Opinion... PR agencies should do more than talk about social media

She doesn’t try to pass herself off as one, nor does she sell her services as a social media advisor to companies.

And yet, she has become so immersed in a few important types of social media that she is acknowledged as something of a guru, and an impressive list of household names now seek her counsel on how to communicate well through social media.

Trying to be clever, I asked her if there was anything that bothered her more than one of these instant social media experts flogging their services online, writing knowing tomes about ‘marketing on Twitter’ and ‘branding on Facebook’.

Her answer? “What really drives me nuts are the PR agencies that try to do the same thing. Too many clients come to me after a slick presentation on social media by a huge global agency, followed by work that only shows how little the teams really get it.” 

Having spent some time in one of those agencies, I described to her what it was like for the global CEO and the China MD to say, “We need solutions for [insert current internet fad here], and we need them yesterday.” While people at the working level of those agencies understood that they lacked the expertise to deliver, they weren’t comfortable pushing back. Saying simply “we can’t do it” is, in some agencies, tantamount to insubordination.

Her advice to agency leaders: if you want to offer social media marketing, don’t try to conjure it out of nothing. Social media, especially in China, has evolved beyond the point where that is possible. Instead, go out and hire some expertise, ally with someone who not only understands it, but who has some legitimacy online themselves.

My friend may wind up with fewer clients, but trust me, you would prefer it that way.

David Wolf, CEO, Wolf Group Asia,
[email protected]