Okay, as promised, a quick revisit of the AdWeek piece on RFPs, plus some thoughts on how this sort of thing applies to new media work...

So, here's the thing: RFPs are a pain in the butt no matter how you slice it, for multiple reasons, not least of which is the fact that the average return (i.e., business gained) rarely outweighs the total investment (i.e., time lost, energy spent and the intellectual capital shared). For this reason alone, a lot of people (cough, Tac Anderson) hate them. For me? It's the cost and risk of doing business, nothing more, nothing less. M'kay.

Now, talk about RFPs in the context of new media work and this gets a little more interesting because, well, they're not very common. I'm not sure why exactly this is, but if I had a wager a guess, it'd say it has to do largely with social media literacy levels.

A lot of folks just don't know what they're looking for, let alone how best to ask for it or who to approach.

This being the case, corporate PR and marketing departments interested in new media projects more often than not have the dubious task of manually sifting, identifying and evaluating all sorts of outside experts on things ranging from their credibility and authority with this stuff, to their experience and know-how, to their fees and availability, and the list goes on. You get the picture. I'd argue this process can be, in many ways, as stressful and painful as any RFP.

Unfortunately, this process has very few shortcuts and can be rife with risk and uncertainty. Perform the due diligence and you'll more than likely reap the rewards, but look for the quick fix and, well, be prepared to pay the price.

I'm baking a follow-on post which lists a few ways corporate folks might identify good social media partners and, more importantly, insulate themselves from risk and overcommitment on new media projects, while still experimenting with the YouTube and the MySpace dem kids keep talking about. More to come...

Technorati Tags: marketing, RFP, socialmedia