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The PR Service Menu: What You Can Actually Buy

Is social media, community, and content part of PR?

Mostly no. PR sells earned media: a journalist at WSJ or TechCrunch, a podcast host, an awards judge choosing to feature you. Social, community, and most content are owned channels you publish yourself, and they belong in marketing. The distinction has a price tag. PR retainers commonly run $5,000 to $15,000 a month, while a competent social or content shop often charges half that. Paying PR rates to run your Instagram is the most common scope mistake first-time buyers make.

The clean test is ownership: who decides whether something gets published, you or a gatekeeper?

  • Earned (this is PR) - press coverage, expert commentary, awards, podcast and speaking slots. A gatekeeper says yes.
  • Owned (this is marketing) - your blog, newsletter, landing pages, social posts, SEO content. You hit publish.
  • Paid (this is advertising) - sponsored posts, paid social, influencer deals. You buy the slot.

The overlaps are real, and they are where retainers quietly inflate. A founder's LinkedIn sits between earned and owned: a good firm will shape the messaging and hand you placements to amplify, but writing three posts a week is a marketing job. Content built to attract backlinks looks like content marketing but is actually earned work; the digital PR and link building page covers when that's worth buying. Podcasts, speaking, and awards are earned and get their own treatment in the thought leadership page. Community is marketing or product, never PR.

So what should a PR firm touch on your owned channels? Messaging, spokesperson prep, and repurposing coverage you've already won. What it should not bill you for: the social calendar, the content engine, community management. Those need dedicated staff or a cheaper specialist, not agency hours at PR rates.

Before you sign, get two things in writing:

  • What counts as a deliverable - confirms you pay for earned outcomes, not posts you could publish yourself.
  • Where the scope stops - prevents social and content from creeping into a retainer while another vendor bills for the same work.

If a proposal bundles social management into a PR retainer, ask for line items, then price each piece against a specialist. Agencies that resist itemizing are usually padding the earned work with owned-channel filler.