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Digital PR has a bright future but there’s work to do

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By Danny Whatmough | head of social, EMEA

September 18, 2014 | 5 min read

Last week, the PRCA released a report on the state of digital PR. Danny Whatmough, chairman of its Digital Group and head of digital, consumer UK & EMEA at Weber Shandwick discusses his view on the state of the sector.

For the second year in a row, we have surveyed the PR industry – both in-house and agency – to uncover the state of digital.

We decided to go down this route last year after seeing criticism that the industry was slow to adopt the digital expertise that would secure its positive future. As the PRCA’s Digital Group we felt this criticism was unfair and wanted to demonstrate the lengths to which the industry is leading the way when it comes to social media and digital.

This year, the research paints a positive picture, here are my top four takeaways:

Digital is on the rise

Perhaps unsurprisingly, we found that digital is the key growth area for PR agencies. 32 per cent of agencies said they are now seeing up to 20 per cent of their revenues coming digital/social. The research also revealed that 62 per cent of organisations have seen digital budgets rise over the past 12 months, and the same percentage expects them to rise again in the coming 12 months.

Agency and in-house skillsets continue to grow

When it comes to skills and training, there was a mixed picture. While skillsets relating to digital had grown in-house and within agencies, the main source (69 per cent) of social media education for agency staffers remains expert blogs. More worryingly, 70 per cent said that the proportion of digital training they receive is small to moderate. At a time when upskilling employees must be at the top of any agency’s priority list, it seems too little is being done to really ensure that digital education is adequate.

The division of labour between in-house and agency is changing

In contrast to last year, the research found an increase in in-house teams looking to take on community management and the execution of social media. Across the board, there was a big rise in specialist social media teams overseeing Facebook (36 per cent), Twitter (33 per cent), blogs (18 per cent), and content (28 per cent), pushing past agencies and communications departments. Despite this opportunity, there are challenges for the industry too as other disciplines and in-house experts continue to raise their levels of expertise. There has been a 13 per cent growth in firms not using PR agencies to help with tactical digital/social work over the last 12 months (5 per cent to 18 per cent).

This leaves questions over where agencies can really add value. There was a 16 per cent growth in demand for online reputation management services from PR agencies over last 12 months (9 per cent to 25 per cent) and elsewhere, agency support in terms of content creation, creativity and strategy was flagged by in-house respondents.

Paid media is a big opportunity

Perhaps the most fascinating element of the research was the extent to which PR agencies in the UK are ramping up their expertise when it comes to paid media. Half of agencies that we surveyed said they now offer paid media services to clients and a further 22 per cent plan to do so in the coming five years. However, there remains a gap when it comes to in-house professionals actually looking to their PR agencies to deliver these services. There is no doubt that PR agencies offering paid distribution options makes sense at a time when content creation is more relevant than ever, however, brands and businesses seem to be demanding that PR agencies prove their ability in this area before being allowed access to additional budget.

Interestingly, when asked about the challenges following recent Facebook algorithm changes, 47 per cent of agencies revealed they plan to boost Facebook posts with paid media as a response to changes to the social networking site. Others (42 per cent) suggested they will use other networks more, or change their current strategy (33 per cent).

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