The Financial Times published an article last week advising companies that they could manage the web without the help of PR firms. I agree with my colleague Charlie who runs our digital business in Asia/Pacific who responded to the FT with letter detailing some of the challenges, opportunities, and skills required to navigate the web. Now, admittedly I run the digital business for a PR firm, but whether or not clients pick us, I’d hate for them to go it alone. The Internet is still in very early stages, a digital wild wild west of sorts, and I don’t understand why any company want to risk figuring all of this out for themselves. PR advisers bring unique perspective to digital challenges, just like other professionals do within their respective fields.

From a public relations perspective, think about context - in the era of open communications facilitated by the Internet, your consumer messaging will affect corporate reputation, and vice versa. It is not possible to say one thing to one audience and something completely different to another, at least not without them hearing both sides of your story. PR advisers are uniquely situated to provide context and help guide messaging that creates dialogue with stakeholders while building and protecting a company’s position. Next, think about content. There are so many options for where to participate. Are companies really prepared to figure out what messages are appropriate for different types of sites on their own? What about community, which gives companies the opportunity to build loyalty around their brands based on shared values. Then, think about control. Companies are used to completely controlling their communications messages, but the Internet prohibits that. Instead, companies need to figure out what their most important messages are, and then figure out where they can control them, and where they can influence them, and then participate accordingly. Lastly, there is the very important fact that online chatter dramatically influences offline communications. Having a qualified PR adviser is one sure way to straddle all of these, and many other critical elements of navigating digital media.
Companies may be able to figure all of this out on their own, but why wouldn’t they want a communications adviser who can share broad-based experiences that cut across sectors, stakeholders, and platforms to help clients make the right choices the first time around?