I’m very new to the industry, and sometimes I can’t believe I’m employed to do what has always come to me naturally, to get stuck in to social media, interact with other bloggers and learn about the next big thing on the internet. At graduate recruitment events, this saying is often trotted out: “Do what you love, and you’ll never have to work a day in your life”. The sentiment is nice, but I think anyone working in a creative job will agree that once it becomes what you’re paid for, there becomes a divide.

If you’re looking for divides and distinctions, this industry is full of them. Traditional PR seems very comfortable with divisions – you have PRs, you have journalists. But when it comes to the web, the boundaries are blurred. Who in the online publishing world is driven by commercial factors, and who’s in it purely for their own personal reasons? Take blogging: Dooce is one of the most high profile examples of a blogger whose role has shifted from small-time personal diarist to a powerful commercial force that has washing-machine manufacturers quivering in her wake.

One group of bloggers I’ve been working with recently is parenting bloggers, where PR, PR people, and the reasons for blogging have become hot topics. You’ve probably heard of the mommy blog PR blackout in the States, where some mothers urged others to ignore PRs for a week, as they were exhausted by the constant demands of product reviews. For some of them, blogging had turned from an activity they loved to becoming work. UK parent bloggers have weighed in on the debate – most of the high profile blogs have written about the sins of PR people. Some, as I found out from a conversation with a mummy blogger, have sent out mass emails saying “Dear Parent” – with no acknowledgement of them as an individual.

The blogger in me empathises with them totally, and wonders why you’d try to persuade people to plug your product through an unaddressed form email. However, my experience as a PR person has shown me that sometimes you can’t make every blogger pitch perfect. While I would stay late to ensure that every email has a correct name on it, that’s unfortunately not a universal practice. We do our best to approach people with things that will interest them, but sometimes you need to take a chance – you can’t always predict what people will like.

I know I’m not alone in feeling this dual perspective in my work – I’ve seen it echoed in the blogs of earnest and keen young social media-ites – we’re all keen to provide best practice by using our own sense of what’s appropriate and right, what would feel comfortable to us if we were the blogger being pitched. While we’re novices in the business of social media, I’d go as far to suggest our greatest asset is the clear vision of what it was like to engage with brands through the web before it became work.

Kate Brennan is an Assistant Account Executive at Shiny Red