Michelle Goodall (@greenwellys) sent me a cracking pitch last week. She clearly understands online PR. Which is a good job because she is one of the authors of e-consultancy’s Online PR Industry Benchmarking Report.
Surveying a bunch of individuals (300 agency and in-house PR folk in this instance) about a topical issue is a well worn PR tactic. It’s one that my consultancy Rainier PR frequently uses as a mechanism to build profile. It works because if you choose your topic carefully it can spit out interesting, headline provoking results.
The e-consultancy report uncovers opportunity a plenty for the PR industry but also raises a number of red flags. Online PR, digital PR, social media, call it what you will, has created a discontinuity. ‘Social media’, ‘Word of Mouth’ and ‘Conversation’ upstarts are taking on established consultancies and winning. But that’s okay. An industry without innovation fuelled at least in part by start-ups is dead.
More worrying is the fact that 51 per cent of clients are seeking online PR consultancy from outside the PR industry. 29 per cent of companies surveyed are using search marketing agencies and 22 per cent are using web development agencies. The PR industry must establish itself as the go to advisor for matters digital.
Measurement was identified as a critical issue for online PR and social media. The report claims that the time and resources required to measure the output of a campaign can be prohibitive when viewed as a percentage of the total PR budget. But this need not be the case. 2008 has seen the emergence of a variety of models and low cost tools to measure the effectiveness of digital PR.
Other blog posts of the e-consultancy’s Online PR Industry Benchmarking Report:
Online PR: report shows PR agencies are losing out – Daryl Wilcox
Who owns online PR? E-consultancy video – Wendy McAuliffe
Comprehensive Online PR report by E-consultancy – Stephen Davies
Tag: digital PR, e-consultancy, social media
Ho ho ho! Thanks for your kind words about my ‘pitch’…I didn’t really see it that way at the time, but I guess it was good ol’ fashioned PR wot done it!You make some great points. What is interesting is that a number of search/full service internet marketing bloggers have also pulled out these key themes and see an opportunity to eat into PR’s 51% and stake a claim for ownership of online pr. Whatever their definition of ‘online PR’ may be…..let’s face it, it is MUCH more than optimising media materials , creating SEO friendly media centres and fevered link building, but I was surprised that few PR respondents offered their own definition of online PR to counter this.I think that there are 4 key challenges for PR next year:a) PR professionals need to clearly define the role of PR in a digital environment much more clearlyb) As you stated, PR agencies must create useful and accountable metrics that blow their clients away and demonstrate the real value of PR (across all media….not just the web)c) PRs need to skill up very quickly – digital skills including analytics, SEO, customer engagement, social media, mobile, video etc – it will be a steep learning curve for many but the Internet ‘aint going awayd) PRs shouldn’t get too carried away with social media. Keep it simple and do the basics very well – PRs have always been able to network, engage in dialogue with journalists/activists/influencers and other stakeholders, create ‘social objects’ and things that inspire conversations – skill up, learn ‘the rules’ and transfer these skills to an online environment and….BINGO!!!!There have been PR ‘digerati’ career moves in both directions this year and it will be an interesting 18 months.As PR budgets become closely scrutinised and clients look to maximize their marketing budgets, will 2009 finally be the year that most PR agencies have a clear digital strategy, the right skills to deliver and the metrics to compete and hold their own against measurement focused digital agencies? Being a PR person at heart, I really hope so…Happy Christmas Wadds and thanks for some great posts in 2008.
Ho ho ho! Thanks for your kind words about my ‘pitch’.