Posts Tagged ‘Public Relations’

PR vs. Communications

April 19 2011

I recently stumbled upon a post by Paul Holmes endorsing Edelman’s decision to reposition itself as a communications agency instead of a public relations firm. That’s certainly a subtle move that will go unnoticed in most circles. Firms are evil. Lawyers have firms. You have to dig a little deeper to find an evil agency. Well, depending on your political leanings (e.g. CIA, NSA, ATSDR) you do. Anyway, thought I’d share.

    Oh, what about us or any “interactive ad agency”? Do we keep our category or spruce it up a bit?

    • social engagement agency
    • intelligent technical communications agency
    • traditional marketing is stupid agency (although we think some old is good)
    • converging media agency
    • reciprocal communications facilitation organization
    • joint consumer strike force

    Nah, none seem to fit.

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    Anyone else confused?

    February 19 2009

    All it took was one public relations professional and one social marketing hacker to spawn an honest, somewhat snippy discussion of the merits of expertise in today’s social media circus. Nicole is invited to attend a social marketing workshop. Giovanni is hosting the workshop. A self-proclaimed social marketing ninja, Giovanni uses considerable real estate on his blog to refute claims made by Nicole. So I go read Nicole’s take on the topic. A visit to KickingSand.com gives me Nicole’s side of the story–I had already soaked up Giovanni’s lengthy defense. Nicole quickly refers us to a rebuke of the social marketing carneys claiming superiority in todays’ topsy turvy marketing landscape.

    Here are a few of the highlights should you want to skip the links above and move along to your next to-do item. Best to avoid calling yourself a social media expert. Any 20-year old with unlimited text messaging and a Facebook account is a social media expert, they just don’t know it yet. Meanwhile, public relations professionals seem quick to reinvent themselves and move the goalposts. After reading these posts it became very clear that even the pros are confused. If you’re confused, you’re normal. The lines between PR and marketing have blurred and the gap between marketing and sales is shrinking.

    Back to work.

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