Warren Sukernek criticizes companies for failing to commit actions that they suggest to clients, according to a blog comment he left me last year:
If the agency doesn’t have the social media platform or Twitter experience, then the client should not choose them for those types of projects. Continuing to work with agencies that fake the experience just propagates the myth.
I observed, in February 2009, that many marketing and PR agencies were branching into social media evangelism for their clients and sold their services under the premise of walking the walk and talking the talk. I opined such agencies were doomed to fail because they were unable to walk and talk together:
[Y]ou can’t do one or the other; you must do both. Having a Facebook group but not a Twitter profile, or having your principals listed on the corporate website but not LinkedIn is wrong; if for no other reason, than your prevention of me and every other prospective customer or partner to be able to find you and interact with you.
Was Warren’s reaction correct?
I see social media and interactive as different. Interactive is about people engaging with a system; social media is about people using technology to communicate. While I’d hope an interactive agency understood social media, I don’t think not using social media means they’re not a good interactive partner. – Andrea Hill
Many interactive/marketing firms are trying to figure out social media, so they may not be there yet. - Josh Fialkoff
I resurrect my year-old blog post because of a comment to, and from, Matter Communications (a full-service public relations agency in my hometown) on their corporate blog last month. My comment — questioning why their Facebook fan page was 30 days outdated, why their Twitter stream incorporated predominantly broadcasts and few replies to people, and why their corporate blogging saw few comments — was sparked by a sentence from the group blogger, account manager Tobi Young, about how the agency uses social media:
As an agency we push ourselves to be ahead of the curve through education and by adopting social media practices. We take pride in our expertise…
Expertise? That implies walking and talking at the same time, a trend I didn’t see in their usage (which has since been corrected). Their clients may be happy, but as someone curious what a PR agency in my town is doing with social media, considering the above claim they are in the groundswell, I was skeptical — so I turned to PR industry experts to share their thoughts whether a marketing agency must use the tools they preach to their clients.
Stevie Wilson, brand manager: Creating a Facebook page won’t do anything if you don’t build up a base of fans and communicate — and really have a conversation. Ditto with Twitter; merely sending out your own things and thanking people for re-tweeting them isn’t sufficient to make you a twitter dynamo. You have to engage others. You have to “talk” to them like they are real people. This has to come from the top down. It’s about value-add. They have to show-off what they do by their own actions; and their pages, websites, etc., are their mirrors to the world.
David Spinks, Scribnia community manager: Both marketing yourself and marketing for clients is vital for business development. I think that focus put into the work they do for their clients should always outweigh the work they do for themselves; however their own marketing should not be forgotten. You want to make potential customers aware of the good work that you’re doing.
If you’re a marketing agency suggesting your clients do X, and you’re not doing X yourself, I question your motives. Thoughts?
About Ari Herzog
Great post, Ari! We certainly need to walk the talk. I am guilty of not blogging as much as I could or should. And I don’t believe there is a “one size fits all” for social media participation. I do an assessment for clients and prioritize and focus on the venues that will initially be most effective.
.-= From Christine Green to you: Conflict Resolution for Businesses =-.
It’s funny, I previously worked at an Internet marketing agency that had no website, blog, social media presence or marketing department for themselves. I always thought it was a little strange that we were selling services for clients for something that we didn’t even do for ourselves.
Now, the company I work for does everything they do for clients for themselves as well, and I think that is really essential. If a marketing company can’t successfully market themselves, how can they prove they can do it for clients?
.-= From Kristi@Blogging Tips to you: Top 100+ Link Building Resources =-.
Heh, your first story reminds me of people who work for cigarette companies but don’t smoke.
Ari,
Thanks for resurrecting my 13 month old comment. Based on your recent experience and my observations, I think the original comment is even more valid now, don’t you? One year later in the social media “revolution”, how can a marketing agency not be able to walk and talk social media at the same time?
.-= From Warren Sukernek to you: How’s your bracket? =-.
Good question, but many do.
It is usually the case that everyone is jumping onto the social media without fully experimenting and measuring how to use it effectively. At the same time, all the social media tools are evolving and their use now may not be exactly the same in the future as they add features.
.-= From Jane Cooke@Website Design to you: How you can contribute to your website SEO project =-.
Walking the walk is important not only to demonstrate that an agency has the skillset, but also to give their own team ongoing opportunities to practice, test and experiment. Social media is something best learned by doing, so no amount of research and reading can substitute for experience. Personally I tend to be my own guinea pig. If I can experiment on myself I can test out different strategies and learn what works and what doesn’t in an environment in which I have a vested interest in the outcome. Doing is also the only way I can (try to) keep up with best practices, changes, etc. Where do I learn about social media? Via social media, be it chatting with peers on Twitter or reading blogs such as yours. It also helps to build trust when you can show how you’ve used things for yourself.
Granted, what works (or doesn’t) for me, may not be the same as what works for a client who sells lawnmowers or researches penguins, but it still gives me knowledge that I can apply to other strategies that would work for them.
And in addition to the rest, agencies should be using social media to market themselves because it works. It will support their brand, increase business, foster knowledge building for their employees, create new opportunities for collaboration, etc.
.-= From Heidi Cool to you: 5 years of babbling about the Web: The Web Development Blog celebrates its quinquennial anniversary. =-.
It´s like company that sells SEO services and can´t be found from the first ten pages of Google. One interresting point is that companies that sell social media services (inbound marketing) use traditional marketing ways (outbound marketing) to find new clients. You might even pick up a “cold-call” from one of these entities.
This is a very important topic Ari; one that everyone thinks of but are afraid to tackle.
This is one of the biggest issues I have with many supposed “SEO companies” and even some individual SEO bloggers.
I don’t know much more then the basics (which is 90% anyway lol) but even I know when an SEO bloggers blog is sucking when it comes to it’s own SEO.
.-= From Dennis Edell @ Direct Sales Marketing to you: Holy Power Outage Batman, Not Again! Yep, Another Two Days Shot to Hell… =-.
When I speak with clients about social media strategy, I advise them to take a look at their target demographic and assess if or how they’re using social media. Sometimes it makes sense to be on Facebook or Twitter, but sometimes it doesn’t.
I respect an organization more for recommending tools that make sense, rather than what the client thinks they need to keep up with the Joneses – and this holds true when they’re their own client.
If I’m being hired for social media strategy and/or implementation, my assumption is that the client needs help with this. So therefore, they’re likely NOT already using it themselves and therefore using those tools aren’t the best way to engage with them.
The shoemaker’s shop shows his skill, regardless if his children are barefoot.
.-= From Andrea Hill@Digital Likeness to you: You Can’t Hurt Coke’s Feelings =-.
You’d pay a shoemaker to fix your shoes if his children are barefoot? What if the second or third time you pay the shoemaker the kids are still barefoot?
I don’t subscribe to the idea that Twitter is necessarily the way to go for all companies. In fact, in some niches Twitter may not fit the type of message you have. Lawyers could typically never write within the scope of 140 chars.
But otherwise a good article, and for most PR agencies social media will be useful tools. But it does take good writting skills to be noticed, followed and read.
.-= From Henrik Blunck to you: Simplify Your Life =-.
Totally agree! That’s why we’re walking the walk. See our website for a 10-second flash explanation.
.-= From Justin@JDM Marketing to you: Why Don’t Marketing Firms Market Themselves? =-.
This is a very essential topic Ari. Thanks for sharing it with us. I agree that Kristi’s situation is like a non smoker working in a cigarette factory. Simple analogy yet strike the bull’s eye. Hope to read more important fact from your blog.
The difficult thing about marketing nowadays is that there are so many different choices of where to be. Without employing twice as many staff marketers can only touch each medium.