David Sawyer responds to the Scottish launch of the PRCA's Digital Report 2015. Digital isn't a regional issue for public relations. It's much bigger. I attended the Scottish launch of the PRCA’s new digital report on Tuesday. I’d read Stephen’s post and probably wouldn’t have bothered going if the event hadn’t taken place 10 metres from my office.

But I’m glad I did.

Excellent debate

The panel discussion was excellent, with great contributions from Ailsa Graham (high up in the sophisticated Scottish Government comms machine), Matt Roper (heads up STV’s digital offering) and Thom Watt, a great recent hire from my alma mater Weber Shandwick.

The next morning I was minding my own business finishing a blog post I’d ghost-written for a client, when I got one of those Today Programme open questions via a Tweet, predictably from Stephen himself.

Not wanting to reply in fewer than 140 characters I resorted to email. He asked me to put it in a blog post.

Here’s what I said (first three points unexpurgated) the rest modified for public consumption:

• Sample size low at 280.
• Mainly relevant to practitioners based in London. Less accurate for the vast majority of the public relations industry (based outside the M25).
• The data told me little new but did confirm what I thought (which is sometimes the point of data). Bar a few surprising findings.

What do I mean?

I’m a Scottish public relations practitioner who started out when we still posted out press releases. Over the last few years I’ve overcome the digital fear and worked hard to retrain.

So hard I’ve become that person who you don’t want to bump into at networking events. The zealot with a barely-disguised relish for talking about all things digital.

I write a weekly newsletter sharing my knowledge, blog, and take every opportunity to learn more and meet like-minded practitioners through participating in industry initiatives such as #PRStack.

Setting up my own company 18 months ago has given me a real insight into the minds of businesspeople. It’s taught me that I have two purposes in life: to either help clients cut costs, or sell more.

I do SEO, produce websites, content marketing, set company’s digital strategies. All the things the PRCA report points to as growth areas.

Exception not norm

But my impression is that outside London and small pockets of regional expertise, this is the exception rather than the norm.

And I am talking about traditional public relations agencies here. The ones which a few years ago you’d have viewed as public relations firms before the lines started getting blurry.

Before SEO firms started creaming off the brightest graduates by paying them £10,000 more than traditional public relations agencies, and hiring the best and most adaptable journalists to write content.

Before digital marketing firms set up public relations departments (media relations wings) to aid their SEO and content marketing efforts.

Surprise at findings

So, in a room full of 40 mainly Scottish PRs, it was with a fair degree of surprise that I viewed some of the PRCA’s findings, particularly with regard to agencies.

Statistics such as:

• The biggest digital service offering for agencies remains content creation, which 91% of agencies provide. What does that mean exactly? Press releases? Writing social media updates? Penning blog posts?
• 47% of agencies offer online ads/PPC. Eh? Really?
• 54% are offering SEO services. Say what!

SEO

Search engine optimisation is the biggest single opportunity for the public relations industry. But it’s passing us by. Again.

Regionally in the UK (and while I am only going on anecdotal evidence admittedly compared to a rigorously conducted survey) this figure is so wide of the mark it is almost comical.

It reminds me of a blog post I read this week by Bruce Kasanoff. He draws the analogy of a waitress in Los Angeles who when asked the question “what you do” replies: “I’m going to be an actress”.

Fifty-four per cent might be where we want to be as an industry but it’s not where we’re at.

I ain’t saying there’s NOT a growing recognition among public relations that we need to get with the SEO programme.

There is.

Staff are getting group training courses from digital marketing agencies and there’s even the odd SEO hire being made my larger regional public relations outfits.

Do me a favour

But more than half of agencies with public relations at their core offering SEO services? Do me a favour. Divide that by 10 for “the regions”.

Until agencies invest heavily in SEO training/digital mentoring or give their staff dedicated time to increase their digital knowledge, little progress will be made.

Secret sauce

Search engine optimisation is the secret sauce behind this brave new digital world in which we find ourselves.

And it’s undergone massive change as a discipline over the past few years. It’s what drives clients’ sales, and helps the public and third sectors get their message across.

And you can measure it. Properly.

Core public relations consultants – with their storytelling skills, news-sense, and ability to communicate and persuade – are ideally placed to benefit.

But if we accept statistics like this and kid ourselves that everything in the garden is rosy – and perhaps SEO will go away as a half-understood dark art that’s on the wane anyway – we are doing ourselves and our clients a disservice.

And nothing is going to change.

About David Sawyer

David Sawyer FCIPR is director of Glasgow-based Zude PR and a United Nations award-winning PR. He helps SMEs make money.