"I'm not a social media participant, but I play one at my ad agency"

(Yeah, I commented briefly about this last night. But the topic just won't leave my head.)

Whether it was Peter Bergman reprising his role from "The Young and the Restless," Robert Young from "Marcus Welby, M.D." or Michael Storm from "One Life to Live," at least three actors have assured us, "I'm not a doctor, but I play one on TV," in the time-honored process of selling cold medicine.

Is this same act being played out inside the ad industry with regards to social media?

According to a recent TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony poll of more than 60 marketers in North America, France and the U.K. , the answer is, yes, it is. According to TNS, "Agencies don't get it."

Brian Morrissey's piece in Adweek (Download the article as PDF) offers some compelling quotage:

"You get the sense that agencies talk a good game," said Jim Nail, chief marketing and strategy officer at TNS Media Intelligence/Cymfony. "They put up a good presentation about what social media is, but when you get to implementing campaigns, the day-to-day management skills are not meeting the marketers' expectations."

It really boils down to participation, doesn't it?

And John Herrington's recap over at Chaos Scenario provides succinct insights into just why things are the way they are.

"Agencies as a whole need to embrace social networking not from a corporate level, but from an individual level."

It's not enough to trot out the resident one or two social media experts inside the agency, and have a pleasant forced laugh around how "the kids" in your agency are "participating." I truly believe the CEO, President, Chairman, CFO, CCO, ECD, Head of Planning, Head of Media, Head of Production, Head of HR — the people running the agency — absolutely need to be participating themselves; so when they speak about social media, they speak from personal experience. You wouldn't accept anything less from an agency when they're discussing TV, print and radio. ("Hey, I've never created or been involved with producing a TV spot myself, but some of our juniors have, so you can really trust me as we discuss this new TV campaign...")

And TNS' report backs this up. According to Adweek, "Nearly 50 percent of marketers said social-media efforts needed to be handled at an executive level with "significant" resources. Another 30 percent agreed social media is a "revolutionary opportunity."

Don't just play with social media, dear leader. Get your hands dirty. Participate.

Comments

[Dan Knutson]

Hah - you made me laugh. Have a great weekend. I'll not be participating in the social mediasphere this weekend - I'll be up north, where the social mediasphere hasn't quite reached yet (unless maybe by satellite).

[Bill Snyder]

I think anyone who uses social media could attest to this. I didn't really understand Facebook until I started using it. Same for twitter, dogeball, and blogging. I've had people -- I'm talking friends not clients -- who ask me to explain this or that form of social media. It's a bit like trying to explain the concept of having drinks on a Friday night: "Well, you get together with a friend, and maybe she brings a friend, and maybe that friend brings a friend, and you talk." "Well why do you call it having drinks?" "Well, you order drinks while you talk, but that's not really the point -- well at least not for most people." "What do you talk about?" "Um, depends on who's there." "Well, do you decide what to talk about before you get there??"

OK. I'm going a bit overboard here, but the point is that social media is a pretty organic experience, which makes it hard to explain for someone who doesn't do it.

[Bill Snyder]

I think anyone who uses social media could attest to this. I didn't really understand Facebook until I started using it. Same for twitter, dogeball, and blogging. I've had people -- I'm talking friends not clients -- who ask me to explain this or that form of social media. It's a bit like trying to explain the concept of having drinks on a Friday night: "Well, you get together with a friend, and maybe she brings a friend, and maybe that friend brings a friend, and you talk." "Well why do you call it having drinks?" "Well, you order drinks while you talk, but that's not really the point -- well at least not for most people." "What do you talk about?" "Um, depends on who's there." "Well, do you decide what to talk about before you get there??"

OK. I'm going a bit overboard here, but the point is that social media is a pretty organic experience, which makes it hard to explain for someone who doesn't do it.

[Toad]

Yup. Check out this article over at BusinessWeek - it's a review of Facebook apps by 3 people who "get" social media - their rationales seem fairly common sensical to those of us who "get" it too, but clearly the agency types who approved the apps don't have a clue.

http://tinyurl.com/yusuew

[Gavin Heaton]

Another reason why agencies will be replaced ;) It is only a matter of time before more social media agencies begin to appear. Then at least Jaffe will have some competition ;)