A few months ago the barista-by-day/DJ-by-night in my office building and I had the following exchange as he prepared my mid-day double nonfat latte:

Him: So you’re in PR. How can I get some press?

Me: What kind of press do you want?

Him: I want a big story in the SF Weekly or East Bay Express.

Me: Ummm.

Him: Give me some ideas! Anything!

Me: Let me get back to you on that one.

Some people don’t quite understand that PR varies so much by industry, just like it does for other lines of work. I have a vivid memory of being a kid with a hurt leg at a family gathering, and going up to my Uncle Kami, a doctor, to fix it and make it all better.

The only problem? Uncle Kami is a dentist. I won’t even mention the prodding questions I’ve asked to one of my other uncles, who happens to have a Ph.D. … in economics.

In the last few years, it’s become apparent just how different one segment of the PR industry is different from another, in large part thanks to the onslaught of reality TV shows on the field. PR Newser says it best: “Since When Did PR Reality Shows Become So Popular?” It’s true, shows such as SPINdistry, Kell On Earth and PoweR Girls are practically creating a new genre of reality TV, but they are so far from my reality as well as the reality of many of my PR brethren. Being tasked with the front-row seating assignments at Bryant Park is as mysterious to me as prepping for a Gartner analyst briefing is for them.

There’s an inside joke in the PR industry about how many times our parents ask us what we actually do all day. I found myself in this situation just this weekend with my family yet again. I usually brush it off by explaining my job in a short sentence that dramatically underplays its true value. “I make sure people who care about my clients know about them and are updated on what they do,” I say. But this time I decided to go further, speaking in explicit detail about my daily activities and the specific reasons why they are important for tech companies to do – from market research, to extensive planning, to securing and staffing meetings with press/analysts, to media training, to writing writing writing, to reading reading reading and so on. They were astounded by the amount of work that goes into doing good tech PR. And maybe I should start going into more depth when people ask. The industry needs it. After all, a huge reason why so many people slam PR is that they don’t understand what it entails, or think it’s just about getting a story in a magazine. It’s not.

So how did I end up answering my barista when he asked me, the analogous dentist, how to fix his proverbial shin splints? I explained to him that he can’t just want press because he thinks he deserves it. He needs to start thinking about what makes him interesting and what larger trends he might fit into. Then, to think of an event or something else timely coming up that 1) the reporter can tie the story to; and 2) will meet his objective of getting some more bodies at his shows. Because whether you’re in music, fashion, celebrity, consumer or tech PR, some rules will always be universal.

Everybody is weighing in on this weekend’s NYT story on PR in Silicon Valley. If you haven’t read it, don’t waste your time or your lunch.

Yes, it really is that bad.

In case you have already read the story, here’s my short rant. To preface it:

I’m NOT going to rant about the story being a misrepresentation of tech PR in Silicon Valley (or anywhere else for that matter).

I’m NOT going to rant about how PR is so much more than getting publicity.

I’m NOT going to rant about how the lead subject in the story, Brooke Hammerling, comes off as an incredibly vapid human being. If you’ve read the story, that picture has already been clearly painted.

What I WILL rant about is about how sad it is to use your “friends” to get yourself (and your client) in a New York Times article and talk about how much you can “influence” them.

You don’t make “dear friends” to influence them.

My best friend, Meg Marie.

PR is very much about relationships. It always has been and the social Web has not changed that.

On a larger scale, business as a whole is about cultivating strong relationships – whether that be with partners, vendors, media, employees, analysts…the list goes on.

But as Doug Haslam of SHIFT said on Twitter tonight, having a relationship and name dropping incessantly are two very different things.

I will promise you all one thing: No matter how “connected” I ever become and how many of you I know and one day hope to know, you will not find me bragging to anyone who will listen about how I know you and how easy you are to influence.

If I had a friend who used me like that, I would run. And fast.

To my mom, dad and the rest of my family who may have read the story, please keep in mind that this story is the furthest representation from who I am and what I actually do all day.

After all, I am still waiting for my chartered yacht invitation from [insert random tech billionaire here].

Now, where did I put that swimsuit?

Marshall Kirkpatrick has an excellent, excellent post on Read/Write/Web about how to get up to speed on a specific topic in a matter of minutes.

I’m a huge fan of RSS feeds, but a common problem is sometimes you don’t want to read every single post from an RSS feed – you just want to read that feed’s most popular posts.

The same goes for groups of feeds (think wireless news, social media, Portland art) on a given topic in your RSS reader.

Marshall explains why we need better methods of researching topics discussed in social media:

Let’s say you’re a butcher, a baker or a candlestick maker. You want to get up to speed on the social media activity in your market, as fast as you can. Or perhaps you want to sell things to candlestick makers online, or you’re a journalist writing a story about blogging butchers, or maybe you’ve got some kind of weird baking fetish or academic interest.

Is there any way to ramp up your knowledge of these fields, fast, other than the “Google and wander” method?

Using a combination of tools/techniques including your feed reader, Delicious, editing an OPML file, PostRank, and if you want – Google Custom Search Engines – Marshall proposes how you can have the most relevant information sent to you and available for research purposes in no time. He also shows you how you can find and connect with the bloggers and journalists you’ve found in seconds.

Ways to use this method in marketing & PR

• You have just landed a new client and want to know the pain points of its industry and don’t have the budget to wade through the Web to find out.
• You’re doing an ongoing PR campaign and want to know the most important posts that your target media are writing about.
• You are meeting with a new potential client in an hour and want to know the most relevant discussions happening in its industry.
• Your client is entering a new vertical industry and you want to get a “lay of the land” before you start putting together a marketing proposal.
• You’re writing a pitch to social media for a client and want to know what stories are best received in a given sector so you can tailor your pitch accordingly.

Is the light bulb going off yet?

A Specific Tech PR/Marketing Case Use

Clean tech is a burgeoning industry, and admittedly one I could learn more about. So, let’s say I land a new clean tech client a few months down the road. By using Marshall’s method, I could have a targeted list of the top clean tech blogs/news sites, their top posts in my reader, a specialized search engine of their feeds, and be connected with the bloggers/journalists online  – all in 30 minutes.

How can a client say they’re not getting their money’s worth with this kind of fast action and social connection?

How else can we use this method?

I highly recommend you give this method a stab and see for yourself. It’s really a lot easier than it looks! I used it, for instance, to create a specialized folder of the top San Francisco posts on news and culture. It took me about 15 minutes from start to finish.

Have other ideas of how you could use this method in PR and marketing?

Photo by –Sam–, Words mine via Skitch