How the Economy and Social Media Are Ruining PR
October 2nd, 2009 |
Or: The Decline and Fall of Western Civilisation
The combined effects of social media and a down economy are ruining the PR industry. Here’s how. Companies have slashed both staff and budgets across the board, and public relations is no exception.
Still, companies will outsource PR as they always have. But if they were once reluctant to pay EVP/SVP hourly rates of $200, $300, or more, then they are today completely unwilling to do so. Instead, they are pushing their agencies to use more junior people at lower hourly rates.
This saves money, but has several undesirable side effects. First, there is a talent exodus at the top. With companies reluctant to pay EVP and SVP rates, agencies cannot afford to keep them on. This causes an outflow of talent and experience, and pushes more responsibility on younger, less experienced staff. This in turn necessarily results in a degradation of the quality of the work. An agency is best at several things: building relationships with journalists (and sometimes bloggers), writing and messaging. All of these require experience, the more the better, to do well.
So the agency is delivering work of lower quality to the client, but the client accepts the work, because it has cut its own budget and has no other way to get the work done.
Social media is seen by some companies as the new PR. These same companies used to divert dollars from advertising to PR with the notion that they would get “more for their money” with PR. You know, “we send out a press release and the Wall Street Journal prints it above the fold on the front page, which is much cheaper than buying display advertising in the Journal.” Social media is now playing that role. “Why pay a PR agency when we can tweet on our own Twitter account and post to our own blog?”
Another thing that happens is that within both companies and agencies, staff cuts are forcing PR people to become social media specialists and social media specialists to become PR people. Learning the mechanics of social media is not that hard. Anyone can learn to format and publish a Twitter or blog update. But the etiquette and style, and nuances of online relationship building, are much more complex.
Alternately, however, expecting someone already proficient with social media to “pick up” public relations duties borders on insanity. PR is a trade and a craft, and requires years to learn and perfect. And building the relationships with journalists (you know, as in media relations) is a career-long effort.
What you end up with is a lose-lose situation for some companies. They are paying less for their PR support, and getting less. Writing is in decline. Relationships are undervalued. And the reputation of the PR profession suffers.
I don’t claim to have all the answers. Maybe an adjustment in PR rate structures would help. Certainly staff education program can help close the gap. And I also don’t claim that this chain of events has happened to all agencies or all companies. But I have seen this happen and I have talked to people who have observed this in their agency and at their company. And it’s a shame.
Tags: Public Relations, Social Media, PR
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This looks like the same old problem of clearly articulating the value you can bring to a client. I think one of the answers for PR professionals is metrics. When you can put verifiable numbers behind your claims, customers are able to see your value more clearly.
This is true for PR, software development, or any other consulting business where the barrier to entry is low, but mastery of the skills involved takes years. Ultimately the onus is on you, the service provider, to demonstrate your value in concrete terms that customers can understand.
Comment by Erik — October 2, 2009 @ 10:50 am
You may not have all the answers, but your analysis is spot on. Within the context you outlined, I’d also argue for the need of a rethinking of the traditional “account executive” role within agencies, particularly larger ones.
As the long tail of media expands and with the traditional-digital media mix in near-constant flux, the traditional PR agency approach of EVP/SVP pitching new business and then handing the account off to less-senior account execs, who in turn are expected to develop on behalf of the client a broad range of media relations across multiple traditional & digital media platforms …. well, it just goes without saying that that’s no longer a tenable model.
Not in an economy where the client is keeping an eye on costs and always examining ROI and less so in an evolving long-tail media economy, where the media landscape is changing so rapidly.
I would argue instead of a vertical “account executive” structure for a horizontal “team” structure, where PR execs who specialize in social media, print media, broadcast media work together on behalf of multiple clients. I’m sure this is occurring in smaller agencies, but if the PR industry is to survive the current economy, the larger agencies would do well to examine a restructuring along those lines, as well.
Comment by Michael Tangeman — October 2, 2009 @ 11:02 am
Great comments, thank you. Michael I agree with you the account management model has to changes.
Comment by joel — October 2, 2009 @ 12:38 pm
I agree with Erik, clearly articulating your value (with metrics) to clients is becoming more important. If you’re able to show how maintaining relationships with PR agencies aids the client’s topline then they will be more likely to continue working with their pr agencies.
Comment by Bukola Ekundayo — October 3, 2009 @ 11:48 am
Good comments. We are seeing a melding of the two and advise clients who want DIY model, to keep social media comment in line w/marketing strategy, all communicated via Mon a.m. meetings. Sometime it works, sometimes it doesn’t.
Comment by Regg — October 4, 2009 @ 7:18 am