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This blog may cause some of my fellow publicists to cringe, but I have to ask the question: Who are you representing?

One of my pet peeves in the PR business is public relations firms that promote themselves in the media instead of their clients. What gives? Aren’t they being paid to get press coverage for their clients?

If I am in the public relations business, then doesn’t it stand to reason that my ‘job’ is to pitch my clients to the media and get story placements? I believe any reasonable person would say yes. Yet, I have seen on more than one occasion, PR firms promoting themselves over their clients. I actually had a client tell me that their former PR firm once pitched one of their own executives for a news story, instead of pitching the client who had the required expertise to be the source.

Now let me be clear. I am not talking about PR firms who are promoting awards they may have won for their work or company. At Logos Communications, when we win an award for a client project, we send out a press release. When we do that, we are not choosing to pitch ourselves over a client (as was the case above). In fact, we name the client project right in the press release, so the client gets some exposure too.

Here’s the bottom line for me. If you’re doing a good job for your clients, then it seems to me that you’ll be able to attract plenty of clients through referrals. And I believe you can market yourself without taking up the media spotlight that should belong to your clients.

Which goes back to my original question: who are you representing?

By Sue Voyles