Keeping you up at night....

[Diane Schwartz]

What's the biggest issue you face in your job these days? As the old question goes, what's keeping you up at night?

[Paul Roetzer]

Hey Diane. For me, it's the evolution of the PR agency, and its role in the social Web. I recently published a post on the topic, Dawn of the Inbound Marketing Agency, and I'd be interested to hear other professionals thoughts.

Thanks.

[Diane Schwartz]

Paul, thanks for sharing. This is something all PR firms should be looking at closely. Do you have examples of some PR firms that are doing the inbound marketing as described in your column?



Paul Roetzer said:

Hey Diane. For me, it's the evolution of the PR agency, and its role in the social Web. I recently published a post on the topic, Dawn of the Inbound Marketing Agency, and I'd be interested to hear other professionals thoughts.

Thanks.

[Paul Roetzer]

So far, it seems most PR firms that are adapting are still focused primarily on the social media elements (blogging, social networking, social media news releases, etc.), and not pursuing the bigger picture of how social media connects with SEO, and in turn drives traffic, links and leads.

Our experience over the last year or so has been that there is enormous demand for firms that can blend inbound marketing expertise and services. This demand is being fueled by The New Rules of Marketing & PR (David Meerman Scott) and Hubspot's high-profile efforts to bring their inbound marketing philosophy to the mass market.

So while there may not be many PR firms doing what is described in the blog post, I think it will be a very different story a year from now.