Hiring a PR company for your Social Media

There have been a lot of discussions in the blogosphere about the role of PR firms within the world of social media. Some bloggers say that PR firms need to adapt, because bloggers and new media people want to discover news for themselves and not be pitched by PR folks. Others say that PR as a profession is broken, ouch! While others think that there's no reason to go crazy with a PR firm if you build something that people want.

When do PR firms provide value?

1. Do they research? You, as a company, could spend lots time finding the best bloggers who write about your specific niche, but having someone else do this for you would save time, especially if they do it for a living and have access to tools to make it easier and faster. Same thing goes for researching conferences, events, speaking opportunities, awards, etc.

2. Do they provide training? Few people are social media and blogging experts, and if you hire the right PR firm, they can help bring their expertise into the company. Don't let them do everything for you, make them train and educate your marketing team (not just marcom, product people too!) and executives about social media, blogging, how to comment on blogs, how to use Twitter and Facebook, etc.

3. Do they create & publish content? PR folks are experts (or should be!!) at writing, and increasingly audio and video too. Your PR firm can help you figure out how to take your boring company announcement and craft it into an interesting story, even if it is not for a news release, it can be just for your company blog. Your PR firm can also interview employees, customers and others and post videos on your blog or website, etc. They do this stuff all the time (if they're good) and might be able to do it better and faster than you can.

4. Pitching / Relationships - There are some times when a PR firm does have relationships you don't have, and times when that makes sense. A lot of these relationships might be "old media", but old media is still the number 1 media to most companies in Oman. A PR firm brings lots of different clients to the table, and having a relationship with the PR pro might make sense for the writer.

5. Do they monitor? Good PR folks will do a great job of monitoring all the right blogs, social networks and other conversations for relevant information. They then should email you and tell you to respond, comment, or react on your blog as necessary. Even if you have a ton of RSS feeds, alerts and more set up, you might miss some things. This is very important to keep ahead of competition and have all your employees aware of what is happening within your company.

Beyond these points, I also think there is something to be said for the ability for a PR firm to relatively quickly ramp up your capabilities, whereas if you were doing things internally it might take a lot longer to find and train a productive internal person. Don't take this as a glowing recommendation that everyone should go out and hire a PR firm today. But, I also don't think they should be swept under the rug as useless - there is a lot of value a PR firm can provide in the right circumstances for the right client. As always, understand what all your possible tools can do, and then choose the right tools for the job. A PR firm might be one of those tools.