Comments on: Social Media Marketing – PR vs SEO – Where Does it Fit?

By: SEOptimise 2009 – The Year in Review | SEOptimise

SEOptimise 2009 – The Year in Review | SEOptimise — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 21:55:31 +0000

[...] Social Media Marketing – PR vs SEO – Where Does it Fit? [...]

By: Joan Weinberg

Joan Weinberg — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 06:44:24 +0000

PR agencies that don’t get it? What about SEO companies? My SEO provider doesn’t understand strategy. He thinks the world begins and ends with a list of words. I sent him a list of competitors and he didn’t even bother to check. Yesterday he admitted he needs to spend more time on my site understanding my business. I think I’m firing him today…

By: Jarrett Gucci

Jarrett Gucci — Tue, 15 Dec 2009 19:42:21 +0000

Let’s take the simple approach to answer that. If you consider that the way SEO works is to get a brand as close to the top of a search and attract customers that have never heard of you. Social Media works in a way that allows potential customers to know a little or allot about your brand before they check you out. So as a consumer which destination technique is more likely to convert to a new customer.

By: SEO Company

SEO Company — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 16:41:49 +0000

Both the article and discussion are worth reading .i completely agree with Kevin and being a SEO Company we do need PR because i’ll second simmon that jack of all trades is master of none.

By: Oscar Del Santo

Oscar Del Santo — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 15:05:16 +0000

I have dealt with this issue in my blog as well and I fully agree with Kevin. We need both.

In order to have both, however, SEO and PR consultants are going to have to upgrade their respective skills in each other’s areas and become well-rounded professionals.

By: Footprints (18.09.09) | Chris Deary

Footprints (18.09.09) | Chris Deary — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 00:07:32 +0000

[...] Social Media Marketing – PR vs SEO – Where Does it Fit? [...]

By: Social media marketing services in London. « Digital Enlightenment

Social media marketing services in London. « Digital Enlightenment — Thu, 17 Sep 2009 13:11:51 +0000

[...] Interesting article written by Kevin Gibbons on the debate about using a PR agency V a SEO specialist for social media campaigns. [...]

By: Dave Greenberg

Dave Greenberg — Wed, 16 Sep 2009 14:45:51 +0000

Thanks for the post Brett, very though-provoking. One thing that I would point out that underlies all of the above comments is that it all really depends on a the ‘person’ doing the SEO or PR or Social Media work. Some agencies feel the need to rush into the online space and assign junior account managers that really have no business in that world. The same goes for the converse situation where SEO’s rush into the PR space. If you have someone who is well versed in whatever they are doing, they will surely do a good job at it. The bottom line is that you need to know who you are dealing with and what their skills and experience are before getting involved with them at all. Thanks.

By: Kevin Gibbons

Kevin Gibbons — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 11:55:09 +0000

Thanks for all the comments. Some great points in there, especially agree that it's a strategy which needs a large amount of input from the client to ensure any social media activity fits in with their own branding and only strengthens a clients reputation. There's also an interesting post related to this on Top Rank Blog today.

By: John McTigue

John McTigue — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 19:36:16 +0000

We call ourselves an Inbound Marketing Agency, since we are neither a PR nor an SEO company. We do both and we blend it with web design, graphic design, copywriting, social media marketing and marketing strategy. It seems to me the most successful companies using social media and blogs are taking this high level approach first, mapping out strategy, then applying the right tools and people to the tasks at hand. As an agency, we try to work with our clients as a team, so that their personality and experience get translated to blogs and social media. The SEO part is integral to that strategy but doesn’t drive the content nor does it focus strictly on PR.

By: Richard Ellis

Richard Ellis — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 13:35:00 +0000

An organisation that puts search engine rankings ahead of reputation is opening itself up to trouble. Considering an online presence purely in terms of hits and traffic is to let the tactical dominate the strategic. Reputation is both as important and as vulnerable online as it is in traditional media – in some cases more so. An online presence needs to be aligned with the broader corporate reputation & strategy and to be actively managed. This means understanding the organisation’s stakeholders and their interaction with both the company and the forum. This is PR’s area of expertise. There is a reason so many companies appoint a communications specialist to their board.

It isn’t possible to categorise all agencies as either SEO or PR agencies. PR is embracing the digital world and the better SEO agencies are realising the importance of considering reputation in their work. Only a handful of PR agencies are yet to understand the importance of online repuation and the majority have reshaped there businesses to ensure they can supply clients with an excellent online capability assuming it’s approapriate. Some agencies have the expertise in-house others have formed alliances – both can work well. The boundaries between what the two disciplines will continue to blur as we continue to learn from each other, but an online strategy needs to be reputation led.

By: Simon Stark | Amnesia

Simon Stark | Amnesia — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 22:20:47 +0000

This is great. We as a SEO company are just joining the forces with a professional PR company. The jack of all trades is a master of none :)

By: Ed

Ed — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 16:04:40 +0000

Good article + discussion. PR and SEO, obviously, important, but i would, also, add in content writers (not necessarily copywriting experts but experts and creative-thinkers in a particular industry as well as brand-builders and brand-story tellers).

By: Billie Ginther

Billie Ginther — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 18:58:22 +0000

Great article Kevin with some very valid points for both SEO and PR. The client needs the talents and expertise from both. Perhaps this is a call for the PR and SEO community to begin dialog and partnering opportunities to deliver the best results derived from both worlds.

By: Ashley Friedlein

Ashley Friedlein — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 09:46:44 +0000

This debate, whilst interesting, seems to miss a few higher-level questions:
- Do you even need a so-called ’social media strategy’ and what exactly do you mean by that? i.e. what are the objectives, the business case, goals etc?
- Should you have an agency at all? Or is the real challenge here more about cultural change within the client as to how they treat online and how the manage their brand and marcoms?
- Why should it be either PR ‘or’ SEO? Why not a marcoms agency? A specialist ’social media’ agency?

In the absence of clarity on the above – particularly the first point – it is a little difficult to have any meaningful debate.

For example, if you were trying to sell your company and needed financial PR to influence the press/buyers in your market space, and you had 2 weeks to sell, then I probably wouldn’t go to an SEO bod. I’m not interested in traffic, or Google rankings, I’m interested in influencing a few select individuals. And I can use Online PR (and perhaps PPC) to help with this.

Likewise if I were wanting help with crisis management, from a PR point of view, I probably wouldn’t go to an SEO person (again, PPC could play a role).

However, if I wanted traffic, links, long term influence etc. then, of course, you need SEO.

PRs currently lack many of the skills of that SEOs have, and vice-versa. So it depends what you want to achieve as to the mix you’ll need.

Ashley Friedlein
CEO, Econsultancy

By: Kevin Gibbons

Kevin Gibbons — Fri, 11 Sep 2009 07:18:34 +0000

Steve, completely agree – there are strengths and weaknesses of both an SEO and PR perspective of social media marketing – which is why I think an integrated approach is required.

Many SEO agencies will run a social media marketing campaign from an SEO perspective, PR agencies are unlikely to have link builing/bait as a main goal. So this is one area where looking at this from both angles would help to improve the overall outcome for the client.

Gordon, I realise VCCP were behind the Compare the Meerkat campaign, although I assumed VCCP Search may have helped with the social media promotion. Either way, it was an excellent all-round campaign which was incredibly successful, both on and offline.

Every social media project is different so it really depends on the type of promotion, main goals & required approach – but the best campaigns usually look at both sides.

By: Steve Mullen

Steve Mullen — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:55:08 +0000

Great thoughts here. Thanks for posting. I tend to believe that PR practitioners are a better fit for social media marketing than SEO practitioners. However, it's a massive benefit if the PR practitioner has a grasp of SEO techniques, or can consult with someone who does. PR, SEO, and social media marketing should be tightly interwoven. The PR materials, which used to be sent solely to the media, are now excellent link building content for SEO. They're also great materials to be used on social media and social networking sites, which can help take the news directly to the public rather than relying on the filtered media. Steve Mullen EndGame Public Relations

By: Gordon Rae

Gordon Rae — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 17:50:07 +0000

This argument leaves me cold; both sides are looking at themselves in the mirror, and neither is actually thinking about serving the clients. SEO is about search engines, the most anti-social webites, built by robots, where people go when they don’t know which site to visit. Anything social, or word of mouth is the antithesis of SEO.

PR isn’t about people, either. It’s about the tiny minority of people who work in the media, write for a living, and appreciate the writing equivalent of frozen ready meals they can heat up in the microwave. Compare the Meerkat wasn’t done by a PR company or an SEO company; it was done by VCCP.

By: Mat Morrison

Mat Morrison — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 15:10:13 +0000

Yeah. That’s the problem w/ keeping an SEO blog. Other SEOs come in and use the comment stream to link-build.

By: Singapore SEO Consultant

Singapore SEO Consultant — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 13:33:31 +0000

One of my clients hired another to do social media marketing for them. This is something which I believe an SEO specialist could do and should be done by an SEO.