Putting more hours in the day

I hear so many journalists/bloggers that complain about how PR people don't understand what they cover. How PR people don't take the time to read what they write about. How PR people should pitch people on a more personal level.

I totally agree with all of this. My question is, however, when? When are we supposed to have time to read every single blog that may someday apply to one of our clients, read every publication known to man, and still take the time to cultivate these personal relationships, write thoughtful pitches that hit the nail on the head and grab people's attention at the same time? It's kind of a lose lose situation for me because I'm one of those people that has EXTREMELY varied interests/talents, and a client base to match. I represent all kinds of clients, from enterprise to snack foods and I am still searching for an effective way to get organized enough to do all this reading that I need to do while also creating thoughtful and effective PR plans for my clients, forging meaningful relationships with them and doing the same on the other side with media.

I sometimes joke with my friends about how PR is the profession for people who are amazing at doing nothing. But that's not true. If you do your job correctly, it is one of the toughest jobs around. It requires a lot of time, patience, intelligence, social grace and organization that I don't think a lot of people can bring together. I've seen several people start in PR, try it for a little while and then give up, most often blaming their departure on other people, unfortunate events (or CES - but who wouldn't want to give up after spending three days there?! :) ) but the fact of the matter is, people in PR aren't given nearly enough credit for the hard work and long hours that they sometimes put in. They are constantly fighting to maintain a reputation being brought down by lazy, thoughtless spammers and they most often serve as a scapegoat for the misunderstandings that take place every day among the public, their colleagues, the media and their clients.

So, this is a salute to all those brave enough to do it! Keep trucking and don't let the man get you down :)