That's the title of chapter 4 in a book I'm currently reading: It's the Customer, Stupid.

My initial thought was that the author, Ralph W. Crosby, was going to talk about employees because in my mind your best customers are your employees. However, from Mr. Crosby's perspective, the media are also your customers and should be treated as such.

As a former journalist himself, Mr. Crosby breaks down the reasons why you should treat journalists (including bloggers!) as customers and provides step-by-step advice on how to build lasting relationships with them.

"Journalists can be your friends. The media have often publicized programs and provided an essential information service about organizations such as yours. To maintain the cooperation of journalists when you need them, you must cooperate when they need you."

I think it's more important than ever for brands to develop a media relations strategy whether it's participating in social media sites like Facebook or communicating with bloggers and website publishers in their respective industry.

Over the next couple weeks I will be sharing some of the things I have learned from reading this book.  So far it's been pretty interesting.