This session was supposed to be Robert Scoble interviewing Richard Edelman, but - as many of you probably already know, Robert is in Montana dealing with a family crisis. Which leads to the first question, which Robert sent in: given that he's in Montana with family, why are various PR firms still pitching him for this show?

Richard recognizes that this is bad behavior, and likely indicates the stock "spray the field" approach (also common to sales) without regard to whether the audience is prepared to hear the message.

Second question: If you want to pitch a blogger, how do you (or should you) go about it? Richard advises email, referencing back to something that the blogger has actually written about - so as to link the pitch to something that is of interest to the blogger in question. Following on from that, Richard thinks it's appalling that so few corporations in the Fortune 500 are in the blogosphere. He says it's because they are still in full on "control the conversation" mode (See: WKPA). That should change.

Another question: If your product doesn't suck, why are corporations so afraid to get out there? Richard says it's because they are used to being able to get a certain kind of attention from a certain kind of communication. Blogging deconstructs that, and blows the whole impression model away. Like any change, it's slow to happen. Companies that do change will get positive results. Spin is fading in its effectiveness, and many agencies (see above!) are slow to figure that out.

Richard says that many ad agencies are in a near panic over all this - the old model is expiring, and that generates fear. It's more or less a generational change.

Good question: why is anyone issuing press releases anymore? This resonates with me - I push things out for Suzanne all the time. Press releases are simply low credibility "news" spam. So what replaces the Press release then? Less spin, more actual information.

How do PR agencies deal with the fact that a lone blogger can break news as fast - or faster - than, say, the New York Times? Stories can start anywhere, so agencies have to watch the new channels ([ed] - search feeds). Things can start outside the media and move in, so you have to pay attention - globally. Richard also thinks that bloggers can help create better products via early access to products - properly harnessed, it can be a "free" beta campaign.

What about paid bloggers (Walmart issue?) - Richard says it's not that way - the idea was to get in touch with people who were already blogging positively about Walmart, and get them information. It's a touchy situation - without transparency, it can look like astro-turfing. As Jeff Jarvis chimed in though, the media asks for a level of transparency from bloggers that they themselves don't hold to. Reporters rarely identify where information came from (which itself could easily be called astro-turfing in many cases). The media is not generally in a position to criticize here. The even stupider part of that is that the New York Times reported on that, but their stuff died behind their pay wall.

Richard points out that flak is going to come in - PR needs to adapt to answer it, instead of the all too common reactions: attempts to shut it down, or to ignore it. PR needs to move out of spin and into truth and transparency. Companies need to move beyond fear of the commentary.

Why is Richard blogging? He got feedback (and believes) that you can't be an evangelist without getting your hands dirty. How will Richard know if the outreach is working? Based on feedback from bloggers themselves. Related to that, they'll track the progress of stories, and see if the outreach is helping.

WKPA comes up in a question - how bad was their reaction? Well, Richard goes back to the notion that you need to just roll with the punches and respond. Attempting to bully bloggers is going to be counterproductive.

Another question: Is engaging with the blogosphere making PR smarter? In other words, is it moving PR beyond push only, and into actual conversations? Richard hopes and thinks so. Some PR firms are still in denial, while Richard's firm is at the other end of the spectrum. It's early days here.

Should executives blog? Possibly, but employees probably have greater trust with the community than execs do. Get them the information and let them run with it.