Tony Wright on PR/SEO integration hurdles

November 2, 2015: Tony Wright is an experienced PR veteran who led the crisis response team for American Airlines in the wake of the 9/11 attacks. He’s CEO of WrightIMC, a Texas-based interactive agency, and is a digital native who’s been both witness to and participant in the digital revolution that’s shaken up journalism and PR in the past decade. We last spoke to Tony in late 2014 on crisis management and SEO and wanted his take on the growing intersection of SEO and PR.

Didit: You are among those who realized early on that search engines were going to transform the way that the public relations practice works. And yet it seems that many PR agencies — even in 2015 — haven’t managed this transition (or have managed it very late, which I suppose is much the same thing). What accounts for the relative backwardness of the PR industry in respect to the adoption of digital tools? Is this a generational phenomenon that will only solve itself when the “millennials” are in power in the industry, a general digital skills gap, a “New York vs. Silicon Valley” conflict, or something else?

Tony Wright: I believe it has to do with perception. The perception of the SEO is the nerdy guy in the corner with low social skills that just sits and tinkers with sites all day. PR professionals want to view themselves as glamorous connectors of people. They want to be the smart person in the room that is creating a strategy that is going to people stand up and take notice. What they fail to realize, however, is that the majority of SEO these days is more attuned to the PR person’s skill set than the nerdy guy in the corner. Most of the folks at my firm have worked in PR – either for a major brand or agency. The media relations skills learned in PR connect very nicely with the link building skills necessary for SEO. We treat link building like a media relations campaign. This produces high quality links that are in-line with what Google wants to see. Of course, we have technical folks as well – but the real success comes with our link building runs a campaign.

Didit: I’ve noticed that many job descriptions for entry-level PR positions include the magic words “social media,” but not the words “SEO.”  The implication is that SEO knowledge is irrelevant to modern PR practice.  Do you see this situation changing anytime soon?

Tony Wright: Again, it goes back to perception. Social Media is seen as a way for young, media savvy people to get into PR. PR folks see that their skill set can be used effectively in social media. The problem is that the measurement of the impact of social media is still in it’s infancy. Clients today want dollar in/dollar out reporting. But this isn’t a new problem for PR. We used to use “Advertising Equivalency” back in the day — basically where we would look to see how much it would have cost us to put in ad in a publication where had a media hit. It was highly inaccurate. Most of today’s social media metrics aren’t related to the bottom line, just like before. And the PR professional can still pretend to be the glamorous storyteller and ombudsman they’ve always wanted to be.

Didit: Is the press release — (SEO optimized or not) dead in the era of “influencer marketing?”

Tony Wright: Absolutely not. Press Releases are necessary for so many things beyond SEO. Press releases allow you to distribute your news from a channel that is seen by both the public and journalists (as well as influencers) as legitimate sources. In a world where there are rumors that generate their own rumors and then spread across the globe, a press release is the best way to get the message “straight from the horse’s mouth.”

Didit: A lot of SEO agencies are adding “PR” to their service offerings. What are the hazards of giving the PR task to an agency with great SEO chops but limited exposure to the core principles of PR?

Tony Wright: Dealing with reporters is different than dealing with bloggers. It’s not hard to screw up a company’s relationship with the press. Also, in my experience, highly technical SEOs are not always the best at communication. PR is about convincing someone else to tell your story. If a shop has the skills to do that, they should. If they don’t, it’s probably best to partner with someone who does.

Didit: Do you see any changes from Google or the other engines that are likely to affect the way that digital PR is accomplished in the next year or so?

Tony Wright: How I wish I had a crystal ball. I would say that the mobile revolution is going to change how stories are written. Smaller screens are not great for long form articles. Video is going to increase exponentially. And reviews management for companies is going to become more important as crowdsourcing continues in every part of life.

I’m not sure if I quite answered the question, but I gave up on guessing what Google was going to do years ago.