So where should social media sit within the organisation? SEO? PR? Its own department? Following a debate I had with Andrew Girdwood of Bigmouthmedia last year in Communicate Magazine, we were both invited to take part in a live Mace format debate at the magazine’s conference at the end of April.
The second proposition came from Chris Reed of Brew, and supporting Andrew Girdwood in his opposition was Jemima Garthwaite of MyCityDeal.co.uk.
Granted the audience was heavily populated by PR people, however the vote was almost unanimous in its support that PR should lead social media activities in external communications.
Here is my contribution in the form of the First Proposition.
General Introduction
Good afternoon, everyone. My name is Abigail Harrison and I am the Managing Director of thebluedoor, a specialist Public Relations agency with experience in traditional and digital PR.
Thanks to the generous invitation of Communicate Magazine I am here today to argue that Public Relations agencies or departments should manage corporate social media strategies, as opposed to Search Engine Optimisation consultancies.
While SEO is crucial to raising brand awareness in the online era, I believe it is only one component of an integrated PR strategy. Let me elaborate my argument by making four basic points.
Point #1: Any Definition of Public Relations involves Social Media, either Implicitly or Explicitly
As defined by the fifth edition of the Handbook of Public Relations, PR is “the art and social science of analysing trends, predicting their consequences, counselling organisations’ leaders and implementing planned programmes of action which will serve both the organisation and the public interest.” Social media is part and parcel of these activities, particularly in a world defined by Web 2.0 technologies, heightened consumer awareness, and sophisticated public demand. And with the social areas of the web continuing to grow at a breakneck pace, PR practitioners have naturally adapted. Their expertise has become increasingly crucial to ensuring that clients avoid PR disasters with potentially web-wide repercussions.
Point #2: PR Offers Overarching Business Strategies while SEO Is a Helpful Tool
A good number of corporate executives have tried to apply the concepts developed by the Prussian general Carl von Clausewitz to their business strategies. Needless to say, war is not entirely synonymous with business, but they both require strategic vision if success is to be achieved.
As Clauswitz famously said in his text, On War, “War has its own grammar, but not its own logic.” If we apply this insight to today’s business world, it suggests that while tools such as SEO are important, they only constitute the “grammar” of business. What business needs now, and what it will always need is a “language” – i.e., an overarching design or framework that actually communicates the vision business leaders hope to achieve.
PR agencies provide this social media “language.” They stitch together the tools of success, the “words,” if you will, into an over-arching, people-centric design which facilitates business development. Yes, SEO consultancies are undeniably important. They provide the tools, the techniques and the algorithms that help generate public interest, but to use tools, such as SEO, outside of the broader PR framework would be like substituting mere grammar for language. In a world in which Google cites “brand reputation” as the most important factor in determining search results, such a tactical, non-strategic approach would represent far too great a risk for any company’s reputation.
The modern world is full of inevitable frictions, chance events, imperfections in execution and the independent will of competitors. These inevitabilities make the human factors of business of paramount importance today. They also demand the leadership and instinctive savvy of PR professionals who can promote central ideas through constantly changing circumstances. PR professionals accomplish this goal by considering a brand’s essence, its audience and its voice before considering the channels and tools, such as SEO, which help to manage corporate reputations in an age where “going viral” is always a possibility.
Point #3: Increased Consumer Engagement Equals an Increased Need for PR
Public Relations is more vital than ever before, given the explosion of consumer engagement through new and social media, the collapse of reputation and trust in major institutions, and the evolving needs and concerns of corporate CEOs.
PR professionals provide broad frameworks for reputation management and customer engagement. We first develop social media roadmaps based on our analyses of target audiences and the client’s core objectives. We then develop communications strategies of which blogs, videos, Twitter and social networking tools are all a part. Third, we optimise search engines and seek to achieve our ultimate goals of listening to consumers, facilitating communications, and managing brand reputation. And finally, we do all this through multiple communications channels and forms of content, taking care to address current problems of information overload and short attention spans. These activities are the essence of social media, not merely a tool.
Point #4: PR Secures Brand Reputation
Google has worked to increase the importance of brand reputation for a number of years. Moves such as banning paid linking and giving webmasters the ability to not pass “worth” from comment spam with the “No Follow” tag are just some examples.
In June 2009, Google’s brand update focused on brand reputation in a very public way. The update focused on a business’s reputation, using Page Rank measurements as indicators of how much authority a business command, and thereby considering the very things that PR professionals see as the nuts and bolts of our jobs. This means looking at a brand’s “authority” factor in detail by counting mentions in mainstream media, links from mainstream media, brand mentions and “buzz” as the priorities for those likely to rank highly in searches. Given this new and growing context, the “language” provided by PR professionals is more important than ever.
Conclusion
As PR professionals, we have a passion for crafting creative concepts, writing credible content, ensuring robust messaging, protecting reputations and producing successful results. Traditional PR has always placed emphasis on gaining strong mainstream media mentions; forging strategic links, ties and partnerships; and of course, creating “buzz”.
It’s therefore gratifying to know that these are now being recognised as key indicators of corporate reputation by companies such as Google. As an industry, we should enjoy this recognition and ensure that we not only use all opportunities available to us, but are also able to help steer these technologies effectively in the future. In the eyes of Clausewitz, we will thereby ensure that our clients’ business strategies have their own ‘language’, and are not lost in their own ‘grammar’.
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