There’s a Babel-like conversation out there at the moment between PR agencies and their clients that goes something like this.  The client needs social media expertise and asks their agency for help.  Not an unrealistic request, given that social media collectively constitutes arguably the most important media axis for influencing public opinion ever conceived.  The agency obliges (how could they say no?) by pumping out endless tweets and Facebook posts on the company’s behalf, adding to the cacophony of social media voices that compete for attention across the blogosphere.  At the end of the month, the agency tots up the volume of this output and sends a report to the client.  The client sees this evidence of their social media involvement, and rests easy.  Job done.

But is it?  The irony of this transaction won’t be lost on anyone with more than a cursory understanding of social media.  Nor will it surprise those familiar with PR’s fitful embrace of this collective new medium. That’s because, several years into the social media revolution, many PRs still don’t get it, but are too afraid to admit it.  Sure, some can tweet and post, but the true value of social media – as the world’s largest focus group of personal opinions ripe for listening to and learning from – is lost on them.  The result is the vast quantity of factuous corporate monologues that litter the blogosphere, destined never to entwine with the meaningful dialogues that inform opinions, behaviours and choices.

Now, don’t get me wrong – there are some very skilled agency operators out there, particularly in the B2C space, who recognised the importance of social media at an early stage and have mastered its fickle brief impressively.  But these are the exception, not the rule.

For in truth, there remains a giant disconnect. In an ideal world the two would sit together seamlessly in one agency with one strategy incorporating both on and offline.  The reality is that the void between social media and (in particular, corporate) PR is so big that PR agencies are in danger of losing out to fast-moving, dynamic social media companies that, having demonstrated their skills in finding and tracking this new breed of online influencers, are now claiming to understand corporate PR as well.

There are a number of reasons why PR agencies are not keeping up.  Many senior account managers are of an age where they feel that they have got this far without social media and they can probably make it to the finish line without getting it.  And in some agencies at least, their idea of investment in ‘tooling up’ a work force to be able to cope with social media is buying in an expensive digital person.  This is not a fix and, as I have witnessed first hand, the result is a very over-stretched head of digital with a set of under-serviced clients.

In addition, there are client budgets to navigate, where social media often needs to fit within existing retainers, in effect cannibalising existing services and eating into margins.  Finally, there seems to be a distinct lack of PR-friendly tools on the market that can offer the PR what they need to do their job better without having to teach the old dogs too many new tricks.

The PR professional is entirely used to understanding a message, a channel and an audience.  Social media is no different.  The challenge is to persuade the PR that the same rules apply and with the right tools, they can easily switch into online mode.  So what do they need?

First and foremost, the PR industry needs to know who they should be talking to.  Traditionally, PRs knew their national and trade publications; now they need to know their online communities and bloggers.  Second, they need to know how to engage with key influencers, which at a rudimentary level demands knowledge of how – digitally – to make contact with these individuals.  For print media, the latter has traditionally been informed by internal media lists and, more recently, game-changing applications like Gorkana.  Today, in recognition of social media’s importance, we can offer a similar application that looks exclusively at key influencers and high-impact online communities.

Finally, there is the practice of engagement itself, which like its romantic counterpart requires an understanding of etiquette.  This is less straightforward as it depends entirely on who or what you are engaging with, just as it does in the field of traditional PR.  However, at the very least, the PR does need to understand the basics of the various social media channels: how the dynamics of a Facebook community work; how to enter a debate through Twitter; and what the search implications are for posting video over text-based content online.  These can be learned and don’t require PRs to become specialists overnight.  After that, it becomes a confidence issue on the part of individuals as they reach out to bloggers, often for the first time.

The challenge for breaching the void between corporate PR and the social media it is expected to influence is two-fold.  First, PRs need to understand that the shift to embracing online is not so seismic that they have to retrain in their profession.  Second, PRs need equipping with the right tools to do their jobs.  Good data analysis, profiles and contacts of key influencers plus some understanding of the methods of engagement will empower the PR to get the job done.

The traditional PR agency model is under threat, with specialist social media providers beginning to re-intermediate the long-established agency-client relationship.  It’s not just a skills shortage that’s at the root of this.  It’s also a confidence issue that is in turn rooted in a misunderstanding of social media’s value to clients.

There are some basic steps agencies can take to fend off this new breed of social media consultants, search companies and various other digital media organisations threatening to eat their lunch in the social media age.  The most basic of all is to stop talking, and start listening.  Plato nailed this 2000 years ago.  Now that the PR secret’s out, it’s time to sift the fools from the wise guys.

Andrew is managing director of Windfall Media. Images via Natalie Dee and Coleccion Camaras de Colores’ Flickr stream.

Tags: andrew orchard, challenge, disconnect, misunderstanding, social media monitoring, windfall media