Communicate Magazine from London recently published a fascinating and timely debate between PR heavyweight Abigail Harrison from thebluedoor and her SEO nemesis Andrew Girdwood from bigmouthmedia about the pros and cons of using either a PR or a SEO agency to assist a company in their social media strategy.

I do not believe there is currently a more urgent or pressing debate from the point of view of online strategy or online reputation management.

The arguments used by the two participants are the ones we might have expected from the PR and SEO camps. See if you can guess who said what:

• “PR, like the web, has always been about people. SEO is intrinsically and historicaly linked to Google bots and algorithms – not people, and certainly not reputations“
• “I don’t think we have seen any evidence that the PR agencies have caught up with, or overtaken, the digital natives“
• “I feel that SEOs… get in the way of the strategic thinking required for meaningful PR“

And yet there were some gems to be found in the crossfire, like Andrew’s adroit assertion that “Social media is a discipline which requires online communication skills, alongside technical skills and analytical skills. A deficit in any one of these three key areas is a threat to success of the campaign.”

Quite, Andrew! Bull’s eye! This is indeed what I have been arguing for quite some time: that SEO and PR are inextricably linked in today’s social media realities, and that any agency that is deficient in either is competing at a serious disadvantage. Which in turn explains why the more enlightened agencies are favouring a cross-pollination of digital and communication skills for new key roles – the likes of online reputation manager or social media strategist.

Indeed, the leading agencies of tomorrow will be integrated communities where technical and communications staff work together seamlessly under the ovearching leadership of the online strategist, a professional whose qualifications and interests must encapsulate the best that the worlds of SEO and PR have to offer.

I look forward to hearing your views on this fascinating and timely debate in the comments section

© Oscar Del Santo for THE ONLINE STRATEGIST, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Online PR, Online Strategist, Online Strategy, SEO, social media strategist

Very often small and not-so-small businesses and organizations make the mistake of approaching web design & development agencies to ‘sort out’ their online presence. This is a recurrent error that, as I will illustrate later, even ‘should-know-better’ public and local authorities are not immune to. Employing a web designer in this fashion is tantamount to charging a bricklayer with the task of building our house without the previous intervention of an architect. The fact is that most web designers (though by no means all) are woefully unprepared when it comes to fundamental factors for the success of even relatively small 2.0 internet projects.

The factors I am referring to here include SEO (search engine optimization), SEM (search engine marketing), web analytics, monitorization and social media integration/social media marketing – let alone digital content generation (for content is king, as they say), online reputation management and digital PR.

Think of the web designers of renown in your city or region. I bet the prime criterion they are judged by and the strength upon which their current success rests is their ability to produce eye-catching and technically sound webpages – usually loosely following the dictates of their patrons, though usually with much professional autonomy and artistic license. And much too often that is enough to carry the day for them

I should know. Not long ago I was part of an agency pitch team for a local authority that was about to invest €55,000 on a ‘webpage’ in order to promote their city as a tourist destination of choice. “We want a website with such and such colour and with little text”, was the councillor’s opening line before either myself or any of my colleagues - which incidentally included one of Europe’s web analytics gurus - could even begin to explain the crucial importance of any of the elements I have just mentioned for the real success of the project (to promote that city as a tourist resort, and certainly not to merely please the councillor’s aesthetic sensibilities, one hopes!).

To no avail. Result: this local authority ended up with the colourful and minimalist website they wanted by a creative agency, to be sure. And yet regrettably a website with no social media widgets, flawed from the point of view of SEO and hence difficult to find in the search engines, bereft of any interactive elements and as such unable to galvanize public enthusiasm through the social networks. Unsurprisingly their city did not achieve their unstated goals through the online medium and it is losing out today as a result.

We are increasingly witnessing the rise of a new wave of agencies that I would describe as collaborative enterprises where the importance of all the links in the chain of 2.0 success – programmers, SEO and SEM copies, web designers, analytics experts, digital content editors, online monitoring and reputation managers and others - work together under the overall guidance of an online strategist or an online strategy team that acts as both the ’architect’ of the project and also the ’conductor’ that ensures everyone plays together in precise rhythmic coordination and to the same tempo.

Photo Credit: Simon Blackley

What is the role of online strategists and what must be their qualifications?

In most general terms, the online strategist’s job is three-fold:

1. to create the blueprints of the project, having previously established a clearly defined set of achievable goals together with the client. 
2. to find the most compelling way to coordinate the multifarious technical, artistic, content and marketing teams in order to accomplish those goals in the quickest and most cost-effective manner.
3. to be the much-needed liaison between the client and the aforementioned teams and act as his first port of call (beyond the traditional account management sense).

Just as an orchestra conductor does not necessarily play every single instrument, online strategists are not experts in every single aspect of the Web 2.0. It seems to me, however, that the following are essential if they are to perform to a high standard:

• Basic technical competence and a thorough understanding of the role of all the various integrating elements – like SEO, SEM, etc. – and crucially the fair value of their contribution in monetary terms.
• A nose for online publicity and PR. At the end of the day a webpage or an online presence is always about selling something.
• Good managerial and ‘people’ skills – they must refuse to give in to ‘prima donnas’ in their teams and emphasize the importance of collaboration and team-play.
• Excellent client-facing and communication/training skills, since it will be their responsibility to deliver the finished product to the client and an element of ‘post-delivery’ training will be consistently involved.

If coordinating multifarious technical, artistic and marketing professionals within an agency is difficult, coordinating independent external providers working for the benefit of a single project can easily turn nightmarish for a client who is not truly well versed in internet matters. And this recurrently translates into significant amounts of wasted time, money and effort.

This is why we online strategists are often hired as overall coordinators of the various outsourced agencies with the responsibility of bringing order to chaos and ensuring the client is not overcharged. Hardly a dream scenario – the dream scenario would be an integrated, diversified and coordinated agency as I have argued - but one that makes much more sense than leaving the end client to fend for himself amongst professionals who don’t often speak the same language and then expect him to sell the results internally.

Finally, while good online strategists must be - as Diana den Held has indicated – fully in synch with the client, they should also be thick-skinned enough to challenge the latter by opening up new possibilities to promote her end product or service through a combination of the best technical, artistic and marketing mix. Pretending that a client is going to approach us with a ‘perfect plan’ is tantamount to expecting a layperson to give an architect the finished blueprint of their dream house.

In the end, our role as online strategists is to capitalize on our clients’ enthusiasm, guide them and show them the best way forward: we strive to be regarded as trusted advisors with a ‘can-do’ attitude who can exceed their expectations by combining the best human talent available to us with the most successful and proven online business practices.

I look forward to hearing your views on online strategists, their role and your experiences with them in the comments section.

© Oscar Del Santo for THE ONLINE STRATEGIST, 2009. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: Online Reputation Management, Online Strategist, Online Strategy