Livingston

Aug
08
2008

Social Media Cannot Stand Alone

The acquisition by Social Media Group (SMG) has already brought a lot of good feedback from industry friends — and, of course, some backwards comments. The interesting criticism that I hear most frequently is that “well your theory only social media doesn’t work.” “Or, you can’t do social media stand alone, it has to be integrated!”

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Excuse me? Who said that (image by marek.wykowski)?

Just search the word “integrate” on this blog. If it wasn’t clear already, for the record, Social Media Cannot Stand Alone!

I thought we were done with this. As in the 90s with the whole integrated marketing communications movement. But I guess not. Or perhaps, it’s just pettiness trying to grasp at competitive positioning points.

In every outreach, SMG integrates right off the bat. We know social media represents a tool set that can be leveraged for a variety of communications strategies, whether its earned media, marketing, employee communications, workforce collaboration, investor relations, etc., etc.

Thus our first task is always to discover the business objective behind the effort, quickly followed by who are the stakeholders, and what other tools are being used to support the initiative. We then create our integrated social media strategy. This has been a hallmark of Livingston social media campaigns since our first efforts on the Huntington Flood and Godsmack Lead Singer Sully Erna’s book in 2006. It’s the same with Maggie’s teams in Toronto and Calgary.

Why do we integrate? Because, people read diverse media on and offline. They are intertwined, and thus compelling or influencing stakeholders requires intelligent use of traditional and new media.

We focus on practicing outreach using these tools because 1) they are unique and we’ve developed expertise 2) big pr firms — not individuals within those firms who are obviously savvy — but the actual organizations do not get it on a wholesale basis, and 3) as a result we keep hearing from large organizations that they cannot find an agency or consulting firm they trust for social media. Therefore, focusing on these tools as specialists provides a legitimate business opportunity.

I’m not sure why that’s so hard to understand. But whatever the reason, spare me the “you can’t practice social media alone” schtick.

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by Geoff Livingston | Internet Marketing |

8 Responses to “Social Media Cannot Stand Alone”

  • Ryan Meode Says:

    August 8th, 2008 at 9:01 am

    A good reminder that social media is only one tactic in the larger communications strategy. I think it’s understandable how some would get the perception that social media is a silver bullet given the way some social media “fanboys” talk about it. I’d suggest that some of the responsibility falls on the industry’s shoulders to do a better job explaining social in the right context. Hopefully this post will continue to encourage others to do the same and discuss social media as just one tactic in a larger strategy.

  • Chris Brogan... Says:

    August 8th, 2008 at 12:34 pm

    True and true. And here’s where I sometimes upset my colleagues at CrossTech Partners (the fulfillment arm of where I work): sometimes social media isn’t the right tool for the job. Nope. Just isn’t.

    And yet, it’s always a decent augment to the larger story.

    I never did send congratulations. I’m really happy for this partnership, and I hope it points to further movement of the same kind in the near future.

  • David Weiner, PR Newswire Says:

    August 8th, 2008 at 4:13 pm

    Very true points. We need to do as good of a job as our peers on explaining our ROI and proving value. Maybe then we’ll be able to get their budgets …

    As I say all too often, there is no magic wand. An SMPR, MNR, NMR or PitchEngine can’t make a penguin fly (or put lipstick on a pig (had to fit both in, obviously)). What some are calling social media tomorrow is traditional PR yesterday.

    DW

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    August 8th, 2008 at 5:03 pm

    Ryan: Per my earlier tweet, nice comment. Social media “fan boys” evokes strange imagery of Weird Al carrying pom poms.

    Chris: Thank you, and I totally agree. Sometimes the customer or stakeholder doesn’t care for social media or the product doesn’t apply.

    David: It reminds me that there are a lot of personal brand folks who have become famous right now spinning BS, and that’s the source of this issue. Social media communications without the core principles of communications theory just doesn’t work well, or if it does, it’s a red herring.

  • David Weiner, PR Newswire Says:

    August 8th, 2008 at 7:29 pm

    Geoff,

    I couldn’t agree more. Unfortunately, I don’t even think we’ve seen the tipping point. (I couldn’t resist!)

    DW

  • Beth Kanter Says:

    August 10th, 2008 at 11:20 am

    couldn’t agree more … especially for nonprofits. Sometimes they should just say to social media. Other times, it is perfectly the right thing to do have an integrated strategy. With that said, however, to be successful they really need to understand how social media strategy execution differs from traditional communications strategy - or else this happens http://tinyurl.com/5j338w

  • Beth Kanter Says:

    August 10th, 2008 at 11:21 am

    sorry left out the most important word in that first sentence - JUST SAY NO to social media — not guilt, no worries. Your time is better spent on something else.

  • Geoff Livingston Says:

    August 10th, 2008 at 11:49 am

    Thanks, Beth! Love the reference to spam. I am not so sure social media strategy differs greatly, but I do think the tactical execution is vastly different. It’s a unique media form, one that cannot be treated with conventional execution, or as you say, spam occurs. It’s a two way street, so networking skills are paramount to messaging skills.

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