Challenges and Opportunities: PR in the Web3 Era

How to think about web3 from a public relations perspective? It is a game changer.

The PR “game” is about communication, connecting the public with defined messages. And web3 is a revolution in connectivity.

The preceding versions of the web were each revolutions in themselves. They represented something akin to new pipework, or new cabling, in the global human network. Web3, however, is more like circuitry.

Web3 is not just another iteration of the internet. It's a paradigm shift that embraces decentralisation, blockchain technology, and immersive experiences through virtual worlds like the metaverse.

In this article, we'll explore how the advent of web3 has transformed the landscape of PR, ushering in new challenges and opportunities for PR professionals and the companies they serve.

Changes from a new infrastructure

The first version of the web delivered read-only websites, delivering information, which could also serve as a storefront or calling card. But users could only look in from the outside, without interaction or contribution. Web2 introduced those capabilities, enabling user-generated content, which in turn introduced social media. It was as if the door to the store had been opened.

Web2 saw the rise of BIg Tech - Facebook (now Meta), Google, Twitter, and so on - which capitalised upon user content. Users had been let inside, and there was a tremendous flurry of interaction, but the store clearly belonged to someone else.

The disrupting technology that has initiated web3 is blockchain. Its “pipework”, or “circuitry”, enables connections between anybody and everyone, without the need for a central mediator to provide the platform where everybody meets, setting the rules and taking its cut. Hence blockchain’s primary contribution and ethic — decentralisation.

This new infrastructure naturally changes communication. Other technologies can and have been added atop of this infrastructure, such as cryptocurrencies, NFTs and decentralised applications (dApps). Innovation is thriving, including in the operations of PR. Along with it all, though, the audience is evolving too, demanding more regarding the information and messaging it receives.

PR practitioners must adapt their strategies accordingly in this emerging paradigm. The old paradigm was typified by one-way communication, essentially pushing messages onto the public, often with spin and manipulation, which in such a landscape could much more deliver results while passing undetected.

In the web3 world, there is an emphasis on two-way communication and community engagement. Companies are expected to listen to feedback, address concerns, and involve their audience in decision-making processes. Web3 is decentralised, participatory and collaborative. The information marketplace has never teemed before with such a supply of quality data. Both audiences and PR professionals alike have access to information as never before.

Companies must, therefore, focus on building open, genuine relationships with their audience and community. Alongside decentralisation, transparency is another foundational ethic of blockchain and web3. Audiences increasingly expect it and can smell it when something less is delivered.

Building trust and community engagement

Central to successful community engagement is the fostering of trust and belonging, via authentic and transparent connections. Such communities are established via forums, social media, and other online channels, facilitating direct interaction between businesses and their audience, and sideways between community members themselves.

Alongside the rise of communities and interaction, web3 is delivering for users a higher level of privacy and control over their data. Demonstrating and communicating an ongoing commitment to these ethics serves to enhance trust, and therefore also enhances the reputation of companies in the new landscape.

With greater transparency and connectivity comes greater scrutiny. PR campaigns should adapt accordingly, avoiding hyperbolic promises that later cannot be delivered. In the new landscape, authentic communication is rewarded. For example, companies are finding excellent results by openly sharing their business models and future plans with their audience, and then ensuring to deliver on their targets. Web3 PR seeks to effectively interact with target audiences, and answer questions and concerns. Increased engagement in this manner boosts trust, loyalty and brand awareness.

With increased two-way connectivity, information flow is boosted. The audience once again is sensitive to this shift, expecting to be treated with sensitivity in return. It’s worth remembering that, once upon a time, in the broadcasting age of television and radio, the audience understood the one-way nature of communication, and so there was acceptance of mass advertising, which more often than not broadcasting a message irrelevant to them.

During web2 and the rise of digital marketing, there was already a growing impatience with such irrelevant messaging. Web3 is delivering enhanced two-way communication and with it an even greater appetite for personalised messaging. PR that can help meet this demand enables clients to reap rewards.

Other forms of community engagement for web3 PR will come via interactions with DAOs

(decentralised autonomous organisations). These blockchain-enabled communities have been created for many purposes, but most notably to actually lead projects, facilitated by a form of digital token known as governance tokens. DAOs are highly transparent, highly democratic entities, and so communications must ensure to rise to this level with suitably honest and consistent messaging.

Web3 PR for web3 companies

The main offerings of web3 PR include a range of services tailored to promote and market web3 technology and blockchain-enabled projects. In the usual fashion, such PR agencies focus on helping web3 companies secure organic coverage, build relationships with media outlets, and establish themselves as thought leaders in the web3 industry.

But effective PR for web3 companies must also be adept at handling a shifting landscape comprised of rapid technological innovation, regulatory evolution, and scalability. All in all, it is a quite different, newly adapted PR segment, which has emerged to address and keep pace with a hugely dynamic space, whose potential for growth is startling.

Web3 PR agencies must be well-versed in the tech, trends and industry developments of the space. Some of the services offered include influencer marketing, social media management, community management, SEO and crypto link building, and so on.

Via social listening tools, social media platforms can be monitored moment-to-moment, which PR pros can feed back to stakeholders, taking the pulse for a company or brand, freshly sourced from an ever-flowing stream of user-generated content.

Web3 PR also deals with some much more specialised areas, such as GameFi (a combination of gaming and finance, where players earn digital currency), Play2Earn, its outgrowth, where players are rewarded for participation, and the metaverse.

Enter the metaverse

The metaverse is a concept that has gained significant attention and investment from tech giants, including Facebook (now Meta), Google, Microsoft, and others, despite being an, as yet, ill-defined one.

The metaverse is already here, and still being built. Like the future, perhaps, “not evenly distributed”. It will likely evolve into a form that cannot be fully predicted.

In terms of what’s already arrived, it is thought by many to consist of our present digital reality. That is, social media, online gaming, augmented reality, virtual reality, the cryptosphere, NFTs, decentralised finance, and so on – the sum total of our shared digital environment, where users can interact virtually.

The excitement and expectation around the metaverse’s potential arise from the prediction that, with the emergence of web3, this digital environment will only become more persistent, immersive, and interoperable, connecting previously distinct digital environments, while increasingly intersecting with our physical environment.

Web3 PR can operate through metaverse channels, speaking directly to communities there, and creating novel forms of audience engagement, while also demonstrating web3 fluency to clients. The metaverse is far from what it can be, but it already contains rich existing opportunities while symbolically crystallising the glowing, nascent promise of web3.

In summary

Web3 is a still emerging industry, with new territory laid every day, and so PR professionals must be open and adaptive, as old established methods no longer all apply. The most effective web3 PR agencies are aware of certain key areas:

• Web3 is a revolution in connectivity, embracing decentralization, blockchain technology, and the whole virtual world.

• The old paradigm of communication in PR is shifting to a focus on two-way communication, community engagement and transparency.

• Building trust and authenticity are crucial in the new landscape, with evolving audiences demanding more.

• Web3 PR depends upon adapting to a dynamic landscape of rapid technological and regulatory changes.

• The metaverse presents opportunities for PR professionals to locate and engage with communities in novel and immersive ways.

• PR professionals must keep pace with web3’s evolving demands and opportunities, in order to meet client needs and succeed in the space.

Author Bio

Valeriya Minaeva is the Founder of a native web3 Communications firm VComms.io and a main contributor to 1inch Network, the largest DeFi protocol.