An agency I worked at a few years ago had a current events quiz to go along with the interview process. We had some steller performers coming through our doors looking for jobs but if they couldn’t pass the quiz, the boss didn’t want them.
Why not? Well PR is about the news, and if you can’t even be at least marginally aware of what’s going on in the world around you, not only are you a dull person (we will have to share office space after all) but how can you be expected to stay on top of news about your clients’ markets?
This all comes to mind with a post from Robert Scoble this morning. If you don’t know what Robert is going through, I won’t recount it here. Let ii just be said he’s hardly in a position to be taking pitches from PR people. Yet still…
It’s amazing how many product pitches I’ve received in the past few days. Even in phone calls. Do they not read my blog? Do they have no clue what’s happened in my life in the past five days?
Apparently not.
I’m sad I’m not going to Syndicate. I’d like to ask Richard Edelman about why PR folks are sometimes so clueless.
Clueless is putting it mildly.
Blogging, and especially journalists blogging, has been a gift to PR people. We have more insight into our targets, their likes, dislikes and even their lives, than ever before. Want to butter up a reporter? You can probably find out something – his birthday, his kids’ names, his favorite team – on his blog.
So now there’s no excuse.
I’m sorry I’ll be missing Robert tomorrow. But sometimes life becomes a bit more important than the latest product release.
