Making the most of every PR opportunity

Off tomorrow to an event that we've devised called Learn to Sail. Essentially, we've gathered a group of motoring journalists together with very different sailing experiences and we're going to teach them to sail, or hone their existing sailing skills. But not with just any teachers, with our own Volvo Team for Life Olympic sailors.

And here's the rub. Anecdotally, you hear of all sorts of PR teams retrenching in these difficult economic times and going back to basics. Some are doing the absolute bare minimum just to survive. This must be a very unpleasant place to find yourself, and it must be very difficult not to know which way to turn to continue generating coverage and building relationships.

But over the fence, some PRs might find that their Marketing Departments who, let's be honest, always have considerably bigger budgets than PR ever will, will still be building brand alliances and sponsorship relationships that can be leveraged. These linked PR and Marketing events need not be expensive or overly-elaborate but they can show a very different side to a company than what's been seen previously. And at a time when most people are wondering how they're going to do what they want to do with less and less resources, at least it shows that the company is still keen to foster new relationships and spread their PR wings further.

And that, to mind, has to be a good thing.

Volvo Car UK takes first Social Media steps

The world is changing at Volvo. Ask the 'man in the street' what comes to mind when he thinks about Volvo and, like any brand, you'll get a diversity of answers. However, the responses for Volvo are changing. Fewer and fewer respondents would talk about large estate cars and 'a car my Dad had'. More and more, the Volvo brand is being associated with cutting-edge design, an environmental conscience and innovative safety. Don't just take the PR man's word for it, I've got the proof if needed!

And along with this change in perception comes an opportunity to reach out to a changing audience. Previously on my blog, you'll have read how Volvo has employed the services of Mindshare to assist us with the task of Social Media and Digital PR

http://torquetalking.blogspot.com/2009/04/new-media-news.html

And that decision caused a bit of a stir –

http://torquetalking.blogspot.com/2009/05/right-to-reply-media-agencies-muscle-in.html

Well, now the dust has settled, we are ready to embark on the journey. Like any business that takes the first steps into this new world, the advances need to be small and measured in the first instance to prove you're doing the right thing and taking others with you. After all, setting off in the wrong direction could spell disaster, and you'd spend time and money just getting back to where you started.

But where to start? The opportunity to make a bit of a splash in this new world seems like a good starting point, as does the ability, with this splash, to monitor the reaction and compare and contrast the reaction to that of the traditional media world that we're all familiar with.

So, keep a look out at 20:00 next Monday 8 June 2009 for an announcement that, I believe, reinforces the reasons why the perceptions of Volvo are changing. Stay tuned.

What's in a name?

If you go back a few years, before the internet and social media had taken off, the world received all of its news-based information from journalists. And everybody interested in the news realised this – easy.

Wind the clock forwards to today and audiences have an ever-growing number of avenues to receive and digest news. The traditional routes of television, radio, newspapers and magazines still exist (although most of their audiences are in decline) but now we have to contend with internet resources like blogs, forums, boards, wikis, social media sites like Facebook and alike.

And to the 'man in the street', we need to accept that it can be confusing. What's the difference between a blog and a forum, and what should they read for what type of news? Who's important and who's not – how can they tell?

In my view, we can make it simple. If we strip out all of the titles – journalist, blogger, board reader, editor etc – and just use the word 'influencer', I believe it should make it easier. After all, all of these commentators, irrespective of the medium they are using, are creating influence in their audience. Clearly some will create more influence than others, but that's been the case.

The right to reply - Media agencies muscle in

I've been fascinated reading the discussion thread following the interview I gave PR Week last week about the future of PR agencies and SEO. Read the original interview here:

http://www.prweek.com/uk/news/article/903849/Media-agencies-muscle/?DCMP=EMC-DailyNews

For starters, and for the record, I don't think that the days of the PR agency are numbered. As a matter of fact, as a business, we employ a retained PR agency and use a number of other agencies on an adhoc basis. However, I do believe that marketing agencies have probably done a better job of adapting to today's competitive environment than many, but not all, PR agencies have.

When Volvo decided to move into this area, it did so with eyes open and on the back of my previous experience as the UK motor industry's first and only New Media PR Manager for BMW and MINI. And this is not about letting the chosen agency set sail with your brand and steering in whichever direction they see fit. It's about partnering with an agency who really understand the Volvo brand, its customers as well as the online audiences and influencers. It's also about partnering with the right agency who can deliver on the brief.

And I do believe, also for the record, that social media PR can play a key part in a SEO strategy. Yes, digital PR has a role to play in influencing online audiences and shaping brands as it has always done in the traditional world but ultimately, all online PR activity should be geared towards driving customers to our own website. And, at the end of the day, selling cars – after all, that's what we're all here to do. The days of long lunches and the vast MP-style expense budgets in the PR industry went a long time ago and now, more than ever, PRs need to justify what they are doing and why they are doing it.

So, if SEO and driving consumers to your website is a large part of the goal, but you also need to execute a social media strategy, what do you do? Employ a PR agency and hope they'll deliver on the SEO brief too? Not us, we've decided to employ an experienced SEO agency who, for the record too, also have a great deal of experience in creating and managing social media PR strategies alongside the in-house team to make sure the off-line and on-line activities complement one another.

This decision may have caused debate, but debate is good. We live in a world of flux where very few decisions are simple anymore and there are more and more grey areas opening up. This one, in particular, highlights the possible gap between a Marketing and PR function, and we need to ensure that nothing falls between the slats. That's why we believe that a joined up approach, working in close partnership with all stakeholders to ensure that everybody delivers exactly to the brief, is the right way to proceed. You make your own choice as to whether you think it's the right thing to do.

But does this mark the end of the PR agency as we know it. No, just companies breaking down the barriers that have traditionally existed to make the most of the resources that they have available to them.