Too many PRs are still working on the assumption that social media requires an understanding of technology, it doesn’t. This assumption is one of the reasons that social media programmes are all too often led by web agencies whose real expertise lies in the building of web sites and other information ‘carriers’. And that’s why most social media programmes don’t work. It’s the skill of the PR that is most critical.
Web site builders work on the basis of ‘build it, get some good content, do effective search engine optimization and our customers and key stakeholders will come’. Well, yes and no. People will come if they know that your organisation has something they need or want, but without this certainty you still need to go to them. Furthermore, they will go to a web site to browse and gather information; they don’t go in the expectation of getting good impartial advice and the sort of third party endorsement that lies at the heart of both social media and effective public relations programmes.
Effective social media strategies are about achieving dialogue with key stakeholders in the places that they are, rather than the places you want them to be. They are not a hard sell, they are not a mere presentation of your wares and they are certainly not a showcase for technical wizardry. This is why the lead players in a social media strategy will increasingly be drawn from the public relations profession. Our territory, after all, is the art of conversation, persuasion and corporate social responsibility. Furthermore, we are the most comfortable of all the disciplines in circumstances where we do not have complete control of the conversation.
Ad agencies also lay claim to the lead role, but their skills of delivering messages in an entertaining and brand enhancing manner are also, like web agencies, only a small part of the picture. I am not denying that the skills of both are needed within a good social media strategy, but I am arguing that the lead lies, like it or not with PR.
The reason is that most of the mindset and skills required for effective social media are the same as those held for decades by the public relations profession. Who else manages multiple voices in open public meetings, where many of those present are uninvited? Who else is trained to pick up threats to reputation arising from rumor, misrepresentation of facts or misunderstandings and to respond fast? And who else is used to presenting strategies, products and services to audiences, such as journalists and analysts, who will ask searching questions and certainly not be satisfied with flash presentation and one-way monologue?
ECCO has produced a Social Media Guide to help PR professionals to understand that social media is not a black art where you have to be under 25 or a technology wizard to engage in it. We hope it will help the senior PRs within more than 3,000 client companies around the world to stop backing away from taking ownership of a responsibility that so clearly lies within the PR domain.