21 things PR is NOT

This means explaining how our work benefits bottom-line goals. Part of this is showing and telling people what PR is and isn’t.

I’ll begin today with a quick checklist of what PR is NOT:

1. The department whose sole purpose is to write, edit, and hawk press releases.

2. The business function whose only raison d’etre is publicity.

3. A business function that deals with the media and/or bloggers and NOTHING else.

4. A way to get free advertising—pure and simple.

5. Ever guaranteed to generate coverage.

6. Ever 100 percent controllable.

7. A profession filled entirely with unctuous jackasses.

8. Journalism’s bitch.

9. A highly scientific discipline.

10. A craft that has figured out—with any sort of consensus—how its true organizational value should be measured.