Field Notes Inside an Integrated Communications Agency

• Karly Hand - Karly Hand
  
• Erin Portman - Erin Portman PR
• Brian Solis - PR 2.0
  
• Peter Shankman - HARO

In a world riddled with ADD, where TMI blogging and DIY reporting are the norm, are PR agencies still relevant? All sides will discuss the Pros & Cons of public relations in the digital age. - SXSW 2009

I was particularly interested in this as Capstrat is always billed as a PR agency - though we consider ourselves a communications agency. Three other colleagues were interested in this conversation for the exact same reason.

I cannot speak for them, but I found the conversation dissappointing. The conversation was not as challenging as I wanted it to be and focused mainly on Twitter. In fact, the audience was so fond of Twitter that the session ended up being one of the most popular terms on Twitter. There are 61 pages of results on Twitter Search for #PR2. Most popular tweet: "PR is getting people to do your job for you."

One of the panelists suggested that every brand should be on Twitter. Does every brand need to be tweeting? Absolutely not. Does every brand need to pay attention to what people are saying about them on Twitter? Absolutely.

To stay relevant, PR agencies need to have online specialties that expand beyond Twitter. You don't need to create Web sites, but you need to be able to engage in the social media world as necessary.

When you are tweeting, you have to decide if your tweet is yogurt or informational yogurt. The fact that you are eating yogurt is not informational, but the fact that you got a discount on the Pinkberry yogurt is relevant.

If you are a PR person that is trying to figure out how to navigate the social media world, consider reading Brian Solis' blog PR 2.0. If you are a client looking to navigate the social media world, contact us.