Comments on: Social PR

By: Kami Huyse

Kami Huyse — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 15:34:11 +0000

I have been floating this term around for the past few weeks to some of my non social media friends and they don’t really like it. Probably because it sounds a little like a social director and there has been so much media exposure to the PR person who is basically a promoter/publicist. That makes it feel cutsie to them.

I first heard the term from a client a few weeks ago and have been using it with that client since. He calls it Social Marketing, but that is a similar take. Not that I would ever advocate that PR and Marketing were the same discipline ;-)

By: Sally Falkow PRoactive

Sally Falkow PRoactive — Fri, 30 May 2008 15:12:51 +0000

Social PR does sound better than PR 2.0. I also like Brian’s conversational PR. The best PR actions have always had a social, conversational and relationship element. Even good media raltionsh worked becuase you took the time to actually tak to and build arelaitnsip with a rpeorter or editor.

Now that we have tool that it possible for everyone to have the power of voice we can have real conversations with all our stakeholders.

Does it best belong in an ad agency? Not necessarily.

But it does have to cross silos and disciplines. Whatever we call it, it has to pervade the organization and change the internal culture.

By: Dave Kinsella

Dave Kinsella — Fri, 30 May 2008 14:43:54 +0000

I like the term “Social PR” it’s always good to have a label around which conversations can gather in the same way that “Web 2.0″ became a topic title without ever getting a definition that everybody agreed with.
I was recently talking about online social strategy and the phrase “Participation Marketing” slipped out and was immediately seized for use in marketing materials and presentations – people love a label.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:48:09 +0000

Also, I just want to state that I am not trying to be cute by creating a term “Social PR.” This was done out of laziness. Trying to communicate the topic in 5 words or less has been almost impossible, the jumbalaya term Social PR has done more in my meetings with biz execs to get the concept across than any others.

By: Geoff Livingston

Geoff Livingston — Fri, 30 May 2008 12:37:58 +0000

Brian: Thanks for that. I see social PR is more than PR with social tools, rather it’s the full PR integration of traditional and new media, using the same principles and approaches across all tactics.

Conversations are clearly a part of that, but so is committing great value to stakeholders both directly in social environments, and indirectly through the media, speaking engagements, etc.

Robin: Agreed. We are still very early in this process and much more will be revealed as time goes on.

By: Robin Cannon

Robin Cannon — Fri, 30 May 2008 09:23:28 +0000

One of the problems I identify in terms of developing social PR (and like the phrase) is the difficulty many businesses have in producing regular content. By this I mean news releases, comment, blog posts etc. Content creation, and the community and discussion that develops around that content, is one of the biggest factors in social media.

As you correctly point out it’s much less of a one-way communication. Consumers expect a greater sense of involvement and indeed ownership over concepts and ideas, and a feeling that they have genuine engagement. Many companies, particularly those not directly related to tech and online issues, seem to be finding that engagement difficult to achieve. Sure, there’s still a lot to be done with utilising traditional PR and marketing methods.

Brian coins another great phrase in his comment – conversational PR. Interesting to see the difficulties many companies are having in adding value to that conversation.

By: Brian Solis

Brian Solis — Fri, 30 May 2008 02:16:07 +0000

Geoff, thanks for getting our minds churning! This is a little something I’ve been calling conversational PR, which really is simply, Public Relations using social tools…it’s pretty amazing that we strayed so far of the path over the years. Thanks for helping to get people back on track!