Oh, there’s a lot of opportunities
If you know when to take them, you know?
There’s a lot of opportunities
If there aren’t, you can make them
Make or break them

Ah, The Pet Shop Boys. They always had a way with words and I think they said it best – there are lots of opportunities if you know when to take them.

I just got back from vacation to learn that while the blogosphere may still be quiet (dog days of summer), some big things have been going down in the world of social media gurus. Maggie Fox’s Social Media Group bought Geoff Livingston’s Livingston Communications this week. That means the consolidation of social media agencies is beginning and kudos to Maggie for picking up a great company. It’s obvious that social media consulting is a going concern as more organizations realize its power and scramble to better understand how it will affect their business.

Maggie’s post on the announcement caught my eye though, particularly when she said "we now have the bandwidth and complete service offerings to happily go toe-to-toe with any traditional agency’s so-called ’social media practice’. SMG is now a force in social media consulting, this much is true, as is the assertion many agencies (particularly PR) say they have social media practices. I say this is an excellent opportunity for PR firms to look at their skill set in this area and examine how they can rise to the challenge.

The question over whether PR people are best suited to engage in social media for their clients or consult is a subject of much debate. See Jason Falls article here and Todd Defren’s thoughts here and be sure to read the comments. I would agree that the basic tenants of social media are PR-like in nature – interacting with people directly, spreading good news, tailoring outreach depending on the blogger/journalist. Does it mean that all PR people will naturally be able to embrace social media and offer great advice on how to take part? No, of course not.

But because many PR people are naturally outgoing and enjoy spreading the word about new products or services, they have an opportunity to learn more, get engaged and build the knowledge. Yes blogging has been around for years, but the social media space in its current iteration is still fairly new and allows for new entrants to join the conversation.

There is nothing like a bit of friendly competition to get PR folks thinking about how they can improve. With all the talent social media experts out there gaining ground, take this opportunity to jump in with both feet.

This entry was posted on Thursday, July 24th, 2008 at 2:34 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.