Why PR Clips Suck

I found the below description of good PR on the David Meerman Scott blog WebInkNow this morning. If you haven't heard of him, you must be hiding in a deep, dark hole somewhere. Climb out and read his book, The New Rules of Marketing and PR and hop over to WebInkNow.  I think David hits the nail on the head (speaking of cliches) with his thoughts on what works in PR. The following is from his blog post:

Just like when I talked about ad agencies, I know there are PR agencies out there who totally understand other ways to get their clients "some of that social media stuff" than just pitching bloggers and getting a few clips. There are some excellent agencies that combine traditional media relations with content creation and social media.

I think the excellent PR agencies understand that they have a role in helping their clients to create original content that gets them noticed. That valuable online information -- YouTube videos, blogs, photographs, ebooks, Twitter feeds, Webinars, and the like – is a better approach in the long run than generating a handful of clips from bloggers.

Great advice. We've been writing articles and blog posts about this very thing as a way to educate folks on the power of PR when done right. It's no longer about press releases. It's about creating, aggregating and syndicating content so the client is the thought leader. We try to get clients to a place where the journalists are reaching out to them for stories vs. the other way around.

What do you think about turning the idea of PR on its head and the Meerman Scott approach? Is content creation working for your PR goals?