A saying that came to mind after reading David Armano’s post about people being appointed to social media roles without necessarily having a big digital footprint themselves. Should as he says, they ‘eat their own dog food’?
David and most of the commentators on his blog think yes and obviously so do I.
Case in point the other day I rolled up to a meeting between a client and his media planning agency, where the company had already taken the trouble to tell him all about the joys of digital work.
What was their online footprint? I know this could sound like sour grapes, but the truthful answer is not a lot. I suspected it was a case of the big name and big budgets walking in the door and automatically claiming expertise without any real foundation of why that should be so.
One of the few comments disagreeing with David says that there should be no need for personal experience of whatever you recommend. After all, media buyers don’t personally buy poster sites for themselves.
I think a better analogy is actually - would you take advice on TV brand strategies from someone who never watches it.
Also see Joanne Jacobs thoughts on the matter.
I am not sure I am with Joanne on credibility needing 10-15 years experience, but overall her point of it needing to be a mix of a track record in “technology, interaction design, business strategy, professional development and sheer sales” is a good one.
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Thanks, that's a great article. I left a comment over there.
Hello, surely you can have plenty of experience across a range of strategic comms planning - be interested in the opportunities of social media, and willing to explore them with your clients - without waiting years to 'prove' yourself.
So what? I don't advise my client of a fantastically cute way to engage with potential customers because I haven't used it enough?
Don't be daft. It's my job to think wide and encourage some creative marketing 'punts' just as much as it is to offer my more 'tried and tested' expert advise.
For me its my clients who are the experts, they will come up with the innovations - I just need to seed the ideas.
Hello Louise, Thank you for stopping by and adding a comment, I suspect we are actually on the same page here.
On one hand I appreciate that there is a lot of chest puffing and hubris in this area, with an unspoken hierarchy of social media "rock stars" (a phrase I hate) being in existence.
However on the other, surely it's completely fair enough that if you are advising clients about adopting new technology that you should at least have some first hand experience of utilising it? (and by being a blogger, you obviously do)
To go back to David Armano's original piece, David pointed out a trend of people being elevated into 'head of social media' positions (for example with the New York Times) without necessarily having had any previous presence in this space.
Both of us work in comms and PR and we'd scratch our heads if someone started talking to clients about their overall media strategy who had no obvious track record to show. Why should social media be any different?
An interesting post and discussion. I'm not sure where I sit but it needs to be aired some more