IS PR AT RISK OF BEING RELEGATED FROM THE COMMS MIX BY DIGITAL MARKETING?

Other disciplines of the communications mix are seen as sexier and more fun than PR.

There has been a lot of articles recently on how the PR industry has a bad reputation. It pretty much comes down to the fact that no one knows what we do and therefore, they don’t trust us. It doesn’t help that people think what we do is like what they see satirised in television programmes, or political spin doctors.

When you couple this with the fact that there are now other disciplines in the communications mix which are seen as sexier and more fun – such as social media, digital marketing, branding – it makes you wonder about the future of PR.

PR has always been seen as the more traditional discipline in the communications mix, probably because it has existed longer than social and digital media. You build relationships, become the client’s trusted adviser, ensure a steady stream of news and provide the platform for the client to engage with their target audience.

It isn’t advertising; journalists don’t write what you tell them to. Coverage is essentially a third-party endorsement as journalists need to see the link between what you’re telling them and how it’s relevant to their readers. So yes, there is a lot of skill involved.

Given how wide PR stretches it’s understandable that there are some sectors still playing catch-up in understanding how social and digital could work for them. Some sectors – those who need to reach a more corporate audience – are sometimes seen as still finding their feet.

But this is a misconception, the PR industry does understand how social and digital work for them. As an article written for this site states social and digital make complete sense for consumer, technology and food PR, because using these platforms is the most appropriate way of reaching their audience. If PR professionals working in corporate sectors need to reach an audience who will not be communicating by social media, they won’t use social or digital to do this. These corporate PRs are simply using the most effective way of reaching their audience.

So the idea that PR is on its way out, dying and traditional, needs to be reassessed. There is probably another reason for businesses operating their communications in this way. Perhaps the real question is will digital and social become the poor relation in a few years when new ways of communicating come along?

However, despite this criticism being unfounded, there does need to be a move toward PR practitioners harnessing content as their weapon of choice, rather than just being known for media relations. Every day, newspapers and websites are filled with news and features that have come from a PR person. Every day we receive calls and emails from journalists asking us for stories or something new.

The appetite for PR is clearly still there and working well. In order to grow, it’s obvious it needs to adapt to new trends that are changing how we communicate and how businesses communicate with audiences. We don’t just pick up the phone to journalists and tell them what to write. We work out the message, find the audience and the most effective platform for our client whether that’s a press release to a trade title, or a video hosted on the client’s website.

Anonymous, The Guardian UK