Key takeaways from the PRCA Digital PR Report 2015

A brand’s story may well be the same but digital media has ensured that the tools PRs now use to tell it are different. Blogger outreach, social media, SEO, native advertising, reputation management and monitoring are no longer special features but a critical part of every PR’s toolkit.  Agencies in particular are feeling the heat as they are forced to take on new skills and are expected to offer new services to keep up with the ever evolving nature of digital technology.

The third annual Digital PR Report by Public Relations Consultants Association (PRCA) produced in partnership with YouGov outlines the challenges and expectations facing the UK PR industry. The following 4 points are what PRs need to take away from it:

1. Social media as a marketing and customer services platform

Social media use among PRs has matured.  No longer is social media use only about reacting to a negative comment or responding to a disgruntled employee or customer. The majority of in-house PRs surveyed pointed to using social networks for general marketing purposes (94%), speeding awareness of what they do (67%), and as a customer service platform (56%).

2. Influencer engagement on the rise

Media outreach has moved beyond journalists to include the new digital media influencers such as bloggers and vloggers The report reveals that in-house investment in influencer (e.g. blogger) outreach/engagement has seen growth of 11% over the past two years.

3. Great expectations from PR agencies

The report finds that in the past year in particular, the industry has seen huge growth in in-house PR departments expecting PR agencies to be able to deliver many digital service areas, with the biggest growth in expectation around SEO (20% growth); blogger outreach (18% growth); online advertising/PPC (14% growth); and online reputation management (14%).

On the PR agency side, 54% are now offering SEO services, 82% offer blogger outreach/ engagement; 47% offer online ads/PPC; and 76% offer online reputation management.

As Danny Whatmough CMPRCA, Head of Social, EMEA, Weber Shandwick, and Chairman of the PRCA Digital Group, said:

‘Brands are continuing to evolve in their handling of digital communications, with more expectation being heaped on their PR agencies to deliver a broad range of activities from blogger outreach to web design and build.

‘There’s an interesting debate to be had around the longer term role of PR agencies working alongside in-house teams that continue to strengthen their digital skills.’

4. LinkedIn leading

While Twitter and Facebook remain the most popular channels for PR, LinkedIn use has grown the fastest over the past year. In-house teams surveyed have seen the biggest growth in use of LinkedIn (14% growth). 77% of  PRs surveyed expect to use LinkedIn in the coming year.

Agencies expect LinkedIn to be the leading platform in the coming year, with 93% of them expecting to use it for the company’s digital PR activity.

Methodology

YouGov partnered with PRCA to survey 280 agency and in-house PR professionals across business services, finance and banking, technology and telecoms, charities and NGOs, Government and other sectors. In-house respondents include directors of marketing/comms, heads of marketing/comms, head of press/PR. Agency respondents include CEOs, MDs, Partners and Directors.