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Results from the Technorati/Edelman blogging PR survey I mentioned last week are already posted on Edelman's site. An email I received from Richard Edelman this evening reiterates their purpose in conducting this survey:

We conducted this study to:

- Better understand bloggers’ attitudes towards corporations and PR firms
- Help clients understand why and how they should engage the blogosphere

Technorati contacted tens of thousands of active bloggers via email, blog posts and the networks of discussion and links those posts generated. The survey generated 821 responses during the week of September 26, 2005.

The survey results are a must read for anyone using, or contemplating the use of, blogs, but business professionals in general will also find the survey provides some good, useful information.

Of particular value (PR folks, listen up) are the responses to the open ended questions. The answers are in response to a blog question, but many would do well to heed their answers in their daily PR, marketing and even business dealings. In response to question 5: "How do companies and their firm’s PR representatives generally interact with you?" I particularly enjoyed response #645:

"Get to the point. Yeah, yeah, we all know you have the latest, greatest, best-ever product/service on the planet (in YOUR mind), but instead of telling us how many awards you've won and cranking that MBA-speak word generator multiple times to produce your pitch, try telling us what's in it for us. How will your product or service make our life easier? How will it increase our bottom line? Why should we care? You've got to make the pitches appeal to the reader/listener. Why is it still so hard for otherwise intelligent and competent PR people to understand this?"

It's what I've been saying all along. If you can't get your message across in a clear, compelling and concise manner, you lose your audience. Of course, if you can't respond to the question being asked, that may ding your credibility a notch, too (note #645 seems to be in response to a different question).

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