Getting Real With Social Media

I recently listened to some PR and marketing professionals discuss social media on a podcast geared toward a PR audience, and I was struck by the commentary about social media consultants. One comment was that too many social media consultants hype social media tools to their clients at the expense of good, solid strategy. I can agree with that statement. I cringe when I see people jumping on the bandwagon of social media marketing with little experience and nothing more than the ability to talk a good game, flash shiny objects in front of people and fail to be strategic. They are ruining it for the rest of us who have been in the trenches pioneering this stuff and thinking through the strategy for over a decade.

But the comments in the podcast that irked me were the ones where the PR and marketing professionals were saying that social media marketers are out of touch with what “real people” want or need and that they need to get back in touch with reality.

What?!? Let’s get REAL here.

Since when are PR people the holders and distributors of reality? Since when is PR and marketing based around what “real people” actually want? The entire premise of public relations, marketing and advertising isn’t “give people what they actually want and need” but rather “convince people that they want and need what we’re selling.” Public relations isn’t about “getting the truth to people” but instead is about “spinning the message to OUR truth so people buy it.”

The day public relations, advertising and marketing actually get REAL and are based in REALITY is when all those industries convert to journalism or what we all wish journalism would be – actually reporting on what is happening and giving voice to real people who are experiencing those things. As long as you are selling something, you are mostly inventing your own reality and repeating your message as often as you can in order to get others to believe in your reality to buy what you are selling.

So what the hell is social media marketing then?

Just using the term “marketing” at the tail end of social media creates a misnomer. Social media is about conversations, collaboration and community – it is the sets of tools and applications that facilitate conversations, collaboration and community. What we do isn’t really Social Media Marketing. It is Social Media Engagement. We’re not trying to push carefully crafted marketing messages and spin out to the public for their consumption. We are listening to what people are saying, and we’re seeding conversations to see what people have to say about issues. We take the best practices and smartest teachings from the old ways of doing things and apply them to an entirely new landscape.

Yes, we are listening to what people are saying on behalf of clients who have products or services to sell. And yes, we are seeding conversations to see what people have to say about issues that are somehow related to what our clients do. However, we aren’t convinced that the push, push, push PR/advertising/marketing methods of yesterday work anymore. The “dumb” consumer of the ’50s and ’60s is a skeptical grown up now and smarter than ever about the products they consume. The consumer of the 90s? They take all this social media stuff for granted – they were born with it. They’re even more skeptical than their parents.

This is not your mama’s marketing. Social media engagement is something entirely different. Social media is actually for, by and about the very people that PR folks, marketers and advertisers are trying to reach.

If you’re in PR, marketing or advertising, I know you’re getting nervous – maybe even scared – about the new way your audience is empowered and how the old way of communicating at them is not working anymore. But if you really want to GET social media, you’ll get out of your old comfortable worn-out box and stop deluding yourself that you are in touch with what “real people” want. Roll up your sleeves, get into the social media trenches, and actually find out what they. I think you’ll be surprised by what you find.

How are YOU getting real with your consumers? Or are you?