Screaming In The Public Relations Echo Chamber

I have to be honest ... the audience for my blog is not what I expected when I started 11 months ago.

I thought I would be able to create a site of interest for local PR practitioners and clients. But very few Houston PR pros ever make it here ... fewer still are regular readers.

My RSS subscription rate -- according to Feedburner -- has slowly climbed to around the 50 mark. And I typically get 100-150 web hits a day.

But most of the IP addresses that show up aren't from PR firms -- here or elsewhere.

My clients don't read me. Most of my former colleagues don't read me. Heck, even my wife doesn't read me.


Who reads PR blogs?

So who is a reader? A handful of other PR bloggers. A few people in the marketing profession who appreciate my point of view.

And hungry folks searching Google for Fuddruckers' coupons.

It's the PR Echo Chamber, according to Australian blogger Trevor Cook, who wonders here if anybody cares:

"While there are a lot of PR blogs out there they don't seem to be attracting much notice beyond themselves."

His fellow countryman Lee Hopkins argues here that we're in a period of consolidation because the early adopters are in ... but everybody else is still waiting on the sidelines. Could be true, I guess ... or is that just wishful thinking?


Where we stand

While speaking primarily about blogging, both gentlemen make excellent points as to where the public relations profession stands as we near 2006 -- a handful of folks trying to make a difference but basically talking amongst themselves while it's business as usual for everyone else.

That's why I argued here that our profession needs more than just an introduction to new media tools.

I believe it's going to take some pain to make communications professionals wake up to the changes around them.

Pain as in losing clients and revenue to smarter, more aware, more progressive firms ... the ones currently screaming in the echo chamber.

Technorati Tags: PR, Public Relations, New Media, Blogging