Tracking the blogosphere
I’ve had several in-depth discussions with Public Relations executives at firms in our area as part of diligence that we’ve been conducting for a possible new product offering aimed squarely at the PR industry.
It’s been quite interesting to hear how the ‘blogosphere’ is posing new challenges to Public Relations and Corporate Communications executives. Many of the tried and true ways of delivering a valuable service to clients don’t seem to be working anymore. In fact there are those out there that say that ‘traditional PR is dying”.
I thought it would be interesting to share some of the preliminary learnings.
Big questions that PR people are losing sleep over
From my interviews, here are some of the big questions that PR people are losing sleep over:
- What are the top blogs that are most relevant for client X? Unlike mainstream media, there are no good databases to assemble a ‘press list’ of bloggers for a particular client. And yet, what is said about the client by an influential blogger might actually be seen by more relevant people than if it was published for example in the Boston Globe. Assembling a good list is time consuming and very uncertain work.
- Finding the coverage that matters and ignoring the noise. There is positive, negative and neutral coverage in blogs just like in any media — the big customer crisis versus the individual crank blogger. When something either positive, but especially negative is said, it needs to be spotted quickly and a decision needs to be made what to do about it. While one can’t afford to overwhelm clients with noise, the biggest nightmare is that call from the boss because she was the first to see the article in the Wall Street Journal.
- What about metrics? What is the influence of this blogger, or the circulation of that one? What will the impact be of this bit of coverage on the client? Again, traditional ways of looking at metrics totally fall apart in the world of new media, and yet there is a requirement to quantify the results and impact.
Do these challenges ring true to you?
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Pingback by Pages tagged "best" — January 11, 2008 @ 7:36 pm
This sounds a lot like just a medium change, not a revolution, just one set of guards being replaced by a new set of guards.
PR are looking to map their existing ways onto the blogosphere. And the blogosphere is responding by aggregating, by ranking, by leader boards and filtering out “the noise.”
Once the chaos has settled down we will find ourselves with a new set of installed media makers. Same as 1990, just digitised.
Hopefully VRM and similar ideas shake this up, help PR realise that they can’t look for a handful of people to pamper and listen to, that they should be aware of all their customers on an equal basis.
Comment by Paul M. Watson — January 11, 2008 @ 8:13 pm
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Pingback by Public Relations Nightmares » Blog Archive » Tracking the blogosphere — January 11, 2008 @ 9:53 pm
Whew! Instead of counting sheep, most senior PR folks are counting blogs?
I have a different set of issues:
–Finding the most effective ways to help my clients to blend the best of traditional and new media strategies to ensure we’re supporting the reason they hired our agency to begin with: to build image and credibility.
–Ensuring we continue to help them deliver their message in relevant and authentic ways — whatever medium is being employed.
–Finding ways to help clients better leverage the outcomes of traditional and new media exposure in a way that drives returns.
I don’t see this expansion of the “blogosphere” and other related new/social media strategies as so much of a medium change or a revolution, but an evolution and enrichment of the gear in the PR/marketing toolboox.
Comment by Sally Hodge — January 12, 2008 @ 2:17 pm
Great PR is not really quantifiable. There is no click-through
rate for a valuable reputation. Rather, it’s an evolutionary
process that builds–and is evidenced through increased
sales.
Blogs present a wonderful way to reach the right people in
a targeted way. This is accomplished by knowing the News
in general and watching the blogosphere’s reaction.
Beth Mandel
T&S Partners PR Group
tspartnerspr.com
Comment by Beth Mandel — January 13, 2008 @ 5:20 pm
Dear PR folks:
1. Blogs and/or the Internet have no gatekeeper function!
2. A blog with 10 readers can go viral with bad news in minutes and receive 1,000s of hits just because somebody complained about a product and the story hits a viral nerve.
3. Is reputation management still a PR task?
A really good PR representative must know when to start/stop to react in public or how to find a behind the scenes solution.
Setting up a working blog monitoring environment is time consuming and an art if you include a reputation management workflow.
Don’t ask for ‘the relevance of a blog’! Monitor the search sources instead.
Comment by Markus Merz — January 15, 2008 @ 3:13 pm
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