5 reasons PR has to be a centre of content creation

A friend recently asked me about his PR program.

His agency is getting him play in traditional media. That’s great. You need that.

But, in 2010, you need more.

When I started my career PR people chased media. Now we are media.

Today PR has to be a centre of content creation, because the biz is now the media.

Here are 5 reasons your PR department must be an integral part of content creation:

1. PR understands how to match content to a target. We used to spend oodles of time tailoring pitches to journalists (and still do). The skills involved in this activity are TOTALLY transferable to content creation.
2. PR knows about packaging content. By this I mean we know how to use multiple media to tell a story. Good pitches employed the right multimedia. In this era, you need to understand your community’s favourite medium (or media) for digesting content.
3. PR people know about getting to the point quickly. We are in an era of “snack-sized content,” traditional PR pitches (good ones) have always been about saying it quick and simple. Good content is easily digested. No Rolaids required.
4. PR knows how not to offend (theoretically). PR people tend to filter things through a prism of “will this result in negative reaction.” You don’t want to create content that offends. If that’s what you’re producing, say “bye bye community.”
5. PR people are creative. I know, not all of us are. But the best flaks cook up amazing ideas to get coverage for mundane things. In a world of white noise that is unlikely to subside, creative content is the only way to get noticed.

What do you think?