Having it all

In an era of the omnivorous media consumer, it is all too easy to assume that in order to reach your audience you must utilise all available communications channels, all the time. Yet research shows that 30 percent of reporters don’t use social media or blogs; 50 percent don’t Tweet and 75 percent don’t listen to podcasts. The vast array of communication options is driving the need for well-tailored messaging and the right mix of channels that may, shock horror, even include traditional PR tools.

Recently a client sent to me a link to a post on the website socialmediatoday.com that said, almost exactly: ‘You need a blog, not a PR agency.’  This client is experienced and very PR-savvy, so she was sharing this mostly out of amusement, but it hit a nerve with me. This was my reply to her:
‘Thanks for forwarding that online piece to us. We see pieces like this quite often.  It’s almost a standard approach now for someone selling social media services to stake out a provocative position like ‘PR is dead’ or ‘all you need is social media.’ Many self-styled social media gurus take positions like this. It gets attention and perhaps creates some business leads for them, but of course it ignores the realities of effectively communicating in today’s environment. On the other side, some of the more traditional PR practitioners have not yet come to terms with the vast influence of blogs and social media. They still have a vague hope it will all go away, which it will not.’

The truth is somewhere in the middle. For years we’ve been very strong believers in the communications power of online media and blogs, along with the more recent Twitter, Facebook and digital content creation. We have services in these areas and in many cases we handle this for our clients. At the same time, even as the traditional media disaggregates and communications channels fragment, there is still a strong need for such traditional PR tools as press releases, media briefings, customer case studies, print articles (and their online versions), analyst briefings, executive bylines, picking up the phone and calling a reporter, and all the other ways to generate coverage that can create leads and reach your prospects. Blogs and social media tools become another effective and measureable way to spread this content.

These days it’s not fashionable to advocate the continuing power of the more traditional PR tools. Still, I advise our clients and our prospective clients to think this through carefully before they attach disproportionate weight to any single, narrow approach to PR. Why? Here are a few reasons.

Omnivorous media consumers
First, even today not all (perhaps not even most) prospects in certain industries are getting their information online.  Think of the way you gather your information. It’s probably a somewhat random mix of newspapers, magazines, blogs, local TV news and their websites, Google feeds,  Retweets, AP on your iPhone, word of mouth… These days we’re omnivorous media consumers and we don’t go about it with a careful plan. So our view is that you need to be everywhere your target buyers go to get their information. 

A recent survey by The Society for New Communications Research shows that 30 percent of reporters are not using social media or blogs. Fifty-two percent don’t use Twitter and 75 percent don’t listen to podcasts. These numbers represent a substantial increase in reporters’ use of social media and online sources over the previous two years. That use is growing fast, but when half of all reporters don’t use Twitter, it tells me that you need a variety of tools to reach your audience through the media.  I don’t cite these statistics to make the case against these new PR tools – in fact, we use them all the time – but it does moderate the “all you need is blogs and social media” view of effective PR.

In healthcare PR, more communications are moving online, but trade publications still exert great influence.  Of course, the ideal combination is for the PR team to help you get a great trade or business media story, link to it from your website, write a blog posting about it, Tweet it to your followers and spread it around. It still started with one of those old, boring, soon-to-be dead magazine placements – you know, the kind that just keep not dying. In fact, a study from the Pew Center, based on its New Media Index, found that “more than 99 percent of the stories linked to  blogs came from legacy outlets such as newspapers and broadcast networks. And just four – the BBC, CNN, the New York Times and the Washington Post accounted for fully 80 percent of all links.” 

The press release lives on
Second, press releases still serve as a “document of record,” particularly for public companies. In July, 2008 the Special Counsel, Division of Corporation Finance, US Securities and Exchange Commission described guidelines that expand acceptable disclosure tools to include corporate websites and blogs. Sun was the first company to post its earnings announcement on its IR website alone, and not through a press release issued on a wire service. That’s fine, and it’s a growing trend, but there are still many companies that prefer to issue a press release (full of useful links, of course), on a wire, to announce significant news.

There are good reasons for this. The writer, author, and social media consultant Paul Gillin said it best in his blog about a year ago:  “...Press releases are still... relevant. Their newsy style, headlines, subheads and inverted-pyramid structure give them a distinctive format that satisfies certain kinds of information needs. These same factors also imbue them with outstanding search engine performance. Press releases are basically magnets for search engines because they have all the elements that those engines value most. Think of press releases as the archival record of events at your company.”

Fact vs opinion
Third, building an online community and reaching them directly is very important, but it is not sufficient. Of course, the appeal of doing this is that companies can project their message directly to those who have expressed interest, and engage in a conversation (sometimes even a contentious one, but it’s engagement nevertheless). There’s no editorial judgment or “interference.” That’s the upside.

The downside is that today, perhaps more than ever, there is a need for journalistic standards that produce a story researched and conveyed by a disinterested third party – in this case, a reporter. The late Senator Moynihan’s statement applies: everyone is entitled to their own opinion, but no one is entitled to their own facts. The world of blogs includes some highly reputable writers and thought leaders, but it’s mostly a world of opinions. In fact, a January, 2010 report by the Pew Research Center Project for Excellence in Journalism found that “new media outlets [account] for just 4 percent of enterprise reporting,” meaning vetted reporting that checks facts. 

The right mix
I want it all for my clients: good, positive coverage from a presumably reliable source in which there has been some digging, some fact-checking, some reporting and editorial discretion, published in a significant media outlet, along with an active, ongoing discussion through blogs, Tweets, Facebook and online communities.

I place great value on new technologies that help us communicate and I use them (in fact, Communiqué asked me to submit this article based on a blog posting that one of their editors read.) But I’ve also learned that no hot new communications technology is a panacea. You don’t replace one with another – you augment and extend your communications channels to include each new technology. I know from experience both as an agency client and then as an agency exec that a good PR agency must help with all of this. 

It’s not “either-or” – that’s too easy and too facile.  Actually, it’s more difficult than that. It’s this, plus this, plus this… and so on in the right mix. The chaos of the current communications environment means that now, more than ever, there are abundant opportunities for organizations to spread their messages. That drives the need for well-tailored messaging, the right mix of communications channels and even – gasp – good old traditional PR tools.

The Author
David Close, executive vice president/general manager, Schwartz Communications