Sometimes a headline grabs you and wills you to read the whole article. Much like this article entitled How to Win at Facebook Without a Social Media 'Guru' in Advertising Age which made me chuckle.

It was highlighted to me by a colleague and client who knows how little time I have for people who are full of hot air, excellent at talking around a subject and making themselves look terribly busy, but who invariably deflate like an old worn tyre when you scratch the surface. These are often people who claim to be Social Media Gurus.

Now before all the Social Media Gurus throughout the land come after me with flaming torches and a pitch fork, I’m not saying everyone is like that...I’m not quite such a dim PR bimbo* as to make such an ill-informed sweeping statement. But for an entire industry to spawn itself off the back of something the PR industry has had down pat for decades (at least the great and the good have) will inevitably raise a few eyebrows.

I loved the opening paragraph:

“Managing a successful Facebook brand page isn't rocket science, yet it seems to have spawned an entire industry of specialist agencies and executives--"social media gurus," if you will--to do the job. Yet with a tool box of simple, proven tactics just about anyone can do it, which is why the "guru" mentality that still exists around Facebook is outdated and should go away. Now.”

The article goes on to give some straight forward advice and I rather liked the tongue in cheek tone of the piece (those that know me know I am all too often of the tongue-firmly-pressed-to-cheek mentality).

However, I am firmly of the belief that any social media activity should be run (or at least coordinated with) your public relations team (just a gentle reminder that PR is not Press Relations, it’s Public Relations). And what is social media if it isn’t a means to directly engage with your public?

Experts are always telling us about the need for a targeted approach to blogger relations, how you have to read the blog and really understand what they want to achieve before you ‘outreach’. I’m sorry – I must have missed the news that journalists are now lauding PRs for mass mailings and failing to read their most recent columns or even pick up a copy of the magazine. They also say these bloggers aren’t paid so they need to be given stuff...as an incentive you understand. Well many bloggers do it because they are passionate and appreciate the fact that you’re giving them something that’s of interest. Oh but wait...is that because the PR made their ‘outreach’ relevant and didn’t go down the bribery route?

OK...now I’m getting catty. But what I am seeing a lot more of (and it’s giving me cause for sleepless nights) are Social Media Gurus fingering online journalists as influential bloggers. As part of their ‘outreach’ to them, for example, they want to give them products to keep. So then how do us poor PR folk, who have always had to work with product loans, explain to said journalist-cum-blogger that from the same manufacturer they can’t keep the kit you’re giving them to review?

It’s a perfect example of a not very well thought through and badly coordinated effort and highlights exactly why social media work should always be coordinated by the PR team.

And for anyone who thinks this isn’t enough of a reason, see me after class where I can give you plenty more examples of blog posts breaking news which should have been communicated to journalists at the same time, statistics from a survey of Facebook fans that would have made excellent fodder for a feature in a national paper and other seemingly insignificant-when-looked-at-in-isolation examples which, when you put them all together, makes for a heck of a lot of missed opportunities.

Kate

*I’ve heard talk of a commonly held (and equally ridiculously brash and sweeping) belief is that PR girls are all bimbo-clones. I’m sure it’s just hearsay...[files nails]