Jerry Johnson Executive Vice President, Strategic Planning Brodeur Worldwide

Every agency knows it's true: PR campaigns seeking to build brand and communicate with key client publics can no longer overlook new social media tools and channels. Put simply, there is a conversation going on right now about your client online—and chances are that you will need to be a part of it (or at least, aware of it) if your next product launch, program or messaging platform is to be successful.

But, how interested are clients really in social media, and what are they demanding in the way of social media PR efforts? In response, how are traditional agencies making the leap from social media neophytes to digerati elite? How can you ensure that your team is skilled in using new media tools ranging from blogs and podcasts to social networks, twitter, forums, virtual worlds and beyond? Read on for a review of how other PR firms are rising to the challenge of social media—so you can retain clients and impress prospects seeking to build brand and buzz online. How interested are your clients and prospects in your firm's web 2.0/social media capabilities? According to this issue's Quick Hit survey, social media capabilities are either extremely or moderately important to 83% of clients. When this same question was asked about a year ago, that percentage was 78%.

To What Extent Are Clients Demanding Social Media PR?

Agency leaders almost universally report that most of their clients are interested in exploring social media to some degree.

At Boston-based Brodeur Worldwide (www.brodeur.com), Jerry Johnson, executive vice president, strategic planning estimates that some 75 percent of the agency's clients are now asking about new PR technologies. But, he adds, "they are struggling to understand how to maximize their investment in social media."

Bonin Bough Executive Vice President Weber Shandwick's Screengram

Ben Billingsley Vice President Horn Group

Gur Tsabar Vice President Ketchum's Interactive Strategy Group

Gerry Schwartz President G.S. Schwartz & Co

Jud Branam Managing Director MS&L Digital

Kathy Obert Chairman & CEO Edward Howard

Joel Richman Director of Social Media PAN Communications

Likewise, Bonin Bough, executive vice president for Screengrab, New York City-based Weber Shandwick’s (www.webershandwick.com) digital and emerging media practice, reports that "about 70 percent of our clients are asking about social media," such as YouTube, FaceBook, blogs and word-of-mouth approaches.

Both Ben Billingsley, vice president of San Francisco-based Horn Group (www.horngroup.com) and Gur Tsabar, vice president of New York City-based Ketchum’s Interactive Strategy Group (www.ketchum.com), report that nearly all of their clients are asking about social media PR.

Gerry Schwartz, president of New York City-based G.S. Schwartz & Co. (www.schwartz.com) notes that client inquiries about social media have been increasing steadily by 20 percent over the past two years.

The reasons for clients’ interest vary. Billingsley believes it’s because clients are interested in building communities with customers and prospects and see FaceBook applications and video through channels such as YouTube as ways to connect with end users. Tsabar says clients are asking about social media because they now "recognize there is a vibrant, robust world online. The second reason is economic – it is a cost-effective way to reach people on a very personalized basis."

Jud Branam, managing director of MS&L Digital in Ann Arbor, MI, part of New York City-based Manning Selvage & Lee (www.mslpr.com) recently constructed a branded social network for Saturn so the automaker could take blogging and conversations about their products to the next level. The site (www.imsaturn.com) was established as an enthusiasts’ site and consists of blogging, member content, the ability to upload photos and videos, and it has a tie-in to the TV show, "Project Runway," that Saturn sponsors.

Are You Using the Right Social Media Tools?

Obviously when it comes to social media, one size does not fit everyone, observes Kathy Obert, chairman and CEO of Cleveland, OH-based Edward Howard (www.edwardhoward.com). Agencies need to help clients choose the right vehicles based on their needs and resources, she adds.

Blogs, Schwartz says, are the most common social media tool "because they are a fast and inexpensive way to get communications going without filters by editors and reporters, such as on the evening news."

In addition to blogs, Joel Richman, director of social media for Andover, MA-based PAN Communications (www.pancommunications.com), says his agency is using FaceBook, LinkedIn, AIM and Yahoo messenger.

Branam adds that MS&L uses blogs to for new media outreach programs, YouTube for video outreach and FaceBook and MySpace to build awareness of clients’ products and for product loyalty programs.

Brodeur is advising its clients to use podcasts for client-generated content and websites that allow them to build their own FaceBook-like sites, Johnson points out.

The Horn Group, Billingsley notes, uses RSS readers, del.icio.us and DIGG as social bookmark tools, and FaceBook and LinkedIn internally to make contact with reporters and to pool its networks.

Despite the burgeoning use of social media tools, some are less popular. Richman says twitter and wikis are rarely used because clients don’t have an interest in them. In addition, Billingslley, Schwarz and Johnson agree that Second Life is not used much because it has simply not been proven.

Schwartz also believes YouTube "is not that effective a tool, because the target audience is broad. It ranges from children to adults." In addition, "with YouTube, you’re going to put up a video that requires more work to be compelling and may have copyright issues attached to it."

No Future without Social Media

Bough says social media is critical to the survival of PR firms "because PR is one of the biggest forms of communications for brands." Citing a Forrester Research study on the Top 20 Brands, he notes that "nearly 25 percent of all impact on brands on the Internet is user generated."

"All media is becoming social," Billingsley adds. "Ultimately, the practice of public relations won’t change all that much. We are still going to be in the business of influencing decisions, but the tools and the language are changing," he says.

Branam believes that the knowledge and use of social media "will become core skills for every PR practitioner" and that agencies need to take steps now to train their employees.

Brodeur, Johnson adds, holds one-hour professional development sessions twice a month. Their most recent was on podcast technology.

Edward Howard, according to Obert, provides weekly training using "a team that makes a presentation every Tuesday on the newest social media tools and which social media tools work and which ones don’t work." Training at Weber Shandwick is more structured through Screengrab University, which, Bough says, consists of in-person classes that discuss social media sites and tools.

The Horn Group, Billingsley says, holds social media boot camps at each of its offices, as well as periodic professional development sessions and, recently, a social media webinar which was open to employees, clients, prospective clients and the community at large, he adds. Employee training for social media is done using internal blogs, podcasts, video logs, and social networks at Ketchum, Tsabar notes.

While the steps to train employees on social media varies from agency to agency, Tsabar says the first step at Ketchum is teach employees how to open a FaceBook account and what to do once you are on it. This was done by setting up an RSS reader for every employee to monitor their news. Then, he says, Ketchum also has its employees write individual blog posts on the agency’s internal blogs so they can experience what it is like to be a blogger. They also received detailed knowledge of the Wikipedia community by being "walked through" the fundamentals of a Wikipedia page.

Next, employees will be taught how to harness the power of social networks. "We are starting to set up training on LinkedIn and Facebook. The training will focus on how we will use it as an internal tool, the details of which are being worked out now," Tsabar adds.

By David S. Chartock