A lot of PR firms are stating that they have social media capabilities and can help develop your strategy in this arena. So I thought, how many are actually practicing what they’re preaching?
I decided to see which PR firms were actively participating in social media. [update 2/20/09] I initially evaluated PR firms listed on O’Dwyer’s list of top 100 independent PR firms. This list was based on worldwide fees for firms with major US operations. As such, some prominent firms, such as Ogilvy & Mather, Ketchum PR and others. Since this post was published, the list has been exanded to include firms that have proactively included information in the comments or email. It is now sorted alphabetically and includes different types of firms, such as IR, healthcare and technology.
Some points to keep in mind:
-
I looked at if the agency had a blog, Twitter profile, Facebook page (both group and/or fan), LinkedIn Group
-
While there are individuals within each agency who have great online presences, I was seeking corporate presence. So some fields may be marked as “none” as a result
-
And since I did this myself, I was trying to maximize my time:
-
I didn’t categorize the type of PR each firm did – I took the list at its word
-
If the blog wasn’t listed on the home page or easily found via a sitemap, I assumed there was none or you don’t really want me to find your blog
-
I searched on the agency’s name or common abbreviation as presented on their website. Anything more exotic or too cute, would not have been found
-
For Twitter, I used Twitter search or tried to manually type in what seemed like an appropriate Twitter handle
-
I used the group search functions found on Facebook and LinkedIn respectively
-
I decided not to look at other sites like delicious, slideshare.net, flickr, etc., frankly, because I was doing this myself =); however, I did include it if the agency made it easy to find
-
Interesting Findings:
-
Almost all of the agencies did NOT link to their profiles on Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. from their website. I would’ve expected this on their Contact Us page or linked from the Blog but this was very rare.
-
While those who had blogs did a good job of putting the blog link front and center on the home page, some were too cute and hid the link under a different section of the website. If you’re one of these agencies and I found your blog regardless, it’s because it was listed on your site map.
-
39 agencies had blogs; 28 had Twitter profiles with one having a hashtag but no Twitter profile; 35 agencies had Facebook Group pages with two establishing fan pages; and 25 had LinkedIn Group pages while two created company pages
So let’s see how this little experiment works. If you’re a PR agency and I have incorrect information, please provide the corrections below or write a post that links back. I will then update the listing as quickly as I can. And if you have accounts with Flickr, YouTube and Slideshare.net, let me know.
But If you don’t have a social media presence, tell me why. I want to give folks the benefit of doubt. I was able to format the list into a table below captured the list in a jpg (couldn’t get it to format correctly, sorry!) or you can download a pdf version of this list. visit the public wiki and make changes to the table.
Tweet this on Twitter
To make it easier to RT on Twitter, just cut and paste the following:
Which PR agencies have a social media presence by @csalomonlee: http://twurl.nl/32z3lh
Table of PR Firms and Social Media Presence
Update: 2/19/09 – This table was updated to be in alphabetical order, includes additional PR firms not on the original list, and eliminates “none” from the table. You can also visit the PR Firms Social Media Public Wiki to make changes.
|
PR Agency |
Corporate Blog |
Corporate Twitter |
Individual Twitter |
Facebook Page |
LinkedIn Group |
Additional |
|
Ronn Torossian’s Group (469 members), 5WPR Group (5 members) |
YouTube Page |
|||||
|
The Access Point and PR Measurist |
@AccessPR: 14 followers |
|
||||
|
@AirfoilPR – 15 followers |
|
|||||
| updated 3/10/09 |
@AllisonPR | 30+ indiviual feeds | Corporate Group Page |
|
||
|
Unable to find blog |
@APCOJobs – 2 followers (protected account) |
A few groups for summer interns but no corporate page |
|
|||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@BitePR: 340 followers; @bitesweden |
Bite Communications US – HR, Bite Communications UK – HR, Bite Communications is HIRING!, Bite Sweden, Bite Alumni |
|||||
|
@BlissPR – 0 followers |
|
|||||
| Burson-Marsteller | The Burson-Marsteller Blog | @bmdigital and @bmglobalnews | B-M on Facebook | LinkedIn Group | Social media spaces on the Digital Perspective Blog | |
|
#Capstrat |
update 5/10/2009 @rharris, and others: @kalbritton @cord @stevenkeith @tarheelevan @oombrella |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
The Front Porch – hyperlink wasn’t working |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@CoynePR – 106 followers |
YouTube Channel, Flickr Channel |
|||||
|
Upated: 2/22/09 Crenshaw Communications, New York (Formerly Stanton Crenshaw Comms. — On Feb 9, 2009, became Crenshaw Communications. I have focused only on this brand for the search.) |
imPRessions |
@CrenshawComm – 1 3 followers |
|
|||
|
@CRTTanaka – 25 followers |
Friends of CRT/Tanaka and CRT/Tanaka Public Relations and Marketing |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Multiple: @EdelmanDigital, @EngageinHealth, @EdelmaninMIA, @EdelmanDE, @EdelmanSweden |
@steverubel, @philgomes, @rickmurray, @marshallmanson, @luebue |
Edelman Groups for China, Edelman Change and Employee Engagement, Edelman Poland, and Edelman Australia Alumni |
|
|||
|
@EdwardHoward – not sure if this is for the agency. 0 followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
Has a Second Life office |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Healthstar, New York – could not get to the website |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@ICR – no followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
KGBTexas Public Relations / Advertising , San Antonio Texas |
@Kgbtexas:238 followers |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
|
LaunchSquad, San Francisco, CA |
(updated 2/22/09) What’s New, Exclamation Blog, Green Amy, Searching for Savvy |
@launchsquad – 215 followers | @jmandell @throck @brettweiner @sistaklein | Company Page | ||
|
|
||||||
| update 5/10/09 | LinkedIn Page | |||||
|
@Lewispr – 50 followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@Tweismann: 217 followers |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@mrinklin |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@Marxlayne – 16 followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@MerrittGroup – 65 followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
(update 2/22/09) |
NMS has several employees who participate in social media. | NMS Fan Page | NMS Group Page on LinkedIn | |||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@Pageonepr – 109 followers |
Company LinkedIn page |
|||||
|
@PANcomm – 74 followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
@PierpontCom – 98 followers |
|
|||||
|
@porternovelli, @pndigital, @pn_atx, @marjinalpn, @pn_chile, @pn_uk |
||||||
|
@PCI – 0 followers |
|
|||||
|
@Qorvis: no followers |
|
|||||
|
@Quinnandco – 225 followers |
|
|||||
| update: 5/10/09 @betsykelly @laurenChisolm @bethbres13 |
Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
Ethics Blog, (Updated 2/22/09) Left Brain, Right Brain, RF Voices, Communicating Promise (Middle East), Dot Org (UK), Dot Comms (UK) |
@RuderFinn – 2 followers, @RuderFinnUK – 207 followers |
Four group pages for China, Healthcare Group, Israel and corporate |
|
|||
|
@SSPR – 40 followers |
|
|||||
|
Internship Page and Intern Group |
|
|||||
|
@Schwartz – 0 followers (protected account) |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
PR-Squared, slice snackable PR |
|
|||||
| updated 3/12/09 @ paulasantos
@ donnasokolsky @americanadian @syreetam @timrturpin @rbremer @clarissaspark @jacqattack @jamiewalker19 @ilikegranola @koodot0 @otnerak @sparkpr_katie @chansamerica @mattmarquess |
Sparkpr Company Profile |
|
||||
|
@SpectrumScience – 48 followers |
Groups for the company, Summer 2008 and Staff |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
|
@SterlingPR – 108 followers |
Company Page |
Upate (2/22/09) Delicious, Flickr, FriendFeed, YouTube,
|
||||
|
|
||||||
|
@Text100: Over 600 followers |
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
HornGroup – 3 followers |
Several groups for PR |
|
||||
|
|
||||||
|
@Susanisk: 668 followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
@WaggenerEdstrom – 513 followers |
|
|||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
@Wmagency – 34 2 followers (updated 2/22/09) |
Multiple…Pres | Scott Mills’, Network Facebook Group | Corporate Group Page |
|
||
|
|
||||||
|
|
||||||
|
|
technorati tags: PR PR Agency PR Firm Public Relations Social Media Twitter Blog Facebook LinkedIn
del.icio.us tags: PR PR Agency PR Firm Public Relations Social Media Twitter Blog Facebook LinkedIn
icerocket tags: PR PR Agency PR Firm Public Relations Social Media Twitter Blog Facebook LinkedIn
All content copyright Cece Salomon-Lee, Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 Unported, with the attribution: By Cece Salomon-Lee, PR Meets Marketing, and a link to the post.
PR Meets Marketing 
I’ve recently switched from employee to my own company and I’m not in the US, so I am probably not the best example. But the official launch of my company’s blog will go together with a social media strategy.
As far as evaluating a PR agency goes, there’s a Romanian joke about shoemakers never having good shoes, because they have time to make them for others, but not for themselves. I’ve seen great SEO consultants with little to no SEO work on their website and PR agencies that are really good when it comes to social media strategy but who haven’t even started blogging.
Even if they had a strong presence on the networks I’m part of, what I’d look into is their clients: who have they worked for and what are their results.
I like the point Alina made with her shoemaker analogy. It’s a good one.
However, it does make me nervous that agencies aren’t more active and sharpening their skills in social media.
As an internal communicator, I know how hard it is to persuade people to adopt tools that are applicable to their needs, especially if it’s a tool or resource that hasn’t been used before. I’ve seen agencies come in and throw terms around and not know what they are talking about or how to start.
So, I prefer that they have strong experience with tools they are pitching to their clients.
While I agree that a PR agency touting experience in Social Media must practice what they preach, I do see fault in just looking to see if they are involved in everything and anything social media, and that a strictly corporate presence is what matters.
Social media is about connecting with people. If each member of an agency has their own presence on one or more of the social media platforms, that company is getting that much more exposure – especially if those employees are mindful of their professional lives while using the platform. The people they are connecting with are getting familiar with the company on a more personal level, which is more valuable than using these platforms to promote yourself endlessly.
@alina make a good point that not having a social media presence doesn’t reflect the work that the agency does. However, I do believe that the BETTER agencies are ones that are actively participating on some level. Do you agree or disagree?
@swcellura good point – by actively working on these platforms, you also become familiar with the terminology. I’ve seen proposals that demonstrate that the agency didn’ know how to integrate social media
@jhosi while I do agree that having individual participation helps to further increase the agency’s awareness, the reason I bring up corporate presence is what happens when these folks walk out the door? It’s about creating and nurturing a corporate brand while demonstrating that your folks get it too. I believe that they go hand-in-hand.
Yes, you are right! Just like the best tailors and shoemakers are the one with slick clothes and shoes. It’s a matter of branding, of building and maintaining a reputation.
I also agree that focusing too much on individual profiles can be damaging when those people move on. It depends who we’re speaking of though. If it the three people who founded the company, it might work. Yet in many cases, there’s one voice leading the rest and when something happens to that voice, everything goes south. See the Steve Jobs issues.
@alina Thanks for the added insight – it really does depend who is leading the charge on the efforts and how that one person’s departure can impact the organization as a whole.
Cece —
Excellent post, and thanks for the effort in putting this list together. I can relate to Alina’s point, but agencies should be experimenting with their own brand so they know what works, and what doesn’t, when it comes down to billable client work.
This may prod some PR “shoemakers” to get busy making themselves some new shoes.
Great post and its very much appreciated for taking the time and effort to pull this together.
@mike – thanks for responding. Your agency was one of the few that had a presence in all the categories I was researching. What are your plans to expand your agency’s social media presence with existing avenues (Twitter) and additional ones (YouTube, Flickr, etc.)?
It’s a very exciting time for us, especially with what I’ll call “long tail” e-retailers.
The thing we’re finding with online and social media is that the sky is the limit and only your user community will judge/determine if you’re successful or not. Thus, we’re really pushing creativity and trying a ton of different things.
I came across a GREAT post the other day (I misplaced the link or I would post it here). It was from the head of social media at one of the Detroit 3 automakers. Essentially he was criticizing Dell Corp’s recent sales success via Twitter (they made more than $1 mil through some push promotions). The irony is that Dell used social media to MAKE money and the person questioning the strategy is working for a business that is in financial ruins.
I just bring this up as it’s a PERFECT example of how there is no “textbook” or “expert” what’s right or wrong in social media. Only your peers, community or user groups will decide. If they don’t like it, nobody will participate. If they’re into it, you’ll succeed.
When the U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission uses Twitter to send out updates and briefs, AND, encourages publicly traded businesses to use the service to communicate with investors, PR/IR folks better embrace emerging ways of communicating.
I agree with “jhoysi”; I think it may be as (or more) important for the individuals within the agency/firm to be active in social networking than the agency itself. For example, while I love what Jet Blue is doing on Twitter I also have great respect for what Shaq is doing there too – he can represent the NBA, his team, and his own personal brand by being himself on Twitter – the NBA (or JetBlue) can’t authentically speak for Shaq.
Read your post… and its great you put together such a list & resource.
By way of background, we absolutely have LinkedIn profile (search my name)… http://www.linkedin.com/myprofile?goback=%2Ehom
And our Youtube post is at: http://www.youtube.com/user/5WPRSpeakers
I blog very regularly at http://www.ronntorossian.com and am amazed more of my peers dont blog regularly.
Sincerely,
Ronn D. Torossian
President & CEO
5W Public Relations (www.5wpr.com)
Email: rtorossian@5wpr.com
@nathan, while I agree that individual brands can help a corporate brand, my point is that when I want to hire a PR agency, I’m hiring the corporate brand. If I were to hire based on an individual or team, then why not ask that person/team to start their own agency, right?
@ronn Thanks for providing an update regarding your firm’s YouTube Channel – I’ve updated it in the list. While I recognize that there are powerful individual profiles, I was purposely seeking corporate presence. I decided to include your Facebook Group – not individual profile – as I recognize this is your company’s group page, while this is not the case with LinkedIn.
Definitely an interesting read.
Online social media marketing has really taken off. Organizations need to embrace this change and sharpen their skills. I definitely think if you use the tools yourself, it will help you better assist your clients.
-Timothy
This post is very useful – thanks. I would add one point to the argument: sometimes having a corporate blog, Twitter page or Facebook group isn’t the best way to engage your audience.
Any good PR firm would advise you to survey the landscape and find the places where your voice can add value before picking a single medium to blast your message (social medium or not). Therefore, I agree with some of the others above that have said: it’s not always about the agency having a presence, but is about the individuals that work on your account being engaged in your industry.
I think your intentions are good, and your research in identifying the prevalence of corporate blogs or Twitter among PR firms is interesting. But these are not necessarily accurate proxies for social media fluency. In fact, they probably are the worst you could pick because they are superficial, if not misleading. You need to look at the specific organizations and their sophistication with social media, especially the way they empower their people to use social media to achieve various goals. That probably would not be determined by the existence of a corporate blog, Twitter handle or Facebook page, although they may reflect it. Not an easy feat, but that’s the question you need to answer.
Great article! I tend to agree with you, firms need to be doing it if they are claiming they can. BTW, Vantage Communications isn’t on the list. But we can be found on all the mentioned sites. Follow me at @CatrionaHarris or visit our blog at http://www.blog.pr-vantage.com
I think this approach is interesting, but I think there’s some data that’s definitely missing — as you said, it’s a quick study by one person.
Edelman, for example, has several corporate Twitter handles and has for awhile, in addition to several individual Tweeters on staff. Check out @EdelmanDigital, @EngageinHealth and @EdelmaninMIA as three examples. I have no relationship to Edelman but figured I could fill in these gaps.
Thanks for posting,
Emily
Interesting analysis. Have you seen this site, it’s linked off our corporate home page. http://www.edelman.com/landingblog/
Hi CeCe,
Thanks for putting this list together! I recently did a similar research project but I was only focused on Facebook presence of PR agencies. Interesting findings…
I would like to add one Facebook Fan Page for Waggener Edstrom that was not included, our Careers With Waggener Edstrom page:
http://www.facebook.com/pages/Careers-with-Waggener-Edstrom-Worldwide/94398360500
Thanks!
Amybeth
Hi Cece, This is a very informative post and certainly worthwhile to highlight who is practicing what they are preaching. Thanks for putting it together and sharing with PR community. Again, I do agree with some other commenter’s that it may not be the best way to measure agency’s social media prowess’s. You really have to look at what types of social media campaigns they have designed for clients that have driven ROI. As a small-to-midsize shop that really focuses on social media I would welcome a broader look at what smaller agencies are strong in social media. Also, it will be interesting to note how the list changes / updates with O’Dwyer’s 2008 top 100 list.
Best,
Kyle
Hi CeCe,
Nice post and analysis. I hear you about making it easier to find our social media channels. Some small additions for the Text 100 listing follow:
Second Life: http://slurl.com/secondlife/Text%20100%20Island/128/128/0
Blogs:
London: http://hypertextlondon.wordpress.com/
Stockholm: http://text100sthlm.typepad.com/
Sydney: http://text100sydney.wordpress.com/
Malaysia: http://text100malaysia.blogspot.com/
Facebook:
Hong Kong: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=28298577122
London: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2380014114
Madrid 1: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=22200286079
Madrid2: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=31657622161
Sydney: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=2781079534
Bangalore: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?sid=5885429295f78fe56cf24e9120063973&gid=48064244663
Twitter:
Hong Kong: http://twitter.com/Text100HongKong
France: http://twitter.com/text100fr
Ireland: http://twitter.com/Text100Ireland
UK: http://twitter.com/text100uk
Munich: http://twitter.com/Text100Munich
YouTube:
http://www.youtube.com/user/Text100SF
http://www.youtube.com/user/cplasto
http://www.youtube.com/user/satchitg
http://www.youtube.com/user/SmiddySmails
http://www.youtube.com/user/NeilMajor
Thanks again,
Jeremy
Jeremy Woolf
Global Peer Media Practice Lead
Text 100 Public Relations
Hi Cece,
This is an incredible piece of research for which you should be congratulated. Sure it has flaws but I don’t see anyone else putting their hand up to do something better!
As you invite comment and correction from other firms, here are my thoughts:
1. You have used O’Dwyer’s list of *independent* firms as your source. By definition this excludes some of the largest agencies who are publicly owned, like Burson-Marsteller and ourselves.
2. If you’d like to add us to your list, you can find Hill & Knowlton’s blog Collective Conversation at http://blogs2.hillandknowlton.com (we’re currently migrating but still have a link on our home page), a whole load of FB groups at http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/s.php?q=hill%20%26%20knowlton&init=s%3Agroup&k=200000010&n=-1&sid=a0cb2ebf4a962d4b0f1ab12b81f4470e, a LinkedIn group for alumni at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=725 and a general one at http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=526788. And yes, we have slideshare.net and YouTube accounts.
3. You won’t find “Hill & Knowlton” active on Twitter, because we don’t believe that people want to have a peer-to-peer conversation with a logo on a letterhead. You will, however, find many of our consultants and senior management there having real conversations.
4. You may also be interested in our social media principles which govern our collective use of the medium: http://www.hillandknowlton.com/principles.
Same thing happening this side of the pond!!
we recently wrote a blog titled, Digital Pr……. Not all PR agencies offer it!
As a company we are actively linking with UK PR agencies to offer them a “white label” Digital PR service for their clients, we need the copy, they need the distribution experts its a perfect business partnership that allows PR agencies to retain their clients.
http://tinyurl.com/8cwh2y
Pingback: Walking the Talk: Some Agencies and Vendors Demonstrate Social Media Prowess
I posted a comment earlier today, but it doesn’t seem to have made it through.
This is a great effort, Cece, and as you invite comment and correction, here’s my two cents:
1. Your source was O’Dwyer’s list of *independent* agencies which excludes those who are publicly listed or owned by publicly listed parents (like ourselves).
2. If you want to include Hill & Knowlton, then you can find our blog from our home page or my comment link, and a multitude of groups on FB and LinkedIn.
3. You won’t find “Hill & Knowlton” active on Twitter because we don’t believe that people want a conversation with a logo on a letterhead – you’re find plenty of the people who make our agency what it is though.
4. You might also be interested in our social media principles that dictate our interaction with the channel: http://www.hillandknowlton.com/principles.
Cece – I think this is a worthwhile exercise, so thanks for putting it together.
I agree with Niall that is worthwhile to also consider publicly traded firms or subsidiaries of those firms. My firm, Lois Paul & Partners, has had a presence on many social media channels, and it definitely has put us in a better position to advise our clients.
1. Our blog (http://loispaul.typepad.com) is linked off our home page in two places.
2. Our Facebook Fan page is linked off both our corporate web site and blog.
As for Twitter, most of our employees have Twitter handles. We believe this the more appropriate and effective use of Twitter for what we do than having a faceless corporate channel, as PR is about individual relationships (with clients, media, analysts, bloggers, etc) and Twitter helps strengthen these.
Similarly with LinkedIn, many of us belong to PR, marketing and social media groups as this is a better use of our time there.
We also have corporate channels on YouTube, Flickr, Delicious and FriendFeed, all of which can be accessed through our blog and Facebook Fan Page.
Look forward to the continued discussion.
To answer your question: no, no I wouldn’t.
Pingback: How Important is Social Media in PR? Ask us Live Today on Lotame Radio at 11:30 ET : PerkettPRsuasion - The PerkettPR Blog
Zeno Group does have a presence on Facebook:
http://www.facebook.com/home.php#/pages/ZENO-Group/40926283226?ref=ts
Alina, this was great insight.
I work at a mid-size agency in San Antonio, Texas – KGBTexas Public Relations / Advertising – and we are taking the plunge but making very certain that we “walk the talk” as Jeremiah Owyang put it in the blog post that linked to yours (below).
One thing – though we debated a LinkedIn group, we ended up deciding against it. Probably due to our size but mainly because the traffic and participation currently taking place on LinkedIn was not worth spreading ourselves out so thin. What do others think?
In case anyone is curious, this is KGBTexas – http://www.kgbtexas.com … revamped Web site and blog coming soon.
We twitter at http://twitter.com/kgbtexas and you can also become a fan of our Facebook Page by searching our name.
Jeremiah’s post:
http://www.web-strategist.com/blog/2009/02/19/walking-the-talk-some-agencies-and-vendors-demonstrate-social-media-prowess/
I don’t think the “shoemaker” analogy is relevant for ANY industry anymore. That story was great when you lived in a village and had one shoemaker. We still live in a village, of sorts, but it has grown and is now roughly the size of the world.
If you’re pushing social media and you’re not using it (or you’re not using it well), don’t quit your day job.
Pingback: Marketing Madness in 60 Seconds: 2/19/09
I agree this sort of info can provide insight into how/where a firm operates. And this is a fine start. However, there are two flaws with the “results.” First, did you contact these firms prior to posting? There are quite a few PR people I know participating on Twitter as *real people* – so they might not show up in your search for agencies, yet they represent their clients and their firms in this space. Second, many firms are content to let their clients get the glory, as they should, and ghost tweet and/or education them on the tools/process.
Thanks very much for putting this together, it’s interesting to see the differing extent to which these PR companies are doing social media and your analysis is insightful.
Two additions to the list though – Page One PR has Company LinkedIn page (http://www.linkedin.com/companies/page-one-pr?goback=.cps_1235007881277_1) and a YouTube channel (http://www.youtube.com/user/PageOnePR).
Plus, there’s the issue of quality. Just because someone has a Twitter or Facebook presence doesn’t indicate how meaningful the content is. And speaking of content, as companies who make money selling their expert advice it’s safe to say many blogs would be devoid of meaningful stuff. I know I save the bulk of my advice for clients/employers.
Well, as an open-source kind of guy, I kind of look at these things in a “release-early, release-often” kind of way.
This approach only works so long as the publisher/curator is committed to updating the material. Otherwise, it’s just another digital drive-by.
So, let’s look at your analysis above as a starting gate, rather than a finish line.
My concern is that, as it stands, this is an incomplete understanding of the “social-media-ness” of any given organization. (Especially ours!)
To wit:
– At Edelman, we don’t have one “corporate blog”. We have more than 30 blogs that have strong Edelman affiliations, including http://edelmandigital.com and EMEA CEO David Brain’s http://sixtysecondview.com, as well as the Richard Edelman blog cited in your table. Then there are “perso-professional” efforts like Steve Rubel’s Micropersuasion and my own blog. There’s also the great work by my Shanghai colleague Adam Schokora at http://56minus1.com/ and various other places. (Steve also linked to a rollup site of Edelman-affiliated social media participation above, http://edelman.com/landingblog/.)
– As to Twitter, we again tend to look at such things slightly diffferently. We have folks who use the service perso-professionally (@steverubel, @philgomes, @rickmurray, @marshallmanson, @luebue) and our various markets and practices are free to set up their own (@EdelmanDE, @EdelmanSweden). This is to say nothing of folks who have very loosely affiliated accounts — a quick poll of our London office showed that there are 52 Twitter accounts (that we know of) in that market alone.
– Even a cursory search of Facebook would show our pages for the firm (worldwide) and that of our Edelman Studios initiative, among several other groups.
All this said, there are a number of things that you’d be unable to analyze, outside-looking-in:
– Our goal, and my group’s job in particular, is to maintain and continuously improve the online community instincts and principles within our firm’s consultants worldwide — it’s part of our DNA. I believe Edelman’s investments here are as unique as they are considerable.
– To that end, virtually no plan or proposal leaves this company without a social media element. I say “virtually” in that a good counselor knows when a client isn’t *yet* ready to test those waters. (We believe every company eventually will, however, but that’s a debate for another time.)
– A number of us use social media in ways that are well outside the PR 2.0 echo chamber — which I argue is a better way to truly understand this space. My colleague Allie Osmar blogs/podcasts about careers at http://thecreativecareer.com/. I host a blog about Brazilian cachaça at http://cachacagora.com/. Another colleague in Tokyo, Kensuke, blogs about ultimate fighting. (I don’t have the URL and, in any event, can’t read Japanese.)
So, if you’re dedicated to improving this table such that it becomes a good measure of social media capability, you have a greater task ahead than you might’ve anticipated when you posted this. Your post certainly has generated plenty of attention; now it’s time to generate meaning.
Again… “Release early, release often.” Everyone is in the learning game.
Thanks for the very thoughtful post.
For one thing, though, i would like to echo Ted above on Twitter, as at SHIFT Communications we have dozens of individual users and have purposely not pursed a “corporate” Twitter handle. It is intentional on our part, and a demonstration of the successful mingling of personal and professional brands. Our recommendations for clients do vary on that point.
I understand what you were looking for here in “corporate” accounts, but in the case of Twitter I think that’s a mistake.
Thansk everyone for your comments. To address some points raised to date:
1) I purposely looked at PR agency brands because I was curious how the firms were using social media to promote their own industry expertise. I DO realize that there are A LOT of individuals participating.
2) With regards to quality, I agree that this is NOT a list regarding the QUALITY of how an agency can do social media for you. And just having a group page or handle is not a barometer of your participation. With that said, this list was a beginning based out of my curiousity.
3) As for which presence people decide to have, I agree it’s based on YOUR audience. So who’s your audience? I would argue employees (current, former, future), customers (ditto), and media. So does it make sense to have awareness in avenues where all of these audiences can find and engage with you in the way that they want to?
Thanks again everyone! I plan to update the list and may sort to be alpha so I can add more firms without concern of a ranking.
I’d echo what Doug (and others) have said about Twittering as individuals. For example, @susanisk is with, I believe, the Standing Partnership in St. Louis–she’s very active on Twitter, and I think there are others at the firm on Twitter as well. She’s just one off the top of my head, but I think it’s really a key point if we’re looking at competency in an area, not just checking off boxes (corporate blog, yup, check; Twitter account, check, etc.).
Same holds true for CustomScoop, but we aren’t a PR firm, we provide services *to* PR firms.
I understand the point you’re trying to raise, but your research accuracy leaves a lot to be desired if your listing about Sterling Communications is any indication. And it’s unfortunate that you further compound the problem by suggesting that people tweet about research that’s riddled with errors. Yes, we’ll make the corrections, but some damage has already been done.
In any event, your list says Sterling Communications does not have a blog. We do. There’s a link to it right on our homepage (though it’s hosted externally on Typepad). It’s here: http://sterlingpr.typepad.com.
You say we don’t have a LinkedIn profile. We’ve had one for quite some time. It’s right here: http://www.linkedin.com/companies/sterling-communications. All you needed to do was a company search for Sterling.
We also have a corporate Facebook profile (http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/group.php?gid=7685899679), a corporate Flickr site (http://flickr.com/photos/sterlingpr/), a corporate YouTube channel (http://youtube.com/sterlingcomm) and a presence on pretty much every social media platform out there (some more active than others). Our corporate Twitter account can be found at: http://twitter.com/sterlingpr, though we view Twitter as more of an individual-to-individual communications medium. All of our senior team and most of our staff are active as individuals on Twitter, Friendfeed, etc. (I’m kpedraja on both).
I realize that doing the research on a list of 100 companies takes time, but I’d suggest you post a more thorough disclaimer about just how little effort went into making this list so that other people don’t rely on misinformation when they’re making agency decisions. Just sayin’…
Last point, you might also consider hosting your list on blist.com so that the agencies on it can edit their own entries.
Thanks for this great list. In addition to Zeno Group’s Facebook page, which my colleague Dan Skinner mentioned earlier, Zeno Group’s Digital Lifestyle team created The Social 7, a weekly videocast and blog on the top 7 stories in social media and marketing:
Videocast: http://www.thesocial7.com
Twitter: http://twitter.com/thesocial7
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/thesocial7
I would be interested in a follow-up post that takes a closer look at the number (or percent) of employees from each agency that are on Twitter. Zeno Group, Edelman (our sister agency) and many agencies on this list have a large number of individuals who are active on Twitter.
Appreciate your efforts in creating this resource for everyone.
Nick Mendoza
Zeno Group Digital Lifestyle
Cece —
What a labor of love; I commend and applaud your research here and hope you might also think to add in New Media Strategies to the mix.
We are celebrating 10 years as a pioneer in the fields of new media intelligence, promotion and protection and proudly ‘walk the walk’ on just about every platform collectively — as a company and as individuals.
You will see our company’s social media links off of our blog (and I also like the idea of adding to the contact page as well — thanks for the inspiration) — Twitter, Delicious, YouTube, Facebook and Flickr.
http://newmediastrategies.net/blog/
You can also see each of our team members’ links on their individual profiles — some have a few, others a few more (e.g., personal blogs, Friendfeed, Wikipedia, Slideshare, LinkedIn, etc.)
http://newmediastrategies.net/about/our-team/
I’d be happy to follow up on any other questions you may have. We are based just over the river from Washington, D.C. in Roslyn (Arlington), VA.
Thanks again,
Leslie
Leslie A. Bradshaw
Communications Manager | New Media Strategies
W: http://www.newmediastrategies.net
B: http://www.lesliebradshaw.com
T: http://www.twitter.com/leslieann44
I agree with Ted Weismann’s assertion re: Twitter: building relationships through the service, is best done by the individual and not through a faceless/nameless brand logo. It’s about 1vs1 interaction and having a collective Twitter account for the company defeats that purpose. A Friendfeed stream aggregating a company’s activity makes more sense than a link to a single, all-encompassing account and, to me, exhibits greater social media savvy.
Well, as an open-source kind of guy, I kind of look at these things in a “release-early, release-often” kind of way.
This approach only works so long as the publisher/curator is committed to updating the material. Otherwise, it’s just another digital drive-by.
So, let’s look at your analysis above as a starting gate, rather than a finish line. There are a number of important variables that escape the current method above.
To wit:
– At Edelman, we don’t have one “corporate blog”. We have more than 30 blogs that have strong Edelman affiliations. (God knows how many others.)
– As to Twitter, we have folks who use the service perso-professionally (@steverubel, @philgomes, @rickmurray, @marshallmanson, @luebue), and our various markets and practices are free to set up their own (@EdelmanDE, @EdelmanSweden).
– A quick search of Facebook shows our pages for the firm (worldwide) and that of our Edelman Studios initiative, as well as some of the groups you found.
All this said, there are a number of things that one would be unable to analyze, outside-looking-in:
– Our goal, and my group’s job in particular, is to maintain and continuously improve the online community instincts and principles within our firm’s consultants worldwide — it’s part of our DNA. I believe Edelman’s investments here are as unique as they are considerable. To that end, virtually no plan or proposal leaves this company without a social media element.
– A number of us use social media in ways that are well outside the PR 2.0 echo chamber — which I argue is a better way to truly understand this space. My colleague Allie Osmar blogs/podcasts about careers. I host a site about Brazilian cachaça. Another colleague in Tokyo, Kensuke, blogs about ultimate fighting.
So, if you’re dedicated to improving this table such that it becomes a good measure of social media capability, you have a greater task ahead than you might’ve anticipated when you published this.
Again… “Release early, release often.” Everyone is in the learning game.
Building on Phil Gomes’ point, you might find it easier — and more valuable — if your list could be updated by the companies in it. You may not have the time to track down each company’s presence all over the web (another topic worthy of discussion), but each company certainly can find five minutes to update a wiki or blist or other communal catalog of where and how they’re engaging online. You might also find the research report Jennifer Leggio posted today on ZDNet of interest: “Is ’social PR’ for real? Which agencies get it?” http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=512
What an excellent list! I’ll be using it to check out the competition =)
I work for Porter Novelli, and in the interest of completeness, I’d like to share a little information about our own presence.
Corporate blog
None — but individual and group blogs are aggregated on our site (with an aggregated RSS feed)
Twitter
We’re all over Twitter — but there’s a central account @porternovelli, and accounts for disciplines (@pndigital), and local and country offices (@pn_atx, @marjinalpn, @pn_chile and the astonishingly new @pn_uk)
We also had a lot of fun as a company tweeting the Obama inauguration
Facebook Page
We’ve got a Facebook Page. We’re not doing much with it just yet, but we’ve got plans!
LinkedIn
We’ve got a vibrant LinkedIn Alumni Group, and a nascent group for our London office
Everything else
We’re on Flickr (well sorta)
We’re also on Delicious, with a shared bookmarks and a news clippings book (and RSS feed) that we use in interesting and novel ways.
And we blogged much of the process of designing and building our new site. We’re all about the radical openness! Incidentally, and on a similar note, our site is built using Open Source technology, is standards-compliant and is the only global agency website to work flawlessly on an iPhone. Try it out!
In the interests of fairness, I’d like to point out that Edelman also maintains a number of YouTube channels
Hi CeCe,
This is a great post and an important topic to which you call attention.
I just wanted to put M Booth & Associates on your radar and let you know that we do have a blog called FWD Thinking (on the topic of social media, ironically enough) which can be found at http://fwd.mbooth.com/. We have also recently created a vlog called “The Last Word with FirstWord” for inclusion on our blog (see the first installment at http://fwd.mbooth.com/post/72142073/welcome-to-the-newest-feature-of-our-blog-our.
All of the members of our digital practice, FirstWord Digital, have Twitter pages in which they represent themselves as part of the agency. Some of us have more than 800 followers, which allows us to act on behalf of our agency and our clients in way that an agency Twitter page would not.
We have networks for our agency on both LinkedIn and Facebook and we also have a Flickr photostream chronicling our agency and our events which can be found at http://flickr.com/photos/mboothpr/.
Would love if checked out our online presence and updated our listing.
Thanks!
Maria Rinklin
Digital Strategist
M Booth & Associates
mariar@mbooth.com
@mrinklin
Great stuff – let me add my two cents though on the yes/no about having corporate Twitter presence.
It’s VITAL for any agency to grab its brand NOW on Twitter and spend a little time there, even if that’s not where they want to engage the populace about their firm. Why? Couple reasons:
1-Remember that the bulk of the universe will assume that, since you’re using the tool on behalf of your corporation, you can use the tool on behalf of THEIR corporation.
2-Ever use http://twitter.grader.com? Try it with your own corporate Twitter account. Type in your corporate Twitter handle. See what the score is. I just tried it with a name agency. Having a score in the 50s (it’s a percentile scale) won’t get you very far.
3-Remember that people are doing this right now when trying to figure out who to trust — they’re going to Twitter and typing in search terms and looking for people to follow.
All brands can try this trick — score your own handle, then, if you would rather point people to your own people’s Twitter handles, do so. “Hey, it’s Bob from GlobalPRCom, while this is our corporate Twitter page, you should check out Mary @coolchick – she’s working with an ace client now!”
I hearken back to the mid-90s, where I was a corporate guy and the execs hired an agency to do our website because, well, the agency had a website of its own.
Pleasant hashtags to all.
Dave
As I said on Jeremiah’s blog, I don’t agree with this approach. We counsel companies not to be fooled into a “you must be using this social network” approach and yet we’re encouraging agencies to commit this fundamental social media sin?
Client service comes first, always. Yes agencies should strive to have a presence of their own but not having a presence on Twitter or LinkedIn for their corporation is not a good measurement — at all.
I do think it’s great that you’re taking the time to examine this, however. But I would look more at client service than “who has the most friends” online.
Great list CeCe. Good to see that Bite has been well represented but, in additional to our well populated corporate blog, BiteMarks, there are a few additional social media channels currently being used or developed.
We have Bite Communications Facebook page. Admittedly, it’s not as up-to-date as we would like but there are definite plans to do more with it in the coming weeks. In addition, we currently have the following additional Facebook pages:
– Bite Communications US – HR
– Bite Communications UK – HR
– Bite Communications is HIRING!
– Bite Sweden
– Bite Alumni
We have also created Facebook pages to generate interest around Bite-led events in the past, e.g. Bite Communications – Facebook & Ofcom Seminar.
In addition to Bitepr on Twitter, which has 366 followers today, our friends at Bite Sweden have a separate account and there are a number of other Bite related accounts currently in development.
Bite has a corporate channel on YouTube and an additional channel to promote its annual consumer technology showcase, PlayBite, in London.
Bite also has corporate presence on LinkedIn and Flickr.
Generally, we’re a pretty active bunch on various social media channels but this is a decent overall representation of our corporate presence.
Thanks again for pulling a really useful list together.
Jason Clarke
Vice President, Business Development & Marketing
Bite Communications
Thanks to everyone for their comments. Based on this feedback, I am planning to create a pbwiki page so agencies can proactively update their listing for BOTH corporate and invidual contributors. This page will include firms that were not on the original and will be in alphabetical order vs the original O’Dwyer’s top 100 indepedent firms from 2007. I hope to have this completed tonight for posting tomorrow (2/20/09) PST.
Email from Jason Mandell of LaunchSquad
Actually we do have a LinkedIn page as I had thought. All the info for us is here:
Twitter: @launchsquad
Blogs (both on home page):
http://www.exclamationblog.com
http://www.launchsquad.com/blogs/whatsnew/
Facebook: LaunchSquad Clients
LinkedIn: http://tinyurl.com/bp3bwq
YouTube: http://www.youtube.com/
I have to agree with Max and Jennifer on his one. Laudable effort but mixed value.
As just one example: a huge firm like Edelman may be able to lay claim to 500 boggers, but is anybody listening? If a smaller firm has 5 influential bloggers (vs. 500 “meh” bloggers), is that accounted for by your methodology?
You also can’t alwyas be aware of an agency’s efforts. For example, working hand-in-glove with our client contacts, SHIFT has created and maintains Youtube channels and Facebook pages for some major brands: work that is relevant in terms of your study but which is not readily discoverable.
And lastly: there’s no accounting here for the quality, depth or success of these agencies’ efforts. In that vein, there seems to be no accounting for a firm’s reputation for effectiveness in this sphere, from clients’ (or the market’s) p.o.v., as Ms. Leggio recently looked at things: http://blogs.zdnet.com/feeds/?p=512 …
I agree that “use” of Social Media tools is important, but not enough to merit placement on an ordered list like this one.
Again, a laudable and linkbait-worthy concept, and you ask some good questions here, but I question the methodology’s long-term validity.
@tdefren – thanks for your comments. I just wrote a post (https://prmeetsmarketing.wordpress.com/2009/02/20/response_pr_firms_social_media_presence that responds to the comments, provides my perspective regarding Jennifer’s post and the introduction of a public wiki (http://prfirmssocialmedia.pbwiki.com/).
Pingback: Web Feet Integrated Marketing » Blog Archive » With Social Media, Are You Walking or Just Talking?
I’m not entirely convinced that much of the offerings are actually social. The majority of blogs are little more than web 1.0 articles, not that well written for the medium: lacks sub-heads, too long, too promotional, not discussion…
LinkedIn is often not much more than a glorified contacts list + CV.
Corporate use of Twitter is 90% shouting ‘me me me my opinion’ and little real discussion. Yes some get it right (Innocent) most haven’t (Intel).
I am not sure just having a Twitter account or setting up a Facebook page is immersion in Social Media. There are a few platforms like GetSatisfaction that have strong possibilities.
Would I trust a PR company to do my social media at all is a good question?
They would have to understand the whole marketing mix and actively share ideas/content across the whole marketing community for a brand.
They would have to actively work with the digital agencies, brand agencies, media houses and advertising teams. Only then would the social strategy actually focus on the client rather than a PR empire.
If PR agencies are to do social media properly they need to work into client marketing teams rather than going their own way within a marketing plan – which is so often the case.
its not whether they are on Twitter, its whether they work in an integrated manner. Social Media is not that complex – integration is what takes the effort.
Pingback: Red State vs. Blue State: The Great Twitter Divide | Fresh Ideas
thanks @ramraider – I agree that this may help agencies to understand how this fits into a larger integrated marketing program.
This is a very interesting post – as is the dialogue that has followed it! It’s a daunting task to try to catalogue the myriad social / conversation-driven activities of so many agencies. So kudos for taking this on!
I would note that most of us at CooperKatz are highly-engaged with a whole range of ‘social media’ (for want of a better word) channels. For example, there are lots of us on Twitter. You can follow me at @anneegreen. Additionally, most of us are very active on Facebook, LinkedIn and other social sites – which we use to connect with clients and business partners as well as personal contacts. In terms of a corporate-level Facebook or LinkedIn page for CooperKatz, we have never felt philosophically that this makes a lot of sense for an agency of our size. We tend to put the bulk of our focus relative to key conversations online, etc., on our clients and their industry sectors, influencers and issues. With that said, our Web site is definitely a ‘doctor, heal thyself’ situation – which is why we’re halfway through a major Web site redesign project. That new site will include a group blog platform, to which many folks here are looking forward to contributing. Again, philosophically, we’ve tried to avoid building ‘cults of personality’ around specific individuals, as we want our entire team and the results we have achieved for clients to be our strongest calling card. But we certainly also appreciate the comments above about being ‘present’ and a part of the conversation – particularly those held within our own PR / marketing communities.
Looking forward to following the further threads here!
Anne Green
President / COO
CooperKatz
Why should an agency use a corporate Twitter profile at all (as opposed to promoting the activities and networks of trust already constructed through the employees of that company)
Would you prefer to listen and interact with a person or an agency?
(Can’t we expect a different kind of conversation from each?)
@Ann thanks for taking time to discuss your programs. Please feel free to keep me updated and I will make the appropriate changes here and on the wiki.
@Rasmussen – I would expect a different conversation from each. And depending on what each said, I would want to interact with both. And in some cases, this can be the same in one. I believe that this applies to any company depending on the goals you’re seeking to achieve.
@Cese – What might a conversation between you and a Company Logo look like? [ideally]
Would you ever ask with whom you are speaking?
Or is this an example of a fundamental misuse of the word “conversation” in our industry?
@Rasmussen – you raise a good point. I thik the nature of “conversation” is different. I go to a corporate brand to hear about the company news, promotion and possibly their perspective on industry events, especially if I’m a customer, reporter, analyst, prospect and/or employee. As for an individual, the “conversation” may still cover these topics, but this puts a “personal” touch to my communication.
I don’t know if it’s a misuse of the term but maybe different interpretations.
I hope this isn’t repetitive – I left a comment earlier but it didn’t seem to go through – the ball just keeps spinning 🙂 So here it is again … and thanks for your comment on my post as well.
The net net is that I said I elaborated on your post in my own blog yesterday (How Important is Social Media in PR: http://bit.ly/I4gne). Do agencies need a corporate presence or is it enough for individuals to have one from which they share both personal and professional information?
The answer to your question in the headline is simply, “No.” You shouldn’t. But not all clients need or want social media. So not all agencies are involved.
That being said, although we weren’t on O’Dwyer’s list (we keep revenues private and therefore don’t qualify), we are very active in social media and were just identified as such – and as 1 of just 6 PR firms “top considered” – in Jennifer Leggio’s (@mediaphyter) research survey – which she posted yesterday. We’ve found that our involvement in social media – beyond our work for clients – has led to phenomenal new relationships, engagement, education, opportunities, business development, partnerships and awareness. What agency wouldn’t want that for themselves? Just seems like common sense to me.
Thank you for your hard work on this list! I look forward to more research in the future.
Kindly,
Christine Perkett
Founder/President, PerkettPR
http://www.perkettprsuasion.com
* all other social media channels are linked in the sites above.
Pingback: Doug Haslam » Blog Archive » Social Media Top Five: Jornalist POV, Incivility, and PR Agencies Really Doing Social Media?
I appreciated your post and learning more about how agencies are promoting themselves (and not just their clients) via social media. The comments and responses have been interesting as well. Our efforts thus far have been on behalf of clients and not our agency. We’ll certainly discuss the points that have been made here and weigh the pros and cons of having a corporate presence as well.
In the meantime, please note that you have an incorrect link associated with our agency name on your list. Our correct web address is provided in my reply.
Thank you,
Claire
Cece-
Thanks for taking the time to identify the social media tactics used by top PR agencies!
Individual tactics like the ones you measured for are important for building brand awareness, but the one factor I think is often overlooked is the need to integrate each of these tactics into an overall digital media strategy that yields measurable results. Just having a twitter account or a blog does not necessarily equal social media savvy. Each tactic must complement the other so that conversations generated on a blog post, Twitter, or YouTube channel can be fully leveraged to support a coordinated messaging program.
For Levick Strategic Communication, we implemented a social media strategy that prioritizes a cohesive online presence across multiple platforms. For example, our Web site, http://www.levick.com features a link to our blog, http://www.BulletProofBlog.com, and our blog regularly posts thought pieces on crisis communications which we then publicize via several Twitter profiles. Thanks again for the great list and for the pitch for our blog – in addition to the blog presence you referenced please feel free to check out the following Levick profiles not listed on your chart:
Twitter: @RichardLevick
President & CEO
Twitter: @DallasLawrence
VP Digital Media
YouTube Channel: http://www.youtube.com/LevickSC
LinkedIn: http://www.linkedin.com/pub/0/a3/945
Thanks,
Dallas Lawrence, VP of Digital Media
Levick Strategic Communications
@claire – thanks for the update, I’ll make the change
@Dallas thanks for letting me know about your agency. I’ll add your information in my next update.
Hi, This is Betsy Kelly from Rasky Baerlein. Thanks for this great article. We wanted to update you on our firm’s listing. We have a Facebook page at Rasky Baerlein Strategic Communications. And we have several employees on Twitter. They include:
@betsykelly
@laurenChisolm
@bethbres13
Thank you for the opportunity to respond to your blog.
Betsy Kelly
VP – Marketing
Pingback: Data: What Happens to PR Firms in a Recession, a 2009 Forecast
Pingback: Trust Yourself All the Way to Success « Social Media PR
You raise some interesting points, and thank you for the mention.
BTW Capstrat likes to let its voice be heard through its employees. We do not have an official “corporate” Twitter feed (as yet). You can connect with me,
@rharris, and others:
@kalbritton
@cord
@stevenkeith
@tarheelevan
@oombrella
We look forward to the conversation!
Apologies for not keeping the updates timely – I’ve added info for Levick, Rasky and Capstrat. Thanks for your patience.
Hi Cece –
You make a great point in this post. It’s important for PR firms, or any company for that matter, to practice what they preach. We’re currently developing and designing our new blog! In the meantime, we’ve got tons of employee-driven thought leadership on our website at http://www.blisspr.com/about_us/thought_leadership/blisspr_tl.php.
Having said that, BlissPR has taken a little bit of a different approach to Twitter. We understand that you searched for a ‘corporate presence’, but what we’ve done is allow our executives to act as individuals to provide thought leadership in industries they consider their areas of interest and expertise while fully identifying themselves as representatives of BlissPR. We hope that you’ll list them in your grid!
Here are our practitioners to follow on Twitter:
BlissPR – New York
Abby Carr @abbycarr
Angelica Hernandez @anjelicah
Aven James @avenlea
Cortney Rhoads @cortneyrhoads
Dan Brady @dtbrady77
Elizabeth Sosnow @elizabethsosnow
Emily Weinman @eweinman
Erica Michel @EricaMichel
Gretchen Steinmiller @gsteinmiller
John Bliss @johnbliss
John Pappas @johnpappas
Katherine Kilpatrick @kilpatrickk
Kelly Davis @kellydavis226
Karl Banks @KBanks
Lisa Karel @lisakarel
Meg Wildrick @megwildrick
Meghan Lantier @meghanlantier
Nicole LeBlanc @nicolejleblanc
Paige Holden @PaigeHolden
Rachel Gerber @gerbs1363
Sally Martin @sallyilmartin
Vanessa Conroy @vanessaconroy
Vik Dutta @vdutta
BlissPR – Chicago
Margy Sweeney @margysweeney
Dave Miranda @davidmiranda
Other Locations
St. Louis, MO: Kellie Sheehan @kshe
Austin, Texas: Rebecca Neufeld @ratothebec
We’re all really looking forward to tweeting with you!
Best,
Rebecca
I don’t necessarily think that people use Social Media in the correct manner – people aren’t going to complete a target action from a social media profile, it is more important for general presence and backlinks.
Pingback: » Top 30 + 200 Blog Posts on Social Media Spotlight Ideas
Pingback: » Top 250 Blog Posts – Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Digital Spotlight Ideas
Pingback: Top 250 Blog Posts – Advertising, Marketing, Branding, Digital | Advertising News
Pingback: Top 250 Blog Posts – Advertising, Marketing, Media and PR « Spotlight Ideas
It would be nice to get an updated version of this post – I am wondering how these agencies might have improved since the blog was first published.
Twitter also has a great tool for businesses to include the personal accounts within their main account.
I could not agree more! As a national PR firm, EMSI Public Relations was an early adopter of social media marketing, both for our own promotion, and to offer as a service to clients.
Apologies for not keeping the updates timely – I’ve added info for Levick, Rasky and Capstrat. Thanks for your patience.
Pingback: Rebuilding a Personal Brand is Hard Work
Pingback: Response to Comments regarding "Would YOU Trust a PR Firm without a Social Media Presence with Your Social Media Programs" | PR Meets Marketing
Hi Everyone,
Interested in knowing how PR agencies did in 2010 with regard to social media? View the 2010 results at http://www.prmeetsmarketing.com/2010/09/30/pr-agencies-social-media/. Not surprisingly, PR firms increased their participation in social media.
Thanks!
Cece