Public Relations

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The classic PR model assumed that there were well-read and well-respected journalists with a loyal audience. When traditional PR was at its peak, journalists were one of the main links to potential customers. Now potential customers can talk directly to each other. And that has changed the game forever.

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By now you've seen the ridiculous Seinfeld ads (shoe ad and family ad) that Microsoft is running. And, additionally, there's this ridiculous article in the NY Times* about how Microsoft is tired of being kicked around and isn't going to take it anymore.

The article includes these quotes:

Apple executives have been "using a lot of their money to de-position our brand and tell people what we stand for," said David Webster, general manager for brand marketing at Microsoft in Redmond, Wash.

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One of the most important skills of a marketing strategist is to know "where the heat is." What matters now? Who matters now?

One of the things that matters now is your buyers, trying to get relevant, useful answers in a sea of irrelevant, self-serving blather. Anyone can publish a blog and post a video. Almost everyone does. Every company has a website. Publishing companies that used to have a monopoly, those large lumbering newspapers, magazines, and networks, are now surrounded by swarms of publishing gnats. The giants are dying, one gnat bite at a time.

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George Lucas, being interviewed recently by Kara Swisher of The Wall Street Journal, was pontificating on the difference between circus and art. He said that YouTube is circus - which the movie industry calls "throwing puppies on the freeway," because you just create something and put it up and see what happens. He then said that art, on the other hand, is "where the person contrives the situation and tells a story, and hopefully that story reveals the truth behind the facts."

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I recently interviewed Greg Jarboe, one of the founders of SEO-PR, a company that has established itself as one of the market leaders in the field of search engine optimization using public relations techniques. I've known Greg for many years; back when my husband and I were in Silicon Valley running a high-tech marketing agency in the 80's, Greg was director of communications for the then high-flying Ziff-Davis.

Greg has always been urbane and prophetic, so he's fun to interview. But he's also learned a thing or two about optimized PR. Here's what he had to say.

PR in general: