DWPub Sporadic

PR jobs at digital agencies

An interesting PR job went up today on our media job site, SourceThatJob.

It's a PR account director position, but not for a PR agency but for a digital marketing agency called NixonMcInnes.

This is more evidence to support the main prediction in my whipepaper Public Relations vs Search Marketing, echoed in a more recent post on the impact of digital media on PR.

I think you'll see more and more PR opportunities within digital agencies. In fact, I think you'll see entire PR/content creation teams establishing themselves within such firms - a trend already established in the larger search marketing agencies.

The inevitable question is, what does this mean for 'traditional' PR agencies?

Online PR needs resource

I was chatting today with someone who works in the press office of a 2,000-employee organisation. I was being asked for advice on online PR and I offered a few pointers to get them started.
The question of resources inevitably came up - how can proper attention be made to digital media when everyone is already at capacity doing 'traditional' PR?
It was at this point I discovered that in this 2,000-person organisation there is only two PR people and no agency budget.
I don't suppose that is very unusual. No doubt many organisations have tiny communications teams. But it made me realise that there is only one way to do digital PR properly - and that is to redirect resources away from traditional media.
Don't stop writing press releases though - just make sure they're visible online.

Press release marks out of ten

Not tried this but sounds interesting - Press Release Grader. If you try it share your thoughts by commenting here.

On a related subject, there's been talk for a while about the 'social media press release template'  of which I'm a little skeptical to be honest - I love the idea of press releases in a social media context but let's not template ourselves to death. To me digital media is a constantly evolving thing that defies rules. I agree with Andrew Smith on the subject (the connection is down in paragraph ten - but it's worth reading your way down to it). Let's experiment.

PR is adapting to digital too slowly - search expert says

I was chatting to bigmouthmedia’s Andrew Girdwood in the lunch break of a Fresh Business Thinking event last Friday and he repeated the concerns I touched upon in a whitepaper published a year ago about the tentative future of PR agencies.

Andrew still believes PR agencies are reacting too slowly to digital media and many will ultimately become obsolete. He also believes PR agencies need to work harder to communicate with and collaborate with search marketing agencies, and it’s in their own interests to do so.

To illustrate the point, Andrew gave the example that effective PR campaigns can trigger a massive increase in searches on the client brand name. And if the client invests heavily in paid search there can be a resultant spike in paid search clicks, but with most traffic being driven by curiosity the conversion rate drops. Suddenly, the client’s investment in paid search looks very poor, and points the finger unfairly at the search agency.

This is just one example of why PR professionals should communicate with and collaborate with search marketing. The situation above would be completely avoided with a bit of advance notice from PR agency to the search agency.

But the real reason search and PR should buddy-up is that when they do results can be amplified. The message can be spread further and wider and online traffic directed to the right place.

You could say that it’s the job of the client to ensure good intra agency communication. But I don’t believe that. I think it’s in the interests of all agencies with mutual clients to forge links and share information – it works for everyone. And only by engaging in digital media, and working with search agencies is just one part of that, will PR secure its future as a critical marketing discipline.

PR in the digital age

I was asked by the Chartered Institute of Marketing (CIM) recently to put together a small piece on digital PR, the result appears on the What's New in Marketing website (a joint venture between the CIM and search company MediaCo among others).

I found writing it quite a useful excercise, having observed online PR evolve over the last the last couple of years. It helped me to put all this stuff into perspective. I'm sure on a tactical level techniques will always be developing, but there is a need for an overview - useful for those who have yet to step beyond traditional PR and also for experienced digital PR professionals who just want a sanity check.

Perhaps I should expand it and add it to our whitepaper series.

Press releases and social bookmarking

Apparently over 100 press releases on our Press Release Wire were bookmarked on social bookmarking sites or other social media sites in the last month.

That sounds quite healthy to me. It suggests the links on each press release to the top 35 social bookmarking sites are proving useful.

Getting your release posted to social media sites is a great way of broadening your reach among consumers, journalists and bloggers. Check out my previous post on the popularity of releases that get bookmarked.

Press releases are cool again

Back in the late ‘90s when I was working as a hack on business magazines, the press release was seen by the PR community as an old-fashioned tool. Instead, there was a definite trend towards ‘one-to-one’ PR. Press releases and press conferences were out and cosy meetings with company spokespeople were in.
Of course, the press release never died - the simplicity of the ‘shotgun’ approach was understandably irresistible to most PR professionals. And now, with the massive growth of digital media (check out what Chime Communications CEO Chris Satterthwaite says of the importance of the internet), the humble press release is experiencing something of a renaissance.
What’s driving the press release back into fashion is the fact that when press releases are made available online they become valuable on a number of different levels. It’s not just about reaching journalists, it’s about online visibility, reaching social media and driving traffic to client websites.
For these reasons writing and distributing press releases is back as a core PR technique for all campaigns. And crucially, all press releases should be made available on a quality online press release wire - it just doesn’t make sense not to.

Top communications chief meets club music act in latest DWPub video

The CEO of the company behind Bell Pottinger, the UK’s biggest PR agency group, is the subject of DWPub’s latest video interview which also features brand new music by club act Midfield General.
Chime Communications CEO Chris Satterthwaite talks of the importance of digital media to the PR industry and goes so far as to say PR agencies should "embrace the digital world so firmly that sometimes some of your clients say you’re almost excluding everything else".
In the exclusive interview uploaded today, Chris gives advice to all PR professionals, suggesting they adopt a 'listening heart', as well as advising what PR agencies must do if they want to become part of a larger communications group like Bell Pottinger.
The video features a track from Midfield General’s latest album ‘General Disarray’, which is due to be released in April. Previous videos have been re-edited to include this music.

Use freelance journalists to get better media coverage

A great way to secure coverage in the media now and in the future is to build relationships with freelance journalists.
Freelance journalists often have limited research resources compared with their staff counterparts, which means they are more likely to return to the same sources for information and quotes once contact has been made. And they like to make the most of their time, often using research or interview material in more than one article.
In addition to this, they are often quite prolific at generating online content and many write influential blogs. So it really makes sense to identify freelance journalists that cover your clients' sectors and develop relationships with them. Over the longer term it can be a very fruitful exercise.
Our Freelance Journalist Directory has a brand new website which has led to the database expanding to over 3,600 entries. Each journalist's entry includes contact details, subjects covered and links to their blogs and other social media profiles like Facebook and LinkedIn. Each journalist can now also upload up to three pictures.

• Check out the Freelance Journalist Directory press release
• Check out our new whitepaper ‘Working with Freelance Journalists’

Online PR - is it mainstream yet?

It was nice to see a thoughtful piece about online PR in PRWeek, though the ultimate credit must go to Drew B who wrote the piece.

This whole issue (I like to call it ‘digital PR’ – it’s a nice catch-all) seems to be maturing since I started blogging about it two years ago (though I’m sure I was by no means the first).

I think back to when I published my whitepaper ‘PR vs Search Marketing’ back in April 2007, and have mixed feelings. Sometimes I think we’ve moved on – more people are talking about the importance of digital media for PR now, including Chime Communications CEO Chris Satterthwaite (look out for our latest video interview with Chris). But sometimes I feel there is still so much further to go, which was the thrust of Drew B’s PRWeek article.

What's needed now is more discussion of actual tactics rather than just saying 'digital media is important'. Stuff like this recent post from Brendan Cooper.