A Call for Help from the PR Agency Peeps

I recently attended a talk with Paul Holmes for an annual PRSA LA event and I walked away with so many points to contemplate but I’ll save all that for another post.

The one main takeaway was a point Paul made (reading between-the-lines) and that I’ve been harping on for a long time, a lot longer than this blog has existed, is that the PR industry needs a reality check on what people outside our industry think of us as well as what we think of each other before we can address the issues and move forward.

Jennifer Leggio, a blogger with ZDNET, started the process with an insightful survey aimed at in-house reps to uncover what clients are satisfied, and unsatisfied with, from their agency counterparts.

As many of you have read, Jennifer and I have teamed up for a follow-on to that survey that examines the p.o.v. from the agency perspective. The motivation behind the survey is to show the other side and help further pin point the areas of disconnect between agencies and their clients in an attempt to make the overall relationship stronger.

Is it a lofty goal? Hell yes. Is it the be-all-answer? Hell no.

But it is a starting point.

The thing that makes these surveys different is that Jennifer and I aren’t a PR agency. And we’re not part of some service that is funded by PR agencies and the industry. We’re just two people who see a serious need to figure out what we stand for, what we’re understood to stand for, and what we need to do to be more respected as thought leaders by those around us.

You can read the results from the first survey here and learn more about why we’re doing the follow-up survey here.

And this is where I come to you as a fellow PR professional and say – please help us.  Please help us gather smart and insightful results. Please help us spread the word to your PR agency and contractor friends.

Please help us reach our goal of 1,000 completed surveys.

We know there are enough of you out there that this goal is not unreasonable but Jennifer and I can’t do it alone by blogging, tweeting, facebooking and LinkedIn-ing.  We need your support.  Right now we’re just shy of 300 completed surveys.  That means 700 more to go.

We’re doing this in our spare time (oxy-moron) in an effort to help YOU. To help all of us.  Please help us, help you, by forwarding the survey link on.   The deadline is March 31st. We’re hoping to release the results in early May.

If you want to learn more, Jennifer and I will be on our partner in crime, Al Krueger’s, radio show, Comet Branding, this coming March 11th.

Jennifer will go over the  methodology behind the last survey and share additional insights into the results.  Then we’ll discuss why the second survey, targeted at PR agencies and contractors, is a necessity as we all navigate the uncharted waters of the future of PR.

Don’t be left off the boat. (This doesn’t work for me. I’m changing it.)

… it’s sink or swim time, people.

Here’s the link to make it easy to cut and paste and forward on: http://www.surveymonkey.com/s.aspx?sm=5BPlvFMNesTc7Iw4FEnJ2A_3d_3d

Thanks in advance for your help in making our industry a more interesting and vibrant place to be.