PR to overtake advertising as a marketing priority
Forget the sludgy single digit percentage growth of traditional PR as predicted by December’s Strongmail survey, how about a piece of the triple figure rocketship that is social media marketing spend?
eMarketer’s interpretation of US figures from the Jack Myers Media business report (left), suggests there is a place for PR at the new marketing high table as social media outreach providers:
eMarketer senior analyst Debra Aho Williamson writes:
“In 2010 and beyond, a substantial portion of marketers’ expenses will go toward creating and maintaining a fan page, managing promotions or public relations outreach within a social network, and measuring the impact of a social network presence on brand health and sales. Paid advertising will not be the primary focus, but it will serve to drive traffic and engagement with the larger social network presence.”
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Interesting, but I think people are starting to confuse PR and Social Media, when in fact, they are two very different entities.
@Callum, totally agree. The role PR agencies may have with the social media channel isn’t clearly defined yet.
IMO the growth for PR Agencies is going to be due to their tie in with SEO and their ability to create valuable links.
Any reasonable social media ‘campaign’, i.e. anything other than random updates; an online conversation, a call to action; is going to have been written by someone. And the best people to do this are PR Agencies in my view. They understand publics and relations with them; and they know how to write.
The question is, do PR Agencies understand Social Media?
PR agencies are capable of doing much, much more than enhancing SEO.
PR people have masses of accumulated experience of engaging with people, creating meaningful dialogue, using advocacy and mobilising networks, which, in my opinion, positions the PR industry better than any other to take advantage of the business opportunities thrown up by the growth of social media.