Thanks to the crew at blueprint.tv for producing this video summary from the Control in the Age of Anarchy event that Speed ran last week.
Grab a cup of tea, sit back and hear from Alastair Campbell, Will Whitehorn, Darcy Willson-Rymer, Steve Earl and myself, on the future of media, corporate reputation and public relations.
The era of command and control media relations is well and truly over. That was the view of Alastair Campbell speaking at our sales gig on Tuesday night.
It also happens to be Speed’s view.
Command and control was the defining communication strategy of Campbell’s time in Downing Street.
A splash in a couple of national papers and coverage on BBC TV News would enable the Government to lead the news agenda for 24 hours he said.
No longer.
A decade on and the news cycle is defined by stories breaking minute-by-minute on the internet and not by the daily production cycle of news print. Meanwhile there are an increasing number of outlets fighting for the attention of consumers.
“The agenda is being set as much by those who consume the media, and respond instantly, as those who are trying to exert that control,’ said Campbell.
It has made the business of public relations much tougher. We have entered an era of authentic campaigning.
“Organisations must develop a narrative and build their reputation by landing stories in the media over time,” said Campbell.
I’d argue that media relations has only ever been a proxy to reach an organisation’s audiences.
It’s why it is critical for organisations to be authentic, engage directly with their audiences, and build reputation over time.
It’s a long term job.
There can be no doubt that it’s tougher than ever for grads looking for a job in the PR industry. Both Steve and I have blogged extensively on the topic.
Last week I caught up with Ben Smith publisher of PRmoment.com. His site includes an active job board that connects candidates with prospective employers. His view is that despite the tough market it’s easier than ever to get yourself noticed.
In Ben’s own words here are his suggestions for finding a PR job. Its a long post but all of Ben’s points are easily achieved and, apart from your time, are free.
1. Create a LinkedIn page
As a graduate your CV might be quite short, but a LinkedIn profile will increase your “findability”. It also shows that you are thinking about your career and are switched on enough to think about using LinkedIn. You can also link your blog (see point 2) and your Twitter (point 3) feed to your LinkedIn profile. Again this shows you are current and relevant.
You can also join some LinkedIn Groups. These may help you network. Some groups such as the CIPR’s and PRmoment.com’s also have many job vacancies posted on them.
2. Create a blog
Only do this if you enjoy writing, and do bear in mind that good writing skills are still an essential part of being a PR professional. So if you don’t enjoy writing – maybe PR isn’t for you.
The subject matter for the blog doesn’t really matter. A diary format is fine, but make sure it includes your opinions about what is going on around you. A diary of how much you drank this week or how much you love you new boyfriend is unlikely to impress. WordPress is probably the easiest and cheapest way to set up your own blog.
3. Tweet
No one is expecting you to have 5,000 followers, but if have a presence on Twitter it shows you are on the road to understanding it. In addition, by setting up hashtag search terms like #prjobs, you are opening yourself up to a load of PR Job vacancies.
4. Facebook
Remember, we all now have an online footprint, so only talk about stuff that you a comfortable with a potential employer seeing. We all have personal lives and no-one wants to employ a roomful of saints, so just use your common sense on what content you upload.
There are also some decent Facebook PR groups around, some of these are job specific and others like PRmoment.com’s Facebook fan page offer an insight into PR and post the latest PR jobs.
5. Use jobs boards
PR jobs boards are a great way of keeping track of what jobs are out there. Don’t use them exclusively, but you can quickly and easily search for PR jobs that are relevant for you.
6. Apply on spec
The best job I ever had (before I started my own business) was when I applied on spec. In a graduate market it is unlikely that you will be alone in applying to most PR firms, but applying on spec shows initiative and hunger, both attributes that employers will like. A (non-exhaustive) list of PR agencies in the UK can be seen here.
7. Get work experience
In a competitive market like PR this is vital. It shows that you are keen and will give you some valuable on-the-job experience.
There is a palaver in PR right now about unpaid interns. This is a tricky one, but as with most things in life, common sense goes a long way:
8. Sign up with up to three PR recruitment agencies
In the UK, recruitment agencies are still a good way of targeting PR employers. But don’t rely on them and don’t register with more than three. Also, make sure you do your research and find a decent PR recruitment specialist. I would always recommend registering with specialist PR recruitment consultant rather than the generalist one.
Remember that the recruitment consultant you register with will potentially be representing you to your future employer. So it’s important you’ve met them and like them. If they can’t be bothered to spend the time meeting you, I’d go elsewhere.
This is a presentation that I gave to the CIPR North East regional group in Newcastle this morning. It explores how the media is changing as all media becomes social and social media becomes a media category in its own right – and the resulting opportunities for PR practitioners.
The North-East has itself been a place of incredible innovation in media business models during the last 18-months and the hunt in Rothbury for Raoul Moat made it the location of one the biggest news stories in Britain this year.
The Northumberland Gazette was the first regional newspaper to trial a paywall. Josh Halliday, a former-student at Sunderland University and now journalist at The Guardian, was one of the first individuals to explore a hyper local media model with his SR2blog.
And the Trinity Mirror-owned Journal in Newcastle has pioneered a network of hyper local blogs throughout Northumberland.
The presentation content abridges much of the Social Summer series that the CIPR has been running in London each Thursday evening since early June.
Thanks to Sally Keith, Sally Pearson and Laurel Hetherington for organising the session.
The ABC Multi-Platform report plopped into my inbox yesterday. It continues the narrative of a decline in print and the shift to online. Some web properties such as Mail Online are enjoying incredible growth (up 4 per cent month-on-month to 42 million).
The third IPA TouchPoints Survey reported last week that social media penetration in the UK was 37 per cent with Facebook the most popular platform. You’d be forgiven for thinking that it should be much higher.
This is the ongoing story of media fragmentation. We’re at an inflection point and for the moment at least PR agencies need to be able to help brands navigate traditional, online and social media.
At least that’s our view at Speed. Media planning tools are taking an increasingly important role helping us identify audiences and their media habits.
At the CIPR Social Summer event next Thursday, 5 August, we’ll explore why it’s never been easier for PR professionals to build relationships or personal reputation.
Social media provides the opportunity for an individual to build a personal network liker never before. It used to take a graduate several years of lunching journalists and late night drinking sessions to build up a network of contacts.
But no longer: face-to-face meeting remain invaluable but now armed with Twitter anyone can build a network of journalists and over the course of a few weeks learn about their likes and dislikes. That’s one small step away from engagement and developing a relationship.
Social media is also enabling savvy individuals to build their personal reputation by showcasing their work whether that’s words, photos or video. It takes no more than 15 minutes to create a blog or an account on Flickr or YouTube to share with your network and peers.
Professional networks such as LinkedIn and personal web sites have become the modern portfolio. They’re almost certainly the first place that an employer, potential business partner or prospect will go to check you out.
Come along and share your ideas for building personal networks and reputation. Let us know you coming on Linkedin. You can check out my profile at the same time.
The CIPR Social Summer events take place each Thursday from 5pm to 7pm at CIPR, Russell Square.
Return on investment is a dirty term in the PR industry. It’s a bit like margin. The industry would rather not go there.
In almost every other area of marketing professionals are able to plan an outcome against a level of investment. And generate a healthy bottom line.
But PR is different we say. It deals with influence in the editorial world and that’s beyond the comprehension of a spreadsheet.
The PR industry’s inability to communicate in the language of the boardroom means that it has failed to gain recognition in all but a limited number of cases.
PR for too long has been a craft and not a business discipline. But that is changing. But the change is far too slow for my liking.
Here’s a cautionary tale for anyone in the PR industry. Andrew Smith has scrutinised NMA’s latest league table of UK search marketing agencies for the third year running.
“[…] search firms continue to generate very respectable profits – certainly compared with the PR sector. And search firms are making no secret of continuing their land grab for PR work. The PR sector must therefore continue to up its game in terms of the quality and value of the digital services it offers,” says Smith.
Search could have been a new revenue stream for advertising (pay per click) or PR driven editorial (organic).
But with a couple of exceptions (Golley Slater and Chime-owned VCCP) according to Smith neither discipline has moved fast enough to capture the market and a new industry has emerged.
Social media is the next battleground. Be warned.
Philip Young invited me to present to PR and journalism students at Sunderland University today on how the media is evolving online and responding to the emergence of social media, and what that means for the PR industry. I also covered some simple things that students can do to market themselves to future employers online.
Young is the co-author (with David Phillips) of Online Public Relations and is one of the leading academics in the UK researching and teaching on social media. Over the last five years he’s established his faculty at Sunderland as a centre of excellence.
We’re always keen to take up any opportunity to talk to undergraduates that are learning about traditional media, online and social media, and might want to pursue a career at Speed in the future.
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The first meeting of the CIPR’s social media panel took place last week. There’s an announcement about the panel, its make-up and its remit on the CIPR web site. I was pleased to accept an invitation to join the group.
You can follow the work of the panel on Twitter via the hashtag #ciprsm – and @ciprsocialmediapanel is a Twitter account that is following the members of the panel and aggregating their Twitter feeds.
I let my membership of the CIPR lapse five years ago after former director general Colin Farringdon dismissed the potential of blogs and social media. But its all change. The winds of modernisation are whistling through the institute under the leadership of president Jay O’Connor. And that can only be a good thing.
I renewed my membership when O’Connor’s appointment was announced. If you’re a lapsed member I’d urge you to take another look at CIPR.
Modernisation of the institute is long overdue and its going to take longer than O’Connor’s one-year term as president. But initiatives such as the social media panel and the strategic review that O’Connor has put in place are a great start.
There’s a new web site in development and the CIPR has begun to return to a campaigning agenda on issues such as PR spam and lobbying.
Its a great start.
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If you want a glimpse at what a media outlet might look like in the future take a look at how Dare’s Mike Litman has developed his blog. Using a similar model to Newser he’s curating content from around the social, marketing and PR web and presenting it in a highly visual format. And it’s working – he’s broken into the top 150 in the AdAge ranking of marketing blogs.
In Mike’s own words:
“Traffic in raw terms dipped a little in the first month since I changed things around a bit but its normalising again (up 90% in the past month). Time spent on site per person and social engagement per post is all up considerably.”
“Postrank reports that 72% of all site engagement now happens via Twitter, with Delicious accounting for a further 14%, and FriendFeed 2%. It’s a reflection of the far reaching, multi platform age.”
“I’ve noticed that trend over the past year where tweeting is the new blog commenting. Its blog commenting for the time poor but at the same time its more social. I always find commenting on blogs to be a closed experience so it seems to make sense.”
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