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The Great Online PR Debate (#PRdebate): PR Agencies are Losing the Right to Learn

POSTED BY: Roger Warner / CATEGORIES: Online PR Agency, Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
POSTED ON: 22 Apr 2009
TAGS: #prdebate, Online PR, Social Media

Last night I took part in an NMK panel discussion on that old chestnut Online PR and the current outlook for old-school PR agencies.

It was an interesting session all round. For starters, the format was different from the norm. Rather than just let us sit and muse, uber-event organiser and NMK supremo Ian Delaney (@iandelaney) made his speakers sweat a little bit by structuring things as an Oxford-style debate.

My job, along with my co-debater @amayfield (of iCrossing fame) was to convince a full house of PRs that “the PR industry has lost its capability to lead clients in a New Media landscape.“ We were up against Stuart Bruce, MD of Wolfstar and James Warren, Head of Digital at Weber Shandwick.

Sadly, given the partisan nature of the audience, we lost. But I wanted to share my thoughts on the matter here because – to the casual observer at least – we won by a country mile, swaying a number of PR votes in the process (i.e, we lost the vote but we enjoyed a John Snow, Swing-o-Meter-style victory.)

But I’m not bitter. Really.

Here’s what I think about Big PR’s ability to lead in the Online domain….

1: Big PR ought to own Social Media and Online

A PR agency is the natural choice for most PR directors when it comes to Online. They’re the experts who’ve been offering counsel, generating content and building relationships on behalf of their clients over the past 20 years – and these things really matter when it comes to the digital world right now.

But traditional PR agencies are definitely not best positioned to lead their clients forward in the Online world as things currently stand.

2: The Problem: the PR in PR is all about Press Relations and not much else

Say what you will, most PR agencies just do press relations. They’re not Public Relations firms at all, they’re Media Relations outfits.

Media relations is a well established, well recognised field. It works on an indirect, synchronous, command and control basis. Ideally this means: media > relationships > clients > stories > and hey presto some media coverage.

So the frame of the debate isn’t about whether or not PR agencies can lead clients in the Online World, but whether Media Relations agencies can do it….

3: Online requires a very different approach to Media Relations

The skills required in the Online world are very different to those practised in Media Relations. What clients need in the Online domain is a set of direct service offerings. They need direct management of reputations amongst communities and forums. They care for direct, bottom line events like sales and bookings conversions, and other direct, tangible outcomes like traffic acquisition.

This involves a specific set of direct Online skills: Online people talking directly to lots of other Online people (customers, partners, influencers, stakeholders, etc), not people talking through people (the media).

These aren’t Media Relations activities and I don’t think that a traditional Media Relations agency can carry them with any level of assurance. More to the point, most traditional PR firms aren’t comfortable with this kind of work. This is most evident in the language they use to describe their services. Traditional PR’s talk about ‘blogger outreach’ programmes and the like. These terms betray a lack of conviction and confidence. Clients don’t need speculative ‘outreach,’ they need direct conversations and conversions.

4: Online requires a totally different skill set to Media Relations

In order to influence conversations directly, drive conversions and acquire web traffic you need a dedicated Online tool kit. SEO smarts matter (a lot!), as do things like network analysis, project and campaign management, measurement and analysis.

In other words, to do this stuff well you need strong technology (your own tools or expert use of somebody else’s), strong commercial insight, strong processes and strong reporting …all the things that digital agencies have been busy developing over the past ten years.

Again, I don’t see many traditional PR agencies that have these kinds of capabilities.

5: Social Media hobbyists don’t deliver a robust service model for Online

That said, what I do see is a bunch of extremely smart PR Pros who live and breathe ‘Online.’ 100 or so of them were in the audience last night. In this respect, the future of PR is in good hands.

But for now there’s a world of difference between Tweeting and delivering a robust Online service offering. One is a hobby, the other is a business model.

Sadly it looks like too many PR firms are happy to hire in a handful of young, Social Media-savvy people, graft them onto a traditional account team and then tell their clients that they now do Online. This is not good enough.

The fact is, not many traditional PR agencies are taking the time or the money to reinvent their service models for an Online world. As Stephen Waddington of Speed mentioned yesterday, most agencies believe that Online is simply a bolt on activity to their normal PR business: they’re just doing Media Relations via a different channel. (For more great insight follow @wadds – recommended reading.)

6: Big PR needs to shed its past, fast

When all’s said and done, I think most PR Agencies are hampered by their past.

Today’s CEOs, Marketing VPs and PR Directors have mainly experienced PR agencies in ‘Media’ mode. So even if an agency does have the right balance of skills, processes and tools, there’s still lots of work to be done to convince the right people that they’re now capable of delivering Online services. The ‘PR’ tag is a problem in this respect and agencies need to do some radical repositioning work.

7: Winners and Losers

Ultimately, I think the battle for initial Online PR service delivery will be won by traditional digital firms, specialist startups like ourselves, Social Media firms, planning departments in large ad agencies, and a rare breed of PR agency that takes risks.

Given today’s economic climate these are the only companies that are capable of creating all the new things that are necessary for an ‘Online PR’ service model. It’s no surprise that most of these firms are startups and/or born on the web consultancies. For us, change and invention are imperatives, not a rebranding exercise. (Necessity is the mother of invention, no?)

And here’s the rub…

Nobody really has all the answers for Online right now. The service delivery model is yet to be fully built, and most clients are big enough and brave enough to understand this.

The people who will write the book, however, are those who make the first convincing moves and are happy to invest and invent. We’ll be delivering best practises in beta mode whilst Big PR is watching on the sidelines, tuning in to events like the one last night.

(Aside: check out Measurement Camp for a great example of this in practice. Social Media and Online PR specialists understand that measurement is a current weakness, and are doing something to address it in an innovative and very accessible way (led by the chaps at Nixon McInnes). Anybody can join in if they have something to contribute to the cause, clients included. I’m not aware of any similar initiatives to address blind spots by the PR industry.)

So…. the threat to a traditional PR agency isn’t just in losing a slice of Online business, it’s in losing the right to learn about it.

Until PR agencies start investing in new skills, new tools and new service models, then the future is very bright for Social Media and Online PR upstarts like C&M, We Are Social, and Nixon McInnes; smart PR firms like HotWire, Weber Shandwick, Speed and Immediate Future; and pure digital outfits like iCrossing.

That’s the view from me and @amayfield anyway. What’s yours?? (Meantime, you can check out all the event chatter on Twitter at #PRdebate.)

POSTED BY: Roger Warner / CATEGORIES: Online PR Agency, Social Media Agency, Social Media Marketing, Twitter
POSTED ON: 22 Apr 2009
TAGS: #prdebate, Online PR, Social Media

Neil Stoneman

Sounds like you were robbed Roger. I'm with you. There are a lot of tankers out there that can't, or won't, turn round.

Craig McGill

Roger, some great points there and I'll have to go blog about it later, but with the best will in the world it may be that for many of the companies they can't talk their clients into the benefits of social media and online PR. God knows I've banged my head against a wall about it in Scotland for nearly three years now and companies see it but just don't want to engage all too often - or they don't want to pay the extra cash for the extra work, seeing it as something that should come out their current PR funding.

But make no mistake, the companies that do it will be the ones to benefit - PR companies and others.

Lance Concannon

Hi Roger - I was there last night but didn't get a chance to say hello because I had to bale early. It was an interesting discussion but I couldn't help feeling that there was a lot of circular argument going on and ultimately the two sides weren't really disagreeing about any significant points, much more than semantics.

Lloyd Gofton

Hi Roger - good to see you last night and great write up. I agree with Lance that i thought the differences between the two arguments were actually quite minimal, but that overall both skill sets (PR & Digital) are required. I think the issue boils down to how we define PR agencies, as you have mentioned in your second point. Do we mean traditional agencies that haven't embraced digital, or the growing band of agencies and digital departments that are thinking digital - not just paying it lip service. I've put my thoughts down here: http://www.liberatemedia.com/blog/prdebate-can-...

Christian Sharp

I didn't manage to catch the debate, but you definitely raise a number of very good points here on the blog. It does certainly seem that a lot of agencies are lagging behind extending their advice and activity to online and social media. But I do think that this does require a pretty big rethink of what PR is all about - as you say, most PR agencies base their activities around media and analyst relations. Engaging with online and social media means moving from this to community engagement and management, and requires a degree of organisational change on both client and PR sides.

For example, in a best-case scenario a good OM / SM agency will probably need links through to the support and product development team, as well as the marketing team, because a lot of the time people will use twitter, for example, as a support environment, as well as a news source and site for community interaction. It's quite a big job if you're doing it properly , and with budgets stretched, it's not surprising that many PR agencies aren't doing it. It needs buy in right from the very top of the organisation, and it's also not surprising that a lot of companies have seen jobs going for 'community managers' to handle a lot of the work, because it's fundamentally a corporate comms position.

You make a good point on needing 'direct skills' - relating directly to your public is very different to talking to a small community of journalists. However, I think your point on 'losing the right to learn' is a bit off the mark - I may be being pedantic, but surely it's more about losing the ability to get in, get involved and taking a slice of the 'action'. Agencies can always learn about something, but once they've done it, they might realise that they've just been playing catch up, or have missed the boat. You can't really take away someone's 'right' or ability to learn.

Very interesting stuff though :)

Andrew Bruce Smith

Great post - we are in violent agreement about all this stuff. Yes, you and Anthony were robbed. The one thing that stood out for me last night was the almost total absence of client side people - ie, the people who will actually pay for the services we have to offer. I get the sense that client side buyers are desperate for proper guidance from PR agencies - but there is a tendency for trad PR firms to remain in their comfort zone of recommending traditional media relations strategies. You and we are investing developing innovative new approaches - by definition they are original and untested. So, yes, there is a risk. But profit is the reward for risk. So here's to us Social Media and Online PR upstarts ;-)

Deirdre Molloy

Roger, superb post and a quality discussion last night, but I abstained from the vote (no one asked for the abstainers to raise their hands but I noticed a few others) and have a few caveats to the debate...

There were a few "clients" there - even if it was just me plus someone from Diageo I never got to talk to :-) - and it struck me that while agencies aren't about to go away, the functions of media relations and online PR (and social media) are in most cases far better and more efficiently delivered - or at least strategically co-ordinated and part-delivered - in-house, as corporates come to understand and realise the value of these activities.

By the same token someone mentioned last night that probably more than half of the PR industry is in-house (obviously), so why was the motion was posed as: "the PR industry has lost its capability to lead clients in a New Media landscape.“ was lost on me.

The discussion of media relations as distinct from public relations was very telling (Stuart Buce was excellent on this). But the overriding elephant in the room - and you've alluded to this - was that the discussion did not address how looking at the full potential of digital media (taken to the next stage of it's evolution in the social media wave) can affect almost *every area* of a business - from sales, marketing, advertising and PR to market research, reports, product development, events, business models and more...

That's where a purely PR focus falls down IMO. Specialism will always be required, but when you're a specialised external agency, getting the bigger picture of the impact of your activities on your client is almost impossible - or if you think you're getting it, really you're not, because either vital parts of the business are being siloed off by the essentially narrow focus of your consultancy, or areas of the business that you didn't think of or have no relationship with are being impacted by your work (and not being connected with them means that the impact can often be detrimental or at least value-draining / conflicting / duplicating with other agency-relations for the client - but you know that right?).

What I'd like to see is a discussion (perhaps organised by my wonderful successor @iandelaney) on how PR - and other disciplines - can contribute to growing corporate / organisational competencies for a networked world... and that has got to mean putting in-house experts on the podium as well if not at least on the agenda (and I don't just mean just another "Enterprise 2.0" discussion either, please).

[disclosure - yep, I'm one of those new-breed community managers].

PS. no-one mentioned the biggest recession in living memory; what's that all about folks??

chris hall

This article represents my thoughts across the last 5 years. Many years ago I worked in PR and am now running an online media agency. When the internet became a threat, PR agencies turned away and dismissed it, continually focussing on print. The easiest and most effective way to message (most) audiences, without question, is now through the internet.
We are now ALL taking the role of the PR copywriter/journalist as we can all post our stories/comments and thoughts onto the internet. PR companies need to grab hold of this and manage their clients through this. But beware some corporates have recently decided to boldly move into twitter and social networks. A fast food chain have employed a 'Twintern' to write pro-actively about them on social networks such as twitter. A car company employed an agency to access its 4000 twitter contacts to promote its cars. This has had a negative PR affect on both.
Better to 'engage' with the audience that provoke. Tweet them asking for feedback on product, hold competitions, create debate and discussion. PR can advise, control and manage this process.

Charlotte Britton

Interesting debate this. Online PR vs social media marketing. I think there are 2 different angles on this. Traditionally PR is about getting the word out through the media, where as social media marketing is about getting involved in the discussions around your brand / product / company. I think it's a very different mindset and approach to running the campaigns and therefore would have very different outcomes.

Roger Warner

Hello all. OK, finally I've gotten round to reviewing all your feedback properly. Thanks a million for pitching in... there's some great nuggets in here. I've addressed most of them in turn. Tell me what you think...

*Lloyd*: see the response to Christian below. It's *how* an agency embraces that matters. I heard lots of talk and good noises on Tuesday, but I didn't hear many examples of how PR firms were taking action to create different service models.

*Christian*: ref 'losing the right to learn', I'm not suggesting that this right can be denied, but that - by virtue of not 'get involved and taking a slice of the action’ (as you say) - agencies who don't step up and start delivering in this area won't get the necessary experience under their belt to bake some real service offerings. My main point being that startups, digital agencies and risk taking PR firms are the only ones that are currently rolling the dice and soaking up the experience and skills. Bystanders or those paying just lip-service will get left behind. Meantime, I totally agree with you about all the other areas that Social Media touches, and that these things aren't necessarily the natural habitat of PR services...

*Andrew*: agreed - more client input would have kept us all in check! We need to hear more from them in these types of debates. Deirdre's point is spot on in this regard. In many areas there are aspects of Social Media / Online PR that really shouldn't be done by an external service partner.... And I'd love to hear more on this. Meantime, yup, here's to the upstarts :)

*Deirdre*: You are a sage :) I agree *totally*. The structure of the debate meant that it was an agency discussion, but we need more client-side views. But like you say, given the turf there are a whole bunch of areas that agencies ought to leave well alone when it comes to service delivery. What I do see though is the need to consult and enable change in these cases (eg, customer service and support). I'd point to firms like NixonMcInnes in this respect... smart people doing helpful, smart things to help clients behave differently. My business is a little different - we do promotions more than change management in other areas of a client's business. But, per my original post, if trad PR agencies hadn't generally painted themselves into a 'Media' corner, then there may have been opportunities for them to compete in this consulting role too. (Which would mean them being *Public* Relations agencies, not *Press* Relations agencies). If PR really is PR then giving counsel on how a wider business communicates and interacts beyond the Media is a natural. The fact that not many agencies are doing this kind of thing just proves my point. Oh, and let's do coffee/drinks very soon :)

*Chris*: I think you're views align pretty much with Deirdre's right? Rather than hang around waiting for support, many smart clients are just doing it for themselves. And why not!!?? This is great to see... but again, it casts a poor light on trad PR if the clients are beating them to it.

*Craig*: I'd say you either need to find new angles or new clients :) Seriously - get them to reallocate some trad PR budget for some of your Social stuff... play them off against each other and see which one generates most value. Given that you can measure one and not the other this may get you what you want.

*Lance*: I agree - lots of soothing talk, but I didn't feel any real agreement. See my point to Lloyd above. I was asking for evidence of change, not proof of understanding. Didn't really get it. (The former means action, the latter is just chatter/patter.)

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