‘C’est la vie’ and ‘non illegitimi carborundum’: key tenets of PR?

Not quite sure who this is directed at. Maybe PR newbies, maybe seasoned pros, likely me.

In any event, thus far, I have had what can only be described as a shit week. The icing on the cake (non-worked related) was when the idiot cops in the socialist paradise I reside in gave me a ticket for jaywalking; cause in a Workers’ Paradise, why should a productive citizen get to work unimpinged and on time??

I am far from a perfect PR pro. But I try my best and generally do my homework. Sometimes I fail, in spite of these things. Maybe you do too.

A few reminders about PR:

• You can do your homework, research a journalist’s beat, find out when and how to contact them, craft a solid pitch, offer them an exclusive on a story and get rejected.
• You can play the game the right way, retweet a blogger’s content and comment on their posts for months and get nada in return when you ask for a favour.
• You can deliver more coverage than ever and have people claim it is too little or that somehow the process sucked (who gives a fuck about process if results are there??).
• You can follow all the best practices about running a Facebook community and still have things blow up – badly – on your page.
• To add insult to injury, even if we as a profession try to do things right, there will always be people taking smug potshots at us.

In our game there are no guarantees, lots of misunderstanding and a fair number haters.

So please, keep trying, keep listening, keep consuming content that talks about best practices in PR and for heaven’s sake try them out. But, for your sanity, remember that when you aren’t buying it – when you’re doin’ it the old fashioned way and earning it – anything can happen and outcomes are so far from guaranteed.

This much is undeniable:  PR is a human to human vocation. That means it is unpredictable, unscientific and subject to all manner of quirky human behaviours and frailties.

C’est la vie. Non illegitimi carborundum.