Myths of PR
Myth no. 6: “You have to pay to see social media benefits”
“This chapter is going to assess whether or not social media has got to the stage where you
have to pay, and what you can do in an increasingly busy digital landscape.”
PR is to marketing as football is to sport → marketing is an umbrella term (=sport) and PR is
a discipline underneath this term, just like advertising (PR and advertising = football and
basketball).
Advertising = you pay for the exposure and you therefore control or own it.
PR = you don’t pay for the exposure, it’s earned.
Two options when it comes to social media marketing
● you can pay to advertise your brand on social media platforms → targeted control
over who sees your advert and what that advert says (both to an extent).
● you can communicate to and with your target audience using social media, without
paying.
→ But: big social media platforms want you to pay.
Convergence between SEO and PR (=convergentie/samenkomst) has led to PRs having to
deal with paid promotion and exposure, even though they’re more familiar with free and
earned exposure.
Recently there has been a decline in organic reach. According to research by EdgeRank
Checker, the organic reach for the average Facebook page dropped by 10% between 2012
and 2014.
In June 2014, complaints from marketers increased. Facebook’s VP of Advertising
Technology, Brian Boland released an official response saying there are two reasons for the
decline in organic reach:
1.) There is more content being created every day. When you log on there is an
incredibly high number of potential items waiting to be seen on your News Feed.
2.) Facebook wants to prioritise and show each person the content on their News Feed
that is most relevant, not just every item.
Possible criticism: is organic reach dropping because Facebook is trying to make more
money?
Boland: “No, our goal is to provide the best experience for Facebook users.”
→ In reality it’s both: Facebook wants to keep its users happy so there are people to show
adverts to. Those users, combined with the declining organic reach, will ‘force’ businesses to
pay to reach them because they feel like they have to.
1
, ‘A decrease in organic reach is simple supply and demand economics’
The decline in organic reach is not limited to Facebook, many large marketing platforms
have suffered the same fate. Online search engines were the first businesses to see their
search results drop.
SEO has become a full-time job for businesses, making the market more competitive.
Organic reach wasn’t/isn’t enough to beat competitors → Google Adsense and other rival
products became the paid product response and alternative to trying to rank organically.
Google is the second largest internet company in the world by revenue, and the biggest by
market cap. Facebook is the second largest company by market cap.
Market cap = the price per share in any given company multiplied by the number of shares
‘outstanding’ (=the number of shares currently held by all shareholders).
‘Are social networks strictly pay-to-play now?’
There are three types of client approaches when it comes to social media:
1.) clients who have been bombarded by friends and the media with how huge the
opportunity is to reach a big audience, and they want a part of this proft/benefit.
2.) clients that come to us for media relations work, because they believe that social
media is best handled by social media agencies.
3.) clients that got scared by the ‘organic is dead’ headlines and believe that it’s too
difficult to see any benefit from social media without paying, or any benefit at all.
Author: “social media marketing should fall under PR, just like media relations” → social
media is a more democratic way to reach an audience.
There are different ways to use social media for clients:
● day-to-day management
= the high number of items on somebody’s Facebook News Feed makes it difficult to
reach our clients. Paying to do so is an option, but this costs money and clients know
and feel it isn’t genuine and that you’ve paid for it.
A better solution is to come up with good posts that tick a number of boxes:
○ the message matches the medium → a short tweet vs a longer Facebook
message
○ use visuals (videos and images)
○ make sure the target audience understands your post/message, other people
don’t matter → you don’t have to appeal to everyone!
○ anything you say should relate to your client’s aims and goals
○ the aim is to start or add to a conversation between our client and its
audience. As a brand you’re an interruption to the audience’s day, so try to be
an interesting one.
● content creation
= content creators (bloggers, vloggers,...) proved you can build a following without
the support of mainstream media or paid promotion. It’s easy to create content, but
this means that there is a lot of it.
It might be easy and accessible to create content, but it’s difficult to be successful.
You’re more likely to succeed if you’re working with consultants, advisors, financial
support and an influential network. The most important factor is still the idea itself →
has to be great.
2
Myth no. 6: “You have to pay to see social media benefits”
“This chapter is going to assess whether or not social media has got to the stage where you
have to pay, and what you can do in an increasingly busy digital landscape.”
PR is to marketing as football is to sport → marketing is an umbrella term (=sport) and PR is
a discipline underneath this term, just like advertising (PR and advertising = football and
basketball).
Advertising = you pay for the exposure and you therefore control or own it.
PR = you don’t pay for the exposure, it’s earned.
Two options when it comes to social media marketing
● you can pay to advertise your brand on social media platforms → targeted control
over who sees your advert and what that advert says (both to an extent).
● you can communicate to and with your target audience using social media, without
paying.
→ But: big social media platforms want you to pay.
Convergence between SEO and PR (=convergentie/samenkomst) has led to PRs having to
deal with paid promotion and exposure, even though they’re more familiar with free and
earned exposure.
Recently there has been a decline in organic reach. According to research by EdgeRank
Checker, the organic reach for the average Facebook page dropped by 10% between 2012
and 2014.
In June 2014, complaints from marketers increased. Facebook’s VP of Advertising
Technology, Brian Boland released an official response saying there are two reasons for the
decline in organic reach:
1.) There is more content being created every day. When you log on there is an
incredibly high number of potential items waiting to be seen on your News Feed.
2.) Facebook wants to prioritise and show each person the content on their News Feed
that is most relevant, not just every item.
Possible criticism: is organic reach dropping because Facebook is trying to make more
money?
Boland: “No, our goal is to provide the best experience for Facebook users.”
→ In reality it’s both: Facebook wants to keep its users happy so there are people to show
adverts to. Those users, combined with the declining organic reach, will ‘force’ businesses to
pay to reach them because they feel like they have to.
1
, ‘A decrease in organic reach is simple supply and demand economics’
The decline in organic reach is not limited to Facebook, many large marketing platforms
have suffered the same fate. Online search engines were the first businesses to see their
search results drop.
SEO has become a full-time job for businesses, making the market more competitive.
Organic reach wasn’t/isn’t enough to beat competitors → Google Adsense and other rival
products became the paid product response and alternative to trying to rank organically.
Google is the second largest internet company in the world by revenue, and the biggest by
market cap. Facebook is the second largest company by market cap.
Market cap = the price per share in any given company multiplied by the number of shares
‘outstanding’ (=the number of shares currently held by all shareholders).
‘Are social networks strictly pay-to-play now?’
There are three types of client approaches when it comes to social media:
1.) clients who have been bombarded by friends and the media with how huge the
opportunity is to reach a big audience, and they want a part of this proft/benefit.
2.) clients that come to us for media relations work, because they believe that social
media is best handled by social media agencies.
3.) clients that got scared by the ‘organic is dead’ headlines and believe that it’s too
difficult to see any benefit from social media without paying, or any benefit at all.
Author: “social media marketing should fall under PR, just like media relations” → social
media is a more democratic way to reach an audience.
There are different ways to use social media for clients:
● day-to-day management
= the high number of items on somebody’s Facebook News Feed makes it difficult to
reach our clients. Paying to do so is an option, but this costs money and clients know
and feel it isn’t genuine and that you’ve paid for it.
A better solution is to come up with good posts that tick a number of boxes:
○ the message matches the medium → a short tweet vs a longer Facebook
message
○ use visuals (videos and images)
○ make sure the target audience understands your post/message, other people
don’t matter → you don’t have to appeal to everyone!
○ anything you say should relate to your client’s aims and goals
○ the aim is to start or add to a conversation between our client and its
audience. As a brand you’re an interruption to the audience’s day, so try to be
an interesting one.
● content creation
= content creators (bloggers, vloggers,...) proved you can build a following without
the support of mainstream media or paid promotion. It’s easy to create content, but
this means that there is a lot of it.
It might be easy and accessible to create content, but it’s difficult to be successful.
You’re more likely to succeed if you’re working with consultants, advisors, financial
support and an influential network. The most important factor is still the idea itself →
has to be great.
2
