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Is “Social Media” Hurting Social Media?

10.09.02

Is the term “social media” hurting strategic communicators in the digital space?

Before you tell me I’m crazy, stop and think for a second.

Plenty of people have wondered about the term before (Google “social media term” and you’ll find a 2007 post from Jeremiah Owyang on the topic) but I’m thinking of this from a slightly different angle.

Is the term “social media” leading clients to take the wrong approach to their online activities?

How many companies have you encountered taking a scorched earth approach to their social media activities? I’m not naive enough to think that two words would lead us to a silver bullet situation, but do these two current words adversely affect some companies’ approaches to online interaction? I’m not suggesting we change the term – I think it’s here to stay in the short- to mid-term, at least. However, perhaps identifying challenges can help us on the agency side to address them.

Consider the term for a second.

Social media.

What image does that conjure up? Videos with comments enabled? Text with sharing features enabled? Tweets of links to stories about you? These might fall into a definition of social media, but they’re not really two-way – not truly. What’s more, they do seem to embody the approach taken to social media by many organizations – public and private alike.

Suppose for a moment we drop “social media” as a term and adopt a much more simplified “online networking.” We’d be using a term that, inherently, implies two important characteristics:

  • Two-way interaction. Networking is, at its core, a two-way interaction. You need to speak and to listen. Networking doesn’t involve broadcasting.
  • Long-term. Networking involves relationships. Relationships take time to nurture.

Nothing rocket-science based here, right? This is stuff that’s preached all the time. However, if it’s that easy, why are companies still engaging in marketing activities that essentially consist of one-shot, one-way fire-and-forget promotions that do nothing to shift the needle in the long term?

Back to “online networking.” What changes if we use that term?

  • YouTube: “Videos with comments” becomes Engaging people in a story, or enabling other people to tell your story as they see it
  • Blog: “Text with sharing” becomes a genuine conversation, where you solicit and respond to feedback from your stakeholders
  • Twitter: “Tweets of links to stories about you” becomes an opportunity to engage in real-time conversations with people

Changing a term won’t solve a widespread problem, and there’s much more to the issue than just a simple term (inter-discipline differences, for one, are another huge gap). I’m not suggesting we drop “social media” for “online networking.” However, if shifting the way you think can help – even slightly – to put you in the shoes of the people you work with, and that can help you to identify problems and solutions, then surely it’s worth it.

What do you think?

Posted in: social media

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Confidentiality And Agency Life

10.08.31

As you may know, I’ve recently begun a new job at a new agency (Edelman, for the record).

In doing so, I moved to an agency that represents competitors of past clients.

While I’ve taken this in my stride, several people have now raised questions about confidentiality with me – enough that I think it’s worth addressing at a broader level.

As an ‘agency guy’ you’re privy to all sorts of plans, strategies and future-focused documents that your clients trust you to keep confidential. Other companies would love to get their hands on those documents, or even to just learn the general plans of their competition. A lot is riding on the integrity of everyone who comes into contact with those plans.

At the same time, it’s completely normal for people who move to a new job to find themselves at a company either competing with their previous employer, or servicing a competitor. As I’ve written before, PR is a small world, and the odds are reasonable that the situation could arise.

I completely understand how any company could be anxious about someone leaving when they’ve seen to high-level plans – whether it’s a company employee or an agency team member. However, I’d make several points to those who are concerned:

  • Companies typically ask new employees to sign confidentiality agreements. Those agreements usually stand beyond the end of an employee’s work at those companies.
  • Companies trust the integrity of people to handle their plans while they work for them. That trust shouldn’t disappear as soon as a person moves on.
  • Your primary asset in the public relations business is your integrity and reputation. Lose that, and you’ve got little left.

For me, this last point is critical.

I’m not going to pretend that there aren’t unscrupulous people out there who violate the trust of their ex-employers (hell, some people do it while they still work for companies). For me, though, I’ll categorically state that my reputation is worth way more to me than one or two quick wins.

In a business where one indiscretion can lost you a reputation that took a decade to build, your career will benefit much more if you play the long-term game and respect the confidentiality of your clients long after you cease working with them.

Have you encountered confidentiality questions when you’ve changed jobs? How have you addressed them?

(Image: Shutterstock)

Posted in: Agency life

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Are You Creating Social Media Scorched Earth?

10.08.30

“In too many cases, the “best practices” espoused by digital agencies are less about “serving the community” and more about driving a rush of new fans, without much thought re: how to keep those fans engaged on a LONG-TERM basis.” — Todd Defren

As corporate spending on social media-based communication continues to rise, I’m beginning to worry that many brands are inadvertently adopting a ’scorched earth’ approach to their online activities.

What do I mean by scorched earth?

When an army advances using a scorched earth approach, it destroys everything behind it as it advances. So, while it gains territory, little remains of the territory it captures. Similarly, many companies are at risk of this when they focus purely on customer acquisition while neglecting engaging their existing fans.

One-shot social media accounts and short-term campaigns-focused approaches may eventually build a fan-base, but unless that is paired with activities aimed at engaging those fans, you’ll lose them. Worse, you’ll not only lose them at the time but you’ll also have to work that much harder to win those people back next time.

This is understandable to an extent, especially in a campaign-focused setup – retention plans aren’t as “glamorous” as new customer-acquisitions. As a result, it’s tempting for marketers to focus their dollars on the latter. You’ve seen this approach – the Twitter account that’s shut down after a month; the big-bang launch that’s forgotten by the next week; the multiple campaign-focused Facebook pages that the company launches and shuts down every year.

Agencies (and savvy corporate communicators) need to resist the urge to take this approach. It can be particularly difficult for agencies, where the client brief may not extend to long-term engagement, but good agencies should give clients the advice they need to hear whether they expect that advice or not. Make sure you dedicate sufficient resources to retaining your fans.

So, next time you’re creating a social media plan, stop and think: are you creating social media scorched earth, or are you engaging for the long term?

Have you seen this pattern, in your organization or with clients?

(Image: Steve Lacy)

Posted in: social media, strategy

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32Comments

Change, Change And More Change

10.08.25

The last few years have been wonderful for me, both personally and professionally. I’ve lived happily with my girlfriend, Caralin, for several years now, and I’ve enjoyed a rewarding career that has so far brought me more opportunities than I could have possibly hoped for.

Today, I’m happy to announce the next step in both of those areas of my life.

Moving on professionally

I’ve spent the last two years of my career at Thornley Fallis Communications, joining the company as a Senior Consultant in 2008 and being promoted first to Account Director and subsequently to Vice President.

Over this time years I’ve worked with some incredible people on great projects for wonderful  clients. I’ve also been fortunate to become friends outside work with people like Terry Fallis, Joe Thornley, Eric Portelance, Jeremy Wright, Andrea Pietkiewicz, Jennifer Gordon and more, which makes this next part a little bittersweet.

As of this week, I’ve joined Edelman’s Toronto team as Vice President of Digital.

Edelman

Firstly, I should say that I thoroughly enjoyed my time at TFC. I love the people there and I’m immensely grateful for the many, many opportunities to grow that I experienced while at the agency.

So why the move?

For me, the decision came down to two opportunities:

  • An opportunity to work on a bigger scale;
  • An opportunity to learn from the industry’s best.

Scale: Edelman is the world’s largest independent PR firm, with over 3,300 employees in 52 countries. They work with some of the world’s biggest companies, spanning industry and geographic boundaries, and the digital work they do is cutting-edge. To say that I’m excited about joining a team of this scale, with the client roster they have and with the resources and opportunities that a company like this brings, would be an understatement.

Learning: Over the last few years, Edelman has systematically hired some of the best people in the digital communications field. Whether it’s the great team in Toronto and across Canada, or international thought leaders like Steve Rubel, David Armano, Phil Gomes and Rick Murray, the best people in the industry work here and I’m looking forward to the opportunity to learn from them. This – the quality of people – is the primary reason I decided to make the move. It’s an exciting time in digital, and Edelman has positioned itself right at the head of the field. I’m delighted to join this team.

I’m getting married!

As some of you may know, Caralin and I recently headed down to Peru on vacation. While we were there, we did a five-day trek to Machu Picchu. On the second day we climbed a mountain pass between two glaciers which peaked at about 4,600m (about 15,000 feet) above sea level. At the top of the pass, I proposed to Caralin and for some reason (altitude sickness??) she said yes!

Needless to say, I couldn’t be happier – I’m grinning from ear to ear right now. As things stand, we’re aiming to hold the wedding next summer.

There you have it. Change, change and a little more change.

To my ex-colleagues, a sincere and heart-felt “thank you.”

To my new colleagues at Edelman, who have already welcomed me so warmly, I’m beyond excited to work with you all.

To my new fiancée, you’re amazing and I love you.

It’s an exciting time for me. The last few years have been beyond amazing, and it looks like the next few could be even better.

Onward!

Posted in: personal

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102Comments

Personalities, Policies & Problems: Companies and Employees 2.0

10.08.24

The annual ritual is upon us – the submissions for next year’s South by Southwest (SXSW) are posted and the voting process has begun.

(Actually, it began a little while back but – you may have noticed the silence recently – I was away on vacation)

This year I’ve thrown my hat in the ring and submitted a SXSW 2011 panel proposal with Scott Stratten (UnMarketing), Chris Barger (General Motors) and Sarah White (HRM Direct) entitled Personalities, Policies & Problems: Companies and Employees 2.0.

The combination of immediacy and near-universal adoption of social media tools in many countries can lead to a communications and HR nightmare if processes and policies aren’t thought-out in advance. Our panel will focus on the internal corporate implications of social media adoption within companies from a variety of perspectives: PR agency, corporate communications and HR. In particular, we’ll consider:

  1. What is the best way to structure social media within a company?
  2. What internal policies do companies need to reduce risk when implementing social media?
  3. Do companies have a right to censor employees’ online activities when not at work?
  4. Should companies block Facebook, Twitter etc in the workplace?
  5. What role can and should social media play in recruiting?

If you like the sound of the panel, you can vote it up at the SXSW Panel Picker site.

While you’re over there, here are a few other great entries to check out:

What do you think? What are your favourite submissions?

(Voting for the panels ends this Friday, August 27)

Posted in: events

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Book Review: Delivering Happiness, by Tony Hsieh

10.08.03

When I think of examples of companies known for successful adoption of social media tools, a few names always come to mind – Dell, Radian6, Freshbooks… and Zappos.

(On a related note, all of those companies have gained a reputation for good service via social media – a topic for a future post, perhaps…)

So, when a colleague remarked that she was enjoying a book that charted the course of Zappos so far, I promptly added it to my 2010 reading list.

Delivering Happiness: A Path to Profits, Passion, and Purpose traces the story of CEO Tony Hsieh from his childhood through to the present day, in his own words. While the book isn’t an autobiography per se, the majority of the book tells a chronological tale beginning with tales of how Hsieh managed to avoid practicing four musical instruments every day (he would play tape recordings of himself practicing) and ending with the acquisition of Zappos by Amazon in mid-2009.

More than a simple tale, though, Delivering Happiness is full of useful business tips and insights. A few that stood out to me:

  • The company employs a ‘pipeline’ system to career management, clearly structured so that any employee has the opportunity to become a senior leader within seven years of joining the company.
  • Zappos requires that employees complete specific courses in order to be promoted to certain levels, creating a clear path to advancement.
  • The company has implemented a “skill sets” system, with a small bump in pay associated with improving each of the skill sets. Pay rises are thus tied to skills growth.
  • An idea for recommending good business books led to the Zappos library with over a hundred books, some of which became required reading for employees.
  • The company launched a monthly newsletter named “Ask Anything,” in which employees could do exactly that, to create transparency around the business for employees.
  • The levels to which Zappos empowers employees to focus on customer service would terrify a lot of the more staid, bureaucratic companies out there. There are no call centre scripts, and reps are permitted to do things such as upgrade customers’ shipping requests for free as part of regular business.

These are just a few of the nuggets hidden within Hsieh’s story. To make things even better, the book is written in a very informal, easy-to-consume style, and is made all the more personal by Hsieh’s frequent admission of his own mistakes. I think it was primarily due to this that I plowed through Delivering Happiness in just over a week.

It’s not all roses, of course. While it’s one of the most revealing parts of the book, the section on Zappos’ core values comes across as a little self-aggrandizing. The book also seems a little top-level from some perspectives, as it fails to draw a conclusive line between the firms’s growth and its customer service focus (Hsieh himself admits that growth only took off when the selection of shoes increased, not when the customer service focus began). It feels like there’s more to be heard there, and the “other side” (that of the prior board of directors) is only given lip service.

Still, these are minor gripes about a thoroughly engaging book. As I mentioned, I tore through it in short order and will probably do so again fairly soon. Overall, Delivering Happiness is a fascinating tale of the first chapter in the life of Zappos, and demonstrates a focus on employees, culture and customer service to which we should all aspire.

Highly recommended.

Posted in: books

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Altimeter Report Provides Facebook Page Guidelines, Benchmarks

10.07.28

In the latest of a series of practical and helpful resources for marketers, Altimeter Group has released a free report entitled The 8 Success Criteria for Facebook Page Marketing.

The 8 Success Criteria For Facebook Page Marketing
 

The report, based on input from 34 industry vendors and consulting agencies, outlines – you guessed it – eight criteria for determining the success of Facebook pages from companies’ perspectives, and in doing so provides a useful set of general guidelines for marketers managing or launching Pages.


 

The report also uses those criteria to evaluate the success of the Facebook pages for 30 well-known brands.


Some key findings:

  • Most of the brands examined did a good job of branding their pages and keeping them updated. However, making them pretty and posting content isn’t always enough.
  • The brands generally did poorly at setting users’ expectations, engaging in two-way dialogue, encouraging peer-to-peer interactions, fostering word-of-mouth and providing calls to action.
  • Most brands neglect to set expectations through guidelines, commenting policies etc. Strangely, Nestle still hasn’t learned its lesson.
  • Most brands hide the identities of the team interacting on Facebook, lowering the “authenticity” of interactions. Brands under fire online fared worst for this.
  • Brands still tend to talk at people, not with them.
  • Few brands deliver direct calls-to-action to fans, thus missing out on opportunities for conversion.

The report also delivers a few recommendations for Facebook page administrators:

  • Put aside your read-only playbook and tap into two-way social marketing
  • Bolster your Facebook pages with applications from third parties
  • Connect the Facebook experience with existing efforts, like your corporate website
  • Measure and analyze based on business goals – not by fans or “likes”
  • Reduce risk: Use the success criteria to analyze your efforts over time

There are a few holes in the report, including a couple of dubious conclusions – I hardly think that not explicitly encouraging peer-to-peer interactions counts as “muzzling” your fans, for example – and a sample size of five per industry is far from sufficient to draw conclusions about entire verticals. Overall, however, Altimeter has released a useful resource for marketers with success criteria, best practices and the case studies for which we are all clamouring nowadays. For those reasons alone, I highly recommend that any communicators using Facebook to reach their audiences download and read this report.

Check out the report, and let’s add to it – what are your best practices?

Posted in: best practices, facebook

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10Comments

Writing – Critical For Communicators, But It’s Not Everything

10.07.28

Liam Fitzpatrick wrote a  controversial post earlier this month, saying that he thought writing skills are over-rated for communicators:

“To be honest I don’t think being a good writer matters – I’ve met plenty of great comms people who couldn’t write to save their lives and I know a few fantastic writers who I’d never trust to give communications advice.”

Shel Holtz,  David Murray and Reuben Bronee took Fitzpatrick to task, leading to two follow-up posts where he clarified and reasserted his view that other skills are more important for professional communicators. As Shel wrote:

I would never hire someone to manage communication who can’t write, nor would I hire anyone into a front-line communication job who couldn’t tell a story in words.”

This back-and-forth (which continued in the comments on those posts) got me thinking over the last few days.

So, what’s my take?

Writing is CRITICAL

Writing is an absolutely central skill for communicators. From my perspective, this applies from entry-level communicators right through to senior, experienced professionals. Frankly, it’s an important skill in many jobs  - many people outside the communications function need to communicate their ideas simply and persuasively – but for communicators, it’s critical.

At the entry level, there are few skill deficiencies that will hold you back more surely than good writing. Later on, while the type of writing you undertake may change as you rise through the ranks (more reports and proposals, and fewer news releases, for example), the importance remains throughout. What’s more, at a senior level you need to be able to review other peoples’ writing and help them to improve. That’s hard to do if your own writing skills are lacking.

Other skills are critical, too

If you’ve ever studied management theory, you may be familiar with Herzberg’s motivation-hygiene theory – essentially, it states that certain factors (“hygiene factors”) need to be present in jobs for people to be motivated, without actually motivating people themselves. So, without a good salary (for example) people will be de-motivated; however a good salary won’t actually motivate people more – it just needs to be present to allow other motivators to work.

Good writing skills are the equivalent of a “hygiene factor” in communicators’ careers. Without them, people are much less likely to succeed. However, they don’t make a successful communicator by themselves – there are many other important skills that are required – strategic planning, time management, inter-personal communications, math (sorry – it’s true), media relations and others come to mind, for example.

So, my perspective can be boiled down to this:

Writing is an essential skill for communicators. However, they also require skills far above and beyond this to be truly successful in the long term.

What do you think? Where does writing rank on your list of communications skills?

Posted in: pr, public relations, writing

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15Comments

57 Social Media Policy Examples and Resources

10.07.26

Over time I’ve found myself doing more and more foundational work for organizations looking to dip their toes into social media. One of the key elements of this work, in my opinion, is creating a social media policy that fits well with the organization’s goals, culture and risk tolerance.

But where to start?

As it happens, lots of organizations publish their social media guidelines online, ready for you to review and use yourself. Here are 57 61 great social media policy templates and resources to use when building your own. (thanks for the suggestions in the comments!)

Social Media Policies and Guidelines

Source Resource
American Express Open Forum 3 Great Social Media Policies to Steal From (Kodak, Intel, IBM)
American Institute of Architects Policy on Staff Use of Social Media
American Red Cross Online Communications Guidelines
Australian Public Service Commission Interim protocols for online media participation
BBC Use of social networking, microblogs and other third party websites
BBC Editorial Guidelines
British Telecom Social Media Guidelines
Best Buy Social Media Policy
Chartered Institute of Public Relations Code of Conduct
Cisco Internet Postings Policy
Coca Cola Online Social Media Principles
Dell Online Communications Policy
Daimler AG Social Media Guidelines
FedEx Blog Policy
Feedster Corporate Blogging Policy
Fellowship Church Blogging Policy
Flickr Community Guidelines
General Motors Blogger Policy
Georgia Tech Guidelines for Student Blogging
Harvard Law School Corporate Blogging Policies and Guidelines
Hill & Knowlton Pledge for Bloggers
HP Blogging Code of Conduct
IBM Social Computing Guidelines
Intel Social Media Guidelines
International Olympic Committee IOC Blogging Guidelines
Jaffe PR Social Media Policy Procedures and Social Network Policy Procedures
Kaiser Permanente Social Media Policy
Kodak Social Media Tips
Krones AG Tips for using social media (English and German
LiveWorld Creating social media guidelines for your employees
Mayo Clinic Participation Guidelines
Mayo Clinic Comment Policy
Mayo Clinic For Mayo Clinic Employees
Mosman Municipal Council Twitter Guidelines
Opera Employee Blogging Policies
Oracle Social Media Participation Policy
Plaxo Communication (Blogging) Policy
Porter Novelli Blogging & Social Media Policy
Razorfish Employee Social Influence Marketing Guidelines
Reuters Social Media Guidelines
Robert Scoble The Corporate Weblog Manifesto
U.S. Air Force Blog Assessment
U.S. Air Force New Media and the Air Force
U.S. Coast Guard Social Media – The Way Ahead
U.K. Civil Service Principles for Participation Online
Yahoo! Employee Blog Guidelines

Other Social Media Policy Resources

Source Resource
Dave Fleet Corporate Social Media Policies eBook
About.com Blogging and Social Media Policy Sample
Business Week A Twitter Code of Conduct
Doug Cornelius Blogging/Social Internet Policy (for law firms)
Electronic Frontier Foundation How to Blog Safely (About Work or Anything Else)
Elizabeth Hannan Corporate Social Media Policy Guidelines
Mashable Should Your Company Have a Social Media Policy?
New PR Wiki Blogging Policies List
Nonprofit Technology Network Tips for Writing Your First Social Media Policy
Shift Communications Social Media Guidelines Template
rtraction Policy Tool for Social Media
Social Computing Journal Enterprise Social Media Usage Policies and Guidelines
Social Media Governance Policy Database
SocialFish Social Media, Risk, and Policies for Associations
SocialFish Drafting Social Media Guidelines

Posted in: best practices, social media

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144Comments

The Challenge – And Risk – Of Ad Agencies’ Growing Interest In Social Media

10.07.20

Too much has already been written about the recent Old Spice foray into social media. However, one aspect of the campaign has escaped most commentary – the firm – Wieden + Kennedy – is an ad agency. Not a PR agency, or a social media agency. An ad agency.

On Sunday, the Wall Street Journal ran an interesting story on the growing interest of ad agencies in the social media space. As they put it,

“As more and more advertising dollars flow into social media, some Madison Avenue firms are seeking to grab a piece of the action.”

The story cites several examples of ad agencies who are making a move to grow this side of their business. As they do so, they are moving into direct competition with the PR firms and social media agencies who, until recently, they have partnered with on client projects.

Many public relations folks have harped on the idea that PR agencies are best placed to serve clients’ social media needs because of their focus on relationships and conversations as part of their core business. If nothing else, Isaiah Mustafah’s wonderful social media tour de force last week proved that ad agencies can get it right online, with a combination of creativity, comedy and captivating two-way interaction. Meanwhile, however, the pragmatists among us have been observing the blurring of the lines for quite some time. I’ve argued, for example, that PR agencies can learn a lot from ad agencies including:

  1. How to better scale programs;
  2. How to plan and execute more creatively;
  3. That measurement is critical;
  4. How to effectively target their key audiences;
  5. How to better target messages.

Four challenges to PR firms from ad agencies

Public relations agencies – even those who have been working in the space for several years now – can’t ignore this evolution. The increasing attention of ad agencies raises several critical challenges from a PR and broader communications standpoint:

  1. Advertising agencies typically command bigger budgets for programs. That’s nothing new and PR people have long gnashed their teeth about that fact. However, when social media is brought into the mix, the larger budgets mean that ad agencies have more visibility, more flexibility and the potential for more creativity than PR agencies may enjoy thanks, not to their credentials or ability (though I’m not slighting them), but due to the source of their funding.
  2. Ad agencies have access to the marketing function, which often controls communications in general within organizations. That means that they will often have a shorter route to the top and, linked to the above point, may have greater influence with clients.
  3. Ad agencies are built around strong creative teams. They have the creative chops that can rival those of any PR agency.
  4. Control of the marketing side of communications means that advertising agencies have access to other assets that PR agencies may not have – graphics, logos, actors (once again, see Old Spice)

Risks if PR and ad agencies don’t work together

So, the stage is set for quite the tug of war. Trouble is, I suspect that no-one will win if a tug of war is what happens. In fact, a battle like this may hurt both sides as agencies wrestle over the grey area in client relationships. The risks of not learning from each other, and from not learning to place nicely together, are several:

  1. Fragmented social media efforts: A lack of cooperation between advertising and PR agencies, or between marketing and corporate communications functions, can lead to each doing their own thing in social media. That leads to fragmented, siloed failures as organizations roll out poorly coordinated, ineffective campaigns. As Forrester Research analyst Sean Corcoran outlined in December 2009, the different forms of media each have their own pros and cons. I suggested earlier this year that organizations need to effectively coordinate the various media channels and their complementary characteristics to  make them work together and to obtain optimal results.
  2. Sub-optimal results reduce future budgets: Siloed campaigns lead to sub-optimal results, as the weaknesses of each channel remain present without being offset by other channels. That leads to a reluctance from companies to invest in unproven technologies and techniques, leading to lower budgets for these programs in the future. Traditional approaches, which are losing efficacy over time, will continue to deliver similarly sub-optimal results in the long-term. Companies run a risk of a downward spiral with no end winner.
  3. Short-term spikes less effective: Ad agencies excel at generating attention around ideas, but can sometimes struggle more with long-term efforts – this is where the PR agencies’ focus on long-term relationships comes in, as they can plug the gaps in the timelines with sustaining tactics. Old Spice’s re-branding effort, which even has my girlfriend suggesting I try the product, will fail if it simply stops now. If that happens no-one beyond award judges will remember it in a few months. To really entrench their efforts, the agencies involved need to support the initial spike in attention with tactics that will maintain that velocity over the long term.

Conclusion

Agencies need to agree to work together to integrate their communications approaches. It can be tough – the bottom line is that their business objectives often conflict with each other. However, neither is usually “the bad guy” and it can work. If that doesn’t happen, clients need to establish a framework that ensures agencies work with each other, rather than against each other, with cooperation established as a key criteria when evaluating agency performance. For that to happen, companies need to resolve their own internal conflicts between marketing and public relations. Good agencies can help clients make that happen.

What do you think? Have you experienced this blurring of the traditional lines between agencies? How well do you think agencies can hope to work together, given their conflicting objectives?

Posted in: communications, marketing, public relations, social media

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