PR practitioners considered ‘incapable’ of online PR
A survey by Webitpr and noted on E-consultancy.com reveals that traditional PRs think that fellow practitioners are incapable of performing comprehensive online PR campaigns.Having spoken to many hard working, imaginative, and successful PRs over the years, it is clear that the PR industry is aware of the importance of online PR - certainly the survey results show that almost all respondents consider it essential. They see the benefits.
If we are to improve the situation, there are three core issues for agencies and in house to address:
- Investing time in research, development and play
- Open internet access and trust
- Budgets that reflect the importance of online
For agencies and in house alike, understanding online PR and social media is time consuming. You have to play in MySpace and Facebook, you need to invest in uploading SEO releases and measuring and testing everything. Allocating time to play and explore online is a must.
Everyone at IF has access to the whole internet and the opportunity to trial tools and explore new online properties. There is no monitoring, site bans or restrictions (I know of plenty of places where PRs can’t access the BBC online, let alone social networks). The truth is that if you set the right culture, you will benefit from this knowledge with great results and a deeper understanding of online than just learning out of a book or a training course.
With budgets for online activity still not comparable to traditional PR it is not surprising that many PRs don’t invest this time in R &D. Whilst clients and companies treat online as a trial and test, the investment of time is hard to justify. But budgets are growing and as CEOs understand the importance of online, they will allocate budgets that reflect this rather than just paying lip service to its value.
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August 22nd, 2007 at 8:25 pm
Hi Katy
Thanks for the link. I am disappointed to hear that some agencies are restricting online access to such an extent. Clearly organisations need to consider staff productivity issues, but this does seem very short sighted given the importance attached to online coverage in the survey. Sounds like they need to be encouraged to be more like Captain Janeway than your dog’s namesake? I’m a sci geek too
The training and investment theme has come out in a number of posts so we will consider delving into this more when we do our next research.
Thanks again.
Adam
August 24th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
Hi thanks Adam
Nice to find another trekkie out there. We were horrified recently to hear of one PR agency that banned Facebook, and claimed to understand online. There needs to be a seismic cultural shift that allows employees to take responsibility!
Look forward to the next survey…
K
May 26th, 2008 at 12:25 pm
[…] Heather Yaxley, Andrew B. Smith, the guys from Spannerworks, Sherrilynne Starkey, Daljit Bhurji, Katy Howell and even webitpr’s very own Giles Shorthouse covered it. And, as mentioned, provided some […]