Media Bullseye

I haven’t seen the movie (yet), but this post makes me want to. Go read it, it’s great–an excerpt worth calling out here:

[...] If I see one more social media leadership position go by default to candidates with “big agency digital experience” or “big brand digital experience,” I am going to throw my pencil at somebody’s head. There is the medieval thinking in action, right there. There’s the primary reason why almost every social media program on the planet is failing to produce results, why three fourths of companies still can’t figure out how to calculate the ROI of their social media programs, why most brands see less than 1% of engagement from their followers and fans after the first touch, why “content is king” is failing, and why increasingly, “social media” strategy and budgets are shifting to ad buys on social networks. That’s right: For all the talk about earned media and engagement and conversations, social media account roles are starting to go to media buyers now. Everyone loves to talk the talk. Almost no company is willing to actually walk the walk. That sound you’re hearing is the banging of traditional marketing hammers pounding nails into social business’ coffin.

I think Olivier Blanchard has hit the nail square on its head, and if the measurement aspect of social isn’t addressed soon, the PR component is going to wither up and die. The dollars will go straight to advertising–which is a shame, because there is a role for communications in social. Social media is about communicating, and yet because brands can’t seem to wrap their hands and heads around how to do it, the dollars will go to the one component that drives people crazy: advertising.

H/T to Scott Monty for pointing the post out.

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