An article concerning Public Relations by a Mr Loïc Le Meur has recently come to my attention. The charming title of his article is “PR Secrets? Bullshit” and can be found here.
Mr Loïc Le Meur
There are a worrying amount of users, particularly on Twitter, labelling themselves entrepreneurs. Unfortunately Mr Loïc Le Meur falls into this category with a difference, he is a serial entrepreneur. I have no personal discrepancy towards Mr Loïc Le Meur for choosing this title but the definition of entrepreneur is so widespread and almost a cliché for anybody trying to avoid the title “business man”. A “serial entrepreneur” only raises questions in my mind of other associated titles such as “serial killer” or “serial rapist”. Anybody confessing to be a “serial entrepreneur” then signs his own death warrant in my mind. There is also a worrying trend between the arrogance needed behind this un-academic title which is usually associated within the individual’s views. You are not to be disappointed with Mr Loïc Le Meur where this is concerned.
I’ll begin by assessing the term ‘PR Secrets’ as seen in the article title. He associates that the term is simply fuelled by those working within the industry to capture clients. With this I completely agree. Of course the PR industry will need a hook in order to sell its services but that is the purpose of PR, to provide a method behind the madness. It is clear that Mr Loïc Le Meur does not understand this concept as his advice behind PR is, “Get a community and focus on your friends is the way to go”. Of course that is the way to go but how? All organisations need a PR department; international companies usually have PR departments focusing on the different geographical areas. Mr Loïc Le Meur claims that, “PR is no secret science and it is not complicated”. To this the fellow must either know everything or nothing. It certainly throws questions behind my PR degree which I’m currently studying towards. This aside PR is deeply associated with communication theory and psychology.
PR is an art itself, a constantly changing one in the current technological climate. Interestingly Mr Loïc Le Meur seems to place journalists and bloggers side by side together. I say interesting since social networking could be partially responsible for many journalists losing their jobs. Of course, the costs of advertising in the current economic climate have also had a large part to play behind many local papers shrinking in size or being discontinued. To me this only places a higher need for PR. Especially since PR on the internet is free of charge and does not rely on the material needs of newspapers.
As a student I fulfil both the enthusiastic blogger and the need for PR. I would consider myself part of the blogging community but PR is not purely about communicating a message. The invention and development of a product largely depends upon the audience it is focused at. If the audience has no desire for a product then it will not sell. PR can be used, with surprisingly little effort, to monitor an audience’s reaction to a product on the market. In a way PR cheats the rule in some ways by attempting to create desires within a targeted audience. So as Mr Loïc Le Meur says, “If the product gets traction, it will get coverage anyway”. Quite right, PR often helps discover that traction and keeps those desires fuelled.
It must not be forgotten that PR is really a subset of Marketing, much like Advertising. Mr Loïc Le Meur seems to be attempting to merge Marketing with Public Relations. Whilst essentially there is a merge, like there is with advertising, they are both separate beasts. If a PR person of a company or organisation is not the spokesperson then you can be sure there is a PR shadow in the background instead. The mistake made is that PR is not only just active within companies and organisations. How can there not be PR secrets, more accurately methods, behind those within government? It was primarily PR, Tim Bell, who corrected Margret Thatcher’s image for the British Public. There is a need for distinction between being a Publicist and a Public Relations person I think. Both job roles are too similar and so cannot be ignored.
I completely agree with Mr Loïc Le Meur that, “participation is NOT marketing”. Here I think he has again confused the distinction between Public Relations and Marketing. Modern PR is all about participating within an audience. This is exactly how ePR works, granted not perfectly yet but this is the method. You cannot compare blogging to a business environment. I have started at least seven different websites up in the last four years. All had communities and this is how ePR will primarily work at the moment. If participation causes awareness or/and an increase in profit then PR has fulfilled its basic task.
It seems entirely clear to me that targets do still exist within an audience. There is no such thing as a homogenous audience anymore in today’s culture and society. Everything has its subsections and subcategories. The ability for people to choose what channels on television they would rather watch, which websites appeal to them or even cultural diversity in a geographical sense. I completely agree with Mr Loïc Le Meur that targeting may result in missed opportunities but targeting is required to a certain degree which ever product is to be promoted.
I agree with Mr Loïc Le Meur that launch days are fairly pointless. Too many times have I seen Apple and Microsoft further their launch days due to issues and this just usually ends in bad media attention. Obviously there needs to be a rough date, perhaps divide a launch into a particular quarter of the year. Although, launches do have their benefits such as creating a suspense and a media boom. If launches didn’t work why would people use them? With the promotion of a product of course journalists should be targeted. Not to be treated as a means to an end but simply to ensure journalists receive material that is relevant for the publication they work for. One of the worst things a PR person can do is send a blanket email to a whole range of publications.
I am intrigued that Mr Loïc Le Meur could go on about PR and I urge him to do so if he comes across this blog post. Hopefully I have grasped all of his points accurately and I can expand on anything I have written here.
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