SxSWi: Brian Solis, Changing Role of PR

A couple of days ago I attended a speakers panel at SxSWi. The main question in the session was - are PR agencies a dying breed? In a world riddled with ADD, where TMI blogging and DIY reporting are the norm, are PR agencies still relevant?

FutureWorks principal Brian Solis framed the challenge: "Agencies have competition from places they never saw coming - interactive agencies, community management companies." It was a panel discussion, but I wanted to highlight Brian's thinking because he's been long doing work that matters for the future of PR.

It's true that the nature and place for press releases has changed. Today, you could issue a release that has not just news, but depth. With hyperlinks, images and captions (make sure you have those if you'd like editors to publish them), press releases can still have value for reporters as they do for your site's search engine optimization (SEO).

If it's also true that, as Brian said, as an agency they're not charging to write press releases or for media campaigns anymore, how are PR agencies going to make money? One of my thoughts is to help create the context for relationships with the media and third parties. 

The other thought I had was that agencies can help clients move from reactive - and yes, thinking of PR as just press releases is in some way reactive - to a more proactive stance. That would include the integration of many tools that allow for putting the "public" back in public relations. This is the title of Brian Solis latest book with Deirdre Breakenridge.

The Institute for Public Relations has run an analysis of the increasing impact of social and other new media on public relations. Not surprisingly, traditional news media receive higher scores than blogs and social media in terms of accuracy, credibility, telling the truth and being ethical. The results of the study highlight that there is considerable agreement suggesting blogs and social media have enhanced public relations practice.

Most (92% - up from 89% in 2008) of those surveyed think blogs and social media influence news coverage in the traditional media (newspapers, magazines, radio and television) while 76 percent say the reverse also is true (up from 72% a year ago). There is very solid agreement (88% up from 84% in 2008) that blogs and social media have made communications more instantaneous because they force organizations to respond more quickly to criticism.

We've been saying that the future of PR is participation for a while now, however there are now many concerns about that. What if the PR agency decides not to be transparent? Or what happens when a client wants the agency to "represent" him, to write in stead of him? 

A big question that still remains open is why do so many clients are so afraid of budgeting a social media strategy? And on the other side, why do PR practitioners have to characterize social media as little or low cost?

[photo courtesy of Richard Binhammer]

Comments

[Sydney Owen]

I love this post!! This panel was on my "peer day" on Sunday where seemingly every one I went to was loaded with discussion and intelligent points were brought up on each side. As an almost-grad into the PR world, I feel like having seen and heard Solis' view on this gives me an edge.

I think practicioners saying it's little or low cost is just a way to get a social media strategy in the door. Eventually the world will catch up to new-age PR and as both Shankman and Solis said, the press release, as we know it now, will be dead.

One of the best things to come from my time at SxSW was meeting people who have a like minded approach to PR. This is where it's going, how long till everyone gets on board? And if they don't get on board, does that make what we offer in terms of a social media strategy, a special niche in the world that is PR?

[Sydney Owen]

And by peer I meant power. Damn iPhone.

[Kellye Crane]

In response to your questions, though the best PR pros are embracing social media, some practitioners feel they have a vested interest in the status quo, and as a result are fighting against the current to continue business as usual. There is a learning curve involved in understanding the conversational approach to PR, and I think to some it feels easier to bury their heads in the sand and hope it goes away.

Of course, it's not going away, and those who don't realize this fact very soon will be left behind. PR pros/agencies need to stop thinking of the significant changes underway as frightening, and instead see them as opportunities. At its core public relations is about communicating, so let’s welcome the chance to converse directly with our communities. The truth is, it’s happening with you or without you.

[Bruce Christensen]

Valeria, The problem that I see is that bootstrap start-ups cannot afford the top levels of PR support. We must rely on blogs like yours to help us learn little by little and attempt to do things on a smaller scale, usually do-it-yourself. We rely on the kindness of others to help us get over the financial hump.
Then when our business model gets some traction and revenues build, we take advantage of more powerful PR.
Couldn't PR firms find a way to provide services for early-stage businesses and share in the PR investment? Maybe an agreement to lock them in for future, more profitable PR?

[Adam Singer]

The thing is, at the end of the day - clients still want (both old and new) media placements. That's what they want to see, you can educate all you like and bring lots of new services into the mix, but it's the bread and butter of what clients want. I see what Brian is after and I am with him - but I think it's still a bit off. The hard thing is that as traditional media shrinks, the demand for clips to be generated stays the same. This creates a not-so-good enviornment for both media and PR folk. We'll find balance eventually.

[Peter I.]

I actually got a little frustrated with this panel. The real threat to PR is the refusal for some people to distinguish between publicity and public relations. Public relations, when done well, is a lot more about brokering relationships than it is about building online popularity. When Shankman equated success with the amount of Twitter followers you have and Solis, who I usually love to hear speak, plugged PitchEngine (why do I want to optimize traffic to a third party site?), I was left wondering if the panel only really applied to boutique tech PR, where the clients are only looking for visibility. The PR that will survive this economic crisis (and the next one) is the version that is focus on building and protecting reputation and not so singularly focused on today's flavor of social media.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Sydney - or maybe Sunday was a a peer day with so many people passionate about social media and interactive around. I've written a post about that, actually. PR2.0 is not free.

@Kellye - you're always going to have those who wait and see with anything. They became successful doing something and they don't want to change that something as it's now their anchor.

@Bruce - what's interesting is that this is a conversation around time and attention, both of which are in scarce supply and can hardly be bought today.

@Adam - could the shrinkage of traditional media be the reason why I get dozens of press releases a day? Most have little to do with what I write about. Clips = what gets measured. Because even with traditional media, you cannot really make a direct correlation between a purchase and a media impression.

@Peter - "The real threat to PR is the refusal for some people to distinguish between publicity and public relations." The thing is that as consumers we trend towards noticing publicity (shiny object) at the moment, especially with social media as part of the equation. I must say Shankman was a disappointment. Consistent with his ignoring my blogging about HARO when he first launched.

[Brian Solis]

Valeria, it was an absolute pleasure to see you during SXSW. I'll be in your part of town in June, so I'm hoping we can see each other again!

Peter, there were also some tremendous points made during this panel that support the story beyond boutique PR. There was an entire list of topics I also wanted to explore, but just couldn't squeeze it into the format as presented.

Publicity + Public Relations = Presence and Community

Re: your question about why would you send someone to a third party site and not your own, it's mostly because a site such as PE (or any wire service) boasts a fantastic PageRank in traditional search and also SMO in social search - most likely greater than a majority of company blogs or sites. The idea is to pair the release with a blog post and/or unique company destination to triangulate traffic productively - capturing attention where it travels for information, which is usually elsewhere.

The state of PR and innovation isn't stifled by economic crisis as much as it's challenged by its reluctance to embrace new media and new processes in general. This is a 12-15 year old evolution and we're still talking about 1:1 interaction, relationships and direct customer engagement, with less of a top-down, broadcast approach. PR has a tendency to apply old methodologies to each genre of new tools and services. This is truly about reinvention, starting with field work before engagement. Indeed it's the only way to build, protect, and shape perception regardless of the tools presented. Everything starts with us as individuals to spark change from within.

[Peter I.]

Brian, the PageRank argument is valid but again I don't think it's very universal. PitchEngine has a PageRank of 5, which isn't that high. For example, this blog, your blog and the sites for most major brands tend to rank higher. However, I do totally agree with your point about pairing releases with a blog post to triangulate traffic and essentially pull the content into a brand's own Web universe. I'm just still not thoroughly convinced that SMRs on third party sites are the best destinations for that kind of content. I'd rather see a company like PitchEngine license their technology to allow companies to offer enhanced press releases on their own sites.

We're in complete agreement on your last point. PR practitioners are essentially relationship brokers. It's both the reason why social media is so important and why aspects of it, like Twitter followers and Facebook fans, are so misleading. I'm more impressed with companies that make a few real connections online than those that build giant networks of relative strangers.

Thanks for your response. I know the one-hour panel format can be a tough place to convey a complicated idea. I was on a panel on Tuesday and the hour felt like 15 minutes. I'm going to pitch a panel about PR/social media myths next year and I will definitely invite you to join if it gets selected.