A roundtable from e-consultancy (declare: they are a partner) reveals that future thinking of some of the digital industry’s forward thinking players. What strikes me is that throughout the summary, there is constant referral to social media relations.

The obvious one,  is the statement that, ‘There is a blurring of the lines between SEO, social marketing and PR’

There has always been a close relationship between online PR and SEO (search engine optimisation), but what interests me is that this relationship is now extending across mobile, online advertising and behavioural marketing. It is not so much that this is explicit in the web 2.0 world, but that it is now being taken seriously. And not just as another ad/marketing channel; as a new level of engagement, a new discipline. Key points in the reports suggest

• There needs to be an understanding levels of influence in a certain thematic space and interaction with the online community
• There is lack of case studies around social media optimisation
• Behavioural marketing is becoming more tribal than demographic targeting
• Companies still think of their websites as a destination but the reality is that content and brands are being consumed in other places
• Companies have to accept that if they allow people to play with their brands, ‘some people will play rough’.

My question is: does that mean digital marketing companies are likely to team up with PRs in the know on social media, or are they going to start competing in this space. I would love the former, but my gut feel says it will be the latter.

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There are a profuse number of PR blogs. Checking out Technorati there are 13,431 PR blogs. I guess us PRs like to communicate. No surprises there then.

So you can imagine my fear in starting this blog. Awkward and self-conscious to say the least. I tried like mad to think of something witty to write. I dreamed that my first post would be a mix of intelligence, humour and philosophy, with some desperately insightful comment. But after two days thinking about it I stumbled upon the blog life cycle and realise I just needed to jump in with both feet (and because I can’t think of anything witty!).

Our plans for this blog are simple: Graham and I want to express our views, create pertinent observations and experiment a little with the blogosphere. Of course, a little linkbaiting/ link building is part of it, as is some sensible SEO, but actually this blog is just our way of doing what comes naturally to opinionated PR: debating! It is the conversation that we would like to engender, just for the joy of being part of the online PR community (you can tell I have been lurking much too long!)

(deep breath) So, welcome to the immediate future blog….

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