I was talking to a friend of mine who’s a PR expert. Well, actually I was talking AT her rather than to her. A client that I had worked with last year had decided to use their ad agency to Tweet on their behalf rather than do it themselves. Now, there are not many social media situations that get under my skin and annoy me more than this particular one. In my view social media provides an opportunity to talk to clients and prospects in an intimate one-to one way without the massive cost associated in doing this face to face.

It empowers and encourages companies to get closer to the people that they need and want to in an efficient and non-threatening way. Brilliant. At some point almost every client asks me if I will tweet and post for them. The answer is always the same — no. I will teach them how to do it. Empower them to know what they need to do and then give them the confidence to do it for themselves. When the client asks “why” I often say “would you want me to have dinner with your best client instead of you…because you don’t have time?”…of course not.

Most clients understand this. In fact, the irony is that this particular client understood this too…or at least they said that they did!

Anyway, on this occasion it wasn’t the fact that the client believed that they didn’t have time to do it themselves that really got me going, it was the fact that their “agency” had:

i) offered this service, and

ii) clearly had no idea whatsoever what the hell they were doing!

I know, in the world of social media you might argue that nobody really has a clear idea of what they’re doing…but an agency that’s selling this as a service surely should be able to lead by example? A few followers on Twitter & retweets too…a few comments on Facebook perhaps? Not a bit of it. I have seldom seen less aptitude. In the last 1/4 they received fewer that a dozen interactions…and only one of those was with someone that wasn’t employed by the agency!

My PR friend said this…is the “great social media con”…which it is (and I quite like as a strapline). This is one area of your business which cannot be successfully outsourced. Yes, you might need outside help from time to time — perhaps with strategy & planning, design of your Facebook page, building an app or even copywriting of your articles, but this is miles away from wholesale abdication of social media to a third party.

Social media allows you to move closer to your clients and prospects. The important bit there is the “you”, you don’t want your agency to own the relationship, you don’t want your client to bond with your agency…you want the client to bond with you.

You know your product, your strategy and your brand. You know how to sell the product and you want the client to love you…not the hired help.

Agencies so often sell-in “social media management” as if it were a natural extension of advertising, direct mail or web design…which of course it isn’t. It is, like every other specialist area a specialist area! And, if exectued well can provide a huge benefit, but if executed badly might provide a huge problem.

Whilst it’s true to say that social media success is about psychology not technology there are a few technical things that one needs to have arranged. Not least of all AN AUDIENCE! Clearly if you haven’t got anyone in the room there’s no point in running the seminar and your social channels are the same — until you have an audience you can be as clever as you like but nobody will be able to hear you.

So, as a client there are some things that you need to consider if you want to use social media…and of course get some benefit from it rather than just be able to say that “you use it”!

1. You must resource internally to run your social media. It might be marketing, customer service, it might be PR…but it is very definitely an internal not an external function.
2. “We’ll use young Dave, ‘cos he’s 19 and he’s a social media whizz” WRONG. the best person to be talking about your brand and your product is the person who knows the most and has the most experience and not the person with Facebook experience. Remember, this is a global platform where news (good and bad) can spread very quickly to a massive audience very quickly and you probably want this controlled by someone that has experience.
3. Due diligence. Do not believe a person’s or company’s advice in this area based on experience in other marketing disciplines. If they can advise you about social media they will be using it it themselves.and using it very well. There is no excuse for this not to be the case.
4. You should be able to measure and prove success. Hoping that people are reading your articles is no good…like hoping the company is making money. You need to know whether it is or isn’t…and if it isn’t you must be able to see this and make changes so the situation doesn’t continue.

Like with everything else in business. If you’re lazy or do it in a half-hearted manner — you will fail. Hard work is no guarantee of success, but lack of it is a guarantee of failure.

So, before you commission an agency to do your social media consider whether they have your best interests at heart…or theirs.

Oh, and a thank you to Frances Pardell from Pardell PR for coining a great new phrase!