What to Ask Your Public Relations Agency About Social Media?

A very thought-provoking post by Social Media Explorer prompted an interesting discussion yesterday about social media and public relations agencies.  An executive from Chicago sought me out to ask, “When I submit social media RFPs to PR agencies, how can I tell if they actually know what they’re doing?”  As Facebook reaches new heights and Twitter continues to see explosive growth, reputable PR agencies are increasingly stepping into the social media game.  Of course, there are no college degrees offered in social media, there are no certification programs, and the field is evolving at such a rapid rate that it’s very hard for anybody to keep up with it all, let alone be able to competently test other people on their social media skills. In the last month, employees of at least two different PR agencies candidly admitted to me that their social media capabilities were not what they needed to be.  At the same time, you have thousands of people claiming to be “social media experts.”  (DISCLAIMER: I, too,  am a self-proclaimed “social media expert.”) So what you’re left with is a lot of reputable PR agencies with track records – that are not in social media – and a lot of free-floating social media experts with knowledge but no track record.  How do we separate the wheat from the chaff?

This suggested list of questions is intended for two audiences: 1) Companies looking to assess the true social media capabilities of PR agencies and (2) PR agencies interviewing social media experts to add to their staffs.

1) Do they understand the fundamental concepts of social media and why it is different than traditional media? Jim Tobin had an excellent comment on the blog post I cited earlier: “Too many folks treat social media as a condiment (to quote Lisa Braziel). They get done with their campaign, and then they think, ‘How can we add some social to this?’”  At its core, social media is fundamentally different than television, print, radio, billboards and all other forms of traditional media.  Traditional media is a one-way conversation. The advertsier talks to the audience, but they can’t talk back in any meaningful way.  Social media, on the other hand, involves two-way engagements.  It is about building relationships with your clients over social networks through mutual conversations.

In traditional media, “frequency” is a frequently used term.  To reach people, you must repeat your message over and over.  With social media, frequency is annoying. There’s a word for people who repeatedly blast out the same message: Spammers.  Spammers are people who engage in one-way conversations.

If I were tasked with assessing a PR agency’s social media capabilities, I would ask an open-ended question (”Tell me why I should be doing social media…”) and look for an answer that explains why social media is fundamentally different from traditional media.  If you get a sense that the agency views social media as just another channel for dispensing your message – another “condiment” – move on.

2) How can they enable you to listen to your customers? Social media is about engaging in conversations, and all good conversations involve at least as much listening as they do talking.  Your customers are talking to each other using social media right now.  Any good social media campaign will allow you to listen to what your customers are saying about your product, your industry and your competitors.  Make sure your PR agency has a plan for allowing you to listen to what they are saying.

3) Where are they devoting their social media resources? Social media is not expensive.  Most of the tools are available for free or next to nothing on the web.  However, social media is very time intensive.  Why? Because you are engaging with customers on a human level.  It takes time to talk to people and build relationships with them.  A state of the art social media department isn’t spending a lot of money on fancy equipment, it’s spending money on smart staffers.  Avoid social media agencies with one social media expert.  Instead, look for agencies with lots of dedicated social media staffers.  An agency that takes social media seriously has a big staff, not a big budget.

4) Years of experience may not matter. Let’s face it, social media hasn’t been around that long.  Twitter didn’t hit the mainstream until two years ago at South by Southwest, and Facebook has only made fan pages truly useful for businesses in the past year.  MySpace has lagged behind Facebook in terms of ad capabilities.  So when somebody tells you that they have been doing social media for ten years, take it with a grain of salt.  Ten years ago, Friendster hadn’t been launched and “online marketing” meant mass e-mailing.  Social media competence is more about keeping up with trends than having a long track record.

5) But don’t fall for the latest fad either. Remember, newer doesn’t mean better.  Twitter is the hot new thing getting all the media attention right now, but it has an estimated 18 million users.  Facebook just passed 300 million.  Don’t assume that Twitter is the right tool for your company just because Katie Couric tweets.  Your grandmother doesn’t, and chances are your mother doesn’t either.  New is not always better, and the thing getting the most media attention is not necessarily the most mainstream.

6) Ask about their core competencies. There are a ton of social media tools out there, from blog-building tools to social networks to micro-blogging services to social bookmarking sites.  Frankly, it’s impossible for most PR agencies to be great at all of them.  Ask them in which services they excel and in which they don’t.  In my case, I specialize in Facebook and Twitter.  I am familiar with Digg, but if you want a Digg power-user, I’m probably not the right person.  By the same token, it’s probably not reasonable for you to expect a PR agency to have an expert in every single tool on their staff.  A good PR agency will know how to pull in a Digg power-user when they need one, but they may not be retaining that person as a full-time employee.

7) Make them explain which social media tool is right for your company. As I said, there are a ton of social media tools and different ones are better suited to different companies.  Don’t assume that you should be using the same social media outlets as other companies.  For example, I had a manufacturer of adult diapers attend one of my seminars recently.  There may be a social media tool that works for this company, but I doubt you’ll see a lot of fans flocking to the Incontinence Incorporated Facebook Page.  Which tools will be most effective for your company?  Viral videos, blog outreach, or Twitter contests?  A good PR agency will be able to explain to you exactly why they are choosing the tools they are using for your campaign.

8) Don’t get overwhelmed by abstract ideas or fancy terminology. The social media realm is full of theorists who ponder the radical ways in which online developments will change the world.  This is great if you’re a professor or author, but make your PR agency explain to you exactly what they intend to do in very practical, concrete terms.  And make them do it in plain English.  Do not allow yourself to be intimidated words you do not understand.  If you don’t understand something, ask. It’s your money, so you are entitled to an answer.  When I explain the significance of Twitter to people, I am more likely to use the words “Kanye West” and “Jay Leno” than “retweet” and “url shortener.”  One of my favorite social media experts is Chris Penn precisely because when he speaks, he does it in a very clear, unassuming manner.  He is not condescending to people who are unfamiliar with concepts or lingo.  At its core, social media is not rocket science.  If your PR agency reps makes you feel more confused after talking to them, leave them behind.

9) Results matter…sort of. A lot of people get excited about the internet because its much easier to track actions of your clients than with traditional media.  So ROI gets a lot of attention.  But social networking is a lot like networking in the real world.  What you get out of it is roughly, but not exactly, proportional to what you put into it.  The conversation you have today may not lead to a sale, but maybe that person will talk to another who will talk to another who will buy.  You have more insight into the results your efforts are producing, but you will never have a perfectly clear picture.  In that regard, social media is different than the other form of online marketing, Search Engine Optimization (the art of getting your webpage to rank really high in Google searches), which is easier to translate into graphs and spreadsheets.  At its core, social media is social – it depends on human interactions, and we can be wildly unpredictable creatures.  You can ask your PR agency about their track record, but as I mentioned before, most social media simply hasn’t been around that long.  Personally, I would place more weight on testimony from satisfied customers than I would on case studies.

Did I miss anything?  What would you ask a PR agency if you were trying to assess their social media capabilities?  What if you were a PR agency looking to hire a social media expert?