@dvocable

Hi H,

Interesting piece and thanks for mentioning Blogworks. This will be a rather longish comment so accept my apologies in advance.

Manish of Quasar, an Internet veteran,is a very dear friend. Quasar has done some very interesting work in the past and are aggressive contenders in any space they enter.

I wrote a piece recently voicing some similar questions and though the threat for the mainstream agencies is very real, I still believe that public relations is the natural owner of the social media space, for it is an engagement and reputation need and NOT mere a selling need, which is where I believe advertising comes in stronger.

I quote from my piece:

“So, who is where? The India Scene.

If we look around, it isn’t difficult to tell that most ‘mainstream public relations agencies’ in India are, at the moment, somewhat lagging in their understanding of the space. On the other hand are the mainstream advertising agencies – they are usually prompt at adding new sub-brands/ divisions to keep alive their 360 degrees claims and this time is no different. Interactions with (many of) them however won’t give you the confidence that they have the understanding – they understand the terms/ concepts alright, but do they understand the underlying principles of Social Media? I am not so sure, when I see rampant Astoturfing a la Silky Kumar and others. They are uniquely positioned though to get the client to spend the money on social networking sites of their own :) – did you see ROI being hit for that long twenty20 six? Yes, there it goes…

Among the ‘interactive agencies’, many of who which are run by friends, I know only one which is building ’serious capabilities’ in the space and I respect them for the intent and the effort they are putting into it. Most others, under pressure from the client, are working towards finding ‘mentions on blogs’ as an extra service. Extra for extra money? Am not sure about that. The answer may lie in gaining strategic understanding to the tools & concepts and integrating them into the offerings.

However, advertising, and related creative, has mostly been about driving traffic and sales. Do the latter two players have a strategic understanding of ‘reputation’? Public relations agencies, with their inherent understanding of reputation and engagement may be naturally suited. Somewhat lagging at the moment, as they may be, are still the logical owners of the social media domain, I think.

There are also a few dispersed social media consultants – successful bloggers/ enthusiastic tech wizards; loads of energy, good understanding of the tools but perhaps lacking, again, in understanding of reputation. Would a large Indian or global brand trust their reputation to such a team? Depends on the risk taking ability of a brand manager or the communication head.”

The piece is here:

http://www.blogworks.in/blog/public_relations_1/once_upon_a_time_there_was_the.php

So what next, consolidations through alliances and maybe mergers. Let’s see where this goes…

Cheers.

Rajesh

I agree with you Hobbit that PR firms are slow to adapt to the internet, however there are some of us that do leverage the social media mix to the max. It has paid rich dividends for our clients and we have also learned to collaborate with other media counterparts to leverage the medium.
That being said the examples of PR agencies doing something on this medium pretty low.

Thanks for the kind words. While I write a very US-centric blog (and I try to not do that, but it’s easy to write what you know), I know that I have readers from India that ping me via Skype and IM to ask questions.

I think what I wrote, though, can have implications across the board and around the world. While social media might differ culture to culture and country to country, it is about dialogue and conversation, and that’s what PR is supposed to be about, no matter where we are.

Good luck on all your work. :)