Some Views on Blogging and its impact on PR

Recently I was approached by some students to share my views on blogging and its impact on PR Industry. So I just thought I will also share the information here:

What is the scope for Corporate Blogging in PR especially for technology related companies?

Blogging is emerging as one of the most effective and important tool for engaging with all the stake holders of the company and more specifically with the consumers. Corporate blogs are today as seen as conversational media wherein Corporate or Companies engage in active conversation with their consumers and other stake holders. The trend is more prevalent in technology companies who actively use blogs to engage and form an active community of users around their products or brands. Most of the blog readers or bloggers are the early adopters of technology products and it is essential to engage with them in a more meaningful manner to get the word of mouth going for the products.

In developed markets where internet penetration is high – blogs have overtaken the traditional print media, as users relate and believe more in the corporate blogs in comparison to traditional print or television media. In India we are seeing early signs of adoption of blogging as an important PR tool. Various Industry leaders have started their own personal blogs and they actively take time out to post their views, thoughts on the various industry topics and issues.

In pure traditional PR terminology Blogs can be used to serve the following purpose:

• Tool to actively communicate and engage with all stake holders of the companies
• Highlight and showcase the thought leadership of the leadership team
• In building and identifying community of followers of the brand or the product
• Getting initial and immediate response to product trials

How necessary is it for technology companies to update external public on its future products and how does blogging help in this process?

Any new technology or product adoption cycle follows a bell curve – wherein the innovators and early adopters are the first set of users who try the product and their verdict or response determines the future success of the product. The verdict of innovators and early adopters becomes the driver for early majority to try the product. So it is extremely critical to have a meaningful engagement with the innovators and early adopters’ of the products – these set of users are seen as tech experts and they become your endorsers.

Reaching out and engaging with these set of users is extremely important at early stages of the products as they can provide invaluable insights into the product design, usability and features that sometimes determine the success of the product in the market. And the most effective way to engage is by using blogs.

How do you think blogs will change traditional PR agency practices?

The changes are already happening, blogging is completely changing the way companies engage with their audiences and PR agencies are gearing themselves to face the challenges involved in engaging with this new user lead media. PR agencies have a far greater role to play –they need to actively engage with the bloggers and have to front a lot of dialogue which has traditionally been done by the clients/corporate themselves wherein PR agencies use to merely facilitate the engagement.

Crafting messages and managing messaging in a user lead, boundary less medium is far more difficult than compared to the traditional print and broadcast media. In India there are a handful of key bloggers so the task is not that difficult but looking at the way blogging is taking off – PR agencies will need to really push themselves to keep track of the conversation in the blogosphere and look for opportunities to plug their clients messaging and also actively manage the brand’s reputation online.

How does Blogging help to win prospective clients and maintain relationship with current ones?

Blogs are seen as a more transparent and effective medium to actively engage with the audiences - and the views expressed by the bloggers are their personal with no monetary gains involved – so any positive endorsement by the blogging community goes a long way in creating positive perception about the company or its products there by helping them to win new clients/users or businesses.

Crisis management is an important aspect in PR. Can blogging help in solving the issues and how?

One thing which plays a critical role during any kind of crisis is the time factor – the damage can be minimized if the company can effectively and very quickly communicate its stand or position about the situation to its stakeholders. And this is where blogs as a tool comes in very handy – it is the fastest and most effective way to communicate your position to the target audience and since its controlled by you – you can effectively manage the conversation and put to rest any kind of rumors or misreporting that can happen when you are dealing with the traditional media.

What is the most important technological breakthrough to aid the practice of PR?

I think it is the rise of social media which I think is a boon for all PR practitioners – it has added a new dimension to the way one can engage with the target audience in any part of the world sitting in their offices. User Publishing mediums like blogs & video platform like YouTube, news ranking engines like Digg, social bookmarking tools like deli.ci.ous, and social networks like Linkedin, ning, Facebook are some of the tools which PR practitioners can use to propagate their messages to their target audience directly and gauge their response immediately.

Blogging is advancement for PR activities in Western countries. Do you see the trend catching up in India? Where are agencies falling short?

Blogging has definitely arrived in India and most of the PR agencies are looking at ways and means to effectively tap the medium to their clients benefit. But unfortunately the effort lacks seriousness from both ends i.e. the clients and the agency. Since not all clients are very appreciative of the effort required to leverage the blogosphere the agencies also have decided not put in as much effort in actively engaging with the blogging community. I think the agencies need to accept internet and social media as a big medium and work with their clients to see the benefits that can be derived from the medium. Once the value is clear to the clients, PR agencies will definitely be able to leverage this new medium to their advantage.

Having said that a lot of agencies still train their people in a very traditional format so there is very low awareness about social media in the PR industry in India. PR agencies need to understand internet as a medium and not see it as some new form of technology. A few professionals have got out of traditional PR agencies and have started offering services as social media consultant as currently it is not seen as a traditional PR agency offering.

What impact will blogging and other forms of online communication have in PR agency practices 3-5 yrs from now?

The new media space and social media has spread like wild fire and agencies will need to quickly adapt their offering to leverage this new medium to their clients’ advantage. I believe you will see a change in next 2 years wherein most PR agencies will offer consulting services on social media – either as a separate offering or as part of their standard services. PR professional will need to move beyond traditional media relations and build their capabilities in understanding and forming community relations and using the social media tools which will play a bigger role as internet takes of in India. The Industry itself will become more knowledge lead and PR professional will have to engage more actively on behalf of their client which will require good understanding of their clients business and the industry on the whole.

Apple Rock Event - The Buzzzzz....

Innovation is central to everything that goes with the Apple brand. So when a cult brand like Apple decides to host an event - they ensure that there is enough buzz which is generated before the event. The latest buzz doing the rounds which has got everyone excited is the Apple Rock Event scheduled for september 9th 2008.

All the world media and blogworld is busy speculating about this Apple event and everybody is expecting a new product launch - most likely to be around the iPod.

How do they manage to generate this kind of buzz - well its not just their products - like I said, innovation is central to everything they do. Take a look at the invite which was sent out as mailers to the media and all the bloggers.


Its just a plain simple invite which just says lets rock with the silhouette of man jumping in the air (synonmous with Apple iPods) hooked onto to his iPod.

No over the top message, no other details and the Company is tight lipped about what they intend to do..So you can either be there or miss it at your own expense.

I looked over for some of their past event invites just to share the uniqueness of APPLE event invites...

Apple is truly a master when it comes to generating Buzz...we all try to use innovative invites but its never really tied to one central essence for which the brand stands for.. may be we can take a leaf from this and be genuinely innovative with everything we do.

Would you settle for a small medium sized PR Agency?

Well the answer is - 'It depends'- on several factors and what expereinces one has had while dealing with agencies. In my opinion, Businesses in India today have very little choice when it comes to finalising a PR agency as there are only a handful of established PR agencies.

So I decided to dig around to find out what are the general perception of small/medium sized agencies and what would the folks in PR agency recommend to their clients. Note there are several medium sized agencies which are doing extremely well but don't get mentioned as much.

I decided to throw this question to some more PR experts on one of the social network and these are the responses I got:

Response 1:
Keep it open - Shortlist on the basis of the strategy presented by an agency. The dilemma might arise when the top two shortlisted agencies are equally good in terms of strategy but one happens to be a mid sized agency and other is a well established agency. The deal breaker is mostly the team servicing the account and the fees charged by an agency. Also the client needs to take a call on whether they want to be a big fish in a small pond or small fish in a big pond?

Response 2:
Bottom line: as a client, you never want to be one of the smaller clients on an agency’s roster.
You also don’t want to work with agency representatives who are essentially punching a time-clock; i.e., their wages and careers are not on the line if a client doesn’t get great service and results.

Work with people who are just as invested in your success as you are – financially and emotionally. Yes, they should be passionate about what you have to offer – not just looking for the next retainer.

If you are managing a start-up or mid-sized company, that means you should definitely go with a boutique firm or virtual team of highly experienced experts. That way you won’t be paying for a lot of people to sit in meetings or do busy work just to log billable hours. There is a lot of pressure in traditional agencies to make sure every hour is billable regardless of whether or not it is productive.

However, if you run a large company, you will need to go with a large agency because you’ll need a large quantity of PR folks to handle all the elements of your account. Knowing that a lot of time and money will be wasted is just part of the deal – and hopefully you’ll have enough slush
in your marketing budget to afford it.

Response 3:
In my opinion, it really comes down to the people and connections in the organization as well as the influence they can exert on others. Another factor is what you are willing to spend. In my experience with both large and boutique organizations, I have seen better success with the smaller organizations.

Why? Because unless you are able to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars on PR,you re going to end up with junior pr associates at the big firms. It is inevitable.

Yes, they have a better network. but, there is a downside to that as well. Because there are so many people at a large firm, the individuals become less recognizable.

I like the smaller, boutique firms because they have had the experience in the larger firms and have made all their networks. Once they are in a small firm, they are typically the owners as well. Your best interests are theirs as well because they rely on you to put food on the table. In addition, they usually carry a much smaller client load, so they can dedicate more time to your company.

And, the amount of coverage you get is dependent on their network and how they are viewed by the journalists. But, it also has a lot to do with the quality of your news as well. I have my company by the WSJ and New York Times. That is a pretty difficult thing to accomplish when you are a small technology firm.

My recommendation, therefore, is go smaller if you don't have unlimited funds.

There were few more responses but they all point to the same things mentioned above. So net net I think it boils down to few things:

1. Large Agency - Big Retainer, Less Quality time, Focused on standard deliverables, can mange big accounts
   
2. Small Agency - low retainer fees, More focused quality input, Focused on making success of every deliverable, may not be able to manage large accounts
   

Well I am not making a pitch for smaller agencies here but if you are a small medium sized company it makes better sense to go with a medium or smaller sized agency.

It will be interesting to know which are the best tier 2 level of PR agencies in India.