Spinning the Web: P.R. in Silicon Valley

Brooke Hammerling (publicist) and Erin McKean (entrepreneur) are in a Sand Hill Road conference room, hashing out plans to unveil Ms. McKean’s new Web site, Wordnik.

Donna Sokolsky Burke, co-founder of the firm Spark PR, with Alex Edelstein at a friend’s birthday party in San Francisco. She says “power users” in social media are increasingly important.

Ms. Hammerling, while popping green apple Jolly Ranchers into her mouth, suggests a press tour that includes briefing bloggers at influential geek sites like TechCrunch, All Things Digital and GigaOM.

But Roger McNamee, a prominent tech investor who is backing Wordnik, is also in the room, and a look of exasperation passes across his face at the mere mention of the sites.

“Why shouldn’t we avoid them? They’re cynical,” he says, also noting his concern that Wordnik would probably appeal more to wordsmiths than followers of tech blogs. “That’s where I would be most uncomfortable. They don’t know the difference between ‘they’re’ and ‘there.’ ”

Without missing a beat, Ms. Hammerling changes course, instantly agreeing with Mr. McNamee’s take. “I love you for that,” she intones. “I’ll leave the tech blogs out. Let them come to me.”

By CLAIRE CAIN MILLER

Full Story: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/05/business/05pr.html?_r=1&hpw

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Social Media Club Missoula, 7/15, Missoula http://matr.net/article-34965.html