I hope you’ve been enjoying the past week of discussion. Links to all the questions and responses by the participants will be linked from the bottom of each entry. This is the final question that the panelists answered. Thanks you again to Marc Orchant at Blognation USA, Cathryn Hrudika from Creative Sage, Marshall Kirkpatrick, Doug Haslam of Topaz Partners and Brian Solis for taking the time and really delivering this stuff on very short notice. You guys, rock.

So here we go. The final question on this Friday.

What advice would you give to your own industry in engaging the other side?

Brian Solis: Chris Anderson summarized it best, “I only want two kinds of email: those from people I know, and those from people who have taken the time to find out what I’m interested in and composed a note meant to appeal to that.”

What’s it going to take for PR to reflect that sentiment and honest plea for relevance? It should be common sense. But it’s not. Common sense is all too uncommon in almost everything we do these days.

So to help PR “pros” stop pissing-off bloggers and reporters and start building meaningful relationships with them, here is a list of things to live by:

1. Remember this is about people
2. What do you stand for? Answer that first before you try to convince people that are busier than you why they should take time to stop what they’re doing to pay you any attention.
3. It’s more than doing your homework. To some doing homework is building lists. Figure out what your are representing and why it matters. How does it compare to other things. What do people need? What are their pains?
4. Practice saying it aloud in one-to-two minutes or less to a friend or in front of a mirror. Seriously. It works. If you don’t get it no one else will.
5. Less is more. Find the right people, not just because you read their profile in a database, but because you read their work and understand their perspective.
6. Engage in conversations outside of when you need something.
7. Build relationships not lists.
8. Humanize the process and remember that this is about people
9. Stop whining and making excuses. You are responsible for your actions so arm yourself with what you need to be successful.
10. Stop sending press releases without summarizing what the news is and why it is IMPORTANT to the individual person you’re sending it to.
11. Remember the reputation and the future of PR is on you. If you’re not in this to do your job better, then ask yourself why you’re here. If you’re not part of the solution, then you’re part of the problem.

Marshall Kirkpatrick: Let people know how you’d like to communicate but also, get over yourself, roll with the punches and deal with standard operating procedure. The good PR agents will do a good job and the rest will always be there. Ultimately, I’ll happily write about a great product that came in with an awful pitch and I turn down the opportunity to cover crappy products that come in via great pitches all the time.

Marc Orchant: I work both sides of the fence so I guess my advice would be to both side to do the following: be respectful, clear, and consistent.

On the PR side ““ know who you’re pitching and don’t waste the blogger’s time with pitches that are way off topic. Deliver a well- crafted pitch, supported by as much relevant information as you can assemble. When I get a pitch that contains a logo, screenshot, “money quote”. and sufficient background on the company or product, I have everything I need to begin thinking about what my coverage will look like. If I have to go fishing for this information, the odds are I won’t.

On the blogger side ““ invest the time in educating a PR contact abut who you are and what cover. This information should be on your blog. If it’s not, assuming that every PR rep has read the last month’s posts (or more) and intimately understands your topical focus and opinions is wishful thinking. There are simply too many blogs out there and he tools that do exist for researching the medium are less than great. So make it easy for the people pitching you to do so effectively. And when they miss the target, try first to course correct before blowing them off – especially when dealing with agency folks. You may not be interested int he client they’re representing today but who knows about tomorrow?

Doug Haslam: From the PR side, the first thing I would say is: “it;s not the other side.” Of course, this applies to all media. I approach PR as on the one hand helping our clients get attention, but on the other hand helping proifessional communicators get good stories. Stop worrying about “closing the deal” and start worrying about helping media present stories that will engage, educate or entertain their audiences.

Cathryn Hrudika: Re: PR Roundtable-My answer to Question #5Inbox
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Cathryn Hrudicka to Aaron

show details 10:41 AM (2 hours ago)

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Question #5: What advice would you give to your own industry in engaging the other side?

Cathryn Hrudicka: First, I would advise other PR professionals and initially resistant clients to get over their fears and misconceptions and learn all they can about blogging, podcasting, vblogging, and relatively new mobile apps, like Utterz. Next, they should do some creative thinking about how they could use these resources to have a real conversation, build community, brand themselves and share their messages. I would encourage them to start their own blogs and other channels for their own content. Next, they should learn about the key bloggers, podcasters and other content providers they might approach who would be interested in their story or news. They should learn about these journalists’ individual beats, preferences, styles, and approach each one accordingly.

I would advise other colleagues and clients to learn about the key social networks, like Twitter, Facebook, etc., and strategically create profiles on the ones most relevant to their audiences and their messages. Then they should observe how people converse with each other on each network, and figure out how to enter the conversation. Instead of simply learning new ways of “pitching,” or simply making promotional announcements, it’s really all about the conversation and the innovative ways of interacting that are possible now.

Indeed, they should keep up with the newer, constantly evolving ways of writing “social media press releases” and developing an online media room-but first, it’s how each blogger and content provider wants to be approached. We have to continue this dialog between PR professionals and content providers, because the technology, social networks, channels and protocols will continue to evolve at an ever-increasing rate. As mentioned in previous blog posts, the practitioners on “each side” will do a better job when we all have a more open, ongoing conversation.

Thank you all again all panelists. I hope this series has been productive for both sides and all involved. Talk to you next week!
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