Revolver

Just happened across Neil Martinson’s PR Week story on Environmental activists’ use of Digital PR during the recent protests against the coal-fired power station at Ratcliff-on-Soar near Nottingham.

Martinson reports: “SMS and Facebook were used as mobilising tools, Twitter to provide up to the minute feeds on where the action was alongside an interactive map. Videos and photographs were uploaded in near to real-time, but not live, to provide unmediated reports on what was taking place. In short, it was close to being an alternative news supplier blurring the lines even further between citizen journalism and reportage. User generated content has already changed the nature of newsgathering in providing first-hand accounts into mediated mainstream news providers. But what operations like climate.camp.org does is to provide an alternative news source that is, by definition, authentic but, as in common on the web, without any checks of accuracy and verification. And it ticks more than one box. The content is relevant for its audiences, it provides a means of engagement, it is updated and some of the related videos can be chilling or hilarious.”

Like it or not, stories like this demonstrate precisely why local authorities and public sector organisations must start sharpening up their approach to online public relations.

Over in Sunny South Africa, marketing strategist Jonty Fisher raises an interesting question: is social media’s most natural fit with PR?

Disputing the popular view that it is a discipline that should be standalone channel or function in the marketing mix, Jonty contends that rather than being simply another channel, social media has taken on a platform role alongside traditional media such as television or print.

Neatly summing up the nub of the matter, he puts it thus:

“Let’s be frank, before the term ‘earned media’ became a buzzword amongst the social media crew, it’s essentially exactly what PR agencies have been doing for decades. Public relations (much wider than media relations alone) is all about connecting a brand to its audiences, using media pitching to create free publicity (earned media), events and one-to-one interactions to drive word of mouth and brand engagement (sound familiar?), the influencing of opinion leaders (ditto) and the creation of public campaigns to educate and affect perception of target consumers about the brand (still with me?).”

Back in sunny Scotland, that’s precisely the line of thought we followed when setting up Revolver. Whatever you call it (from digitally-enabled public relations to plain old Digital PR) the practice of engaging with the social media has to be driven by the same communications principles and techniques you’d apply to any PR campaign.

That social media is different kind of animal is true. That it requires a slightly different approach and skill set is also true. Apart from that the old school media rules still apply, and any organisation that loses sight of that essential principle runs the risk of blundering into a PR crisis of their own making.

Interesting post over at thebluedoor PR blog, where they counsel caution over the rush to set up standalone online PR divisions and ask the question, The future of PR – is it really digital?

Says blogger Toni O’Sullivan: “There’s no doubt that online communication tools such as Twitter, social networking and blogs are all part of society today, but so are conversations at bus stops, in coffee shops and in people’s homes. These face-to-face conversations are driven by information from print newspapers, TV and word of mouth news and views. We’ve got to remember that not everyone spends their day connected to the Internet.

“The distinction between web-based and more traditional information sharing sources is definitely blurring. PROs and Marketers must remember that it’s essential to understand the target audience you are trying to reach and ensure you include the correct media channels in order to reach them. That means being aware of all online and offline channels, and with increasingly rapid technology advances there’s plenty to keep up to date with. It’s an exciting time and one that PROs should embrace in its entirety rather than focusing on one area alone.”

Hats off to Ms O’Sullivan for spotting this one. We’ve always believed that while crucially important, Digital PR is only part of the public relations mix. In a multimedia world, good PR must work across all channels.

Companies cautious about beefing up their digitally enabled public relations only need look at Nestle’s experience to see why ignoring the expanding field is no longer possible.

The world’s biggest food company is reportedly set to launch a campaign to defend its reputation amid stinging criticism on social media sites.

PR Week reports that the Swiss firm is eager to address a range of issues, from long-standing concerns about its formula milk to a more recent hijacking of its online marketing services by critics.

The publication reports that in 2009, Nestle suffered a social media crisis after its invite to influential parenting bloggers in the US on Twitter was taken over by activists and turned into a “highly visible” anti-Nestle campaign.

While there has been no official comment on the online PR push, PR Week said a company source had told it the firm is keen to counter criticism because “stories don’t die online”.

Whether you like it or not, consumers will research and talk about your company online. If you want to be in a position to monitor, manage and respond appropriately to that, then you’re going to have to invest in Digital PR.

Revolver PR has called upon companies to invest in Digital PR training for young entrants to the industry.

Responding to recent calls from industry figures for the range of qualifications available to both aspiring and current public relations practitioners to be more digitally orientated, Scotland’s leading Digital PR agency has challenged communications firms to invest more heavily in training staff on the job. The company, with offices in Glasgow and Edinburgh, believes that organisations must be prepared to put time and resources into providing staff with the support required to get to grips with the digital media.

“While there is a need for existing PR qualifications to encompass digital issues in order to meet the growing demand from agencies for digital PR practitioners, there is a limit to what you can expect such course to achieve. The digital media moves at the speed of light and is in a constant cycle of evolution and change, meaning that formal course materials are at risk of falling out of date before they’ve even been written,” said Revolver PR Managing Director Iain Bruce.

“In our experience new staff benefit far more from on-the-job Digital PR training than they do by following a course-based syllabus. While this requires more time and resources to be focused upon each individual, it’s a process that ultimately produces far greater returns.”

A number of industry commentators have recently stated their belief that young people need to be more digitally oriented in their qualifications in order to meet agencies growing demand for trained digital PR individuals. They suggest that recruitment consultants are now struggling to find suitable candidates and have call for potentials employees to be formally taught the foundations of digital knowledge.

Revolver PR, conversely, calls for employers to invest in youth through a process of in-house digital PR training, whereby employees are given instruction on the job as opposed to studying through external educational institutions.

“There is far too great a number of wasteful media courses out there that do not prepare young people for the future as it is” says Bruce. “On-the-job training is much more beneficial when considering that public relations companies require young individuals who pay attention, are keen to learn and who take direction without hesitance.”

Whilst the benefits of this are disputed somewhat within the industry, Revolver is of the opinion that internal training in digitally enabled public relations consultancy and social media usage benefits the company just as much as the individual.

According to Marketing Sherpa, companies promoting their services online should consider directing their attentions at people with more than 500 social media connections, a group they’ve dubbed ‘Max Connectors’.

According to the company, such users could prove profitable due to their ability to spread positive messages about brand experiences across a broad swathe of connected consumers.

Marketing Sherpa’s research showed that 61% of Max Connectors are interested in forging relationships with with businesses to find out early about products and features, with 48%  also apparently interested in learning about company culture, policies and environmental attitudes.

Interesting stuff, and indeed companies like Starbucks and Ford have demonstrated that campaigns aimed directly at social media users can be hugely succesful. It’s not going to work for everyone, however, and we’d urge anyone considering  taking their digital PR straight to consumers to pause for thought before directing a broadside of marketing spam at every poor soul with 500+ online friends.

Interesting article in the Economist, where they say that the PR business is booming on the back of the recession and the changing economics of news production.

“PR has also benefited from the changing media landscape. The withering of many traditional media outlets has left fewer journalists from fewer firms covering business. That makes PR doubly important, both for attracting journalists’ attention, and for helping firms bypass old routes altogether and disseminate news by posting press releases on their websites,” the article states.

According to the piece, spending on public relations consultancy will surpass $8billion by 2013 in the US alone. They quote Miles Nadal, chief executive of MDC Partners as saying that investment in digital PR accelerated during the recession “and will go forward in perpetuity” because clients became more focused on measuring the impact of their efforts.

“The internet offers various yardsticks, from traffic to cheerleading websites to numbers of Facebook fans, whereas the number of people who see a conventional advertisement is much harder to gauge.”

Needless to say, I agree entirely

There’s a lot of confusion in the PR world about how to use press releases online. It’s fast becoming one of those things everybody knows they should be doing, but aren’t at all sure exactly what they’re supposed to be doing with it.

To maximise the effectiveness of any online campaign, there’s a few golden rules that any digitally-enabled PR consultancy needs to remember:

1) Digital press releases should do much more for your clients than traditional releases. It’s a simple matter to embed video, audio, images and links, and you should include such materials wherever possible.

2) Think laterally. Given the vast array of materials that can be included within a release, you need to expand your distribution beyond the standard slew of news platforms & press-related sites. A promotional video that’s being syndicated by the aggregators or embedded by bloggers stands a far greater chance of reaching its target audience.

3) Be nice to the SEO geeks and make them part of the process.  At the very least your digital press releases should be helping boost customers’ search engine rankings, so work hand-in-hand with your clients’ search marketing teams to make sure they do.

You can make things as complicated as you like, but that’s digital PR in a nutshell: Taking the basic techniques of public relations consultancy and using a combination of the available online tools to ensure your message reaches the greatest potential audience.

Leading law firm Semple Fraser has selected our good friends at Bourne to handle the redevelopment of its website and online strategy.

The commercial law specialist selected the digital agency to work on its creative strategy and site design following a multi-agency selection process. Responsible for all aspects of the online platform’s development, Bourne will bring its strategic, design and commercial expertise to bear upon a complete refresh of Semple Fraser’s web activities, it says here

“I was pleasantly surprised and very impressed with Bourne’s pitch for our website redevelopment. Not only did they have the creative credentials, but the added value was the knowledge of their whole team that was brought to the table. Their ability to look at the bigger picture and provide strategic advice as well as creative input is giving us a much more rounded solution for the project, which I’m sure will give us a much better finished result,” said Julie Hecht, Marketing Manager at Semple Fraser LLP.

According to a new survey, 96% of Boston’s citizens use Facebook to communicate with friends and family while 52% claim they couldn’t last a week without social media.

The Prompt Communications research claims that while phone calls remain the most common method of communication – with 99% of respondents regularly using the phone to connect with friends and family – Facebook (96%) is now the next most popular communication tool. SMS came in third at 93%, followed by email with 91%.

The Digital PR and social media consultancy’s statistics revealed that overall, people appear to believe that advances in technology have created a negative effect on their lives and interpersonal communications in several ways. The majority (60%) believes that it relies too much on technology, while 71% believe social media is making communication less personal.

Despite these reservations, people are still using social media regularly. Some 28% of respondents claimed that they could only go one week without using social media, with a further 24% worried about just a few days. These figures compared to just 27% who felt they could live offline indefinitely.