The ‘Why’ And ‘How’ Of Social Media

I’ve always agreed with Brian who once said that it’s not content that’s king, it’s connection. It’s the myriad connections we make every day when we venture onto the interwebs that’s important. The actual content – the things we are saying to each other – well that’s for the marketers and the sociologists to ponder.

So, if you are a marketer you still have to worry. And you have to learn about how those connections work so you can venture out into the conversation. The problem for most folks in the world of public relations is they are blissfully ignorant when it comes to the technologies that make all of this possible.

In other words, most PR folks understand (or at least are getting to understand) the ‘why’ of social media. What they don’t understand is the ‘how.’ I would even suggest that most don’t even know that they don’t know.

I’m not arguing that PR people should be fluent in PHP and Ruby on Rails (although it can’t hurt) but I would suggest that we can all be a bit smarter. If you are suggesting a client use Facebook or Twitter, you should at least understand what it is they do and what the underlying technologies are that make all of this possible. Or at least learn enough to seem like you do.

There are lots of agencies recommending podcasts, videoblogs and Twitter accounts for their clients. And most of the people making those recommendations have no clue how to accomplish any of their recommendations from a technical standpoint.

This all comes to mind as I read this week that SHIFT is announcing a social media labs of sort.

The companies that, for years, chased after “ink” in the mainstream media are now starting to think like publishers themselves.  Creating and sharing multimedia that helps spur dialogue in blogs, forums, Twitter, etc., has become almost as important as getting that elusive WSJ clip.

SHIFT is one of a few agencies that I would venture to guess not only understands the ‘why’ but the equally important ‘how’ of social media. Like how do I do video, for example. Understanding how to implement all of these bright ideas is going important, especially with budgets slashed and clients looking to social media as the low cost alternative to traditional PR (right or wrong).

The agencies that not only ‘get it’ but ‘get how to do it’ will be the winners.

Related Posts:

• Building Better Tools
• The New News Release
• A SHIFT in New York