Short Message to Trad PR: You’re Gonna Need a Bigger Boat

Interesting post, and delighted that Fishburn Hedges gets a bit of credit as one of the biggies which "get it" - as does Porter Novelli too....

At risk of opening an even bigger can of worms though about the merits of online v offline, or push v pull or bought v earned or any of those other buzzwords the best PR agencies and people have always maintained strong relationships with opinion-formers across the board, be they political stakeholders, journalists, bloggers or whoever. It's just that now many of those opinion-formers operate in different (we used to say "new" - how quaint) media, ofent on a more peer-to-peer, less top-down basis.

There is no OSFA approach to PR, and, I'd argue no OSFA approach to communications in the digital space either.

There is/used to be a way-overused phrase "the marketing mix". I think it's not going to go away...and part of our job (certainly pat of my job) is advising clients on what the most appropriate mix is, of online and offline, push v pull, earned v bought etc.

I love pecha kucha looking forward to this...

Thanks Roger. Looking forward to the measurement post (not that lack of or appreciation for the need of has ever stopped PR in its tracks in the past...).

Always good to see something that tries to prod the PR profession in the leadership direction with online media. I do despair sometimes that the industry completely missed the point (boat!) that as far as communications is concerned online was, is and always will be a talking room and not a poster hoarding space. That's essentially PR and not advertising territory. Ah, well.

Perhaps if Habitat was using a clued up agency which a) understood the nature of social media and b) had the nous to manage the mess when in went wrong, situations like their misuse of Twitter wouldn't happen (http://bit.ly/3vLZv . That's where agencies like Mat talks about should come into their own: old dogs with new tricks, I guess (dear oh dear, more metaphors).

Thanks again for a straight-forwardly presented line of thought.

Clare

Hey Mat

Yes to a) and b), in equal measure. You're spot on - particularly on the b) thought.

And yes.... the race is on :) My bet is we meet in the middle.... with some casualties along the way. Exciting, huh!?

Hope to catch up soon....

Roger

Excellent stuff. Agree that any serious play from the PR agencies needs to play to their existing strengths as well as move into the new areas. Think that it's relatively easy to say (in 2009) where we need to be moving towards. Think it's relatively difficult (still) to say exactly *how* we should be moving there.

I'm not convinced that there's an awful lot of room for an "online only" PR agency. I recognize that (a) you could probably cite your stream of business to prove me wrong and (b) it's just a label.

But I do see how creating "online only" PR agencies could -- in the short term at least -- be a really smart way of grabbing the niche. But right now, of course, you're seeing that niche get wider. And as this happens, big agencies are going to be able to cram their bulk in.

@Bob -- thanks for the big-up on the HP campaign -- and apologies about the ghastly URL. There is a shorter one (http://hp.com/listen2u) but the vagaries of corporate server structures can sometimes... well... you know.

[I work for Porter Novelli]

fab - thanks bob. i'm working up the measurement post right now. watch this space :)

Ahh the big sticking point! Measurement! There are some great talks on the future of Digital PR and Social Media heard at this year's Social Media Influence conference here if anyone wants to have a listen:

http://www.screenevents.co.uk/smi_09_postEvent/

Several discussions focus on a lot of the points you touch on in your slides Roger..

It seems that the vast majority of PR agencies have at least one digital consultant or small team of Social Media/Digital bods at present but a lot of the smaller firms don't which is why they are probably struggling..

Fishburn Hedges
Bite
Launch Group
Shine
Nelson Bostock

All of them doing lots of great work..I've also noticed Porter Novelli's new integrated campaign for HP'S Listen 2 U utilising Social Media very well:

http://h41112.www4.hp.com/promo/listen2u/uk/en/?jumpid=ex_r10104_uk/en/hho/psg/listen2u-ot-aff-aw-facebook/chev/

Hi Bob

Thanks for the comments. Great stuff.

I should note that I'm not advocating a separation of Online PR from Trad PR. I'm just suggesting that Trad PR needs a bigger boat. The slide towards the end recommends integration, as you rightly say.

I'm also with you on the fact that good PR needs to do all the things you mention. My worry is that not many Trad PR firms are doing it though. Do you know of any good examples...?

Ref influence and other forms of advertising - I don't question that they can work. But I know that effectiveness is dwindling. That or you need awfully deep pockets to make an impact.

Ref ROI on Social Media - that's a tale for another day. (I do have an answer for the question though... that post is next in line.)

Cheers

Roger

And convincing them of effective forms of measurement which traditional PR folk have used effectively for years..

Online PR and Social Media measurement proves to be a tangled web of confusion at present

Very interesting stuff.. but I can't help feeling that Online PR advocates such as yourselves wrongly assume that the vast majority of people are influenced far too much but the internet.. they both dismiss advertising and other forms of media influence as ineffective..which it isn't..

In my view, the future of PR will be to run integrated campaigns that will also encompass a social media and online pr element so separating yourselves from the traditional PR pack is a wrong move as ultimately the PR process is same... be it offline or online....whether creating and seeding content, competitions or stories to bloggers/social networks/forums, or writing a PR plan/press release/case study/feature and pitching it into a journalist...the most effective campaigns will incorporate both and most of the larger, more traditional PR agencies are already starting to do this effectively for many major clients and brands..

Online PR and Social Media is definately an area worthy of producing the most innovative work across all of the marketing disciplines as the methods, tools and technologies continue to develop...

Only problem is convincing clients of ROI