emotionally jarring.

There are many basic rules that can help you avoid the wrath of a blogger. Remember, hell hath no fury like a blogger scorned by the shock and pain of an imperfect e-mail.First, craft your pitch carefully. NEVER WRITE A PITCH USING COMIC SANS. I cannot stress this enough. Here’s what it would look like. Not a good thing:

It’s also important to have a genuine relationship with the blogger. Like any relationship, this should be based on an understanding of the blogger’s personal style and preferences. Many bloggers, for example, like luxury items, such as chocolates or fine timepieces. Let me offer a few suggestions here:

• Godiva chocolates = FAIL. Know your brands. Good chocolates are not sold at the supermarket. Sending the wrong kind of chocolates could result in a career death spiral that will leave you lucky to get a job as a Wal-Mart greeter
• If buying a watch, resist the temptation to have the watch engraved. It makes it difficult to resell on eBay. Again, know your brands. Patek Philippe.
• An iPod with no music on it is useless. Pre-load it with the blogger’s favorite music.

You can also endear yourself by making the blogger’s life easier. As a courtesy, always include in your pitch your latest information, such as street address, social security number, ABA routing number and any major surgeries you’ve had in the past 10 years to assist with the public humiliation process. This is called “anticipating the blogger’s needs and staying one step ahead.”

Here’s a tip for recent grads. While you may have had an education, your certificate from the Sequoia Institute of Social Media may not have adequately prepared you for the communications environment you now find yourself in. Fortunately, many bloggers have now stepped up to offer reasonably priced seminars on how to pitch them. Some of these take as little as a half day of your time. Or think seriously about one of the week-long “pitch camps” bloggers are holding around the country as a way to round out your professional capabilities. The PR industry still places too much emphasis on understanding its clients and the industries they are in, newsworthiness, writing, and research, though fortunately, some are moving away from this outdated model.

Since the right pitch method varies so much from one blogger to another, you should pick up a specially modified Magic 8 Ball now being offered by the Public Relations Society of America, featuring answers to the question “how should I pitch this blogger?” such as “email,” “Facebook,” and “not at all.”

Also, existing references, such as Roberts Rules of Order and Burke’s Peerage, certainly apply to this complicated thing called blogger relations. No need to “reinvent the wheel.”

I was also very excited to learn of the launch of Outterz, a new social network where lame PR losers can out themselves in an open, collaborative community. The idea that social media can be used to solve problems created by social media is a time-tested strategy.

Ultimately, though, if you violate these simple principles, or you’re just lame, no carefully crafted, definitive blog post on the topic, such as the one you are reading, can help you.

Tags: blogger relations, outing, PR people

Amy Jussell, blogger and executive director of Shaping Youth, questioned the appropriateness of a picture of a woman with her crotch intersected by a bullseye featured in a recent Target ad.

She blogged about this, and contacted the company, which, according to the New York Times, responded by e-mail:

“‘Unfortunately we are unable to respond to your inquiry because Target does not participate with nontraditional media outlets,’ a public relations person wrote to ShapingYouth. ‘This practice,’ the public relations person added, ‘is in place to allow us to focus on publications that reach our core guest,’ as Target refers to its shoppers.”

The logic behind this is “Target customers do not read, and are not influenced by, blogs,” which is patently absurd.

Tags: amy jussell, target, bullseye, blogger relations