There’s no denying that over the past decade the rise of digital media has changed the way we communicate with each other – individual to individual, business to individual, and business to business. When I think back around ten years, my colleagues and I at the B2B PR agency I worked at back then were a little scared. Threats of citizen journalism bringing traditional media to their knees. ‘Pound a penny’ online PR services and SEO agencies claiming they had the future and marketing budgets all wrapped up.
So what happened? Well, PR is still here. The media is still here. The goalposts may have changed and both of these industries have needed to evolve, but in my view good PR is more vital and more sought after than ever. As digital and social media evolve and grow up, the emphasis is on the quality of the content, not its volume, nor some spurious science to find a way around Google algorithms! It’s all about how relevant, authentic and informative your content is – something readers, viewers and Google all agree on.
In my view digital media, content and inbound marketing, social media – all of the burgeoning marketing trends from the past few years in fact – need great PR hooks more, not less. Since content became the magic word in B2B PR and marketing, platforms like LinkedIn have become increasingly awash with weak, copycat, run of the mill information that is often irrelevant, false and does little to add to our current knowledge or belief. As an industry, in terms of content we’re largely going through the motions.
What great media hooks do is cut through all this white noise. The traditional media of old always needed a strong hook. They would scrutinise your pitch and without something different your story would be ‘spiked’. The best stories always came from the heart of the organisation – the real stuff that seems real because it is real. Natural storytelling, as we call it at Skout, is alive and well but doing much more for brands that just press coverage; it’s driving entire marketing campaigns.
In my next blog on this topic I’ll share three recent examples of natural PR hooks that as a B2B PR agency we’ve repeatedly put to great use with our clients. I hope they give you some food for thought and inspiration.
Rob Skinner is Skout’s founder and MD. He promises to blog more often!
