Can An Agency Effectively Manage a Client’s Social Media Program?
If a company doesn’t have someone who can manage their social media in-house, does that mean that company shouldn’t be on the social networks? There’s a lot of hubbub in the PR and social media worlds these days about who should manage social media. We have clients that get the value of listening, learning and engaging with their community but don’t have the resources to manage the enormous time suck that is social media. Should they be left out?
The best scenario is when you have a client like Meagan at Seaport Village. She has a passion for social media, can write well and has an eagerness to learn. In this relationship, we provided our client with strategy, helped her develop a blog, taught her how to use keywords and tags, and continually coach her on the latest tools and trends. We are her social media sherpas and it works really well.
But what about those clients who don’t have anyone in their marketing department to take it on? Our first answer is – it doesn’t have to be someone in the marketing department, it has to be someone at your company who has a passion for social media. We can teach and guide almost anybody if they’ve got that. But what if they don’t have that either. Are they out of luck?
I don’t think so. If the public relations team is a true member of their client’s communications team and has taken the time to understand their client’s business, its audiences, and challenges, then they can shepherd the brand through the social networks. Ideally, there is SOMEONE at the company who can be the team’s eyes and ears on the ground and take photos or send quick texts or emails about things as they happen in real time. That way you’ve got real time sharing, along with the brand interaction and monitoring. And in our experience you will eventually find someone in house who wants to participate.
It’s not ideal, but it’s better than nothing. When companies have no presence at all, they often get taken to task for not listening or being present. So is it better to be there through a proxy who knows the brand and manages its public communication on a daily basis anyway? Or better to be absent? What do you think?
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Be absent is the worst answer. Be present through a proxy is in between. Be present through a companies own people is the best. Look at the best SM example (Dell, Sun microsystems…) they all have people active in SM.
Laurent I completely agree (though that certainly would affect our bottom line!). Unfortunately not all companies are ready to make the room with existing staff to commit to SM or “hire” internally. And I think there are some in SM who think that if you don’t have someone in house you just don’t get it all and deserve to be slammed. Thanks for reading and sharing what you think.
Its not the best answer, but it could work. As a PR agency, monitoring the social media better helps you understand what people are saying about the company and how to move forward.
The main hurdle I see is getting free reign. You don’t want to have to call up and ask permission every time you have a tweet to send out. Yet, you need to do it frequently enough to maintain and build a presence
I certainly don’t want anything to affect your bottom line!
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You’re very right, there’s room for clients and agencies to work together on SM activities. The key is to have a platform that enables collaboration across agencies/clients boundary to perform monitoring, share insights, perform assessment and share results.
btw, we help you with that. If you’re interested, I can show you how.
Laurent