Back in the day when I was a whippersnapper in Chicago’s PR agencies, the lament was “we weren’t getting a seat at the boardroom table.”
Fast Company landed on my desk several days ago; I devoured the cover story, “Social Media Is Sexy (kinda).” It features “38 ironclad rules (sorta); 18 (uncomfortable) truths); and 6 can’t lose secrets (you wish).”
From the tone of the headers on the cover, insert tongue squarely in cheek.
Turn to “Insider’s Secret No. 5 — You Hired The Wrong People.” (The strange thing about these pieces is I can’t tell who wrote them; no bylines at top or bottom of articles.
At any rate, this writer says “To be a good social media person at a brand, you have to have a background not just in digital or marketing, but also in your product. There are so few people with that blend of experience.
And…
“People are always shoving social into marketing, or they’re shoving it into digital. It’s actually all this stuff: It’s marketing, it’s digital, it’s creative.”
AHEM!
Dear Mr./Ms. Fast Company Insider Secret No 5 Author:
Public relations practitioners are highly qualified to manage social media. We know the product inside and out (that’s how we promote it); we are content marketers with better than decent writing skills; we’re creative; we are strategists; we are also business people; and, we have a keen interest in the bottom line — you know the ROI and analytics of it all?
Kindly include PR in the future when writing about social media wherever your tongue is.
#ThatIsAll,
A Credible PR and Social Media Marketing Practitioner
So, PR, are you getting a seat at the social marketing table? Or, are our sisters in related disciplines getting all the glory?
Librarian Jayme says to lower your voice in the library, people are trying to read!
I can’t wait for the day when businesses understand the collaborative nature of social media. It’s incredibly cross functional and by the sounds of it, PR practitioners should have a seat at the mahogany table. Great response to a rather “interesting” Fast Company article. Thanks Jayme!
@GeoffReiner Hey, Geoff. Pardon my absence of late; I was dusting that table so I could take a seat!
The entire cover story was so bizarre; maybe everyone’s tired of hearing about social this and social that. I get it.
And, Fast Company ought to be aware they are likely to get lots of cool stuff from we PR peeps for many of the stories they develop. Am not surprised; giving PR any credence in social would be like telling the king he has no clothes or some clever cliche I can’t come up with tonight!
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Your absence was greatly missed and I would have to agree, I took a look and it did seem quite bizarre. I feel like Fast Company is trying to stir up the pot but really not being too tactful with their efforts.
I have a colleague that does PR and Communications with exceptional finesse. She is so well versed in social media and is also excellent at content marketing. Those in the PR world need a big shout out for their work!
And, either the king has no clothes or the shoemaker’s son has no shoes lol
Oh cliches 😉
@GeoffReiner In that entire piece, there was a shocking language faux pas I looked at several times and couldn’t believe I was reading it. I need to go find the exact wording, but it was XXfucking, like a double word with no hyphen I had never seen before and wondered if it was necessary.
For sure, the tone was like Red Head Writing’s Erika, which truthfully bores me, but in Fast Company?
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing That’s astounding. I find it quite remarkable there isn’t the same continuity with Fast Company’s online strategy. Or if there is, why are they are so willing to deviate?
At least when you go to Red Head Writing, you know what to expect and irregardless of personal opinion, you have to appreciate the consistency :
To your point though, I would certainly expect more from Fast Company, for sure!
@GeoffReiner You’re right. All I do is laud that publication for its content and blog fodder. When you’re disappointed, it doesn’t feel so good!
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Totally agree 😉 We shall see what happens next!
Jayme, I’m not from PR but I hate it when marketing people get judged by the discipline they come from, rather than the quality of their thinking. It’s up to all of us to prove our value with every job. And that’s hard to do if you put a tactic above your ability to analyse the customer’s needs and how the client can align with them. That said, I’ve noticed that some of the folks who excel at social media just so happen to be from the PR world. So you can have a seat at my conference table, if I ever get one.
@barrettrossie You’re the sweetest ever…I’m all for more conference tables so we can sidle up.
Exactly; when is quality measured by the field you’re in?
Very well done, Jayme…and you know what I mean!
I think a marketing professional with excellent PR skills, an ability to think strategically, a talent for writing and crafting headlines, and a real flair for relationships is a force to be reckoned with in the social media realm. The best social media practitioners have the whole package, plus an insatiable desire to learn, learn, and learn some more.
You’ve got a great skill set, Jayme, plus the added skill of community-building. That’s a gift in and of itself.
@New England Multimedia You guys don’t know how comforting your comments are, so I thank you kindly. Michelle, it goes without saying your support is boundless.
It’s fascinating; not sure how/when/if I’ll write about this as it’s unfolding. I have an opportunity to mention to someone this…”since when is likability akin to credibility?”
There’s a back story here, but in business units across corporations, people are unable to truly deliver their expertise in fear of the threatened around the corner.
This community is #RockHot; and, #ThatIsAll.
[and now for the serious answer]
Jayme, I hear you. I just read a Mashable article that started with an outright factual error (the author updated it and was very gracious to me in her response, so I won’t call her out here). It’s just…whew. I’m trying to think of how to put this. The stuff that gets passed through to publication really surprises me these days.
I’m trying to think of the flipside, since I was called out recently for sounding like I didn’t know what I was talking about over on Spin Sucks. Part of me wants to say – well the editor at Fast Company/Mashable accepted it for publication – but then is it really the editor’s job to analyze an article for its rigor? Makes me hesitate to write again, honestly.
And then on my third hand, I’d say, when I pull back and remember that social media is a conversation media, I kind of relax and remember that this is how it works – the exchange of ideas and debate. Someone forgets to include PR in a social media conversation, and then PR pro’s step up to correct for that.
@jennwhinnem Ahh, how simple that would be and kudos for you for calling out a journo. They hate that, but the have to be factual…or do they?
That said, let me explain since I’m the one who anointed you a PR practitioner, after all…there is a love/hate between journos and PR peeps (we who do/used to do media relations). The acknowledgment by a journo that a PR peep supplemented a story with solid info is secret; sources are rarely revealed.
I know for a fact that many of the nation’s top daily reporters have PR sources on the side feeding story ideas, facts and gossip for months ahead of a story. For Fast Company to include PR would’ve been scathing!
And as @barrettrossie said below, some of the best in social marketing are those in PR. Spot On.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing @barrettrossie Well…do mashable writers count as journalists? – See how I’m prioritizing journalists over bloggers. That’s an issue unto itself, I think. But, yes, I’ve never been known for not saying something even when it’s awkward.
I went to a PRSA workshop in the past few months. Attending was a former anchor turned PR consultant (she had her own firm) and she identified two trends that alarmed me. One was that media is much more pay-to-play than it used to be. Second was that since all the seasoned reporters have had to move on to other things, the field is full of young, inexperienced reporters who need PR pros to do the work for them. The way she put it was, “we have to hand them the complete package. we didn’t use to have to do that.”
What says Jayme to those two?
Oh no! Did you somehow miss the “unpleasant truth no. 02” on pg 77? “Social is just PR in overdrive.” I thought that was a compliment. Hmmmmm……what say you, PR people?
We all know that I am not a PR guy (just a guy with a big yapper) but the thing that irks me is a statement based on one example. I suppose the whole thing needs to be taken with tongue firmly planted in cheek. FC makes the same mistake it purports social media makes on the same page where it attempts to expose the BS the “experts” say and mean.
It’s funny stuff…..who edits this crap? Or did they intentionally make it just like SM and allow anything to get published in the spirit of the “free wheeling” social environment?
@rdopping I’m thinking you’re right; right down to the last sentence, Ralph! I think I did see the PR in over drive remark, but that wasn’t as blog foddery as what I wrote about! Hah. I thought it kinda lame (what I wrote about) anyway, but thanks for supporting that I-need-a-blog-post creativity.
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Yeah that last sentence is a bit iffy, huh? How could a reputable magazine like that take such liberties? Poking and prodding….that’s me…….:-)
Can’t wait to see what come up with tomorrow.
Huh. Not for nothing but those tweetable blurbs, some are pretty on the money. The rest, whatevs.
This is turf war – a pissing contest as folks try to stake their territories and budgets. For someone like me – a ‘Jill of many trades’ w/ diverse skills and an invisible “INTEGRATION!” tattooed on my forehead – it really speaks to the lack of understanding of what we really do and forgetting how business really works.
Businesses work when they produce a product/service then sell it for a profit. And in order to do that, they communicate. Communicate their existence, availability, promote utility, value, benefits to customers. Communicate w/ employees on how to talk/help customers, vendors, other employees to find opportunities, functional efficiencies. Communicate with shareholders and investors on their stability and prospects for growth. See what I’m doing?! The lack of understanding – social media is a communications function; PR is all about communications that for frack’s sake doesn’t just mean media or bloggers or FB; and ALL of this is about achieving business goals. Sigh. (Skipping the rant about how there’s more that goes into profits/bottom line than just sales.)
Mitch Joel shared something the other day about how the “what do you do?” question pigeon-holes us. We’re trapped by job titles; same thing here. It doesn’t matter to me if you’re from PR or HR or R&D or the freaking mailroom; if you know the product/service, can talk to people like a human and help them, if you can represent your company/brand in a way that connects to the right people, I say ‘welcome to the team’ – and yes, I think to work best it does take a team. FWIW.
@3HatsComm I do always enjoy the pleasure of your company here! You make salient points that are spoken truths; now, let’s get the right peeps listening. I think they’re in the mail room!
@Soulati | B2B Social Media Marketing Whenever I get around to my Extreme Website/Blog Makeover: Better Late Than Never edition.. I might put this on every page: “If you’re business isn’t communicating, then you’re not doing business.” ™ – ME! 😉
Thanks, Guys, for this amazing dialogue. You’ve inspired another post coming tomorrow.
I think some of this comes back to the whole PR & Marketing debate (which I know you are very passionate about). I think the thing is that all of the lines are really blurring.
Of COURSE, PR peeps would be excellent at social. It does make me wonder, however, if many PR folks are behind? Perhaps folks like you are the rare breed who come from traditional PR, yet have a keen understanding of social. I could be wrong, but I think that blend may be hard to find. That could be why articles like this fail to mention PR as part of the discussion.