Social media is a little like New Year resolutions – we all know we should be sticking to it, but somehow something else always happens to get in the way (and we include ourselves in this analogy, a PR consultancy that should know better – classic case of the cobbler’s shoes…).
Using social media – Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn and the rest – are the latest weapons in the marketing arsenal and, like primitive tribesmen confronted by their first rifle, we need to know which end should face where before we let fire.
Sadly, the media cover more stories about corporate social media going wrong than the many examples of good practice, and I think this has put an awful lot of professional services businesses off the idea. If you’ve invested in a good brand with great values, you really don’t want your efforts destroyed by a quick slip of the cursor. And, once it’s out there in the ether, it’s difficult to take it back.
I think too that a lot of general service marketing agencies that support professional services businesses don’t really understand how social media works and what it can do – and in many cases, what the general service marketing agency doesn’t understand, its clients don’t get.
Professional services businesses need to look beyond their corporatised fear of the potential disruption social media can bring and instead embrace the benefits. After all, social media can achieve a proper dialogue in the way that ordinary email can’t.
Social media has immense potential as a means of getting involved in debates on the issues that affect professional services businesses. Given that so many firms are becoming exercised by thought leadership, what better way to engage than by using social media?
PR Works has in-house expertise in social media, and access to some of the UK’s leading social media experts.
