Is PR Out-of-Sync with the Internet Era?
When I wrote on this blog a few weeks ago about the fact that public relations people are woefully slow (or maybe fearful) at learning and developing expertise about latest developments in today’s online world, including even the basics of blogging, a fellow on the digital team of one major PR agency objected.
He said that his agency, supported by its CEO, had a whole team of people devoted to online communications. Yet, the team only represented about six (6) percent of the people working at the agency, worldwide. Unfortunately, that’s about par for the PR industry, which has been shockingly slow to learn the strategic tools, methods, techniques, trends and protocols of how to use the Internet for effective communications.
It’s hard not to be a bit jaded about what isn’t happening in the PR industry. In my consulting and speaking, I have a perspective beyond NYC and DC and other such places. What I am seeing are agencies still leaning heavily on old ideas, old approaches and old tactics, and incapable of guiding clients through the maze of the digital revolution. On the other side, I see purely digital agencies that disdain anything that’s more traditional, practical and effective. As a result, it’s a sort of arrogant or stubborn standoff. At the same time, it’s rare to see agencies and PR people who have the depth of experience to comprehend the whole picture, traditional and online, in order to deliver solid solutions.
PR people use email, and lean too much on expensive (and useless) online services to indiscriminately mass distribute press releases, yet many – if not most – are not capable of responsibly advising clients on the aspects of using blogs and online social media together with more traditional forms of communications.
In recent months, we have heard examples of PR people either faking their online knowledge or simply falling back to embrace old-school tactics. It’s an odd phenomenon but true, and it is something that impedes the power and influence of public relations as an industry at a critical time when PR should rise as the best tool in an organization’s marketing arsenal.
PR agencies and professionals should be out front, leading the charge. But, that’s not the case. Most remain about as obsolete and out-of-touch about the digital revolution as the newspaper business.
Category: Featured, Public Relations
I completely agree with you. Even in tech sectors there are “specialist” agencies that haven’t fully grasped the change. They still spend most of their time pitching print media, looking for some big magazine hit that might be read by a few hundred thousand people… And using social media tools to interact with media and even consumers? Forget about it.
Could it be that many PR folks in mnagement are too old, at least in their thinking, to catch on? And then, at the other end, has the undergraduate curriculum caught up with the changes wrought by social media? So young professionals are not versed in SM and their managers don’t take it seriously enough to encourage them. Leaving a few with enough experience and credibility w/in their agencies to lead the way.
I know I am having a terrible time getting buy-in from executive staff. Sigh …
Not sure it’s an age thing. Think it’s a money thing. Do old stuff that clients know builds hourly billings.
Very interesting, certainly a topic to read an even more extensive article about.
David, I’ve been a fan of your blog for some time but feel this post paints the PR industry with an extremly broad brush vis-a-vis digital adoption and expertise. The size of an agency’s digital team is not necessarily an indicator of its ability to counsel clients in digital and social media tactics; such a figure wouldn’t necessarily reflect the digital expertise embedded in account teams by “regular” account staffers. For example, at my agency (DeVries, a mid-sized shop in NYC), we have one dedicated Digital Director but dozens of “regular” account staffers well-versed in social media (as they are in the rest of the media relations toolkit)who help our clients execute blogger outreach, viral WOM campaigns, Twitter event tie-ins, etc. As the president of our agency, I consider it an integral part of my job to be active both in the blogosphere and on Twitter. Where you might want to cast your eye is towards our corporate communications brethren who are (in my personal opinion) lagging behind PR agency professionals in adoption and embrace of digital tools to expand the practice of public relations and influencer marketing. At the end of the day, ALL of us — client side and agency — are beholden to the marketing people who hold the pursestrings and continue to demand clear demonstration of social media ROI — as is their right. Until PR pros capture that golden ring, we will all continue to struggle to sell in the social media and digital programs we feel intuitively are right and strategic. But as anyone who’s ever sat across the board room table from a stone-faced, number-crunching Marketing Director knows, feelings do not a program sell.
So, are you saying that you say what that stone-faced number-cruncher wants to hear, and do that you think they want done? I admit the brush I used was wide. That was intentional, to get a discussion going. Enough of us know there’s a problem. While your agency unquestionably “gets it,” many others do not, and that includes many of the majors.
David
David, David, David…me thinks thou doth protest too much about one group.
The blame ought not be placed solely at the feet of agency personnel but before the tootsies of those responsible for communications within client organizations as well.
Further, there are always going to be leaders and laggards in any arena. And what the leaders have been doing with the latest available communications means and methods is impressive.
Nonetheless, your premise isn’t like the caulendar you used to rinse last night’s pasta. It does hold some water.
Organizational scientists remind us cultural change can take up to a year to go from level to the next within a corporate environment — and that’s usually top-down. Consider, if you will, the challenge facing corp comm people — who’ve just gotten their senior management to grasp the squishy measurement methodologies used to assess performance in the traditional media — in framing a repeatable measurement process for a yet-evolving set of communications channels.
Just as counting clips never cut it, counting tweets won’t either. And, evaluating the mood and meaning of 140-character-long posits can prove daunting (at least until some softwae programming linguist devises an application to handle the task).
Lastly, remember the target for most PR pitches — print media — has been woefully slow to adapt. So, while I’m at it, let’s toss those ink-stained curmudgeons into the blame stew you’ve cooked up as well.
Okay, I will be the first to admit that I get a bit jaded about what I am seeing in the PR industry. But, mind you, I may travel more, see the efforts of more agencies, and have a perspective that’s outside NYC and DC and other such places. What I am seeing are agencies still leaning heavy on old ideas, old approaches and old techniques, and incapable of guiding clients through the maze of the digital revolution. On the other side, I see purely digital agencies that disdain anything that’s traditional, practical and effective. As a result, it’s a standoff, and rare to see agencies and PR people who have the depth of experience to comprehend the whole picture, traditional and online, in order to deliver solid solutions.
There’s a reason the automobile was initially referred to as the horseless carriage-
Thank you for your presentation on this important topic in Houston last week at the Bronze Quill Awards. You convinced me, so I just bought your book.
Don,
Many thanks. Appreciate it, and enjoy!
David
I have been working to educate PR pros about social media for over four years. I still get the “deer in the headlights” look at almost every conference I attend, but PR pros (like the rest of society) are starting to participate at a personal level in social networking. Most everyone will say they have a Fscebook page. But what is lacking is an understanding of how to tap into social media strategically. There are a small cadre of PR pros that are moving this down the field.
Tend to agree with your thoughts here. I also agree with Kami’s take that as more folks engage personally, they will start to see the potential professionally. I’ve been a little surprised here in the MSP market–our PR industry is a little behind by and large, which is why your post resonated with me so much. It’s really surprising to me, because I think PR has the most to gain by this shift in models recently. All the PR and community-building skills really have their foundation in PR skills. Just a natural fit, which is why you’re seeing the interactive and ad folks resist the interaction with the traditional tactics a little.
A worthwhile discussion that we need to keep having within our own industry. Thanks for starting the conversation, David.
@arikhanson