My piece on becoming a trusted communications advisor is online this week at Bulldog Reporter’s Daily’ Dog Barks & Bites.

In Death of a Salesman, Willy Loman says his problem is “he’s liked, but not well liked.” In PR, it seems, it is increasingly important to be well liked, and to be well liked, one needs to be a trusted participant in the conversation.

Consider this post by Shel Israel on the selection of David Parmet as ScrapBlog’s new PR manager largely because they liked him, and because he blogged:

“(David’s) blog, and a previous telephone talk was enough to make Carlos (Garcia) feel enthusiastic about the thought of David having conversations on behalf of Scrapblog. That’s what PR is now about. The PR guy needs to be a trusted participant in conversations. These conversations can help a client only if the person bringing that client into a community is already a trusted resource. David is not alone. There are lots of PR people who get this. They tend to know and respect each other and enjoy each other’s company. They will compete against each other if they have to, but in fact they would much prefer to collaborate.”

Last week I started my new gig at Eastwick Communications. I was recruited into both Hewlett-Packard and Sun Microsystems (it’s nice to have friends in the Valley) before that, so 2006 was the first time since 1998 that I actually “looked” for a new job.

My earliest interaction with Eastwick demonstrated to me that the company wasn’t afraid of creativity, and that it had a sense of humor. I found the position on Craig’s List. I sent a cover letter and resume and heard nothing for a week. Normally, I would have blown it off, but I felt like making some trouble, so I decided to contact Eastwick again.

I forwarded the original cover letter and e-mail with the following note:

Hello,

I recently sent you an awesome, dare I say inspiring cover letter and resume for this position and I have received no reply. For your convenience, I have drafted a reply below, and request that you click “reply,” and “send” so that I know how important my communications are to you.

Best regards,

Joel

Dear Joel,

Thank you for your interest in a career with Eastwick. As you can imagine, we have received many responses to this posting. We are reviewing candidates for the position, and should we determine that there is a basis for further discussion, we will contact you.

Best regards,

The fine folks at Eastwick

You may recall I once wrote the SVP for communications at Campbell Soup and complained about the company’s lousy rejection letters (and offered to rewrite them). It’s not that I can’t take rejection (and I can’t), it’s that I think it’s important, even in the impersonal, autoreply, Taleo webtop world of recruiting, to be nice to candidates.

In any case, Linda Clarke of Eastwick did indeed respond to my second e-mail, which led eventually to my new job. Thank you Linda and Eastwick for having a sense of humor.