It’s a pertinent question, given this article from www.journalism.co.uk on the rise of social media usage by editors, news reporters and feature writers.
New research has highlighted a significant increase in the number of editors, reporters and Press representatives using social media platforms such as Twitter and Facebook to source news, contact rent-a-quotes directly, and engage with businesses – putting more pressure on PRs and PR agencies to engage more effectively with social media on behalf of their clients.
If I were a business owner, engaged on social media platforms, writing regular blog content, posting across Twitter and Facebook, I’d be looking at the expensive PR retainer fee many PR agencies charge and asking “Why bother hiring a PR agency?”
Particularly if more media folk are approaching contacts directly for stories via social media, cutting out the Spin merchants.
I’d imagine the kind of research published by www.journalism.co.uk is a major worry for traditional, offline-media-relations-based PR agencies, who have buried their heads in the sand and ignored the rise and rise of social media.
The Press have woken up to the power and connectivity potential of social media platforms – given the amount of time Twitter, for example, can save a time-pressed journalist putting a story together on deadline, it’s hardly surprising that the British Press are utilising social media.
Now, of course, there are some savvy PR agencies out there who have redefined themselves, embraced social media as a viable service offering to their clients, and are delivering outstanding work for their clients and to the Press via social media platforms – good examples of this can be found in We Are Social, Highlight PR and 10 Yetis.
Many PR agencies, however, have become effectively redundant – and this, I’d imagine, would help explain why many traditional PRs I’ve spoken to in the last 12-18 months don’t seem to “get” social media. I’ve heard: It’s a fad. It’s a waste of time. It’s chaotic.
The reality for these old-school PR guys is this – they can’t control the ‘message’ and it scares them. And here’s why.
It might be worth asking if hiring a PR agency is worth the time, effort, and weighty retainer fee – I’d be putting my cash into hiring a savvy social media marketer, an experienced blogger, an online PR supremo.
And definitely no fee retainer with a fluffy PR bunny who advocates long schmoozy lunches with editors and faxing press releases to newsrooms. Don’t laugh, this is actually still happening out there in PR-land.
Time, perhaps, to get tweeting and blogging instead – for real business benefit?
I think this article goes some way to demonstrating exactly why PR agencies are needed now more than ever. Yes, social media is beginning to eclipse offline press as a way to influence audiences but your blog comments ignore some important points:
1. More clients than ever want to use social tactics to engage audiences but more clients than ever also have no idea how to do so. Some may have a blog or Facebook page but few have thought about the tactics involved in making social media work as a real business tool. They don’t know how Facebook likes can be boosted by Fan Gates for example. They haven’t considered designing brand new applications for Facebook that target specific types of individuals. They don’t understand how to integrate YouTube, Twitter, LinkedIN and Facebook into a single strategy for building a profile online, and they don’t get how to use emerging tools such as Facebook Ads. Put simply the majority of clients we work with only see the very suface of social media and need help from people who understand the process of communication to dig deeper.
2. If they understand how social media programmes work, they don’t have the time nor the technical ability to put them into practice effectively. A well designed programme of social engagement is not something you do for 20mins on the way to work. It is a constant flow of work that needs ongoing attention and the majority of our clients need someone to handle that every hour of every day.
3. The world of PR has changed and retainer fees are for the dinosaurs. I run a PR firm that charges a set fee by the hour only for work delivered. Our clients only ever pay for what we do and this works well for both parties. PR is a dynamic industry that does more than just have lunch and send invoices. Small businesses like ours are lithe, intelligent and transparent about how we work and what we expect in fees in return. It’s for this reason that we win work against larger organisations.
4. PR is not just about reporters. Working with the media is about 20% of what our clients expect of us. Today our team is pulling together an event with politicians to highlight the industrial benefits of laser fusion, build a Facebook page for a motorsport team one of our clients owns, presenting a communciations strategy to the European Commission’s trade body on measurement science, and organising a visit to a French science lab for companies in the UK. Working with the media is not PR. It’s much broader than this.
Overall, the comments in your blog suggest a lack of understanding for what PR firms do and what they deliver to their clients today. I think you should think about spending some time inside a working PR company to appreciate the spread of activity required to do a good job.
Hi Richard
Many thanks for your detailed comment, highlighting a visionary (but rarely seen) best-practice example of PR.
I’ve worked on both sides of the fence – as a Managing Editor receiving 250+ emails per day from PRs (of which, 70% were instantly binned due to irrelevance, poor writing quality, lack of angle, no tangible story hook, or all of the above), and also delivering media relations and strategic PR consultancy to Agencies and businesses.
Sure, you’ve promoted your PR Agency well, and hats off to you for embracing some of the opportunities presented by social media. You’re clearly ahead of the curve.
But the uncomfortable truth is this: the majority of PR Agencies in the UK don’t ‘get’ social media, are scared by the lack of messaging control, terrified of actually engaging in two-way customer communication on behalf of clients, are confused when informed that broadcasting a set PR angle is dying online, and irritated that their fees are being eroded by savvy businesses cutting out the PRs/editorial salesmen by going direct to the press and target audiences via social media platforms.
Your version of what PR is, and what it delivers is – of course – attractive. But then again, it would have to be.
My (considerable) experience of working with, and in, PR Agencies is this: the majority are useless at using social media effectively and utilising long-term, intelligent and well-planned blogging outreach.
So, whilst your suggestion of getting involved in the internal work of a PR Agency might be tempting, it’s not really relevant.
There are too many PR dinosaurs still in evidence out there for it to be a worthwhile exercise or a viable use of my time.
I made my points – and they are PURELY experiential.
I’d rather focus on giving the comms power to clients’ directly and see them win attention, interest, and sales directly on social media, cutting out the inefficiencies of old-school PRs still working their alleged ‘Dark Arts’.
My question as a journalist is this: given that social media allows PR agencies to interact with the “public” directly, why are they still spending so much of their time pitching to us?
Is it because, despite our self importance, journalists are in fact easier to influence than members of the public? Or is it because they know the public would be instantly sceptical of any message coming from a PR representative?