????無論是作為一項商業職能，還是一門職業，公關都不怎么受重視。市場研究機構eMarketer和美國公共關系協會（PRSA）各自發布的數據顯示，美國公司每年在廣告上投入1,500億美元，在公關上僅投入50億美元。薪酬網站PayScale的計算也顯示，廣告專業人士比公關同行多掙達75%?；旧纤械腗BA項目都提供廣告課程，但據美聯社（Associated Press）報道，只有約20%提供公關課程。在大眾文化中，廣告人被賦予強人特征，就像《廣告狂人》（Mad Men）的主角唐·德雷柏一樣，憑借神來之筆“人生旋轉木馬”（Carousel）成功贏得柯達（Kodak）幻燈機的項目, 而公關人就像《欲望都市》（Sex and the City）里的薩曼莎·瓊斯，似乎除了靠舉辦聚會為生，別的什么也干不了。

????但是，如果人們關注影響決策的機制，他們就會知道，公關至關重要。

????沒人比史蒂夫·喬布斯更懂得這一點，他就像關心產品設計一樣，親自過問公關事宜?！度A爾街日報》（The Wall Street Journal）《莫博士信箱》專欄作者沃爾特·莫斯博格回憶稱：“1997年，（喬布斯）重新出任【蘋果公司（Apple)首席執行官）剛幾天，就開始往我家打電話。每星期天晚上都打，連續打了四、五個禮拜?！蹦共└癖硎?，喬布斯的周日電話“是馬拉松式談話，一談就是90分鐘，屬于涉獵廣泛的私人探討。”

????喬布斯關注的不只是《華爾街日報》。前科技網站Gizmodo撰稿人布萊恩·蘭姆·沃爾特聲稱也收到過喬布斯的私人郵件，還和他通過電話。然而，Gizmodo后來購買了一部丟失的iPhone 4原型機，引發爭議。隨后，這樣的溝通就終止了。

????喬布斯傳記作者沃爾特·艾薩克森在傳記中解釋說：“電視廣告和媒體評測文章是史蒂夫·喬布斯謀劃推出新產品時的兩個首要考慮因素。借著它們的幫助，他的新產品推出似乎成了世界歷史上具有劃時代意義的時刻?！?/p>

????公關只會越來越更重要。風投公司安德森-霍羅維茨風險投資公司（Andreessen Horowitz）最近任命業內幾乎聞所未聞的公關人士瑪吉特·溫馬徹斯擔任公司合伙人?！具@家風投公司的聯合創始人馬克·安德森曾創立網景（Netscape），并摘得2012年《福布斯》（Forbes）雜志最佳創投人排行榜（Midas List）榜眼?！?/p>

????如果公關這么重要，為什么它不受重視？

????為什么公關不是企業優先考慮的事項？下面是我與很多首席執行官、營銷人士和記者探討后了解到的情況：

????公關效果無法跟蹤。有媒體報道是件好事，但傳統上沒有辦法了解媒體報道對企業利潤有多少影響。如果要了解公關投入金額多少如何影響報道的數量和廣度，難度就更大了。

????這行在記者中名聲不好。自從發明了電子郵件，給記者發送不相關的垃圾郵件變得太容易了。懶惰的公關人員可以利用軟件隨意向記者們發送大批郵件，大大損害了這行的名聲。

????Public relations is not taken seriously as a function of business or as a profession. US companies spend $150 billion annually on advertising and only $5 billion on public relations, according to eMarketer and PRSA respectively. Advertising professionals make up to 75% more than their PR counterparts, as calculated from PayScale data. While virtually all MBA programs offer courses in advertising, the Associated Press reported only 20% offer a course in public relations. In popular culture ad execs are immortalized with powerful characters like Mad Men's Don Draper who positions Kodak's slide projector for success in part by singlehandedlychristening?it the "Carousel", while PR execs are portrayed by characters like Sex and the City's Samantha Jones who seem to do nothing but?throw parties for a living.

????Yet anyone who pays attention to how decisions are influenced knows that public relations is tremendously important.

????No one understood this better than Steve Jobs who was as personally involved in public relations as he was in product design. The Wall Street Journal's?Walt Mossberg?recounted?that "within days of [Jobs's] return [as CEO of Apple], in 1997, he began calling my house, on Sunday nights, for four or five straight weekends." Mossberg went on that Jobs' Sunday calls "turned into marathon, 90-minute, wide-ranging, off-the-record discussions".

????Jobs's attention wasn't limited to the Wall Street Journal. Former Gizmodo writer Brian Lam Waltertold?similar stories of personal emails and calls with Jobs, though that came to an end after Gizmodo controversially bought a missing iPhone 4 prototype.

????Walter Isaacson explained in his biography that "The television ad and the frenzy of press preview stories were the first two components in what would become the Steve Jobs playbook for making the introduction of a new product seem like an epochal moment in world history."

????Public relations is only becoming more important. Venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz (its cofounder Marc Andreessen of Netscape fame ranked second on the 2012 Forbes Midas List) recently named PR executive Margit Wennmachers as a full partner, which was practically unheard of in the venture industry.

????If public relations is important, why isn't it taken seriously?

????Having talked with many CEOs, marketing executives and journalists, these are the reasons I hear for why PR has not been a business priority:

????PR's not trackable.?It's nice to get covered, but traditionally there's no way to know how that coverage effected the bottom line. It's even more challenging to track how the amount of money spent on PR effects the amount and reach of coverage.

????The profession has a bad reputation with journalists.?With the invention of email it becameterribly easy?to spam journalists with irrelevant messages. This was enabled by software designed to make it easy to mass email journalists and lazy PRs who took advantage of it, which deeply hurt the profession's reputation.