PR Will Own Content Creation, But Needs To Overcome Challenges
December 1, 2011 
Author 
In 
Here at The Future Buzz we have long since promoted the notion that every company is a media company. We’ve also asserted that in such a world, PR should lead.
Personally it’s one of the reasons I left the boutique digital agency to join LEWIS PR, I believe in this and want to see it executed at scale
So it was good to see a conversation started this week by Todd Defren from SHIFT on why PR will own content reacting to an earlier post by Adam Cohen from Fleishman Hillard.
Tier-1 PR teams possess the executive perspective on editorial which is the natural skill set to lead content. They don’t fall prey to many of the content marketing challenges, for example, they consistently are able to answer the all important “so what?” test of web content. After all they are already directly interfacing with media every day who have to fulfill this to their audiences. Too cutthroat these days for any media that want to survive to be boring.
But while PR may have strategy, marketing departments for the most part are better at analytics, process and perhaps most importantly execution and consistency (not to mention technical chops). I still think PR is best poised to lead strategy and direct the organic content machine of an organization, but marketing and PR need each other and have to work together to win.
However, no matter who is leading I understand completely: it’s not easy for any communications specialization to own content production and while I may think one is best poised to lead, certainly we’ll see this vary across organizations.
With that said everyone needs to overcome the following challenges we’re still seeing:
Stop thinking in terms of “the big idea”
Community building happens inch by inch. Sure, you should throw in some buzz for good measure, but without the stuff in between none of it matters. Show up. No excuses: if you can’t do this, you fail as a modern communications professional.
Go through the process yourself
There is no chance anyone is just going to just get lucky at web publishing and randomly build a organic opt-in audience. You really have to go through the process yourself from start to finish. I think you can partner here, but if you haven’t completed this successfully somewhere you are in no way, shape or form positioned to become a media company. Experience counts and having been successful with micro content is not enough. CMOs listen up: hire agencies and team members who have done this before. They exist, find them. Hire away from media if you have to.
Embrace having personality
If you hope to create a following on the web behind content you will have to polarize audiences somehow. Anything less means blanding away ideas to the point they’re basically unreadable. This is difficult and counter to what most organizations are able to do from a self-publishing standpoint.
Sure they pitch stories that have bite or interest, but it’s “safer” to let it come from a reporter. If you want to self-publish, you have to have some sort of voice. Have opinions and take sides. Make enemies. Obscurity is a far greater threat to companies than any perceived repercussions from being interesting.
Become data-driven
Publishing content on the web goes well beyond activating pull PR. If you follow an effective content strategy, optimize your templates and call people to action you can impact outcomes such as leads generated or sales. But this can only happen if you’re data-driven, establish conversion goals from the beginning and iterate and refine based on metrics.
Most start publishing without even establishing benchmarks which is sad, because without data you’re flying blind. But with this data you’re in the most powerful seat of all: the ability to get immediate feedback from your ideas and refine them bit by bit. Also learn how KPIs from self-publishing ventures such as blogging impacts your commercial web page KPIs (such as passing link equity and referring traffic).
The time to act on this is now…
The real question is, what PR teams are willing to destroy any remaining artificial barriers and go direct to media / customers in an open format?
It’s no doubt work, and still a new approach for many. But it’s the future of effective and scalable PR, evolving it from something which (previously) meant borrowing attention from others to building equity and your own high-value channel of distribution to the world.
image credit: Shutterstock
Chris Norton replied | Dec 1, 2011 (1 comment)
Nice post, Todd knows his stuff but I am not sure I agree with the inch by inch statement. I have managed lots of online communities during the last several years and every single one is different. However, a solid and strong idea can make a community fly whereas the smaller ideas don’t deliver the same results. I think you need to have one strong platform and then supplement this with smaller items of content that people find interesting and engaging. So big idea is a great way to get the traction as thinking small will deliver small.
Adam Singer replied | Dec 1, 2011 (599 comments)
Not sure I agree Chris – “showing up” is probably more important than anything else in terms of building an activated web community. Certainly don’t be boring when you do and all your ideas should be strong, but purely chasing spikes isn’t how you get people to return …at least in my experience. Seth Godin has one of the most activate communities on the web and he fully embraces this approach. I wouldn’t discount thinking small to win big :)
Tony TIssot replied | Dec 1, 2011 (1 comment)
I can’t hold against you the conceit that everything looks like a nail to a hammer. But I don’t have to agree.
PR has a place at the table, but not at the head.
The idea that because PR has the “interface” with the now largely illusory and increasingly irrelevant “media” and that that informs content creation is a 20th Century idea best left there.
Samantha McCollough replied | Dec 1, 2011 (15 comments)
I agree with you. Being in PR, I know the way the industry is changing and see how those that do it ‘the right way’ are leading a lot of the initiatives. The traditional approach to PR, the one most people see when not actively involved in it, does not have the strength or foresight to lead content creation and idea generation. I absolutely believe this is the shift PR is taking, and anyone who doubts that well, just wait and see!
Adam Singer replied | Dec 1, 2011 (599 comments)
Thanks for the comment Samantha — and I think anyone who takes a “wait and see” approach is going to be left (very) behind.
Patrickdh replied | Dec 2, 2011 (1 comment)
I’ll reiterate Chris’s point in that ‘big idea’ will not necessarily look like the ‘big ideas’ that are usually borne out for advertising. I’d like to see big thinking sitting at the core of the community lead by a transformed marketing unit, with recurring initiatives lead by PR in the form of event based initiatives, even if it means starting small.
David Bailey replied | Dec 5, 2011 (1 comment)
Selfishly, I want PR to own content. But to do that, I think we need to focus on fundamentals of storytelling, and hire accordingly. Expanded on these thoughts over at http://text100.com/hypertext/2011/12/storytellers-will-own-content/ if you’d like to chime in there.
Adam Singer replied | Dec 5, 2011 (599 comments)
Nice post David, thanks for continuing the discussion!
Trace Cohen replied | Dec 5, 2011 (3 comments)
For those companies that can afford great PR professionals to work with them, all content should be driven and owned by them. You hired them to head up your company communications and should trust them to be your voice. The press release is almost dead as the media business model continues to fail and “coverage” becomes less relevant.
The challenges that you listed are mostly behavioral and operations driven, that can be easily overcome with experience. I think the underlying issue that there is no tech platform to cultivate and support the new age of “PR Journalists,” which is where the industry is heading. Many PR professionals are acting as community managers and social media strategists, so they already own most of the consumer facing content anyway, so content creation beyond the news release should also be their responsibility.
Kristi Lee-John replied | Dec 5, 2011 (2 comments)
Without a doubt marketing and PR need each other however I have to agree that PR should own content creation. We work with our clients to create and maintain a content calendar or own “editorial calendar” and guide that content by doing what we do best….monitoring the industry for trends, hot topics, etc. While we tend to own much of the social media content creation we do work with our marketing colleagues to provide direction on white papers, bylined articles, etc.
And in response to Samantha’s response, there isn’t a “traditional PR” approach anymore. If anyone is doing traditional PR then Adam is right….they are going to be left behind.
We recently wrote about this on our blog at http://bit.ly/vRYeuw
Mark Rose replied | Dec 6, 2011 (1 comment)
PR people need a lot of new, diverse skills to be effect in this communications environment. Essentially we need to learn that there is content generation and content distribution; we are the creators and we have the tools to distribute. We still need to reach out to established media for coverage but we need to educate clients about news creation and distribution and quantify the results. This is a great post. You hit all the bases. Muchas gracias.
Penny Mena replied | Dec 7, 2011 (1 comment)
If you’ve already figured out that the REAL money being made online is through selling information products, then you’re ready to find out why only 5% of Information Marketers are actually doing it! Selling information is the fastest and easiest way to gain huge profits every day, once you know the tricks that separate the top 5%.
I like your post so much bcz you cover all the key facts. Thanks for sharing.
Ryan Skinner replied | Dec 22, 2011 (1 comment)
I piped up on Defren’s great SHIFT blog, as well. But I reiterate that I don’t think PR should have control of content – though they should definitely contribute.
Control of the content should be in the hands of a content or editorial officer. It’s the only way to ensure in-house and audience needs and expectations are met, with a respectable level of quality.