Agencies & Social Media-Eye of the Beholder? (Continuing thoughts on the RSW/US-Second Wind: Agency New Business Survey)

Comments on the Adweek piece focusing on our survey have been passionate and lengthy, and one deserves further attention. Jason Miletsky is the CEO of communications agency PFS Marketwyse. He left a comment as to whether or not agencies that don't practice social media for themselves can still claim to be social media experts and sell those services to their clients.

Further, earlier this week he was in the process of a micro debate (no more than 200 words) on the getperspectives site, with the subject being To be social media experts, must agencies practice what they preach?

As Jason pointed out in his comment on our Adweek article, “interesting timing.” I jumped over to the micro debate (link below) and Jason’s response to the subject fell in the “not necessarily” category, while Nicole Krug’s fell in the “absolutely” category. (Nicole is an online marketing & social media consultant.) Both make excellent points-I’ll lay out each proposition and then tell you where I fall.

Jason’s opening salvo:

Chances are you’ve never seen a TV commercial for an advertising agency, because ad agencies don’t use that medium to promote themselves. It’s not the most effective way for them to reach their target market. But that hasn’t prevented millions of brands from trusting agencies to develop effective TV spots.

And his parting thoughts:

The mark of a good agency is the ability to match strategy with need. Every client, audience and goal is different, and cookie-cutters simply don’t work in marketing. Using any tool, including social media, simply because it’s a service that they sell doesn’t demonstrate that the agency “gets” it – it simply demonstrates what they don’t get: customization based on need.

And now Nicole’s opening thought:

“Social is like sex. It’s fun to talk about and read about, but you can’t truly comprehend unless you do it.”

Forrester’s CEO George Colony makes my point pretty succinctly: if you are not engaging in social media, you just don’t “get it.” Thus I have a hard time believing an agency that doesn’t engage in any kind of social media can call themselves an expert and provide the best possible advice for their clients.

And in closing (partially condensed by me):

The very nature of being involved in a social community means that you are willing to engage with that community, share ideas and learn from the members. . . Social media presents a new frontier for marketers; one with its own set of challenges and unique rules. Interaction is the driving force of social networks, and if you don’t practice that, how can you preach it?

Good points made by Jason and Nicole, but three reasons why I ultimately have to side with Nicole:


1) Jason makes an excellent point with the television analogy, but the flaw in that logic, in my opinion, is a matter of personal control and immediacy involving the medium. An individual in an agency who’s helped develop effective TV spots can’t then turn around and create the actual spot, in a few minutes or seconds, by him or herself, the way one can engage in social media.

2) More importantly, there is the matter of client perception. (Hence the name of this post.) An agency who doesn’t engage in social media may very well be able to create an engaging and effective social media plan, but due to the very nature of social media, i.e., it’s relative ease in taking part, a potential client who hears an agency claim to be expert at social media has to take pause if the agency isn’t practicing what they preach. Right or wrong, it’s most likely the reality.

3) On a personal level, I just happen to agree with Nicole, that social media is just that-social, and with this particular medium, you’ve got to be engaged in order to offer counsel.

Obviously the low cost of entry doesn’t make you expert at social media, far from it, but perception counts for a lot. In my opinion, it almost becomes a moot point whether an agency who doesn’t practice social media can develop an effective social media campaign; if they aren’t taking part in the social experiment, clients may not give them a second look anyway.

Micro Debate/getperspectives site here