Social Talk PR
Is the Dutch PR industry in crisis? Traditional (Dutch) PR agencies have increasing difficulty to keep their customers satisfied. These PR-agencies might disappear in the future if they don’t transform themselves into ‘social’ PR-agencies. Most of the award winning PR ideas are created by new online oriented interactive ad agencies. Their customers expect them to develop integrated social media strategies in the end. In the United States, the usefulness and necessity of this transition by PR pro’s are better understood and quickly applied successfully. So what does the PR agency of the future look like? An exchange of ideas in this Social Talk with three experts. Roland Kroes is a spokesman who balances from day-to-day in between the usage of mass media and social media and he knows what he expect from a social minded PR agency in the year 2012. Deirdre Breakenridge can compare the Dutch and U.S. market situation for PR agencies. Jos Govaart has a clear vision as a trendsetter in the emerging Dutch PR 2.0 industry.

Biography
Ronald van der Aart worked with UPC Netherlands for 10 years, starting as a spokesman and Manager Public Relations, followed by the position of Director of Corporate Communications. As such, he was the initiator of the UPC Webcare Team for which he, on behalf of UPC, received the Corporate Social Networking Award in 2009 for category Best Social Company. In the summer of 2009 he left the cable company in order to found Public Relations company RepMen. As a founder of RepMen, Ronald advices a broad range of clients concerning online reputation management. Besides that, he and his company offer coaching, training, and interim-management in the area of for example media relations, webcare and online monitoring. Ronald guides internal teams, executes social media quick scans, helps developing media policies, communication procedures and adapts them to the reality of (micro) blogs, panels, and comparison sites.