The Power 100 – Out of Touch?

By , April 12 2010, 10:06 am 6 Comments

 

I love a good list.

 

 

Top 40 under 40’s. The UK’s 100
richest.  Best places to work.

 

And of course  -
the PR Power 100.


I enjoy the editorial, questioning why some made the cut and debating
why some
got left out.

 

But an interesting statistic*
has emerged out of this years Power list.

 

How many of the 100
most powerful and influential practitioners actively use Twitter?

 

The number – only 22%.

 

It seems a low number.

 

Particularly when you
consider the amount of editorial and buzz around Twitter in the last 18
months.

 

But I don’t think the
stat is so clear-cut.

 

To me, it led to a few
possible conclusions.

 

 

1. The PR Industry is out
of touch – and has been slow to embrace social media.

 

2. Social media is not
the remit of the PR industry and is the realm of digital agencies.

 

3. The top 100 is more
likely to consist of ‘older’ practitioners and business leaders – whose
expertise lie in traditional media and may not have time to Tweet
– but their staff may be fully
engaged in social media and their companies are running effective
campaigns.

 

4. Twitter is not for
everyone.

 

5. Twitter may not be
that important.

 

Which industry is best
suited to ‘own’ social media is a
constant discussion point – with all disciplines fighting for the new
budgets that
have become available.

 

The Top 100 being more senior
practitioners must have some truth to it – because after reading PR Week
it’s clear that lots of leading PR
agencies are engaging in innovative and interesting campaigns using
social
media.

 

And early adopters of
technology have always been younger people anyway (just look at Facebook’s
growth
story).

 

But I think numbers
four and five – are potentially the most interesting.

 

Twitter  -
and social media in general – has many evangelists out there.

 

But who knows where it
will end up?

 

Seven years ago Friends
Reunited was the most important thing in the world.


Then it was Myspace.

 

And Bebo.

 

And now they are all
in decline – some worse than others.

 

Facebook and Twitter
are the conversation of the moment.

 

But for how long?

 

Maybe the 78% of the
Power List have been around the block long enough to spot a fad when
they see
it?

 

So they aren’t
bothering to waste too much time on it and are focusing instead on what
matters.

 

Or maybe they are
hopelessly out of touch.


I guess time will tell.

 

And by then – maybe
we’ll have a new list of Top 100…

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

*research created by Emily Cagle – @emilycagle

 

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  • Gemma O’Reilly

    It’s interesting that so many of the PR industry’s power players are not on Twitter. What do other people think? Are they purposefully avoiding it, or are they out of touch?

  • http://www.twitter.com/threepipe Eddie May

    It’s possible that whoever put this list together just did a very quick search for individuals Twitter profiles and may have missed the fact that many of the Power 100 are regularly Tweeting on behalf of their agency. Not every CEO has to have his/her own profile – this comes down to personal choice.
    Whether Twitter or Facebook or anything else ultimately fall into decline is kind of irrelevant right now. The job of a good PR agency is surely to use whatever channels are most effective at the time to reach the audience. The bigger question for PR right now is how these media can be properly harnessed and how all this social media activity is managed, paid for and measured.

  • http://renaissancechambara.jp Ged Carroll

    Do they need to be in touch when they have people who are experts in the field? Part of being a senior manager in any business is knowing when to delegate.

    Then of course, I have a vested interest to uphold.

  • http://www.emilycagle.co.uk Emily Cagle

    Hi and thanks for covering this issue, Adam.

    The full list is here if you want to take a look: http://tweepml.org/PRWeek-Power-Book-2010/

    It’s actually based on a search through the 500+ names in the PRWeek Power Book 2010. We initially found 109, just by doing a simple search for their names and then matching up using their bios.

    Once we shared the list, we made a few changes and additions, as people tweeted with tips / requests, so the number on the list is currently 112.

    It’s not a definitive guide to how many of the 500 are on Twitter, since not everyone lists themselves in a way that’s easy to find, but it is a fairly good guide to how many are using the service prominently enough to be found – around 22%.

    Cheers,

    Emily (@emilycagle)

  • http://www.theprview.co.uk David Clare

    This list, which myself and Emily Cagle created, has caused a lot of interest in why so few of the top 500 are using Twitter.

    I was not shocked though, when creating the list, as I think Twitter is more specific to newer agencies and the younger generation, also more so with digital PR agencies.

    David Clare (@theprview co-creator of the list)

  • http://juliusduncan.wordpress.com Julius Duncan

    I think your point 3 is the most valid. To see the value of Twitter you have to make it part of your daily online repertoire, the more you put in the more your get out. Your typical Generation X top 500 Power Book profile is less likely to be spending the required amount of time in social spaces than your digital specialist, or Gen Y team members.