There’s a lot to agree with in AdAge’s recent article about media agencies and social media. Take this tasty morsel, for example:
Tom Cunniff, VP-director of interactive at Combe, maker of mouthwashes and men’s hair products, said he thinks about social media along a continuum. On one end of the spectrum, 99% of the activity is about conversations, and 1% is about paid media; on the other end, it’s the reverse.
It seems there’s a lot of agencies talking about what’s at either end of this spectrum. In one direction lies coverage and engagement that can only be earned (not bought). It’s amongst influencers and communities who have a clear idea of who they are, what they want and whose trust and respect could be mighty valuable to any brand or business. In the other direction are large scale audiences, often aggregated in increasingly ingenious and implicit ways by tools that crunch the sort of volumes of data that make my head spin.
The point of these vast generalisations is to pose this question: what happens in the middle of the spectrum?
One of the conclusions from Leo’s workshop at IMM ’09 was that creative/PR and media agencies could join back together. But what might this partnership look like in reality, and how might it occur?
To me, the answer seems to lie in a single, shared (I refuse to use the word ‘integrated’…) planning process. From there, it would be a couple more perfectly possible hops to create shared research and measurement tools. At this point, I’m reminded of our ‘always-in-beta’ definition of social media:
All of the activities, platforms and activities that enable users to create and share knowledge, opinions and content
And let us not forget that the more these sharing and creation processes meet the needs of all of those involved, the more value will be created. Applying these thoughts to agency world might mean that we’re all going to have to play nicely together if we’re to create the best social media solutions.
Crikey.
