4 Reasons PR Agencies Are Failing in Social Media

A couple of weeks ago, Jason Keath wrote a post that got many thoughtful comments and reactions. I agree that good communication professionals understand the power of storytelling and know that relationship building is a worthy activity and work on action steps to develop good relationships.

Indeed, a retainer arrangement is a good way to go in social media. Especially if you need to ramp up your own people over time, and have constant needs and request, it will cost you less to go that way. Plus, it will help you maintain consistency.

And if you're worried your people will screw up -- customers or employees, they are people and they might -- PR agencies may also provide crisis communications counsel and services. Of course, not all are known for doing a stellar job at it, and the expert may be a different one from your day to day team.

At this point, you may have already realized how dangerous generalizations can be. You may have a bigger relationship with a digital agency, in that case they'd know your business better, for example. Depending on your research needs, PR agencies may be ill equipped to deal with segmentation analysis. I'm digressing...

To his 4 reasons PR agencies are taking over social media, I'd like to list 4 reasons PR agencies are failing in social media:

(1.) PR is having a hard time letting go of the pitch

When we accept that PR agencies do relationship building, we're making one ginormous assumption -- that the process of reaching out to mainstream media, which they do based upon reach and numbers, is the exact same with bloggers.

How do they know your blog is worth reaching out to on behalf of their client? By and large because it's listed on a top bloggers list. They know nothing about your readers, how could they if they have taken no time to interact with them in the comments to your posts? Or reading enough of them in the first place.

I've been thinking a lot about the advice many of us have given PR pros about pitching story angles -- know the subject matter the blogger likes to cover, read their blog, etc. While this is still valid, I'm thinking that there is one fundamental disconnect we have probably not communicated well enough or with enough clarity -- the best kind of pitch is not a pitch at all, it's a conversation.

How many agencies take the time to be truly helpful to the bloggers they'd consider in their clients' sweet spot? I still see a ton of canned emails and the most annoying follow ups that read like their clients are entitled to coverage. 

Case in point: a blogger who finds your pitch offensive, or tactless, decides to post it with their take on how you could have just spent more time getting to know them and their readers. What then?

(2.) PR is having a hard time learning the client's business

Social media is very content intensive. It's also about learning about how to write content for the digital medium. It's not about making introductions anymore. It's about learning the business deeply enough to be able to generate content with or in some cases on behalf of the client.

The model is shifting, there are fewer mainstream media outlets and thousands of online properties without enough editors/writers or with editors who won't get on the phone with a subject matter expert because they have no time. And the time lines are getting ridiculously short.

Knowing your client's business will help you shorten time lines, or answer questions on the fly when a blogger replies they're interested. And more and more, you may need to step in to help clients shape their own publications.

Case in point: the client is interested in you leading their social media efforts and all you can do is ask to get on painfully long phone calls with their subject matter experts to gather information so you can write posts. How do you handle ghost writing questions when you hit publish? How do you handle writing for digital media?

(3.) PR is still having a hard time with measurement

With a few rare exceptions, like the work KD Paine has been doing for decades, PR agencies have still not gotten their act together when it comes to measurement. Yes, they may be better at monitoring and listening, and now probably sentiment analysis.

They still need to learn to move away from impressions, and into how to correlate social ecosystems, influence analysis, and digital media to business results. I'm not talking about leads, PR is not designed to generate leads, you have lead generation for that. However, you may make connections. Connections are good.

Does your PR agency know how to put the public back in PR measurement? Do they report beyond exposure to engagement, influence on perceptions and attitudes, action resulted from the social media effort?

Case in point: check you reports and do let me know if you get those other metrics. I'd be thrilled to add an update to this post if we identify a trend here.

(4.) PR is still stuck with media while publics go underserved

By treating bloggers like media outlets, PR agencies are still failing to see beyond the media relations part of their charter. For many, it's probably also a case of educating clients on the value of building relationships with all stakeholders or resetting the expectation they helped create.

Today, many of those publics are direct customers for the client business. An enterprising agency would find a way to work with data bases and cross reference stakeholders with bloggers, influencers, and people who use social media.

Social media tends to have them all in one stream, without differentiation. So the best data base wins. Have PR agencies learned how to build efficient data bases? Being human and getting creative also get attention beyond media. Something PR agencies are still learning about themselves.

Case in point: ask any PR professional if they do this and they'll say that of course they do. To that, I say bullocks. They will support an internal visionary who does.

***

The biggest reason of course, is that I believe social media should be handled in house and not by any one agency. Sure, they can get you set up and started, help with training, support measurement and the creation of other assets to share and provide through social media.

These fours are the main reason why no agencies will ever supplant an internal team. They can augment and support it. Replace it? Forget about it.

[image courtesy of Phil h]

© 2010 Valeria Maltoni. All rights reserved.

Comments

[Philip Chang]

Don't hire mercenaries to defend the fortress when you can build your own army. Yes, social media is best handled in-house.

On the subject of PR agencies, as social media becomes more integrated with other marketing disciplines, the ability to create and develop content, place media, and buy it becomes more important.

PR firms haven't acquired this capability, which is already baked into what most ad and digital agencies do.

Will PR Agencies go away? As we know them, yes. PR gets to lead marketing because of its baked-in credibility. But they must do more than consult on the messaging component.

PR's role in social media is rapidly becoming a case of, "We can do anything except everything else."

[Kellye Crane]

Valeria, hopefully my comment didn't come across as critical of this post - I think there's great discussion going on here. I meant to point out that we all see the world through our own lens, and Jason's post is from a pro-PR viewpoint (while this one is less so). We're in complete agreement that the PR pros who are fully engaged in social media are a subset of the profession as a whole (sad but true).

[Rebecca Eras]

It’s ironic that there are so many rules of engagement for such a fluid environment as social media.

I'm not a fan of the title of this blog, 4 Reasons PR Agencies Are Failing in Social Media, as it seems a bit harsh when everyone is essentially adapting and progressing with the ever-changing online trends, expectations and overall platforms. So while some may think their ways are foolproof, tomorrow the whole environment changes, and back to the drawing board to build upon existing knowledge.

And aside from blatant spamming, I don’t discourage pitching anyone unless they request not to be contacted. I don’t think bloggers are all that different than media either in terms of being human and responding to recognition, ingenuity, humour and a fitting story in general.

No matter who I’m pitching, I'm not comfortable hiding the fact that I have a story that may be of interest; and why pretend I’m just saying hello only to pitch later, unless I am purely introducing myself at that stage. Better to state upfront who you are and be transparent about your thoughts and intentions then break out the agenda later IMO.

PR agencies are constantly taking on new clients and will therefore be new to any given online community or endeavour. That doesn’t mean they are any less adept at understanding the business and how to best connect with customers and other stakeholders through social or traditional media.

Through research and by being a creative and strong communicator in all mediums, my money’s on PR for the People.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Elise - someone in the thread mentioned how PR as an industry has done itself a disservice by placing emphasis on promotion. What you experienced has probably been a byproduct of that. It is an education process and it needs to start where the client's at. As professionals, we often take too many things for granted -- I know I do ;)

@Juliana - delegating in social media means giving up too much of the responsibility that rests in house, especially on the day to day course.

@Todd (BuzzStream) - you gave us a money quote! Thank you. A few accelerators that may help: a) listening and observing and knowing what you're listening for.; b) reading up a lot and learning about the industry; c) being sincere and responding, even when the blogger tells you no. I know you know that, the smart PR professionals use "failure" as a way to advance the relationship.

[Valeria Maltoni]

@Phillip - I see it more as a matter of ownership. In the same way you live your brand, you live your interactions. That's the beauty of it, if you give it away, you won't get it back. PR agencies have the potential to take over all thought leadership development: helping clients think through topics by canvassing the conversation landscape, and package it in public-ready formats. So I wouldn't count them out, just yet. They need to see their own capabilities and redirect the energy/resources to them.

@Kelley - not at all. Always a pleasure having you here. I want discussion, that's what helps us think through issues. I love PR, this is all love. Truly. It's the best door into social media for an organization that has a hard time admitting its own name in the mirror in the morning. Seriously. We can use a swift kick in the pants, though.

@Rebecca - I could hug you. In fact, I plan to send you this response by email as well. Thank you for drawing attention to the term "failure". Failure is good, it's our friend. As you yourself said, we're all learning. When do we learn the most? I'm not harsh and I'm not judgmental; it's an observation that allowed us to have this rich conversation. Ah, I wish I got even some of that ingenuity and humor in the pitches I get. I'm jealous now. When I refer to conversation this is what I mean, getting to know each other in the course of exchanging ideas and content. By all means, don't chit chat me if you're on assignment. In fact, be brief and to the point, and I will, too. Personality and passion are amazing resources and allies in this business. If you believe in what you're doing it comes across. It's like when you smile on the phone. I can feel it. That's the conversation I'm talking about. No going through the moves. Strong communicators are priceless. Glad to have met you in such nice circumstances.

[Rebecca Eras]

@Valeria - Thank you for the reply and personal email as well. :)

I have given a lot of thought to what failure means to me and how important it is to not get hung up on the negatives of a situation and/or its outcome. It’s easier said than done, however. Fear of failure and the judgments that can come with it can be hard to ignore. But to feel alive, I think, it’s important to take risks and act. Inertia is not fun; momentum is! If we meet with triumph or disaster, then we ought to treat both those impostors just the same anyway and keep going!

I'm glad to have met you as well and look forward to exploring your posts and learning more about your thoughts, observations and experiences.

Oh and I love when I can hear a smile through the phone too!