Comments on: Everything I Needed to Know about PR I learned from Office Space

By: Nick SEO

Nick SEO — Fri, 25 Jul 2008 09:40:04 +0000

that shows some dedication to your blog man, good post. Gonna watch office space tonight as its friday and all.

By: DazzleCat

DazzleCat — Thu, 08 May 2008 15:29:43 +0000

very very insightfull!! thank you

By: web Design Manchester

web Design Manchester — Tue, 08 Apr 2008 23:02:21 +0000

Gonna have to go and watch this movie now and hopefully it will all come clear to me…!

By: Bill

Bill — Thu, 17 Jan 2008 19:15:35 +0000

Excellent complication of quotes there, makes me want to go and watch it again now.

By: Brook

Brook — Wed, 09 Jan 2008 23:19:21 +0000

Yeah, Peter, I’m gonna need you to come in on Sunday too…
Lumberg is the client (all your clients) who needs you to work for him all the time (by buying into the value of his product – all the time), not just when pitching the “story of his company” to some blogger or press person.

By: dave kees

dave kees — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 06:58:56 +0000

I guess the real point of the movie was the question they asked. “What would you do if you had a million dollars?”

Obviously, most people would not choose to be a corporate drone.

So would you really choose a job to manipulate people’s opinions to the extent that you make some people think that something that is really crap is a diamond?

By: Adam

Adam — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 21:38:46 +0000

This is a great article Aaron! I have a degree in PR and now work as a PR professional for an internet marketing company who is finally starting to divulge into social media. The idea behind grass-roots campaigns and listening to your audience is the most important aspect of Social Media campaigns. Traditional PR doesn’t work in this environment and PR people need to realize that. Once again, great article!

By: MikeMarshall

MikeMarshall — Fri, 02 Nov 2007 15:51:30 +0000

Great job of putting things into context. Nice artcle Aaron.

By: Sonia Simone

Sonia Simone — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 16:08:42 +0000

The funny thing is, everyone (competent) in PR understands that you have to develop relationships with the media. Carpet bombing with irrelevant press releases doesn’t cut it. And everyone (competent) in communications knows that it’s all about your audience. Different audience, different rules. But for some reason, social media throws an unhittable curve ball to 99% of professional communications folks.

Works out well for me, since I’m aiming to get a gig working that 1%.

By: Celine

Celine — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 14:29:28 +0000

Great post. Aaron love your writing style. Amanda you say it all and so well. There’s nothing like directness and honesty. Social media reminds me of the handshake days of conducting business. Congratulations and thanks to all who work to bring this back to the world via the blogosphere.

By: shor

shor — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 04:47:11 +0000

“So, uh, Milton has been let go?”

“We always like to avoid confrontation, whenever possible. Problem is solved from your end.”

PR guys need to understand that when social media stuff goes out, it’s not a one-off event that they can wipe their hands clean of. You need a contingency plan for when your client or company when things go catastrophic (hello Sony PSP, Walmart).

By: Kyle

Kyle — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 23:44:17 +0000

Can you hear it…that’s a standing ovation. It getting frustrating being a PR dude when each day we are seeing more and more examples of ineffective communications. Perhaps this post will help reach some folks, but I’m glad that I know a lot of those same great Boston PR folks…they keep me inspired.

Thanks Aaron!
/kff

By: Maria Thurrell

Maria Thurrell — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:50:40 +0000

Oh Aaron. Love the post. I shall endeavor to live up to your standards. ;-)

By: Steve

Steve — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:35:50 +0000

Remember that Friday is Hawaiian shirt day and to wear more flair!

By: David Hopkins

David Hopkins — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 19:16:30 +0000

I bet it took you a while to write this lengthy post with all of those quotes. I don’t usually like the Hollywood movies, but Office Space was a classic.

I love Michael Bolton’s music by the way :P

By: Keith Casey

Keith Casey — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 16:10:16 +0000

I bow to your usage of Office Space to make relevant and meaningful points… Personally, I think the “Buy In!” point is the most important. If people buy into the concept, organization, etc, they’ll learn the other things. If they’re not committed/convinced, the other stuff is irrelevant.

By: Marc

Marc — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 13:05:40 +0000

“Damn it feels good to be a gangsta!”

Good post man, right on the money!

By: Ike

Ike — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 06:25:54 +0000

Yeaaaaaaaaaaaaah…

I’m going to need you to make sure you fill out the cover sheet on that ROI report…

By: Jordan Mitchell

Jordan Mitchell — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 04:08:40 +0000

Wise use of Office Space references!

By: Amanda Mooney

Amanda Mooney — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 03:12:52 +0000

Aaron-
“How much conversation are you having on your own time just because you love the community? If your answer is not much, youâ€™re only wearing the minimum pieces of flair.”

So well said. Really, I think the problem is that there are people in all areas of business and industry, including PR, who are on the Web because it’s trendy and employers are pushing them to “join the conversation.” But if you’re not really invested, if you don’t have at least a few communities on the Web already that you genuinely feel personally connected with, you’ll never understand why spam and flash and trash outreach is offensive.

At the end of the day, developing a relationship in new media has the same core principles as developing a relationship with friends, family and colleagues offline. The friend that only shows up when she wants something will very quickly offend me into not listening anymore.

PR practitioners do have something of value to offer the community. We have an intimate connection with the goings-on of companies. The trick is finding the people in the community who’d really appreciate being brought in and engaged as insiders in the company rather than finding out who are the most influential bloggers in a client’s market and sending out an impersonal pitch. It should be no surprise that no one likes to be treated like a metric, the value of their interaction measured at the end of the day by impressions and reach.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:34:30 +0000

You’re turning me into a Yankee fan with this one ;)

Just kidding, hot post. I think PR people forget the simple fact that it is a relationship. This shows it to me once again.

By: Aaron Brazell

Aaron Brazell — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 02:33:06 +0000

Oh Gawd. Now you’re going to have me quoting The Wire, since it’s my favorite show. Two words.

Omar back.

;-)

By: Chris Suspect

Chris Suspect — Tue, 30 Oct 2007 01:19:32 +0000

Hey Aaron – good post. Pretty funny actually. As a PR flack myself I totally get what your saying. Since I am originally from that side of the world I can see how the tech/social media community can be turned off by their approach. They are kind of like the popular kids in high school, they only talk with you when they want something. And, when they get it, they go back to ignoring you. What all of this blogging, twittering, networking and podcasting is all about is making real connections and creating a community with people who have similar ideas or tastes.

Since your from Bodymore, Murderland, I think a quote from Omar is appropriate here:

“I’ll do what I can to help y’all. But, the game’s out there, and it’s play or get played. That simple.”

Cheers.