PR Isn't Sinking, It's Adapting

Tom Foremski ponders a big think question: why is the mainstream PR sector booming as the mainstream media sector is fading fast?

The answer is that the PR agencies are slowly adapting to a Long Tail media environment. Agencies don't knee-jerk into “big game hunting” strategies as much as they used to. We look beyond the Times and Journal and across the total media universe to hammer home the right message to the right audience at the right time. This micro-targeting approach drives sales, Tom. Otherwise, we couldn't support our retainers.

So the rub is PR has changed. Sometimes, our “theater” of operations is the newspapers. Other times it's TV or in online news outlets like CNET. Last but not least, we're increasingly zeroing in on the blogosphere, Digg, memorandum and even Google as we migrate towards direct-to-audience conversational PR programs. The media pie hasn't shrunk. It enlarged and with it so did PR.

If you need a glimpse of the future, take a look at what Greg Jarboe at SEO PR does. SEO's services and success are indicative of how the PR industry adapted faster than much of the media did.

Technorati Tags: Media

Comments

[James Clark]

Some are adapting much faster than others. I think the critical factor to success for PR agencies in the new social media age are the analytical skill sets required of its employees. If leadership within the agency organization does not understand the role of social media, it will be difficult to understand the skills needed to support their clients. Agencies are notorious for claiming areas of expertise to secure business, when in fact there may be only one person in the firm that truly has that expertise. That's a dangerous situation and disservice to the client.

[Ephraim Cohen]

The fact the the media pie is enlarging is not cited often enough.

Within the media universe there are always categories that are shrinking and ones that are growing. Remember, print and broadcase were once new media growing that hurt the old media (print hurt real command and control several hundred years ago and broadcast hurt radio). But overall, these types of media made the universe grow. That's all that's happening now.

The sooner we realize this, the more productive the debate over and the development of the PR professional will become.

[Amy Gahran]

Good point, Steve.

One thing that strikes me: the "long tail" media environment seems, in my view at least, to revolve primarily around conversation. This conversation takes place in public, via conversational media tools such as weblogs, e-mail lists, forums, and even talk radio and other tools.

Do you agree?

If so, would it be fair to say that the PR companies who are adapting well are the ones who have a good grasp of conversational media?

I mention this because so many people in the PR field who discuss the evolution of the field get pretty hung up on blogs. I think recognizing and leveraging conversational media is a much bigger deal than blogs alone.

- Amy Gahran
RightConversation.com
Contentious.com

[Tom Foremski - Silicon Valley Watcher]

Steve, blogging will disrupt the PR industry in the same way online advertising is disrupting the media idustry.

You can get the reach you need for a lot less cost. It's as simple as that.

Your client companies should be known by their communties and know their communities. I come across so many companies that don't even know who their potential customers are!

Startups should be of their industry, be known by their potential customers, and they should know where their potential customers sit, their pain points, their opinions, their concerns, etc.

Blogging is a way to demonstrate thought leadership on a broad scale. If you are not publishing to your community you are not known by your community.

I know you understand this, because that is exactly what you've done, and done very well. Imagine your PR company clients doing the same?

[Mike Levin]

Amy, Kudos on the comment of getting hung up on blogs. Not only do the companies that adapt have a firm understanding of traditional media. They also understand that "search" itself is a media. What other sites are so universally visited as Yahoo, Google and MSN? I sometimes draw parallels to when there were just 3 big TV networks. If you ran a commercial on all three for a couple of weeks, you can achieve saturation. How can you achieve saturation today? Really huge budgets, or really smart strategies. Influencing search is one of those strategies, especially if you can influence free search, without paying for PPC campaigns. That is truly the equivalent of online PR, because it is the equivalent of free editorial coverage, much in the same way a single blogger writing about you in their blog would be--but with much greater reach!

[Mike Levin]

...and if it's not against form here, I'd like to provide an example of the PR industry taking the reigns of change, and not simply responding. This is the MyLongTail app that was developed by the firm that launched Amazon.com, Priceline and Vonage. It's in early beta, but it's solid and does exactly what it says: suggesting subject matter for blogging and website expansion.