I’ve been planning public relations, advertising and marketing communications strategies for almost 30 years. And for all three decades, my blood pressure has risen when I’ve asked about the objectives of such assignments and heard: “We need to get our message out,” or “We need to raise awareness” or, heaven forbid, “We need a brochure.”
These phrases mess with my EKG because they presume that merely sending messages at people will achieve some result. (It will, of course. It will make lots of money for the message-makers and the media by which those messages are sent.) But more often than not—especially in this day and age of clutter and overload—one-way communication isn’t da bomb; it just bombs.
So what works? Instead of sending messages at people, build relationships with people. Instead of slick, self-serving sales pitches, engage people in genuine conversations based on their interests. Instead of lazy, outdated, one-size-fails-with-all mass communication, have personalized, individualized interactions with just the right masses.
That’s why Hetrick’s static Web site is dead. That’s why we’re not a public relations firm; we’re a firm that builds relationships with publics. That’s why I’m not writing an e-mail at you, I’m asking you to converse with me. You’re up.
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