Blogging as a tool for PR

When the concept of blogging was first introduced to me, my first thought was, how can firms just let anyone with internet access write whatever they want for the whole online community to see? I felt it was somewhat dangerous to allow that kind of freedom. Blogs certainly don’t have the censorship that magazines, print ads and tv have. I pictured employees getting fired for misrepresenting their companies on personal blogs and people using blogs as propaganda.. But then I remembered that this is the United States, and we use our first amendment right to its full extent. So I started getting over how controversial blogging can be and began to see how it benefits the public relations industry.

When I really thought about it, blogging is the perfect tool for the PR field. Professionals can promote their own business and create buzz for their clients in a cost-free and effective way. They can use it as a networking device to see what other PR professionals are doing in the field. Corporate blogs are now open forums for employees of all levels to voice their opinions and ideas. Lots of PR blogs are from well-established professional PR practitioners who are willing to offer their advice and thoughts about the current PR industry. Jeremy Pepper’s blog, Pop! PR Jots (http://pop-pr.blogspot.com/), shares advice with other PR pros about his experiences with starting his own PR business. Even CEOs like Harold Burson (http://hb.burson-marsteller.com/) and Richard Edelman (http://www.edelman.com/speak_up/blog/) have hopped on the blogging band wagon and have their own personal blogs.

Several blogs are devoted to what not to do as a PR professional, like the Bad Pitch Blog (http://badpitch.blogspot.com/index.html), started by Richard Laermer and Kevin Dugan. They have been in the field almost twenty years and offer some pretty hilarious commentary about the don’ts of the PR field. They actually use people’s real names to cite the bizarre and amusing events that happen to them on a daily basis. Their main complaint and title of one posting: “One year later, the pitches still suck.” Blogs like Google’s (http://googleblog.blogspot.com/), use the open forum to promote new features on their website and discuss recent business deals.

Ultimately, PR professionals need to be tuned into this new online tool, because its their job to know the newest and latest ways to promote their clients. Blogging has created a new way of creating buzz and it’s a great asset to the PR field. Overall, we can see that the world of blogging has infiltrated the field of communications and is becoming widely used by more and more professionals daily