Is social media transformational? That was the topic of my panel discussion this past weekend at University of Georgia's Connect 2009: Integrating Social Media and Traditional PR.
I was joined by Aaron De Lucia senior vice president of Porter Novelli, Austin and Melanie James - University of Newcastle (Australia) who joined via Skype from her home.
And thanks to Professor Karen Russell for inviting me to participate. It was also great to connect with Jeremy Pepper, Toby Bloomberg and Bert Dumars.
Jeremy Pepper and Toby Bloomberg
Now I can make a strong case supporting the contention that social media is forcing PR to undergo transformational change. Consider:
- From a technical perspective, the social tools we are using gives us greater reach at a lower cost.
- From a human resources management perspective, it shifts the balance of power giving younger professionals a leg up on their older counterparts who are less familiar and less comfortable with social media. It decentralizes authority and makes everyone in the the organization a spokesperson.
- From a business development perspective, it is enabling PR professionals to cultivate vice presidents of corporate communications and marketing to be clients.
- From a job function perspective, it is moving us away from media relations and more into customers relations. Or put another way, it is disintermediating journalists as the vehicle to deliver and validate our news. We now can go directly to the user, and the user increasingly comes directly to us.
- From a message perspective, we are more comfortable with negative comments going public and more able to admit mistakes, when it doesn't go against legal or HR. More information is transparent, though proprietary information is still subject to non-disclosure mandates.
But Is It?
But professor James isn't quite so sure. Her comments on the panel suggests that social media adds only another layer of work to what we are doing with traditional media. As she pointed out, PR professionals spend a lot of time:
* deciding whether social media should be part of your program or campaign
* defending whatever decision you've made
* implementing the social media aspect of your activities
* evaluating what if any impact it's had
So what exactly is so transformational?
And now to contradict myself, I can the make case that social media only reinforces our core competency â€" relationship building. Now non-experts and fans have joined reporters and industry analysts as our target audience.
And fundamentally, it is just as difficult to demonstrate bottom line impact. Even as social media becomes another revenue source for agencies, in many ways we are still a cost center. And some may argue that over time, we will just allocate fewer resources to traditional media so the top line growth is debatable.
So where do you come out in the debate? Now the conference was held at the University of Georgia, so the answer may be academic, but the truth is, regardless of your perspective, social media is becoming more central to what PR does. I think social media is giving PR an opportunity to play a great role in the overall marketing, customer experience mix. But whether you buy into the hype and hyperbole, one part of our job has not fundamentally changed: deliver value to our clients.
Let me get back to you.
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