To Advise Social Media, You Have to Be Social Media

Chiming in on Joseph's Thornley's post on PR management of social media from a distance, I've seen the mushrooming of a lot of spectating consultants in the social media field. 

Now perhaps if social media was an exact science and they were great minds,  I might feel differently - but because understanding and practising social media is more an art that's quick shifting and mercurial, I just don't understand how non-participants can purport to be experts.

I'm probably one of the more objective experts to add volume to the conversation here as I have no formal background in PR (where most of the instant-expert headlines come from) and don't consider myself directly competitive  with the arena (although we are leveraging PR as a bigger factor in our initiatives).

So I really don't have a profit motive or axe to grind for supporting Joseph Thornley's case, it just stands to reason - I don't let a novice rewire the electronics in my house. I don't let a neophyte intern perform surgery on my mom's knee replacement, why would I let a complete rookie, consult and implement my social media strategy?  Even if the agency practitioners are MENSAs at reading the landscape from a distance, they can't compete with the practitioners.

It's similar to an experience I had at P&G when they promoted a friend of mine with 7 brothers, no sisters, no steady relationship and consequently no understanding whatsoever of the women's menstrual cycle as the Brand Manager for Always tampons. No matter how good he was at analysis, strategy and observation, he could never come close to the insights a category native (i.e. a woman) could in that role.

The reasons for resisting the new media handoff to detached blue chip or boutique agencies who have no firm practising grasp on social media:

1) having blogged for over two years and participated in every major social media network and thus,  with no shortage of learning from mistrakes or reflective evidence, the biggest learning comes from day-to-day practice not armchair quarterbacking in social media,
2) the philosophy and currency that social media trades in is quite different  than the mass marketing/communications world, without participation, I don't think you can fully appreciate the micro-culture and influence currency at play
3)  many bloggers are a investigative and suspicious sort, although influential and willing to be convinced, their defenses go up when approached by a non-familiar face in their social media world
4)  in many cases, the lack of social media practice within a company, implies a fear of risk or lack of transparency in companies - a cardinal trait that gets corporate interests in trouble when attempting to harness this space
5) passion - it is the defining trait of social media participants -  - writing and upkeeping a blog is tough work with no straight line to payout  ... viewing social media as a job task vs. a creative and enthusiasm-rich canvas shows up in the content

So for the holdout PR agencies who have so far abstained from the social media universe -  get started and follow the lead of  Thornley Fallis, H&K and others. As the Native Proverb goes - "never criticize a man until you have walked a mile in his moccasin."