With PR, You Get What You Pay For…

I have been fortunate to have some great clients over the years (Microsoft, BET.com, King Features Syndicate etc., international accounting firms) and they all have been very pleased with my work.

I consider myself a traditional PR pro who actually follows the tradition of reading or watching a media outlet before pitching. I have also established myself with thousands of media placements on behalf of my clients. So when I see random people with no sort of media or journalistic experience start calling themselves a publicist, I just shake my head in disgust.

Recently, I saw what appeared to be a press release on a local consumer website. The press release was for an event given by a medical practice, but it was posted as if it was a news story. What I found strange about this was that it was posted with contact information for media interviews, which of course would not be in a normal news story.

The confusing nature of the press release made me look closer at who was disseminating it. There was a woman’s name, phone number and email address. Out of curiosity I went on the website listed in the email address. I thought maybe it was some sort of PR firm. To my surprise it led to a website for a LIGHTING COMPANY – seriously.

So this person, who obviously convinced the owner of the medical practice to hire them as a PR person, is using an email address associated with a lighting company to pose as a PR person? Talk about moonLIGHTING. OK I couldn’t resist that one.

Any legitimate reporter would be just as curious as I and dig deeper to discover the real identity of the alleged media contact. Perhaps the person listed is the PR person for the lighting company, however I think her employers would not appreciate her using company email to serve the needs of someone else on company time.

And for the people out there who see the good in everyone, maybe this woman is the owner of the lighting company and can do what she wants with her email. OK fine but what on earth would an owner of a lighting company be doing serving as a PR person for a medical practice? Is business that bad? I think you see where I am going.

Best Business Mastery Tip: If you are going to hire a PR person, make sure they are REAL ESTABLISHED PUBLIC RELATIONS PROFESSIONALS. These days its seems everyone is putting on the PR pro hat as if it doesn’t take specialized skill.

News flash – public relations requires specialized skills and knowledge of how to handle the media. Real journalists can spot a hack publicist a mile away. It is widely known that journalist lack some respect for what PR pros do, so if the person really has no clue you can count on the journalist not replying to anything the faux publicist sends.

I realize that not all PR pros have a journalism degree, over 15 years of experience, have worked in newsrooms for NBC, ABC, and CBS news and served billion dollar clients like I have, but come on they should at least have one connection to the media industry somewhere. Check PR professionals credentials to verify that they are the real deal.

– Shakira