BEWARE THE KEYWORD QUACKS

About 25 years ago, I wrote an article entitled ‘Beware of the PR advertisers’ (blogs were a mere twinkle in the eye of the newly invented internet back then). The article discussed the fact that so many advertising agencies were selling PR as a money spinner without a clear idea of what is it and how to deliver it.

A quarter of a century on, the marketplace and the marketing industry is much more savvy about the difference between advertising and PR but now there’s another mis-selling scandal: the digital marketing companies pedalling PR.

Before we go any further, let me first clarify my position on social media and online communications in general. Firstly, l love it! Twitter is a mine of useful information and a quick and easy way to disseminate succinct messages. As for LinkedIn; I wonder how I ever ran a business without it! Secondly, online communication reaches a wider audience more quickly than we could ever have dreamed of back in the days when I was licking stamps and putting press releases in the letterbox.

However…much of the content that is so instant is also disposable, most of the material that is so succinct is also lacking in detail and the very fact that there is so much information online makes it a very cluttered place to stand out from the crowd.

In short, digital communication is not PR; it is simply a new PR channel which needs to be utilised as a part of a wider PR strategy and plan.

And yet, many agencies are now selling PR plans that include no strategic thinking or traditional PR tactics at all, but simply promise SEO rankings, follower numbers and targeted numbers of tweets per week.

How do I know this? Because a colleague recently showed me a proposal that contained little beyond the use of keywords.

As the managing director of a PR agency specialising in construction, I know just how much my clients value my team’s in-depth understanding of their sector. For me, SEO and keywords are vital in the digital age but they do not take the place of genuine insight into the client’s business and marketplace, which should be used to communicate effectively to target markets in order to enhance clients’ reputation and develop their positioning.

When social media and traditional PR work together, the benefits of both are multiplied but social media alone is simply not PR.