When I tell prospective clients or personal acquaintances that I work in media relations, some think that BLAST is an advertising firm (to clarify, media relations and media buying–a function of advertising–are completely different). The people I meet who understand media relations as a function of PR probably assume a variety of different things about me based on my profession. Let’s face it – PR people don’t always have a good reputation. The industry would probably fall somewhere near business executives, advertising practitioners or lobbyists on the Gallup Poll of honesty and ethics in professions. Yes, there are unethical people in PR. I’d also venture to say that there are some agencies that, overall, operate with little regard for doing what’s right.

I want to let you in on a little secret – one that most C-level executives already know: PR can help organizations grow. Of course, there is a major caveat- your PR team has to be stellar, seamlessly executing a well-planned strategy to deliver the results needed to drive an organizations’ business objectives and reputation forward. Having experience in the field and having relationships with top-notch editors both play important roles in PR. However, I came across a post on The Bad Pitch Blog that was dead-on in describing a characteristic that all people possess, but isn’t always utilized by other PR practitioners: the ability to be a genuine human. All of us, regardless of profession, should be genuine when interacting with other humans. It’s such a simple principal, but many PR people seem to forget how to be genuine when dealing with media and instead get tripped up by the pressure to deliver results to clients… end up acting like jerks. It’s really no wonder the profession has a bad name.

I’m biased, but I think the fact that each person at BLASTmedia and BLAST Outdoors acts genuinely like themselves in their daily communication with editors has greatly contributed to our success, and of course, to our clients’ successes. To our counterparts at other agencies where you’re encouraged to read from a script or be fast-talking tough guys — Sayonara. We’ll enjoy our successes, and you have fun trying to stay in the game and keep your name out of the bad pitch blogs of the world.