Social Media Public Relations - What is PR 2.0?
Many clients ask our team exactly “what is 123SocialMedia?” and the answer is longer than a ten second explanation. Our company falls into utilizing online media in coordination with other promotional types to influence different demographic groups.
Adrian Moss has an article over on his blog -New market dynamics – new style PR agency, which defines a lot of what we do in the realm of reputation and social media. There is a lot of material there in terms of how reputation is being influenced online through social media sites.
The problem is that while we “play” in the PR space, social media is not limited to the PR realm. If you compare the media we are working with (search engines, social networking sites, video channels, press release newswires, information syndication services, etc.) there are over a hundred different benefits available to any specific client.
Those benefits however, are not going to be used by all clients or businesses. Company A may choose to use advanced search engine optimization techniques to garnish higher conversions on a marketing project, Company B may use RSS (Really Simple Syndication) to get the right whitepaper in front of the right decision maker, or Company C may use competitive analysis to compile a list of business prospects from a social networking site.
Adrian’s article is a good recap of the change occurring in PR and media, as investors are starting to look at companies like 123SocialMedia and they are trying to understand an industry that is evolving at an amazing rate. Every single week creates a new opportunity for exposure, which can be the building blocks and foundation of any communication strategy.
In Adrian’s words:
What will a PR2.0 agency offer?
* Online reputation monitoring and alert service
* Reputation analysis, tracking and reporting
* ‘Firestorm’ crisis management and leveraged opportunity service
* Strategic planning and implementation services for social media and online media campaigns
* Blogging, audio and video podcasting project development and management
* Campaign micro-site development and support
* Online community development
* Identification and relationship building with key online influencers
* Building and delivering online PR campaigns including to online media and journalists
Perhaps those bullet points define a PR 2.0 Agency, but is that really a PR Agency? Are we shifting more and more away from separate Marketing, PR, and Advertising agencies into a unified Communications Agency?
With Adrian’s description, we fall into his PR Agency 2.0 mold:
The new agency model – Digital Reputation Management
A gap exists in the market for a highly focussed, technically competent agency who really understands the challenges and opportunities of online communities and social media.
The agency will be technically savvy with highly developed SEO and data search and analysis skills. This has to be coupled with creative digital skills and communication skills.
We do offer reputation management, as well as provide many articles and how-to guides to understanding online brand and reputation.
- Online Reputation Control: Google Alerts, Google Everything
- Online Reputation Control, Branding, Insurance, or Blind-Luck?
- Social Media Measurement and Brand Control
Technically, our industry is different that the old-school version of Public Relations that we occasionally bump into. Our projects interact with technology that is shifting daily. For example: In order to control a brand issue on a YouTube video: we may use other videos, encourage community users to flag the video,
or create brand sites to drive popularity to other positive sites and bury the video in search results. What works one day for us is almost guaranteed to not work the next, and our very business model becomes a form of intelligence vs counter-intelligence war that is fought on thousands of different battle fronts.
The question surrounding this change in the Public Relations and Communications world is whether or not existing agencies try to understand this radical change or if they decide to outsource it to specialized groups like 123SocialMedia.
What is your opinion on where communication pieces are going? Is it all breaking apart or coming together?
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Comment by Mark Alexander on 18 August 2008:
This is a great piece. We operate out of Australia and have been preaching about the importance of the new era of digital agencies to understand the nuances of how brands are built and destroyed in the social media. That step by agencies to draw in PR as another important piece in their digital offering will see them embrace where the user base turns to for advice, community guidance, opinions and help. We have started to build programs for progressive brands and are enjoying the fruits of our work too. I will subscribe and you have motivated me to write an appropriate piece on my blog at bamboomktg.blogspot.com
All the best.