Why press releases don't make good blogs

By Chris Tomlinson on Nov 23, 09 11:52 AM in PR

Last week I attended the PRCA Digital Revolution event at 'Funlop" as the Birmingham Post staff affectionately call their home.

Online PR guru, Fernando Rizo, was speaking on how to sell 'digital' to clients. (he was destined to become some sort of guru with a name like that!).

His main point was that, thanks to the internet, mass communication was no longer the preserver of the media - everyone is now in the broadcasting business and that has fundamentally changed how PR works.

(That's probably a poor summary so judge for yourself - video of his full presentation can be found here : http://bit.ly/3ADvb4 )

He also underlined what many of us have already worked out - that PR has become conversational. Rather than issuing press releases it is about listening to, and then joining, online conversations.

To use Fernando's words: PR consultants used to spend most of their day writing, now they need to spend most of the day reading.

Many of our local Birmingham PR firms are trying to get to grips with this 'digital' thing. Most have worked out how to put their client's press releases on blog sites and tweet them to their journalist followers.

But that isn't joining the conversation - especially when they invariably turn off the ability to leave comments.

A press release and a blog post are entirely different animals.

Fundamentally online content only becomes a blog when comments are not only allowed, but activity solicited.

For me, to qualify as a blog a post needs to contain hyperlinks (words underlined in blue) to background content too.

But most importantly, unlike a dry press release, which is usually the voice of an organisation, a blog needs to be a personal opinion. When people get to know a good blogger they trust their opinion far more than they ever will a corporate press release.

In fact, the biggest mistake business bloggers (and their PRs) make is to treat their blog as an online press centre and damage that personal trust.

Press centres and press releases are for feeding stories to the media, a blog is for communicating with your audience directly.

Chris is MD of social media and online PR agency Friend Digital

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1 Comments

David Bailey said:

Nice blog, Chris. Blogging at the Post has been exactly what you suggest - a conversation. Some of the comments have offered brilliant insights on business stories. The Post has been very much at the forefront in developing this - well done to its business staff and Marc Reeves the editor.

November 25, 2009 8:24 AM