SEO Vs PR: is there really a battle for Social Media?

Posted on September 25, 2009 by Digiwedo

I am fully prepared for a whole heap of disagreements on what I am about the write, but after sharing a link on Twitter about the so-called “battle for social media”, I thought I’d actually get my thoughts down. The article in question was by Andrew Girdwood and can be found here.

As I said the first time I read the article, I think that it’s an interesting take on the situation and I agree with it for the most. One part that I do disagree with is that “online PR” and “social media PR” are separate entities – they aren’t, they are part of the whole PR mix. Yes, there’s a different level of understanding required, yes there are different approaches, but it’s still PR.

Throughout my career, a few things have always stuck with me and one was an old MD of mine who used to say “the best skills for the job”. As such, she never looked at her agency as the consumer team, the technology team or the online team – she actually used to think in terms of “who’s my best radio person”, or “who gets killer pieces in the tabloids” and so on. I think that it’s the same for any client today – the best skills for the job.

I guess what I’m trying to say here is that clients require a whole host of skills to get the job done. For instance, the launch of a new product might involve messaging developed by corporate PR, seeding by digital/social media PR and execution by consumer PR all backed up by a solid SEO programe. It’s not just one thing. Which kind of leads me on to the bit where I agree with Andrew – It’s about working together within the wider marketing mix. Solid marketing programmes need “the best skills” and that means PR, advertising, SEO, experiencial and so on….whatever the client’s needs are.

Where I see the difference from a PR point of view is the actual conversation. We’re not SEO specialists, sure, I understand SEO and I integrate it into the work I do where I can. Ultimately, I’d love to work more closely with SEO peeps to get my content and conversations working harder. But that’s what we’re about, the conversation…. that’s out Kung Fu if you will. And that’s where I might upset people, I don’t SEO fulfilling that role, I see that as purely PR.

My closing thoughts – I just go back to what my old MD said – “the best skills for the job”

Is your football team social?

Posted on September 24, 2009 by Digiwedo

This post was eventually going to happen, mainly because I’ve been trying to think of a way to get the following topics in one post: Social media, football, Aston Villa.

As someone that gets almost 100 per cent of his Aston Villa/football info from the web, I’m an avid reader of several blogs relating to my beloved Aston Villa. I also dip in and out of the forums from time to time, but I hardly ever read the papers anymore.

For me, if you’re a football fan of any club, you should be regularly checking the likes of Football Spy with Darren Lewis, Sky Sports and a decent blog about your team. Probably the last place you’ll hear any decent news is your club site.

Take my club, Aston Villa if you will. There of a decent size, owned by a fairly savvy American Billionaire in the form of Randy Leaner, but are they social. Well, no…. Randy’s right hand man, “The General” was sitting in a few forums for a while and famously got himself into trouble with the “pig” comment. But, that’s about it.

The site has what they call a “blog”, but you can’t comment on it, they are also on twitter, but don’t answer back. They have a YouTube channel, but just seem to put footage from AVTV on there. They one thing that they did do that was kind of interesting was the Bullring to Bullring feature, which you can check out here:

But, where the official site lets us down, the fan-based blogs give us what we want. Here’s probably one of the best examples if you’re a Villa fan. They have a main blogger, but also have several other contributors and recently asked their readers to submit their own posts. In addition, they also have a Twitter stream which they use to provide feeds from the matches – great for people like me that hardly ever make a game.

How come the club isn’t paying attention? Well, as someone that works in this space it’s usually the classic fear of exposure/lack of control issue that is (yes, it is) totally irrational. And, to be fair to the staff at Villa – it’s probably a time and staffing issue. But, what could they do? Well, here’s a few ideas:

Offer a live Twitter feed from the games, complete with Tweet pics
Have a few of the players run the Twitter feed, or perhaps a few guest spots – i.e. tonight at 6pm, John Carew takes over the AVFC Twitter feed
Make the blog a blog – add a comments section and get a bit more interactive
Get the fans involved in your output – ask for thier pictures, clips, thoughts and so-on. Everyone takes their mobiles to the game – there’s a whole bunch of UGC right there
Use the YouTube channel for something interesting – get the players to do a few videos behind the scenes, perhaps offer fans the chance to come in and film some interviews

There’s just a few thoughts and I’m sure others will have a few more thoughts. But whether your a Villa fan, Man U fan or whatever – is your club social? And, if you’re a club – Being social is free to very cheap, get involved.