PR 2.0 will double your workload
After discussing the inauthentic nature of PR in my last post, I hope you know that I do respect and enjoy being part of the PR profession (well, except those PR areas that are broken) and truly believe that most PR folks are engaging in PR in a way that is effective. That said, I still believe that ghostwriting from PR pros (or profs) isn’t necessary or authentic (I am not sure that there’s much that can convince me…but I’ll keep an open mind, I promise).
I thought it might be a useful conversation to discussion how PR 2.0 will keep you SO busy providing strategic services/counsel for your clients or employer you won’t need to worry about ghost blogging and tweeting as a source of income or a way to show value for one’s job. And I know for a lot of PR agencies and pros that might not truly understand the nature (dare I say, culture) of social media, those are areas of concern. I get it, I really do.
While this might not be as interesting as a debate, perhaps it will prove to be more useful.
Today’s typical and traditional PR person does a lot of the following tasks:
- Builds relationships with third-party resources (usually the media, sometimes bloggers)
- Maintains existing relationships
- Does research
- Listens/Analyzes (usually online/print pickups)
- Writes plans
- Provides counsel
- Creates targeted messages
- Conveys timely news with constituents (but typically media and maybe bloggers)
- Builds a brand’s reputation
- Maintains a brand’s image
- Deploys crisis communications
- Clips or tracks pickups or mentions
- Provides measurement of campaigns
- Handles some marketing communications (including collateral, website content if a marketer isn’t part of the team)
With PR 2.0 you can add the following to your skills, deliverables and job description:
- Monitors brand in real-time
- Listens/Analyzes online conversations or mentions in real-time
- Responds promptly
- Conducts primary research in real-time
- Engages in two-way conversations with ALL constituents (in-house PR folks)
- Participates in social networking in a value-add way (in-house PR folks)
- Develops new online skills (blogging, wikis, RSS, etc.)
- Understand the importance of building relationships with all constituents (media, bloggers, employees, investors, fans, friends, followers, detractors, etc.)
- Responsible for Search Engine Optimization
- Identifies & engages with influencers and brand evangelists (in-house PR folks)
- Manages communities of constituents (in-house PR folks)
- Integrates new technologies into PR plans
- Shares industry information, not just key messages
- Builds communities
- Engages evangelists to help create word of mouth
- Understands that engaging in PR 2.0 will help at time of crisis
- Stays up-to-date on trends
- Trains management, co-workers and/or clients constantly
I don’t know about you, but to me that looks like a pretty busy job to me! All without having to ghostwrite or tweet (sorry, I couldn’t resist).
I cannot take complete credit for these lists. While I have been engaged in PR for a long time, some people just say things more succinctly than I do…and I like to give the credit they deserve. So, please, seriously, if you haven’t read PR 2.0 by Deirdre Breakenridge, add it to your reading list. She makes the transition to PR 2.0 crystal clear, easy-to-swallow, and provides a lot of proof points (i.e. some of the list information is from her book). John Bell at Ogilvy is another source of great information when it comes to the PR pro of the future (be sure to read John’s post when you get a chance). He’s the guy behind this post’s image and some of the items on the PR 2.0 list.
I am sure that I am leaving things off of both lists, so please be sure to add where necessary if this is too simplified.
Thoughts? Opinions? Objections?
[Image: John Bell]
Even More Goodness! Related Posts:
Tags: deirdre breakenridge, geoff livingston, john bell, new PR, PR 2.0, public relations 2.0, Social Media
20 Responses to “PR 2.0 will double your workload”
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Social media never stops, neither does monitoring. We move forward with our tools but move backward with the amount of work we have. Now we need a team of people to do the job that we should just be doing ourselves.
What needs to happen is that all of the PR 2.0 monitoring needs to be streamlined, automated and as integrated as possible as it can in order for us to do our best job possible. The person that can provide a succinct package for this will benefit greatly on our dismay.
Great post Beth.
Executing all of these PR 2.0 task is going to require strategy, commitment, proactive leaders, and intelligence.
Overwhelming. Great post!
This is why I initially sucked at consulting: I would go into a company and ask them to double their work. That’s a tough pill to swallow regardless of where it’s coming from (never mind someone that looks like I do).
Utilizing, gaining, and maintaining the additional skills are going to continuously more important as time goes on. PR needs to integrate into social unless it wants to be supplanted by the community only people.
.-= Stuart Foster´s last blog ..All Roads Lead to an Integrated House =-.
There’s no doubt that being a PR professional has ALWAYS been a hard and time-consuming kinda thing – even before the idea of ‘PR 2.0′ came into play.
But, whether we like it or not, it’s a gig that will take even more of your time…if you truly walk the walk. And, truth be told, even though it’s overwhelming, it’s a gig with lots of excitement, challenges and fun!
.-= Narciso Tovar, Big Noise Communications´s last blog ..Thusly Making Poor Yorick Work in PR =-.
Beth, an excellent piece and one I just sent around to all the execs at Cow.
You give a great run down of how, in this transition period, we are still doing jobs that wouldn’t be out of place when I was starting out in the 90s, but are now expected to add a second skills set on top.
So yes, if we were to do it properly, our work really would double!
Or actually looking at it another way, a lot of clients are splitting the jobs giving group one to their traditional agencies and group two to a new breed of social media specialists. As we know, long term, being in the first camp is not a good place to be in.
.-= Dirk Singer´s last blog ..It’s not only newspapers feeling the digital chill – book publishers hit too =-.
Hi Beth,
This is a great post – the second list certainly does look daunting but that’s what keeps the job interesting!
Agree also that PR 2.0 by Deirdre Breakenridge is a must read – the case studies are particularly useful.
.-= Emily Cagle´s last blog ..Twitter #FollowFriday 3rd July 2009 =-.
I will agree… but I’ll also disagree.
I agree that there is now a whole new suite – or more likely suites – of skills/responsibilities for PR people.
I disagree that all of these skills/responsibilities will be added to the required competencies of all PR people.
Here’s why. Prior to SM’s onslaught we saw a ‘division of labour’ within that which is “PR”. There were individuals or practices – or even standalone agencies – that specialized in one particular aspect of PR.
The thought that one PR person can, or should do it all, while admirable isn’t the most efficient way of doing things. Sure it’s possible, but more often than not the reality is that “A Jack of all trades is the master of none.” That is why we see specialization – in crisis communications/issues management; marketing PR; investor communications; media relations; corporate & public affairs; government relations; etc. There aren’t a lot of Gov Rel folks who have the flair for consumer MPR, and there aren’t many MPR people who understand the details of IR, etc.
Those people in one discipline don’t need to understand the intricacies of other disciplines; they just need to understand how the different disciplines connect. For senior level people there needs to be enough of an understanding of other disciplines so as to make sound decisions, but in the end it usually comes down to the guidance of a skilled practice leader to guide the way.
It will be the same for SM. Social Media Relations will become a discipline unto itself as an additional means of creating relationships and communicating, but that doesn’t mean that everyone has to be an expert at it. We’re already seeing this kind of specialization happening. For example, at our agency we have a separate practice that focuses on SM projects & issues and they dovetail into all of our other practices. This allows for the creation of ‘modular solutions’ based on needs/objectives and specific expertise and leadership is called upon as needed.
So… is this a potential revenue stream? an opportunity for agencies to grow or to specialize?
Great post Beth. At iPressroom, I speak to dozens of PR Pros every day who frankly feel overwhelmed by the volume of new practices, tools and fundamental paradigm shift in how public relations and media relations needs to be practiced. Further, there are a lot of undefined roles and responsibilities across many organizations in terms of who is responsible for what: marketing, PR, agencies (which one?), etc.
As a vendor to the PR profession, I am likely biased – though I do come from marketing roots – nevertheless, I have the experience that the PR practitioner is best positioned to deliver results with skills more aligned to the new paradigm of online communications, social media management and PR 2.0.
Authenticity, as you described in your last post is critical to success in online communications and PR 2.0 and with that awareness it is the PR pro who is better suited for this communication than advertising or marketing.
People (after all that’s who we are communicating to in the end) want authentic, engaging, relevant, and either informative or entertaining content.
To be successful, a PR practitioner needs the easy ability to first listen, then deploy this quality, relevant and engaging content (in multiple formats) onto the web (and into channels where people spend their time) – directly from the corporate website. From @ipressroom’s point of view, the getting out onto the web (in text, video, photos, blog posts, xml/RSS) and into multiple channels (search, social media, news aggregators, and more) must be the easy part. For most people today, they’re still spending more time getting their content out there, than they are creating good content. That has to change to succeed in PR 2.0.
.-= Chris Bechtel´s last blog ..Online Newsroom and PR Software as a Service Provider Enables Social Video Communications on Corporate Websites =-.
Blame my (a)vocational background in trades other than PR, so can you help me understand why there is a second version of people relations? People have related to other people for millennia; so what’s different today?
.-= Ari Herzog´s last blog ..Stop Spinning Business and Government =-.
Thanks Beth, but am I the only one that thinks that PR 2.0 is actually easier? Knowledge is power and real-time knowledge is powerful. The two lists are fundamentally the same with a real-time element. What you didn’t list is the stuff you don’t have to do anymore! What’s hard is re-tooling a message, not reaching your customers, focus groups, clipping, executives that don’t believe… now that’s hard… PR 2.0 is not an addition of work, it’s a profession transcending its original purpose..
.-= Bridget Cavanaugh´s last blog ..Miracle Witnessed =-.
Great post Beth!
I totally agree – adding “PR 2.0″ to your traditional PR campaigns can be daunting. I used to work at an agency that was strictly traditional PR, and I was constantly swamped with work (in a good way). I’m now a community manager at a startup company and I take a different approach to PR – a more relationship-based, social media heavy approach. I still do many of the tasks involved with traditional PR, but now put a lot of my focus on building presences on social media sites and building a community online. It’s interesting to see how the game is changing and people are expecting more from their PR professionals.
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@DamienBasile, a steamlined platform would be great. Radian6 and Techrigy both have great platforms. I think the issue with monitoring is that human analysis is still needed to decipher tone (positive, negative or neutral).
@BethanyGrabher and a new level of passion for the profession! We need to tear down the silos that exist with investor relations, employee relations, community relations, media relations, etc. because they don’t silo themselves when they see your public posts, comments, tweets, etc.
@StuartFoster, yep, you’re right, no one wants to hear that they have to double their workload. I experienced that too. Organizations want to engage in being social, but they sometimes look at it as just using the same messaging/content they have and sending it out on a new channel. It doesn’t work if you have that mindset. Hmmm, I think it’s more about PR folks integrating social into PR than the reverse.
@NarcisoTovar, that’s a great point. If PR pros want to “walk the walk” it sometimes means engaging in social media for and as themselves before they do it for clients or their employers. A lot of people just aren’t willing to invest that time.
@DirkSinger, I really hope organizations don’t split this up. The point is that as PR practitioners, we need to expand our capabilities and understand how our profession is changing. If the media is on and offline, do both groups contact them? That’s a nightmare for the media…
@PRJack, I am all for being a “Jack/Jane of all marketing trades.” I think there’s value in having experience in all aspects of marketing (and PR, of course), especially when it comes to integration. That said, I only expect that a handful of marketing or PR folks will ever be passionate enough to want to be that deep into the profession.
I think specialization can be really limiting, especially because constituents often change how they want to be communicated with. I am sure folks that specialize in media relations will always have a job, but those jobs will become harder and harder to find. What happens to the specialist then? Maybe it’s just me, but I always saw being a “Jane of all marketing trades” as job security.
@ChrisBechtel, great points! I agree, I do think PR folks are better positioned because they are used to communicating. That said, they need to understand that it’s no longer about just communicating with the media or bloggers. It’s about communicating with ALL constituents because constituents don’t silo themselves on line…they see and react to everything.
@AriHerzog, because for the longest time the only way PR folks could reach their constituents was via the media who would provide a neutral (supposedly) 3rd party validation. Now, PR folks can engage directly with customers and they don’t need the media to do so.
@BridgetCavanaugh, I’m with you! I do think PR 2.0 is easier too. The reason I didn’t list what we don’t have to do anymore is because I don’t think we are there just yet. I think we still need to do what we’ve always done… I mean until traditional print media completely disappears, which I don’t think will happen (Heck! I hope not, I love my magazines!), we still need to keep up with the first list.
@ErinBury, congratulations on making the switch! As a community manager for MarketingProfs, I approach public relations that same way…it’s about building relationships with all our publics!
I’m not PR. I am not a marketer (in the
“traditional” sense). I’m not sure what I am. But I do no I like to communicate, as I would guess many do. I enjoy providing information and helping. You touched on this in you lists, but I would add unwavering and unselfish communication. That to me is the core of this social medianess… regardless what you call yourself.
.-= DaveMurr´s last blog ..Social Media Club – Detroit/Ann Arbor =-.
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