Media Week

The irony is that PR people should, in theory, be thriving in the new world of social media.  PR people have always been comfortable with the idea that communication cannot be controlled and that, at best, a business can simply influence and shape the communications process.  They also value the importance of ideas that can travel – stories that can spread from media channel to media channel, from blog to blog, without the need for expensive media budgets.  

So Martin from your experience why are they so reluctant to get stuck in?

PR stands for Public Relations. Where better to relate to the public then finding out how they feel and engaging with them online?

To be fair, some of the more enlightened PR agencies have started to make some serious investments in social media ... Edelman's acquisition of digital agency Spook Media being an obvious example.

However, the PR industry as a whole is over-cautious and lacking in confidence when it comes to selling new ideas to clients ... 'I tried to sell my client a social media campaign but they just wanted to see stuff in the papers' being a typical refrain.

The PR industry has a fantastic opportunity to finally move up the value chain.  Unfortunately, with the exception of a few brave agencies, I fear that it will lack the balls to make it happen.

I think that it is very hard for PR agencies to change their traditional mindsets and practices. They are used to issuing outbound messages. It is challenging to grasp the concept that the audience is now taking over the web and sharing news and views with each other without referring to traditional organisations like PR agencies. I also think now that public relations is impossible without an understanding of technology. In my experience companies are waking up to the possibilities of social media. But they are tending to use specialists.

Just wanted to add that another reason why I think PR agencies are being slow to engage with social media is because they are victims of their own success. The traditional ways have worked very well for them in terms of building brands.

Pingback from  Berkeley Blog: Technology, business and public relations, and a bit about life at Berkeley PR  » Blog Archive   » You don’t have to be a genius to see the benefit of online PR

Pingback from  Parece que n??o ?? s?? em Portugal « Noticiare

Adding social media to the mix for traditional PR firms is like having to start herding cats after getting used to herding sheep for the past 100 years.

It's new to clients and many PR agencies are not entirely adept at selling or delivering value in a social media context.

Here's a three part series of blog posts explaining Digital PR (online PR, social media and SEO): http://tinyurl.com/6of36o

However, I can only speak for my experience in the US, not the UK.