Spinning the Web

I imagine at least 90% of those who read this post will be from a ’social media agency’ so I want to begin by saying, “Calm down. It’s not necessarily what you think.”

I fully appreciate that social media agencies provide a valuable and informed service – but my point is that this service should be provided by PR agencies as part of the broader media strategy. It’s not being provided by the vast majority of PR agencies, of course, and that’s why we have the ‘dedicated social media agency’; but this just fragments the industry further and provides another obstacle to effective integration.

Dedicated social media agencies have been appearing right-left-and-centre for three or even four years now and understandably so. Social networks and web platforms have amazing (and proven) potential to drive brand awareness, fuel sales and meet specific communications objectives. However – ‘dedicated’ social media agencies are missing the bigger point.

These agencies* are perpetuating the myth that ’social media’ is a separate entity from ‘traditional media’ – but in reality, it’s all media and regardless of your objective, a strong communications strategy will take into account the entire media spectrum. A social media agency, by its very definition, is unlikely to develop a strategy that has a print or broadcast media foundation, even if that is the best route for the brand. This has potentially damaging consequences for the communications sector and, in a nutshell, this is why social media agencies should not exist. Sorry.

The PR industry failed to grasp the potential of social media fast enough, spawning the 'dedicated social media agency' that threatens to fragment the industry further.

Now I am NOT saying here that social media agencies do not provide good ideas, great content and even brilliant results – there are plenty of examples of great social media campaigns developed by these agencies and I have lots of friends who work for them. The point I am trying to make here is not about the quality of work, or that social media agencies are run by charlatans (although there are some dubious ‘gurus’ out there), it is that a brand should not have to recruit a social media agency to deal with web execution and a PR agency to handle traditional media relations – the latter should provide all the knowledge and creativity required to develop an integrated campaign that encompasses all relevant media channels. Social media should be part of a communications campaign, not a separate one. In that sense, I am not criticising social media agencies in this post, I am criticising the PR and marketing industries for not grasping the intricacies of social media fast enough. Indeed, this social media agency bandwagon is being pulled by two familiar mules:

1. Many old school PR agencies don’t like using technology. Trying to talk to the average PR professional about something as basic as tagging content effectively is a bit like trying to get a cat to take a bath. This is not all PR agencies of course – but there are a significant number that are waiting patiently for Twitter to go away. “This Twitterweb… it’s just people saying what they’ve had for breakfast. The risks of getting involved far outweigh the opportunities. Don’t touch it, we say.” With the resulting gaping holes in the market, you can see why social media agencies have sprung to life.
   
2. Many bigger PR agencies see something new and automatically think of it not as something to adopt and integrate into their service offering for the benefit of their clients, but instead as a new revenue stream. “Quick – set up a digital arm so we can milk more budget out of people. Go tell our clients they should be on Twitterbook and we’re the ones to put them there!” At certain points last year you could actually hear the rub of many a PR agency director’s hands as they selected a suitably rounded logo for their new digital subsidiary.
   

No wonder the people tasked with setting up these dedicated social media or digital services take it upon themselves to plug the gap in the industry and make the money themselves. But doing this is doing a disservice to clients. Social media is part of the media landscape now. Permanently. What you do online affects conversations offline. Offline coverage drives online conversation. The two cannot be separated. As such, the future for PR is to embrace social media as part of the service offering and develop expertise within PR teams. Social media does require a new set of expertise but these should not be separated from the other communications practices – they should be part of the stable of services offered by a strong PR agency. Obviously, coming from a full service agency’s blog you might see why this is the stance I’m taking – but it’s a genuine one. The brand that decides to hire a social media agency should take a good look a their PR firm and weigh up the options.

*I should also clarify that I am talking here about social media agencies that claim to develop ’social media campaigns’ from a PR standpoint and not those (specifically within advertising) that simply offer technical development services, creating social media content or building web resources according to the brief from a lead agency. I’m not including agencies that provide specialist coding skills here.

Tags: #PRfail, advertising, agencies, branding, integrated, manifest, pr, public relations, socialmedia