Do PR firms blog? Not so much February 28, 2006
Update: We have added a page to our Wiki that serves as a running list of PR firms that blog. If you aren't listed, please feel free to edit the Wiki and add yourself. Original post follows.
For years I've watched some of the best, brightest and biggest PR firms in the world get the web wrong. Traditionally, most large PR firms have viewed the web as a designers medium, housing their interactive capability in their creative department. The design folks would come in and build a website, and then move on to their next project like they would if they were designing a postcard. The result is website as online brochure. Slick and shallow. The other result is PR firms full of account managers that don't know much about the Internet. Due to the blog craze, I think a light has gone off for many large PR firms and, at the very least, they are talking about the web differently. But given what I've observed over the years, I'm skeptical. As Mark Rose writes in this piece, "Big PR agencies are like super tankers; they are set on their course and they take a super effort to navigate a new direction." After reading this post from last summer, I decided to do a quick survey of the 20 largest PR firms (adjusted down to 18 since two of the firms on the list I have were acquired) and see if they had blogs on their own corporate sites. Here's what I found:
- Four of the 18 firms have fully functioning blogs that have been updated in the last two months (Burson Marstellar, Edelman, Hill & Knowlton and The MWW Group).
- Twelve of the 18 firms didn't have a blog that I could locate through a Google search or off of their main corporate sites (APCO, Brodeur, Cohn & Wolf, Fleishman-Hillard, Golin Harris, Huntsworth, Ketchum, Manning Selvage & Lee, Ogilvy, Porter Novelli, Ruder Finn and Weber Shandwick).*
- Two firms put up blogs but have neglected them (Schwartz Communcations and Waggenner Edstrom).
I'm not one of those people who believes that every company needs a blog. Not having a blog is preferable to having a bad blog. For some companies, it just doesn't make sense. I also know that many of these firms that don't have corporate blogs have individual employees that maintain personal blogs. But I do think the decision to blog makes a powerful statement about where your priorities are and where you think the world is going. And I think its obvious that the ability to implement a successful blogging strategy for yourself is a pretty good indication you can implement one for a client. *Note that Ketchum has this site which looks like a blog but is really a marketing piece and Ogilvy has this list of blogs. Update: I found that the Horn Group has a blog as well. I updated the post here with more data. Technorati Tags: PR Edelman Burson Fleishman Hill & Knowlton
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Comments
Nice post, Todd.
I think that the speed at which you can change a big company is always going to be a challenge. It doesn’t really matter whether that change is brought about by social media or a new menu in the canteen.
The speed at which you can demonstrate a desire to change, however, is infinite. You just need some passionate people, and a way to give them a voice.
Also, PR agencies are in the professional services business. We generally attract and retain clients on the quality of our knowledge and experience. I can’t think of an easier way than a blogging community made up of those people (not just a blog from the CEO) to demonstrate that.
Your point about practising what you preach is an important one, too. I can only speak for my agency, but my clients are seeing that in order to run a successful blogging programme, you need to be an active participant already.
The only other thing I would say is that having a blog is not the same as having a blogging strategy.
Niall,
Thanks for the comment and trackback. Your point about having a blog not being a strategy unto itself is a good one.
One thing that struck me when I looked at the PR company blogs was the stark difference in strategy between the two firms who have the most robust blogs - Hill & Knowlton and Edelman.
Hill & Knowlton opens the thing up to any interested employee and focuses on the whole instead of the individual - hence the name Collective Conversation. Edelman has focused more on bringing in “celebrity” bloggers who already have an audience as opposed to opening things up to everyone. Two very different approaches.
Todd -
Your description of large PR firms fits the midsize firm I work for to a T. And blogs have started to change the way my collegues use and view the web, albeit slowly. We have started a few practice area blogs and many of those that really pushed to get these up and running are negleting them.
It’s not for everyone, but I’m encouraged that there is interest from a group that is usually extremely slow to adopt new technologies into our traditional PR practices.
Todd, I have a couple of suggestions for your list:
# Tony Obregon from Cohn & Wolfe is blogging at http://www.mediaresearcher.blo.....esearcher/
# Ketchum has a blog here: http://personalizedmediablog.com/
# Manning Selvage & Lee’s blogging practice has a blog at http://www.mslpr.com/blogworks/
# There are at least two senior execs from Ogilvy who are blogging: John Bell (http://johnbell.typepad.com/) anb Rohit Bhargava (http://rohitbhargava.typepad.com/weblog/)
# Robert J. Ricci from Weber Shandwick’s Web Relations Group is blogging at http://son-of-a-pitch.blogspot.com/ - and the Weber Shandwick technology PR team in New York is blogging at http://8thfloorwindow.blogspot.com/
# Text 100’s blog is http://text100.typepad.com/hypertext/
# Horn Group has a group blog at http://horngroup.blogs.com/hor.....up_weblog/
# A group of people working at Porter Novelli Washington is blogging at http://www.thicketblog.com/
# John Brodeur is blogging at http://www.discoveriesblog.com/
Hope this helps.
(An extensive list of PR blogs -including corporate blogs- can be found at http://www.bloglines.com/public/prblogs)
Todd - Indeed two very different approaches, although both have their own advantages and disadvantages.
Kevin - thanks for your comment. I really think if you can get some key people excited about contributing to your companies blog that is a huge first step. I’ve come to believe that blogging actually makes you a better employee - the process of writing and reading posts opens your mind up a bit and leads to more creative thinking.
Some of us have been blogging for a while.