Media and the 'F' word

You know me and my rants by now. I get fired up with things i'm genuinely passionate about. A mate/ colleague of mine, David, shared a weblink with me to a post that appeared on Strategic Public Relations. The post regards Facebook-based media relations, and gives it a big thumbs down - and I personally could not agree more.

I disagree with people pitching to media via Facebook. I even, to some extent, believe that most pitching should be conducted via the telephone, should this be the journalists' preferred method of communication. Granted, we should obviously take into consideration that we need to be "...connecting with them in the way that best suits them" - as the very same mate above pointed out.

I understand that tools such as Facebook, MySpace and even email are all very useful in helping us keep in contact with one another, but I also feel that they are increasingly being used to create profiles in which we, as PR professionals, can hide behind. I cannot completely criticise as I also very much fall under this at times (specifically, email). I strongly believe, however, that if you believe in what you are pitching out to media that should have the courage to pick up the phone and engage in direct dialogue with them. It is very hard to hide behind a facade over the phone.

Back to my earlier point though, I do realise that some journalists prefer to be pitched to over email (which is fine), but I just don't think there are too many journalists out there that would find a media pitch professional if it was posted to their wall on Facebook.

We also need to remember that we should be able to separate our private and personal lives, and this in itself is becoming increasingly difficult with the emergence of Web 2.0 tools such as Facebook. Understand that social media tools these days are at the heart of helping companies/ professionals create a direct dialogue with their publics, but this does not mean as PR professionals (the intermediaries) that we should be using all the latest tools to engage media and all the time!

So I leave you on these notes:

There is a fine line where a professional relationship becomes stalking and I think, in most situations, chatting to journalists' using this medium is just that! 

We need to remember what is at the heart of PR - 'building relationships' and not 'runing them'!