Is social media killing PR

An article just up on ZDNet covers a recent event about the social media / death of PR issue. It makes interesting reading, as anyone who works in PR knows social media is bringing change, and the event that the article covers includes a star slot from top industry analyst, Forrester's Jeremiah Owyang. Conclusion - social media exposes a weakness in PR.

Here's some of the article and Jemeriah's good bits from the event: 

During the panel, both [Susan] Etlinger and Owyang handed these issues to the audience on a silver platter. Specifcally, Owyang made the critical points that yes, PR is changing, and it’s more important now than ever that PR engage 1) beyond corporate communications 2) throughout the customer lifecycles and 3) with a new and improved skill set. And, most important, PR needs to fix its own reputation (Owyang expands on this in detail on his blog).

In his own account of how the event went, Jeremiah's blog goes on to look at the opportunities that face PR firms, presented by social media. He says that there are four business opportunities for the evolved PR firm. 

First, enhance existing functions. Look at how to communicate with press, analysts, customers, media, bloggers and so on direct and through one another. If PR doesn't get its head around all these channels and doing it in an evolved way then it will be bypassed. 

Second, differentiation. Jeremiah says that PR people should become part of the community they serve, regardless of the client they're working on and become known as experts in their industry. 

Third, extend the customer lifecycle. PR firms must look beyond media relations and develop a variety of ways of accessing audiences direct for their clients. 

Fourth, fix your own reputation! Jeremiah says PR firms should be using social media more to tell their own stories and also let their clients advocate their people and services more.

 

It's not rocket science and for PR firms already in social media it's a bit of a case of nothing new there. But good to see an independent analyst putting down their thoughts of how the industry as a whole can and should adapt to the opportunities on the table. 

Comments

[Andy]

My God it is early for such deep thinking... and on a Saturday morning as well.

My reckoning (despite not having had a coffee yet so I may be talking more drivvle than usual) is that all too many PR's - maybe me as well in the early stages - only saw social media as another channel by which you can spread client messages.

In reality it is far more than that and it is the PR's who get involved and, as mentioned, become experts in these new sectors, who will fair the best when the Great Social Media Revolution takes place.

"PR people should become part of the community they serve" spot on...

[Will McInnes]

Drew - is it me or is there nothing new in here? Feels very veneery to me. I find Jeremiah good for noise and sheer updatedness, and not so good for deep insights personally.

[Julio Romo]

Drew, all very obvious stuff really. I'm more concerned that some people might find his views ground breaking. They are not.

Social Media is not killing PR. People (PRs) who believe it is the be-all and end-all are the ones that are having a negative effect on PR.

Social Media is a new and very good tool, which PRs are still learning to use.

[Richard Bailey]

But note the observations of Sir Martin Sorrell in a lecture on public relations on 5 November.

'We at WPP canot remember a time when our public relations and public affairs businesses were more vibrant. All our firms are performing better than they have ever done before. That is set to continue.'

First among the factors Sorrell lists to explain this continued growth is social media - 'a natural territory for PR'.

Surely that's the key point. There's a future for PR and a future for social media.

[Drew Benvie]

I agree this isn't such big news to those closer to social media. But with most PR consultants spending the majority of their time on a broad range of comms disciplines, Jeremiah probably hits the right level of depth in his summary.

[Ben Matthews]

"Social media exposes a weakness in PR" - surely he means a weakness in advertising? It seems to me that PR is going from strength to strength as people begin to gain a better understanding of how social media can enhance their current work.

Agree with Will that there's not much depth to Jeremiah's points, but when PRs are too busy doing their client's work that they forget to look at what they can do to enhance their own reputation.

By using and experimenting with social media tools in both personal and professional capacities, PRs will be able to demonstrate their expertise, differentiate themselves and enhance existing functions.

As for fixing your own reputation, I feel a whole separate post is needed to explore this issue.

"PR people should become part of the community they serve" - this many comments at this time on a Saturday morning is testament that there are many in the industry working on this!

[Drew]

@will Yep like I said in the last para, nothing new here for many.

@ben Agreed. And maybe it exposes a weakness in PR because so many PR people simply turn a blind eye to social media rather than look at how to harness it. And as your email from a blogger about the PR 'phishing' illustrates, many that do try to make the most Jeremiah's "four opportunities" get it very wrong.

[Chris Reed]

Now if I was a Venn-diagramme drawing man (you know who who you are) it would be all to easy to show just how interlinked PR, social media, word of mouth, corporate communications, reputation management, branding, customer service, CRM, digital etc. etc. is, and how those boundaries are gently shifting.

Now maybe this is a slightly arrogant attitude to have, but I suspect the UK industry (at least, the bit of it I work in, which straddles most of the above) and the people I regard as thinkers as well as doers (several familiar names above), is a bit further ahead in our approach than our American cousins? I've never worked for a big multi-national PR agency, so I might be wrong. It's just a hunch. But A pretty solid one.

As for definitions - well that's the thing. Two people who "do" the same thing might not exactly agree with eachoter what they "do" - the times they are a changing, but in my mind it's part listening, part thinking, part advising, part talking/writing. And part listening to loud music too (but that's never work related).

And as for why PR has a bad rep. Well it's just never been sexy. It's never had the budgets of advertising or DM. People (my Mum's still thinks I'm a journalist) can't quite understand it, and PRs generally naturally defer to their clients' needs, not their own.

But, or rather BUT... Things are changing. And this recession will change them quickly indeed.

Assuming PRs understand a clients' business objectives, and they can demonstrate the effectiveness of social media, then we're pushing at an open door compared to our advertising cousins. Aren't we?

Who knows... what we do over the next few years might even become sexy or get the big budgets which used to be thrown at TV.

Here's hoping, anyway.

[Chris Reed]

(Can't believe how typo-laden that comment was). Note to self. Read stuff before pressing post...)

[Archie]

Exactly my ideas about social media's impact on PR. Social media are going to revive PR and switch it back from dealing with the (old) media to dealing with the 'public'.
We are so consumed by fighting for 'coverage' that often loose sight of the actual objectives we are supposed to achieve.