Tom Murphy on Pragmatic PR

Tom Murphy has a pretty strong article as part of Global PR Blog Week, which is very much worth reading. 

Tom cleverly adapted the Gartner Hype Cycle graphic and applied it to PR tactics and communications channels.  It looks like this:

This is useful -- it shows in one place all the tactical ways to relate to an organization’s publics. Way too often practitioners concentrate on the tactic or tool rather than what the public wants to hear and how.  I hope this reminds us to look right through all those channels and figure out which ones are most applicable to our clients or companies to deliver good messages. 

Gadgets are great.  Only if they're productive.  The real test of PR is whether or not you communicate something valuable to the people most interested in hearing it.