US blogger, and friend of Shiny Red, Melanie Seasons has written an interesting post on the future of blog outreach, in which she argues that the “one fear [...] a PR person who focuses on blogger relations has, it’s redundancy.” The thought behind this is that companies will increasingly conduct outreach to bloggers in-house, and that the industry will “start to see a loss of the stronghold over the mid to high-traffic blogs that established outreach teams have had so much luck with in the past.”
While I agree it’s true that expertise and awareness of blogging will become a larger part of the in-house PR role, and that many firms will begin to hire online PR specialists, I don’t think this leads to redundancy. There are a few reasons behind this, but before I mention them, it’s worth pointing out that blog outreach is more developped in the US than it is over here, so the timescales in Melanie’s post aren’t literally applicable in the UK.
Firstly, it’s not the case that having traditional media-relations experts in-house negates the need for an external agency. In-house roles can often lead a person becoming more focussed on the business than they are on what’s going on in the media and, by inference, the blogosphere. There will always be a need for agencies to have staff who are naturals at communicating with journalists and who own the relationships with key reporters, and the same is true for blogs.
The post signs off by saying that content will “reign supreme”. I think this is more a starting point than a conclusion. The nifty thing about the web is that stories aren’t just about text and pictures. As blogs develop further, the role of blog specialists at agencies will be about being ahead of the curve in terms of what’s possible online. Whether it be video or audio content, or something else all together, pitching a blog won’t simply be a case of a pithy e-mail or a clever facebook wall post - expect bloggers to want compelling content to share and voice their opinions on.
Finally, the suggestion that blogs will begin to close doors to PR people has some degree of sense, but I doubt this will be the case for the majority of bloggers over the long term. As outreaching to bloggers becomes a standard competency for PR professionals and things like this stop happening so often, they are likely to become more open to being pitched simply because we’ll get better at it.
In conclusion, online PR isn’t just about blogs and therefore the future of blog outreach – ironically enough – isn’t just about blogs either. We’ll being to see more brands engaging with communities of interest online, whether that be through forums, social networks, mobile communities or blogs.
Hi Lewis,
Thanks so much for your thoughts. I should have noted (and perhaps I will go back and edit) that this is all based on the idea that how we pitch to blogger won’t change all that much.
While it’s true that there will always be a need for external agencies, I believe that blog outreach will become more and more a part of the client-side or traditional-side of the outreach. Right now that’s starting to be the case, but most non-specialists really don’t have it down yet. They’re going to get better though, and I see them saying in a few years time “Hey! We’ve been doing this for a few years, we have relationships, we have results… Why are we paying someone outside to do it for us?” The non-specialist will become the specialist.
The only reason I see for going external in this not-so-distant future is that it saves time, which I’m not exactly comfortable with as what could be the only safety net of the day-to-day practice.
I think you’re right in saying that it is and will continue to be part of the digital PR practitioner’s job to advise on what’s next and how to develop the best digital campaign possible. But if, in the future, the playing field ends up evening out in terms of who can pitch whom – whether it’s through bloggers saying “no” to PR or just everyone learning how to do it well – the best idea is going to win, and it may not matter as much who’s had the relationship with the blogger the longest.
Thanks Melanie, I think there’s definitely something to be said in not being precious about who pitches “blogger x” for “story y”. After all, the value that digital specialists can provide their clients isn’t limited to being more likely to evoke a response or a story. If the blogger outreach function is commoditised or taken in-house, both of which still seem a while off – at least in the UK – PR agencies will again have to react and adapt to this in order to continue adding value beyond the tactical execution of pitching.