Seth Godins Advice to PR Industry: "Focus on P, not R"

Interviewed by PR Machine during Global PR Blog Week 1.0, Godin Says Use Blogging Technologies to Help Companies Make Stuff Worth Talking About

For Immediate Release

Contact: Robb Hecht
Phone: (917) 257-3523
Email: rhecht@hechtcom.com

SETH GODINS ADVICE TO PR INDUSTRY: FOCUS ON P, NOT R”

Interviewed by PR Machine during Global PR Blog Week 1.0, Godin Says Use Blogging Technologies to Help Companies Make Stuff Worth Talking About

New York, NY (PRWEB) July 27, 2004 - Seth Godin, former Yahoo! vp of marketing and international bestselling author of "Free Prize Inside" and "Permission Marketing," gave the PR Industry some eye-opening advice about media fragmentation and the industrys integration of blogging technologies in advancing client brands, telling them to focus on listening to the public (the P” of PR) rather than on just reaching new audiences through relations (the R” of PR).

"As PR Machine evangelizes the integration of weblog and RSS feed technology with public relations to advance client brands, we agreed with the viewpoints that Seth Godin shared with us during Global PR Blog Week 1.0. As a key opinion leader in the online brand marketing arena, Godins comments go to the heart of what the PR industry has been forgetting while combining technology with its communications efforts: listening to the public," said Robb Hecht, producer of the PR Machine weblog.

On Public Relations & Technology
Capitalizing upon the PR function being at the table of the origination of brands, and ‘moving upstream ever closer to the core of the factory, Godin felt that PR professionals should utilize new communications technologies like blogs, RSS feeds and Technorati to both better listen to and reach their publics, utilizing the technologies to help companies strategically promote their products and services.

Media Fragmentation
Godin believed that the current giant upheaval for marketers is that the 'channels' of media (newspapers, radio, TV, Internet) are exploding in number while simultaneously imploding in impact. As a result, he said, A plug on Oprah or in the New York Times (the survivors) is priceless, while just about all the rest doesn't matter as much as it used to.

On Blogs As Listening & Outreach Channels for PR
Godin indicated that the interactive nature of blogs now make it difficult for companies not to listen to customers, but believed that companies still dont quite get it. Companies...view customer feedback [via blogs] as a cost and a threat, not an opportunity," he said. While expressing that blogs arent yet a significant part of the marketing or corporate communications mix (due to their threats), Godin stated that the same old traditional approaches to PR arent going to work (at least for now). Leaving the door wide-open for a new role for the public relations practitioner to effectively integrate technology into the skill, he advised that what works is bringing actual news and remarkable stuff to people who care. But, he warned PR professionals not to see blogs as a solution, saying, "Blogging is a tactic that leads to an overhaul to what you do...blogs help formalize and record conversations, but they're not the whole conversation.”

On RSS Feeds & Technorati Technologies
Godin implied that PR professionals need to use technology to both listen to and reach their constituencies in new ways, telling professionals, "If you're not using Technorati to watch what people are saying, I'm not sure you're doing your job!" He felt the same way about RSS, a technology that follows his permission marketing mantra, indicating that RSS is a lot better than email. Imagine,” he said, how much more effective you'd be if you had an RSS slot on the desktop of 100 or 1000 key influencers!”

To read Godins advice to the PR industry, find his interview on PR Machine, found at: http://prmachine.blogspot.com/2004/07/seth-godin-interview.html

About Seth Godin (http://www.sethgodin.com/)
Seth Godin is author of six best-selling books on marketing and entrepreneurship. He is a renowned lecturer and was named one of 21 "Speakers for the Next Century" by Successful Meetings Magazine in 2003. Godin holds an MBA from Stanford and was named the "Ultimate Entrepreneur for the Information Age" by BusinessWeek.

About PR Machine (http://prmachine.blogspot.com/)
PR Machine is a communications industry business blog resource portal for driving effective brand marketing communications. PR Machine, a member of Global PR Blog Week 1.0, also recently received honorable mention recognition in Marketing Sherpa's 2004 Readers' Choice Awards, found at http://www.marketingsherpa.com/sample.cfm?contentID=2729.

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