Photo credit: Chris Potter
The Internet and social media have clearly revolutionized business, yet public relations has largely failed to adapt, according to a survey by the Chartered Institute of Public Relations on the state of the profession in the U.K.
The report reveals a profession that’s distressingly unprepared for work in the digital world. It’s likely the same problems exist in other countries, including here in the U.S.
Most survey respondents admit to weak digital skills. Most respondents (79%), including 84% of in-house private sector employees, said HTML and coding were among their greatest weaknesses. Digital skills are weakest among senior PR pros. Only 12% of professionals with over 21 years of industry experience felt confident in their social and digital media management skills.
Because senior executives lack the expertise and experience to properly integrate social media into their strategies, they delegate it to junior employees. By definition, those junior staffers lack PR experience. As PR expert Stuart Bruce notes, teaching a PR expert social media and digital skills is easier than teaching PR skills to a social media expert.
Obsessed with Media Relations
The CIPR survey also indicates that PR seems stuck in its traditional media relations role. Most respondents (76%) say they still spend some or most of their time on media relations. The rise of digital marketing has opened new opportunities for the profession and blurred the lines between PR and marketing. PR and advertising are also blurring. You can find PR executives making media buying decisions and marketing executives handling media relations.
Savvy PR veterans are distressed at the profession’s inadequate digital skills and lethargic efforts to seize digital and social media opportunities. They say it’s well beyond the time for PR to expand it responsibilities beyond building relationships with journalists and pitching press releases. PR’s turf has evolved from earned media into a hybrid of paid, owned and earned media. Observant PR pros appreciate the importance of the changing environment and are urging the profession to embrace the new digital and social media environment.
Tackle These 4 Areas
In an article for AdWeek, Wendy Marx, president of Marx Communications, argues that PR pros need to focus more on four new opportunities if they are to thrive.
Content marketing. Half of US companies plan to increase their content marketing budgets this year, according to SkilledUp.com survey. However, 42% of companies report lacking the skill sets to implement content marketing. The requirements of a successful content marketing program – strategy development, storytelling, writing and media placement – match best with the skills of PR professionals.
Paid media. In the past, PR typically left paid media to advertising agencies and focused on earned media placements. Now enlightened PR agencies are taking on adverting or marrying their PR services with their advertising counterparts. Paid placements such as native advertising or sponsored content are better developed by PR professionals.
Measurement. PR traditionally counted the number of media placements and total circulation to measure PR’s value. PR must now adopt more sophisticated measurement strategies: measure the impact of its media placements, set goals that support key business objectives, and track performance against those goals.
Social media. PR must employ social media as a strategic tool. PR must move away from the broadcast model of communications to a dialogue model. That involves engaging influencers and communicating directly with consumers. Social media conversations become as important as placements.
Bottom Line: Lack of knowledge about social media puts PR pros at a serious disadvantage in competing with other departments for authority over new communications strategies, technologies and techniques. To thrive in the future and to assure knowledgeable oversight of social media communications, senior PR executives must quickly strengthen their digital skills.
How? Attend conferences and webinars. Read the literature. Participate personally on social media. Follow content marketing, measurement and social influencers. But, most important of all, hire millennials experienced in social media and empower them to teach you. Be open and teachable. That’s the best way to quickly ascend the learning curve of social and digital media.
William J. Comcowich founded and served as CEO of CyberAlert LLC, the predecessor of Glean.info. He is currently serving as Interim CEO and member of the Board of Directors. Glean.info provides customized media monitoring, media measurement and analytics solutions across all types of traditional and social media.
Hi, William, great post. Just wanted to pick up on some of your comments about how PR professionals can strengthen their digital skills. I agree with you that they should “attend conferences and webinars. Read the literature. Participate personally on social media. Follow content marketing, measurement and social influencers”.
However, there is a couple of issues with just doing that. The first is if you don’t already have a good knowledge and understand then it’s very hard to differentiate between the great advice from genuinely knowledgeable influencers and the sometimes downright wrong advice from people who are known as influencers, but in reality are just very popular. A lot of the advice around is primarily focused on marketing communications, which often has very different objectives to public relations.
The second is best explained with a sports analogy. Even if you watch every NFL game, read every news and web report, watch every game on TV or even speak to the players you won’t automatically become a great player. It’s not enough. You actually have to work with a coach to teach you the skills. It’s the same with PR professionals learning digital and social.
I’d also counsel caution with hiring “millennials experienced in social media and empower them to teach you” as that’s exactly what my quote that you’ve used was warning against. They don’t necessarily have the strategic PR experience and expertise to successfully transfer their digital and social expertise to being of real benefit to the business. There are some that do, but a social or digital expert alone with no solid PR experience is unlikely to be able to teach them well enough.
Hi William,
Excellent article and appreciate your mentioning my four key areas of focus. I would also say that PR people need to get their hands dirty when it comes to digital and social, spending time watching what others are doing and learning from them. I agree with Stuart that simply turning the reins over to millenials will not necessary get them where they need to be. Again, appreciate your insights.