Social media is a method of communication. To be effective in social media, whether as a marketer or just as an ordinary participant, a person, first and foremost, must communicate well.
Yes, social media tools are mostly driven by technology. But they are driven by technology to deliver a message or messages.
We are in an era of technology transition. Communication professionals are learning quickly that to be relevant and effective in the age of social computing, there is more to competency than communication skills. Technology has become a requirement of the skill set. Yet, so many communication professionals- from public relations to customer service staff and writers to journalists- are horribly deficient in average computer understanding, much less that of web-based technologies and tools.
Therefore, it is not fair to plant social media efforts totally on the shoulders of the public relations staff today, unless of course PR department can exhibit the kind of tech-savvies required to accept the responsibility. It will be in the best interest to employ a specialist in social media who reports to the same person or department as the public relations director with both instructed to work hand-in-hand on social media projects.
What is most telling in social media efforts is the message. As soon as three to five years from now, I see social media marketing as an almost exclusive domain of public relations professionals so long as we get our collective heads out of our assess and learn how to do it.
Social media is essentially public relations in the online world. Divide the category up by components- blogs, social networks, micro blogging, podcasts/Web TV/collaborative software- they each ladder in some way to a component of public relations- writing, corporate communication, community relations, media relations and event management.
PR as social media in many ways also addresses the concerns of the online community that marketers don’t belong. Assuming we can trim away the corporate speak and manage transparent communication efforts in years to come, public relations representatives are the least likely to sell and most capable of speaking as humans to humans, rather than selling hucksters to ‘’consumers.’’
Where must social media fall in the corporate structure? Right now, it depends. Tomorrow social media will evolve into components of a sophisticated public relations effort. The only question in my mind is will public relations evolve to embrace it?
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