Danny Whatmough.com

Unfortunately I wasn’t able to make the online PR debate organised by NMK last night, but I’ve been following the fallout today on Twitter and entering into the fray myself, as well as catching up on the blog posts that are now starting to trickle through.

It looks like it was a good event (as Ian’s always are) that tossed around some interesting arguments.

For me though, I get slightly annoyed by the need to define everything. Often we go out of our way to define something which then loses its meaning or is interpreted in a different way. It’s all just semantics really.

And the jargon of new media certainly falls into this space. It is why PR is so synonymous with media relations and journalism. Why SEO and social media seemingly also exist (or feel they need to exist) within their own spheres.

I’m not saying that specialisms aren’t important but that rather than PR v. SEO v. digital etc., we should be looking at the wider, bigger picture. I’m sure this is how many of our (as agencies) clients see things; the bottom line is everything for them. [And I note that it was pretty agency-weighted last night]

This is what we are attempting to do more and more at Wildfire. We are seeing the blurring of disciplines and are also identifying areas where the traditioanl media aspect of PR is dying very quickly. Our venture into new realms isn’t driven by shiny new toys and networks, but by an attempt to get results for our clients and influence the publics they are attempting to reach.

Now to me, this feels very much like a definition of PR. But, I am aware that it is equally true of other disciplines, e.g. advertising, as this Ad Age article demonstrates.

One thing underlines all these tactics though, and that is establishing a message and conveying this to an audience – and this is something that PR professionals are usually very well placed to do. The conveying might be through traditional media, it might be through engagement or conversation on social networks or it might involve search engines and advertising.

As a PR (and marketing) professional (caveat: who is and has been immersed in digital and social media), I am excited and thrilled by the opportunity the internet and digital affords us practionners and our clients or businesses.It’s refreshing to be able to knock out the middle man, to ‘go direct’.

And in order to achieve this effectively, the more tools we have in our tool box, the more options we have and the more potential we can achieve.

The future is bright. It might not be PR as we know it. It might not be called PR. It might even be called social media and be carried out by ’social media experts’

But my bet is that no one group will dominate and that there will be plenty of new tricks to learn and plenty for everyone to practice.

picture credit

Update:

Lots of chatter about this – here is a quick round-up:
Lloyd Gofton

Peter Hay (PR Week)

Jo-Rosie Haffenden

Rowan Stanfield

Roger Warner

Jed Hallam

Ian Delaney

Steven Waddington

Gerel Orgil

Drew Benvie

Rummaging through my feedreader tonight, I came across a number of interesting little nuggets all of which could justify their own post, but unfortunately, due to time pressures, that is never going to happen! So here they are all mixed in together. Enjoy.

What’s in a (SEO friendly) name?

A great little story from the Telegraph centering on a French town called Eu which has decided to change its name because it is unable to get enough Google-juice to ramp up its ailing tourist industry. Its not an easy process though. If ratified during a town referendum it will take five years to become legitimate. That is certainly a long-term SEO strategy!

iMP

Via Graham Jones, I came across this interesting study looking at how MPs are using the Internet. According to the report (which I haven’t read in full), 92% of MPs use email, 83% of MPs have a personal website, 23% of MPs use social networking and only 11% of MPs blog. As Graham suggests, these numbers are quite scary in some cases, but they possibly explain why the Digital Britain Report was so disappointing!

Twitter to the rescue

Channel 4 today sourced an interview with a eyewitness of the Amsterdam plane crash via Twitter (via Journalism.co.uk). Presenter Krishnan Guru-Murthy made the connection via a tweet asking Jonathan Nip to “direct message me a number to ring you on please?”.  Twitter saves the day again (at least for Channel 4!).

Joanna and the Birmingham Post ‘Get It’

I’ve given newspapers quite a tough ride in the past as I still don’t think many of them are making much of an effort to really transform themselves for the digital age. However, one journalist that really ‘gets it’ is the Birmingham Post’s Joanna Geary (soon to become web development editor at the Times). She has published a great slideshow demonstrating the work she has done at the BP over the last few years:

JiveBrow09

At a time when so much advertising fails to excite (perhaps due to the growth of online viral videos?), Cadbury’s eyebrow ad is, for me, one of the best in a long time. Its great to learn that they are now running an online event to maximise its success. JiveBrow09 will be run in conjunction with MSN and will encourage people to record and share their own versions of the ad. Safe to say, I wont be one of them – but a great idea nonetheless!

Finally my post on the Wildfire blog earlier this week on the Ryanair blogging fiasco has been driving huge amounts of traffic all week. You might like to read the update that I’ve posted tonight.