PR 2.0 – what is it and what does it mean for you?
PR 2.0 is a phrase being used a great deal by a great many PRs these days and there has been a debate raging within the industry for some time about whether it represents the industry’s obsession with new services and tools brought on by Social media and web-enabled technologies or whether it describes the way in which the industry is evolving. 

Though Distinct PR comes down on the side of using the phrase to describe PR’s evolution, I’m not going to waste text wading into that debate here. Instead, let me say that, terms and definitions aside, the fact is that the PR industry is evolving and is doing so at an increasing pace.  That these changes are occurring due to the socialization and dominance of web-based Media and technology is undeniable.

So what does this mean for you as a company?  Well let’s take the impact of Social Media as an example.  There are now far more ways to reach your target market than before, however, people and businesses have responded (through necessity) by becoming better at screening and filtering out what they are not interested in. 

Any PR agency that you employ needs to show you, not only that they understand the dynamics of socialized media, but that they understand and can deliver results that provide tangible benefits for your business. This last part is key – many old school (traditional) PRs retain the tendency to ‘blind with science’ anyone that they think is in the dark regarding PR and the Media. Therefore, if any agency starts to hype up the wonders of their social media or SEO program, challenge them to explain what realistic, measurable business orientated results this will generate.  Any PR that cannot describe PR in business terms is not going to deliver what you need. 

I also wanted to talk about the importance of measuring ROI because the technology and services to quickly and accurately measure many aspects of a PR campaign are far more widespread than in previous years.  However, this blog entry needs to end somewhere and this is it.  We’ll cover measurement in our next entry. 

The right tools for the right job (a.k.a don’t pay for what you don’t need)
PR agencies have a wide array of services and tools that they can use to promote their clients.  In an attempt to impress prospective clients with the breadth of their capabilities, the typical approach of many agencies is to suggest most, if not all, of these services during the pitch and proposal stage. All too often, the client either buys into an overpriced and inefficient campaign or leaves with the feeling that they simply cannot afford professional PR support.

As you may already know (and if you don’t, we’ll be covering it in a later blog), the PR industry is in the process of a long, long-overdue overhaul which, for some agencies, is giving rise to a smarter, sharper way of conducting PR that delivers better ROI and with far greater transparency and measurability.  This is generally referred to as PR 2.0.  However, even if you are speaking to an agency (like us) that is a proponent of PR 2.0 that has an instinctive distaste for pushing campaign components at clients that they just don’t need, you need to be crystal clear from word go regarding just what your company needs to achieve and exactly what you expect from your PR agency. 

By doing so, you can help ensure that the agency does not waste time recommending actions that will not deliver the rights results and ROI that you are looking for.  You should combine this clarity of needs and expectations with the demand that the agency reply in kind.  In other words, the agency should be able to detail exactly what each campaign element will achieve and how it ties into the business goals that you have outlined to them.

When should you outsource your PR?
When?  It’s simple - when your company doesn’t have the necessary experience, skills and time to handle it in-house.  For mid-sized companies and up, hiring a PR agency, even if you have an in-house team, seems the obvious choice.  PR agencies are dedicated to the art of PR, they have strong, lasting relationships with the Media, they understand your market and how to reach the key influencers, they know what’s hot and what’s not, how to react when things go wrong, the list goes on.

For smaller companies, especially start-ups, some people cry out that only you have the passion and drive for your company to succeed and no PR flack, however skilled, can match that.  There’s also the question of budget.  When you don’t have much money, should you really be spending a chunk of it on hiring external consultants? 

The common suggestion is therefore that you handle things yourself until your company has grown large enough to consider outsourcing.

Now that works fine if you are an ex-journalist, a former PR or a businessman that is either a natural with the Media or has had a firm grounding in dealing with PR in a previous job.  For everyone else it’s a whole different ballgame. 

It’s a no-brainer that when you are small that you need the most help.  Now more than ever, changes in the Media landscape mean that competition for Press, blogger and public attention is overwhelmingly intense.  Anyone working in the Media is subjected on a daily basis to a crippling bombardment of emails, twitters, phone-calls, IMs, texts and more and for members of the public it’s not much better. To survive they’ve learned how to block or tune out things that either don’t interest them or that don’t present the information in a way that they can digest quickly and easily.

So if your company needs exposure in order to succeed and you lack the in-house expertise then, like any key business skill-set, you need hire it. Now if you’re a start-up or small company and you’re still thinking, ‘yeah but we can’t afford it’ then bear in mind two things. One – you don’t need a full-service campaign and two – today’s PR industry is radically reformed compared to even recent years and has become a hell of a lot more competitive in price and results.  Simply make sure your agency short-list is comprised solely of consultancies that work with a lot of start-ups and cross off anyone that tells you that your company needs the full works.

Getting the most out of a PR consultancy
Engagement. That’s the theme I want to talk about here.  Now if you are CEO, VP or company founder of some sort, you’ll already understand the need for transparency, setting goals, measuring results and a host of other aspects that are key to working well with any external agency. What a surprisingly large number of companies don’t understand is how important it is to genuinely engage with their PR agency team. 

Now any good PR agency is by definition a dynamic and proactive entity.  We don’t wait for clients to hand us newsworthy items but rather we use our time, our knowledge of the client and Media, and our experience, to craft what we need to take things forward. However, no matter how much planning has gone into the campaign or project, PR is fluid by nature and often requires both client and agency to be flexible and fast acting. Yet an unengaged client often translates to missed opportunities with time-sensitive PR opportunities, slow sign-off times on proposals and written material and, eventually, a lackluster response to the PR process as a whole.