In this post BL Ochman continues to breathe life into the Edelman/Wal-Mart debacle (judging by the number of comments interest is tailing off). Here's a snippet:

The theme here is PR agency cluelessness about new media.

And here to the bandwagon response from PR agencies around social media. Again, a snippet:

PR firms, which over the past 10 years have repeatedly demonstrated their inability to understand the Internet, long ago ceded control of client websites to legal and sales departments, will now begin to try to control social media.

Even Steve Rubel (A-List blogger but also an Edelman employee) recently complained about the quality of PR pitches and the amount of posting spam he gets via email from PRs.

These two are strange bedfellows perhaps but this is also strange territory for me.

We do PR. So, should I be a critic, or just climb aboard the bandwagon like everyone else? I guess I'd claim a point of differentiation, we also have a sizeable software business, one that develops proper, grown up solutions for global companies (ie not just a web guy in a cupboard somewhere, or a freelancer's phone number). So our PR team benefits from sound guidance on if, why, where and how to build social media into customer PR programs (and then they can build it).

But best of all I find that our developers are a great moral counter-balance. They help to keep us honest. I'd recommend it for every PR company.

Tags: BL Ochman, Steve Rubel, PR, blogging