PR in the Middle

Being social media savvy is now second nature to PR and is something that personally fascinates me.  Similarly, our journo cousins have embraced this new medium – as enthusiastically as us – many setting up their own blogs, groups and micro-sites.  

What’s less clear is how journalism uses social media to source articles and research stories. In this age of instant digital information, is the press release still the best way to grab a journos’ attention or should we dazzle them with blogs, forums and vodcasts? Even more worryingly, is PR still important to modern journalism?

A recent survey by Cision and the University of Sunderland, aimed to find out.

For all PRs holding your breath, fear not!  The survey showed journalists still view traditional sources like press releases and direct contact with PRs as paramount. 

Although journalists’ use of social media and search engines over the past three years has increased, traditional channels are not being negated but are used in conjunction with social media. 

In fact, only a small minority of respondents reported using traditional channels either more or less than they did three years ago.

The survey revealed networking sites such as LinkedIn and Facebook were the single most important social technology for journalism by approximately 30 per cent of UK respondents, with Twitter not far behind.

More surprisingly, Wikipedia was the most used online tool for journalists –with over 60% using the site to check and source stories at least once a week, compared to 22% for blogs, or 34% for news wire services.

However, story ideas, concepts and angles were still drummed up via traditional sources, such as direct PR contact and via corporate sites.

Overall it seems journos are not at all behind the times when it comes to social media – they have welcomed it with both hands. Thankfully it seems that PR is firmly in this three way embrace and PR is still in the middle.

Embracing social media – different paces abound

We have all embraced social media in a big way – particularly in PR where it is such a natural fit for us – it’s pretty much second nature after all, we are so used to having dialogues with journalists, sharing stories and having on-going conversations with all types of people.

So it’s easy to forget, perhaps, that social media is still evolving at a rapid rate and that businesses aren’t all embracing it at the same pace.

Just in the past few days, I’ve heard of two global brands who are way behind the curve. One has flatly refused to have anything to do with social media and the other, is ‘way behind’ in their social media conversations according to an inhouse marketeer.   For those kind of brands struggling to persuade directors to embrace social media  – here’s a useful post from an interesting US online publication, ‘the social media examiner’, ‘9 ways to sell social media to your boss’.

And then of course, there’s the other problem that businesses are online but don’t know what the guidelines are.  The rules are still evolving and changing, again at a pretty rapid rate.  Twitter is still largely unregulated and businesses are still learning and experimenting with it.  Here’s some latest guidelines that have come out of oatmeal.com.  They are not necessarily right, in fact I would question many on the list, but it’s interesting to see guidelines attempted to be set.

And then of course, there’s the fact that Facebook is only just starting to be used as a valuable marketing tool  for businesses. The largest social media tool on the planet provides a huge opportunity to businesses – the social media examiner has lots of ideas on how to maximise your Facebook profile to generate interest among customers and prospects as well as some great recent campaigns that have really worked for brands.

So as we all move at different paces, and standards and guidelines continue to evolve as time passes, once the revolution is over, it’ll be great to see what transpires.

Twitter hits PR agencies – guess what it's called: twitpitch

Twitter makes the world go round and probably provides more opportunities than people can think of right now. Not only journalists, bloggers and analysts find a new communication channel in the 140 characters space that Twitter offers. Companies start to talk to their clients, partners, best friends and potential new clients about new products, the market or other hot issues. PR agencies like us try to introduce the advantages of  Twitter to our clients and we try hard even in “far-behind-Germany”.

Now as part of the PR community we can make Twitter a new business channel for us as well. We start twittering in our community and talk about PR news, discuss issues and get quick feedback from other agencies of our thematic focus. And this network could lead to new contacts for our business. Watch us twitpitching!

Bettina

GBC Germany

It’s shiny and new but the question is do you need it?

The internet is buzzing with Google’s latest invite only toy, Google Wave, an online tool for real-time communication and collaboration that, if you believe the hype, is pretty much the best thing ever to come out of the internet. The highly coveted and sort after invites to gain access to the beta version are in high demand with one apparently selling for $5,100 on eBay.

This strange fever that surrounds these new online tools got me thinking about whether new is always the way to go. One blogger I found on the web made the very valid point that: “Just because people have access to a technology doesn’t mean they will use it. We used to have real time collaboration online (they were called chat rooms), but we got over that”. When it comes to online technology the key is to find out what works for you and not what everyone is talking about.

Social media as a whole can seem a scary concept to more conservative companies who are only starting to consider if this area is right for them. What they really need to be looking at is what parts of the social media sphere are appropriate for their business. Facebook has a lot of users but for many businesses have no place in their social media strategy. Twitter is good for short, snappy updates but sometimes you have more than 140 characters to say. LinkedIn can be great for finding new business contacts and answering fellow user’s questions but is it reaching the right people for you?

Don’t get me wrong, these tools could be perfect for your business but the point I am trying to make is that you need to make sure that they are. Don’t just use them because everyone else does. If a tried and tested blog is the best way to get your message out, go for it. If you can’t dedicate the time to keep your Twitter account full of relevant Tweets there is little point in having one. Also please remember that social media is too new an area for anyone to truly be an expert on this area and we are all still learning. Also remember that just because something is not right for your business now does not mean it won’t be in the future.

Many of the new tools will be full of bugs and glitches in the early days and the one that got no hype to start with could evolve in to the communication tool of the century. Do your research, talk to as many people as you can and remember to go back and look at the tools you wrote off in the early days. They might have got their act together and become a perfect fit for your business.

Sponsoring Social Media: A Solution or Problem?

One of the most enjoyable and influential blogs in the UK, Mobile Industry Review, announced last week it was to become a research service following consistent failed efforts to monetise its 300,000+ users. Upon the formal announcement, regular visitors provided comments ranging from support to sadness to annoyance that the site was closing its doors (unless you are willing to depart with 12k for a corporate subscription).

From a personal viewpoint I have lost one of the few sites I visit on a daily basis, but this move raises the question that if sites like MIR can’t create a blog business model that works, what hope is there? The readership, content and community aspects of the site made it an extremely attractive target for both PR and marketing professionals, so are marketers simply still hesitant to invest in new media?

There are numerous blogs that talk about the ethical obligation that is at the core of the blogosphere and that sell outs betray this ethos, however even online entities need to pay the bills. In its final months, MIR visited Rome, Barcelona and Paris, and delivered hours of HD quality video to its audience all of which were paid for by Ewan himself. So what options are available to today’s bloggers and who is implementing these tactics successfully?

Jeremiah Owyang, Senior Analyst at Forrester Research has a great blog resource which tracks some of the ways that bloggers are funding their sites and also provides examples of successful implementations of these “services”, such as TechCrunch, Gizmodo and Adrants.

Demonstrated by the success of the above blogs and also the brands that are investing in them, such as Disney, Microsoft and Panasonic, the sponsored social media conversation can provide a legitimate revenue resource to the blogger community. The challenge faced by these bloggers however is ensuring that these remain open and honest relationships, whilst also meeting the demands of the sponsor.

Can blogs ever be 100 per cent independent when covering a sponsor? Also, how do influencers ensure they do not lose that trust that their social relevance has been built upon? I think the jury is still out on this.