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First things first, be sure to wish Martin Waxman a happy birthday in the comments!
Now on to the slightly less important stuff.
A couple of weeks ago, Sam Fiorella wrote a blog post called, “Why Your Social Media Team Should Be PR Professionals.”
As PR professionals, it makes sense we’d be curious to read more (and you will want to, as well).
If you’re like us, you’ll find yourself nodding all the way through his blog post.
Yes, PR pros know how to manage crises.
Yes, we are trained to manage reputations.
Yes, we know the right questions to ask to create a calm before the storm.
Yes, we can train pros in other disciplines to manage themselves appropriately online.
Yes, most of the knee jerk reactions that happen in social media are done so because the community management is handled by someone without these skills.
Now go to the comments and read what Danny Brown said.
“Disagree. Two words – Justine Sacco.”
We recently talked about the Sacco saga. She is a communications professional. She knew better. And yet…
Read the blog post, read the comments, and listen to what we have to say about where social media belongs.
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We’d love to hear your thoughts.
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Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer.
Inside PR is produced by Kristine D’Arbelles and Ashlea LeCompte.
Joe’s got it right. Social is the intersection of many skills, so the teams need to reflect these traits based on what you want to accomplish with social media.
– PR
– Strategy
– Creative
– Design
– Dev
– Customer Service
– HR
– Analytics
– Paid Media
These skills rarely exist in one person, one team or even one agency. Establishing the internal framework to include all of these skills is the first order of business when brands and or organizations start getting serious about social media.
I agreed with Joseph as well. Social media needs to be part of every department – so staff can act as overall brand ambassadors but also to further their department’s specific objectives (as one of you said on the podcast) – ie sales for sales, customer service for helping customers, etc. I also thought Danny Brown’s comment about Justine Sacco was provocative to promote discussion but still glad you said you didn’t agree with casting a shadow on an entire group as one made a mistake.
I totally agree with this post. As a PR college student, I have learned the value of effective and smart social media and how it can really change a company. PR professionals are taught to embrace all of these skills, so working in public relations gives us a leg up when it comes to knowing how to manage a social media account because it’s our job in the first place!