This is my contribution to the articles at the end of The Annual. I was a bit worried it was a bit too vague and not terribly useful but then I read the other contributions and feel much better about it (i’m not saying they’re all self obsessed and stating the obvious). If you combine all of the articles together they basically say:

- The ad industry is still obsessed with making 30 second TV ads (generally considered a bad thing)

- Everyone should start “getting” digital more

- It’s all about the people you employ and creatives are the most important little princes and princesses to nurture (although it would be nice if they could work across platforms occasionally)

- Cutting (insert discipline of the writer) during a recession will do terrible, ungodly things to your brand

Anyhow this is my wisdom in full…

Having worked at an online PR agency when the web 1.0 bubble burst in the late nineties, and being aware that our industry has a bad reputation for breathlessly hyping issues, I’m wary of hurling another log on the Web 2.0 fire. With that said, I honestly believe that developments in the digital media arena over the last few years are significant to the point that they are changing how PR will be defined and practiced in the very near future.. I’d also add that of all the marketing disciplines, PR certainly has most to gain from Web 2.0 – if we can determine how to use it sensibly.

But what exactly is Web 2.0? Essentially it is a kind of a PR invention in itself. Blogs, podcasts, social networking (Facebook being the most significant example in SA), streaming media (e.g. YouTube videos) are all in fact a neat repackaging of features that have existed since the mid-nineties. The difference today is that these types of application have gone mainstream and the user experience has evolved thanks to broadband and the breakneck evolution of the web. Strip Web 2.0 down to what it basically does, which is sharing content, spreading messages across networks of people and having a conversation with people (e.g. peers whose opinion you value or potential customers) it becomes directly relevant to what Public Relations is supposed to be – that of relating and communicating with the public.

We’d like to think people move into Public Relations because they are passionate about enabling clients to get their side of the story across to their audiences. We’re not there to build websites, shoot videos or hold parties (not to say we won’t, if it meets our clients’ business objectives) but we are there to act as advocates for our clients, enabling them to connect and communicate with influencers that matter to them. So it’s not that the technology of digital media and Web 2.0 is particularly enthralling, but rather it is the sheer number of people online and the new innovative ways in which businesses and brands can interact with them.

And because PR does not have a vested interest in any particular channel or platform, we are perhaps best placed of all the marketing disciplines to make use of the opportunities presented by Web 2.0. The reason for this is that some of the best tools for online communications are either free or very low cost and only require the time and energy to figuring out how it works. For example, WordPress, a free blogging software, is (in my opinion) far superior to off-the-shelf content management systems that companies pay thousands for to create a blog. YouTube offers free hosting for video and is designed to make that video content found and shared easily. Facebook is a spectacularly useful CRM tool and is also free to use. The only associated costs lie in the development of ideas, bringing these to life and nurturing an audience for these.

While other marketing disciplines might see the free culture of the web as a revenue threat, it is a massive opportunity for PR practitioners as we typically sell our communication skills, and not the platforms we utilise. However, before anyone gets over excited, there are some elements of concern. Do a quick search on PR 2.0 and you’ll probably find a barrage of blog posts heralding the death of PR – wired journalists feel the web has more than enough tools to dig out stories without needing the help of PR people. Examples of this in practice are applicable to a number of international brands: once they launch a product/service in one country, information is instantly available to local journalists who can immediately write about it. The story will be decrepit by the time the local SA launch happens typically days, weeks or months later.
There are also many examples of how quickly bad new and criticism travels online via blogs to the point that it dramatically affects profits. Bloggers are a phenomenon that the PR industry needs to get to grips with and to be honest I think worldwide we’ve done this rather badly. Writing my own blog has really illuminated this as I have been on the receiving end of some dire PR pitches – both local and international. The dilemma is that PR’s assume that bloggers work in the same way, and obey the same rules as journalists. Wrong. Bloggers aren’t being paid to write, they’re doing it out of a mixture of passion and ego so being on the receiving end of a BCC’d press release mailout after a story has already broken is going to result in at best a swift delete, and at worst, a bitchy blog post read by potentially tens of thousands. Blogs have potentially vast influence but require special treatment and an intimate knowledge of what is appropriate to pitch as a story – in other words that old PR mantra of read the publication before you pitch is now even more relevant than ever before.

Perhaps one of the biggest opportunities of Web 2.0 though is for brands and companies to create, or rather become, their own media. Not necessarily as just another corporate website, but rather taking an editorial approach and thinking about what the outside would really like to know about their business or brand and what the best online tool for communicating this should be. Again, determining what is newsworthy from the mass of information that sits within a company is a core PR skill: it doesn’t take a huge leap to figure out how to tell a compellingly story via a blog, podcast (internet radio), a Facebook group or a YouTube video.

Just as in the “traditional” PR domain, there are going to be some companies and agencies that get online PR and some that just get it spectacularly wrong. If as an industry we’re willing to put in the homework and really figure out how to translate our core skills into this new, exciting environment, Web 2.0 holds some great opportunities.