Interactive Marketing and PR:  Star Trek provides a good visual

Today I continue a recent discussion about the challenges in aligning PR and interactive marketing. The battle lines are drawn with the two sides competing for the hearts and minds of clients.

Consider these two quotes:

The first is from Jonathan Kopp, Global Director, Ketchum Digital.

PR firms are poised to lead the way in social media because they approach conversation influence from an earned media perspective — finding existing story lines and figuring out how to make their clients’ point relevant. PR firms with a digital development capability can use visual and dynamic storytelling to add a deeper layer of engagement–digital assets designed specifically for social media engagement.

The second is from Michael Kogon, CEO of Definition 6, an interactive marketing firm based in Atlanta.

In the past, PR has typically been responsible for communications with internal and external audiences; developing the communications strategy and leading the execution. For most organizations, interactive marketing includes all the “online” marketing stuff. Today, with so much more communication taking place online, it’s more common to see progressive interactive agencies managing all online communications efforts, particularly around blogging and other social media.

So which side is better equipped to manage a client’s social media strategy?

I appreciate the battle lines.  Each has a lot at stake.  But I am not taking sides because I believe each has a critical role to play.

The debate reminds me of a famous Star Trek episode.  The characters in question were in fact more similar than they realized, but their differences in perception drove them apart. The two characters fought to the end, unable to reconcile differences.

OK a little poetic license, but my point is that interactive marketing and PR are very similar.  They are focused on increasing engagement and use the same tools to get there.

But while their services complement each other – positioning/branding,  messaging/key words, impressions/click throughs, storytelling/application building – their strategies and success metrics are very different.

As a result, we create great tools that don’t necessarily extend PR’s finely crafted messages.  At the same time, the messages PR creates don’t always evolve to reflect the way users search for information. And we tend to overestimate PR results and underestimate interactive marketing’s. Our individual clients may be happy, but an overall social media strategy may suffer.

And so the larger question for me is not who wins the battle, but how do we tap the talents of both sides to align marketing and PR objectives?  How do you create a strategy that incorporates key words and messaging, click throughs and impressions and storytelling and technology?  My next post begins to take on these questions.

In the end we may need to reframe the debate and demonstrate how PR and marketing and are extensions of one another, not opposites and not independent of each other.

Let me get back to you.

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Managing generational differences in social media will be one of three featured topics at PR Camp Atlanta this Friday, August 21. In what may be one of the more lively discussions of the morning, representatives of Generation Y will pair off with their Generation X and Baby Boomer counterparts to understand how professionals at different levels are approaching their jobs.

It’s all part of the PR Camp Atlanta’s goal to immerse Atlanta’s PR and marketing community in all things social media.  We will avoid discussions on how to use the latest tools. There will be no formal presentations.  Instead the focus will be on helping professionals identify business opportunities, tap resources, and measure success.

In many ways, planned discussions at PR Camp Atlanta parallel the changing roles and responsibilities that are taking place in the workplace.  Increasingly social media is allowing Generation Y to assume leadership roles.  It’s also allowing PR and interactive marketing professionals to work more closely to manage reputations, build relationships and extend brands.

PR Camp Atlanta is a forum to examine social media’s impact on our profession. Changes in our industry are also the reason why I reached out to Definition 6, an independent interactive marketing and eCommerce agency, to be a sponsor.  I want to break down barriers and encourage the PR profession to look at what we do differently.

As Michael Kogon at Definition 6 said, “As we work to help clients adapt to the new challenges and opportunities, created through social media, hands-on experience using these communication platforms is mandatory at all levels. Events like PR Camp Atlanta are a great way for professionals to get started with social media; it also provides them with a great opportunity to meet other professionals in the physical world.”

Final Agenda

Session I: 9:00 AM – 9:55 AM

Get clients and bosses to extend their interest in new media.

• Melanie Babcock, Senior Vice President, Digital Strategy & Services, Manning Selvage & Lee
• Bert Dumars, Vice President E-Business & Interactive Marketing, Newell Rubbermaid
• Jenny Schmitt, President and Director of Client Strategy, CloudSpark
• Katie Mingo, Senior Marketing Associate, Delta Airlines

Session II:  10:00 AM – 10:55 AM

Help senior professionals tap the social media experience of junior colleagues.

• Nick Ayres, Interactive Marketing Manager, New Media + Content, The Home Depot/Corvida Raven, Author of SheGeeks.net
• Marilynn Mobley, Senior Vice President, Strategic Counsel, Edelman PR/Matt Epstein, Account Coordinator, Definition 6
• Shirley Powell, Senior Vice President, Corporate Communications, Turner Broadcasting System/Tolu Ogbechie, Social Media & Development Associate, Prevent Blindness Georgia
• Carol Flammer, Managing Partner, mRELEVANCE, LLC/ Lauren Culbertson, Communications Assistant for U.S. Senator Johnny Isakson

Session III:  11:00 AM – 12:00 PM

With the blurring of PR and marketing, determine the best ways to measure success.

• Peter Fasano, Principal/Lead Catalyst, mass+logic
• Christopher Jones, Digital Strategist, Ketchum PR 
• Irfan Kamal, Vice President, Digital Strategy, Ogilvy Public Relations
• Debbie Curtis-Magley, Public Relations Manager, UPS

Sponsors

• Definition 6 
• Neighborhood America 
• Georgia Tech Research Institute 
• PR Newswire 
• Atlanta Day Book 
• CBS Atlanta 
• I Send Your Email 
• Social Media Club Atlanta 
• CloudSpark 
• Peachpod Studios 

Registration is now closed.

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