The “Inconsistent Agency” in Social Media
As more and more companies come to realize that Social Media will play an important role in their emerging marketing efforts, they often turn to outside agencies (PR, advertising, interactive marketing, SEO, etc.) to play appropriate roles in strategy and execution.
But as noted in my last post, the caliber of these service providers can be “spotty” to say the least.
Partly that is natural: Social Media is a new field with many best-practices that have yet to be captured, much less created or documented.
But, there are also firms who are either willing to cynically exploit client ignorance, or, are too lazy to learn the core principles of the blogosphere.
So now we’ve got Ignorant, Evil and/or Lazy agencies to choose from. But there is yet another type of agency to watch out for, and that’s the Inconsistent vendor.
The Inconsistent Agency is neither evil nor ignorant but has yet to make an agencywide commitment to understanding the new rules of marketing. The resulting knowledge gaps could unwittingly derail a client’s PR program.
The Inconsistent Agency has a handful of Social Media savvy practitioners, on whom the majority of the remaining staff rely for all-things-social. If the client wants to talk to their day-to-day team about blogging approaches, for example, the squad members immediately feel the need to defer that conversation to one of their in-house experts.
That’s not always a bad thing. When particularly complex issues come up for our own clients, for example, our senior staffers (including Doug Haslam, Robert Collins, and a number of other behind-the-scenes smarties) are frequently called on for advice.
For Inconsistent Agencies, the trouble occurs when the workaday account team cannot answer BASIC questions about Social Media.
For example, what if the client offhandedly asks their junior Account Executive, “What do you think about the idea of posting anonymous comments on relevant blogs, and then coming back later as someone-else, to point readers to our site? Is that a cool idea? Is that kosher?”
If Social Media is baked into the agency’s DNA, even that junior staffer knows instinctively that that is NOT COOL. And they won’t be shy about suggesting that the principle of authenticity is central to social media.
If you are a PR agency client, this might be a good test. Ask one of your agency team’s junior staffers the question above. But, don’t freak out if your junior rep “fails” the exam. As I noted above, this is a new field. If your agency has not claimed expertise, it’s not fair to ding ‘em for it. Yet.
UPDATE: On Twitter, in the comments, and in private emails, I’ve been dinged by “junior” staffers who suggest – with justification – that they are often the agency employees with the most & best credentials in Social Media. That is an absolutely fair point, especially as I think about SHIFTers like Amanda Gravel, Sandy Kalik, Marie Williams, our UnSpun bloggers, and many others, who are as expert in the field as anyone. Every good agency can claim similar stars.
My broader point was that a PR agency that professes Social Media credentials will fail if it relegates that expertise into pockets of excellence vs. making a broad commitment to training/education across all levels.
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Great post, Todd. FWIW, that’s also a great question to ask in interviews to help you screen out social media wannabe’s before you make the commitment to hire them.
Todd, I think it’s possible for an agency to be inconsistent even when it HAS made the commitment. Particularly in larger organizations, making the commitment is the easy part. Conducting the education throughout dozens of offices to make sure everyone’s on the same page and has some practical experience to go along with the theoretical training can take time…time during which some account exec in an office far away from HQ can still make an embarrassing blunder because he hasn’t yet been indoctrinated.
Nice post, Todd.
Whilst it is great to see many clients now asking for help with their social media strategy and execution, very often their existing roster of agencies lack depth of experience in this area.
Which is why a specialist agency is usually a better choice. Of course, I would say that, wouldn’t I?
We never ask that question of our junior staff. We only hire people that know the answer instinctively.
Not to mention the agencies who are inconsistent at best (if not completely lacking skills) but will still loudly sell their social media capabilities.
I think what you’re forgetting though, is that it’s the JUNIOR staffers who are the in-house experts on social media. So, I would dare the client to ask the upper management a question and see who they go to FIRST for the answer… 9 out of 10 times in an Inconsistent Agency – it will be the young twenty-something pulled into the high-level meeting. Am I right?
Couldn’t agree more, Todd.
Every new industry goes through these issues.
We see this at HubSpot among SEO consultants and “firms” faking their way through SEO. We see a huge # of social media fakers in disguise as “social media experts” out there too.
I think the industry will standardize on platforms and training programs will arise that will address many of these issues. Also, firms like yours with services based on “the new rules of marketing and pr” will certainly continue to command top dollar by producing the best results for clients.
I’d like to think that the smart “inconsistent” agencies are making the right decisions and providing their in-house expert(s) with the resources and, more importantly, the encouragement to share their basic knowledge of social media with other members of their team. Those who understand social media and use it to complement client programs are typically very passionate (and vocal!) about what SM brings to the table. In the right environment, their enthusiasm could easily influence others who have yet to adopt, or at least get them thinking about it.
Really enjoying this series, Todd.
Who among us would turn away a client who comes to us with a desire to go social? Rather than admit our weaknesses, our first tendency is to say, “Yeah, we can help you with social media.” After all, we’re comms professionals…how hard could it be, right?
A lot of us want to be players in this exciting arena. That’s fine, as long as we remember it’s a young, dynamic field and we’ve got a lot to learn.
I attended an intimate discussion with Bill Gates and a handful of “Mad Men” last year when this came up. It was moderated by Bob Garfield. Consensus? It will take 5 years and a new generation of Sr. leadership (exec level) in order for digital to be properly integrated into their business models. (This discussion spun off into Bob Garfield’s famous Chaos Series in Ad Age). The question of tactical capability does not seem to be the problem in the eyes of the current leadership… it is the core of the communication’s business model that won’t make the consistency work.
They are still having problems paying for their “Manhattan rent” with “grassroots” programs often found in Social Media. They realize that this is a problem they don’t seem to want to solve in their careers.
I am saddened by the ad/pr lack of resolve and constructive collaboration on these topics. We in the blog fishbowl more often attack reasonable efforts then try to adopt successes. Smaller firms like yours, and consultants like myself need a serious shakedown ourselves to the realistic fact that these guys are not into social media and digital because the money simply isn’t there. Social Media Group’s 7 digit contract with ford still won’t pay for a Madison ave marble floor, let alone the rent. Hell, it’s not even enough to cover 1 tv spot’s production budget in Canada!
Maybe this economic crisis the US finds itself in will start to show the big clients that awareness is not their problem, and that the “Big spend” will not buy them character/credibility they so desperately need.
Now is the time for the small adaptable firms. Decentralize the beast. Wall Street, Main Steet and Madison Ave.
I’m just say’n
Todd – Great post. I think that both agencies and clients alike are struggling with the education around social media and marketing 2.0. Shel’s comment is right on track in pointing out that the commitment is the easy part, and execution is where people run into problems. I think that there is a lot of inconsistency ou there, and will be until education and standards are developed.