*This is a guest post by Meg Roberts.
Last week, David pointed out that senior professionals might be setting up young PR pros for failure because they are being asked to handle elements of social media campaigns without the proper experiences necessary for successful communications programs.
The post made me wonder about the other side of this issue: are young PR professionals being set up for failure because they aren’t being given enough opportunities to investigate and learn traditional tactics and strategies?
As companies continue to look at younger staff members for social media expertise, senior employees, recent graduates, and interns should work together to ensure young professionals have well-rounded task lists that include a variety of skills necessary for communication campaigns – both online and offline.
Recently, I’ve learned several of my friends have been tasked with heading up corporate Facebook pages and/or Twitter handles. While this is great and necessary experience, it can lead to an unbalance in recent graduates’ skill set. For example, a young woman I graduated with said her small agency asked her to handle its Twitter account, so she began researching the ins-and-outs of the popular service to help her stand out as a junior staffer.
“I’d leave the office and devour articles on Twitter and the various applications available,” she said. “Pretty soon, senior executives were calling me a Twitter expert and tapping me for a variety of client projects involving social media.”
My friend also admitted, however, that she began focusing more on researching Twitter, Facebook, and other social platforms than more traditional, offline PR tactics.
I had a similar experience at one of my internships while I was still a student. Because of my age and online presence, the majority of my daily tasks focused on digital PR practices rather than pitching the media, planning or attending events, creating press kits, or writing press releases.
It’s no secret that social media is changing marketing and PR. If companies are going to ask younger PR employees to handle digital communication efforts, they need to ensure these staff members are still learning about other PR tactics and how both sets of tools play a role in a much larger, overall strategy.
As long as senior PR professionals encourage their young employees to experience offline and online campaigns, the synergy of the two can be educational and beneficial. If this doesn’t happen, then, yes, young PR pros are being set up for failure because we won’t have the skills and experiences necessary for successful PR campaigns that take place off the Internet.
What do you think? Are young PR professionals being set up for failure because they aren’t being given enough opportunities to investigate and learn traditional tactics and strategies?
Meg Roberts is a PR professional working at a digital PR and marketing agency in the Washington, D.C. metro area. She graduated with a degree in public relations in 2008. You can connect with her on Twitter at @megmroberts or on her blog, PR Interactive.
*Tunnel Vision image by Paul Seegars.
David spends his days focused on marketing communications strategies and execution. He blogs here regularly about integrated communications, PR and social media.
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Glad to have you weigh in, Meg. I think it’s important that PR continue to try and integrate social media into existing and traditional efforts, rather than silo it or treat it solely as an add-on. Integration will force more people on the team to become familiar with social media tools and platforms (like the “older” pros) and at the same time allow younger people who may already have the digital savvy to see how it can complement the traditional tactics that they may have less experience with.
Hi Amy,
I completely agree that integration is necessary, and campaigns that use social media tools as a complement to offline promotions are often the most successful. I can’t speak on behalf of every agency or company, but it appears – from the conversations I had to help me write this post – that in some cases, more senior employees handle many of the traditional elements of a campaign (e.g. pitching the media, writing the press releases) while younger staff members handle the social media presence (maintaining a Twitter account or Facebook page).
As long as young pros are being taught the strategy and goals behind these tactics and are being exposed to the traditional pieces of the campaign, then the entire team will be on the path toward success.
Thanks for your comment!
Meg
I find it interesting that the social media responsibilities are being given to younger staff members, who may not always grasp the strategic side of the business. In college, PR professors teach the tools and tactics, but I’ve found it takes time actually working in the industry to truly understand the big-picture strategy. If we solely rely on junior-level PR staffers to lead social media, we may be doing a disservice to our clients. Like Amy pointed out, integration is key to the success of PR/marketing efforts. PR managers/supervisors shouldn’t take the easy way out — delegating social media responsibilities so they don’t have to learn it. If they don’t get it, how can they assure clients that the offline and online strategies complement each other?
Heather (@prtini)
Yes and no. Is an inordinate amount of SM focus placed on young PR professionals? Absolutely. However, I think the discussion should include more about overarching tactics and strategy rather then the specific channels that we go through.
Communication and relationships are (and always will be) the same regardless of the medium. Remember that and you will go far.
Hi Stuart,
Thanks for your comment! I agree with you – great relationships and good communication are the foundation for good PR. While strategy and relationships are key components, I do believe experiences involving offline and online tactics and channels play an important role in a well-rounded PR education. My concern is that the large amount of SM responsibilities being given to younger professionals might take away from their experiences with traditional PR tactics and overall strategy.
Best,
Meg
Meg,
The ideal is clearly a hybrid of both worlds. Personally, I see the only real hole in my PR arsenal is client face-to-face meeting experience. Although, I am scrambling to catch up in that regard, both in my agency and consulting practices.
The slope into executive strategy and leadership is on the easy button for a lot of us who have been utilizing SM for marketing for years (without realizing it). You just need to ensure those practices translate offline (which most do). You can’t be as forceful offline though.
I think you’ve hit the nail on the head. I’ve heard many stories, including my own, of young PR pros who have become the de facto social media experts at their firms, purely because of age. Personally, I’ve embraced this role as I’m passionate about social media and I do have a background in traditional PR as well, so I don’t feel as if I’m missing out. But this isn’t usually the case and I fear that you are correct – people in our generation are almost obligated to focus on social media, precluding the necessary experiencing of traditional PR and media relations. Not only that, but despite the popularity of social media and digital campaign, the actual ROI of social media is still very much disputed, and if things continue to move in this direction, we may very well be setting ourselves up, not just for failure, but for lesser value in the workforce.
I think this is indicative of a larger problem as well – the idea that social media campaigns are inherently, or should be, independent entities, intentionally disparate from traditional media endeavors. This is a MAJOR problem IMHO. I won’t knock Social Media, I can’t seeing as it’s probably my future and is my passion. However, even the best social/digital strategy must be integrated into a larger PR or Marketing approach. SM on it’s own can only do so much and go so far. Traditional marketing & PR tactics must be used in congruence with an online approach in order to capitalize on any successful social engagement on behalf of the brand or company.
These problems are intertwined. Social Media isn’t something that one person should be tasked with, nor is it a campaign in and of itself. A firm, properly employing social/digital strategy, would do so by training all employees to complement their traditional PR/Marketing with the added benefits of social media outreach…something that many are hesitant to accept.
I have to say I’m a little surprised that other agencies are simply handing off management of these tools to young PR pros. As Heather pointed out in her comment, that’s certainly a disservice to the client by not having an experienced professional leading. In the training I’ve conducted, while these younger professionals understand the tools for personal use, that doesn’t mean they know how to translate their knowledge on behalf of a business/organization. For some clients, allowing junior staff to lead efforts could be a catastrophic mistake when it comes to issues management. And while I think it’s acceptable for those unfamiliar with the tools to lean on the younger generation to teach them the ins and outs, again that doesn’t mean they understand the PR/marketing craft enough to manage the social media initiatives…and could certainly be at a disservice personally for future growth by not understanding first the strategy and traditional tactics behind an integrated effort.
…Amanda (@amanda4bes)
So why don’t we all just work as a team – younger pro’s teaching about the platforms and executing it, while the seasoned folks can teach brand strategy? That’s how it should be. PR should be about teamwork, and what is in the client’s best interest. Their needs to be a passion to learn from both sides.
Thought provoking post, Meg.
@Heather and Amanda – This is the issue David addressed in his post last week, which got me thinking about how passing off social media responsibilities to younger employees will impact their future careers in PR. I would like to believe that most companies and agencies teach social media from the top down so that it is understood and effectively used, but conversations with some of my peers have shown me this isn’t the case. I hope discussions like these will show how important it is to teach strategy, goals, and measurement along side the tactics, tools, and communication channels – both off and online.
Anytime Folks Start Jumping on a Bandwagon About This Thing or That, The Chorus of Public Enemy’s ‘Don’t Believe the Hype’ Will Be Playing in me Head…Faintly.
When You Begin to Overvalue Something As Cool & Scary as the Intrepid Waters of Social Media, That Very Thing Begins to Lose Its Value. It’s Like This Huge Red Flag Pops Up – Kinda Like Whenever You See Don King Show Up in Someone’s Corner..You Get That ‘Oh, Great…!….This Ain’t Gonna Last’ Kinda Feeling.
As We Put Too Much Emphasis on Soc Media, We Chip Away at the Other HIGHLY VALUABLE Tools in the Communicators Toolbox. They May Not be a Shiny as the New Soc Media Knick Knack, But They’l Help You Get the Job Done.
Meg,
Great article. I’m teaching an intro to PR class here (Northern Kentucky University) this fall and plan to incorporate social media only after they’ve learned the strategic and theoretical underpinnings to successful campaigns.
Meg. This is an outstanding article. I think the old creed rings true. ‘You have to know where you came from to know where your going’. As twenty-somethings, we’re almost pigeon-holed into this idea that we’re all experts on the web but don’t have a clue how to implement a marketing campaign via more ‘traditional’ mediums (print, radio, tv, et cetera). Ultimately – it comes down to us – it comes down to you getting out their and crossing platforms, learning how to differentiate and integrate pracices across platforms.
Some of this is self-taught and some will come with work experience (for example, I spent the past year working in outdoor advertising). This experience helped me relate two completely different platforms (billboards and web) and learn how at their core, they are very similar in their implementation.
Great thoughts Meg. Really enjoyed this piece.
Hey, came across this on twitter and thought it was a great post. I agree that sometimes companies move too fast with their new employees, at times. Someone coming directly out of college really needs the traditional PR experiences, simply because the communications field is constantly evolving, which means you have to understand the origins in order to keep up with the changes.
On the other hand, teachers need to be more proactive in preparing their students so that when they get hired they won’t freak when they get a ton of completely new stuff dumped on them. They probably all use some form of social media for personal use but it can be a little jarring making the transition over to using it for professional purposes. It is a whole new ball game and if you are not careful you will crash and burn quickly.
Very nice, a great read.
Imagine it’s 1993. I just graduated from a well-known communications program, and I’m sending out cover letters and résumés to marcom agencies across america. My cover letter reads: “Television Marketing Expert.” My rationale? “I grew up with TV, so I know it like the back of my hand.”
I doubt you’d even make it to the second line. The position doesn’t make sense, and even if you fast forward 16 years and replace “TV” with Social Media, it still doesn’t fly.
As your social media new hire/intern/consultant, I’ll try to teach you something new. But the learning curve is steep; wouldn’t it make more sense for us to tackle it together? Delegating social media to the youngest bunch overlooks the uniting element this new technology is supposed to provide. As does the pressure for new graduates to position themselves as “experts” or “gurus”—in anything, let alone social media.
In this dynamic and changing professional landscape, what value can new professionals add—and how can they stand out? Can well-rounded interests be a selling point, or are we forced to specialize?
I guess we’ll see!
-DJ Cap
(@djcap)
You raise an interesting question – “Can well-rounded interests be a selling point, or are we forced to specialize?” This is what concerns me most because PR is an industry with immense variety. If our first job has us focusing on social media, will we have to stay on that path and automatically close doors to other areas of PR?
My favorite quote of all time. “Everything in moderation, except for beer and cookies.”
Social media is an amazing way for junior PR people to climb up the ranks fast. But if that is your sole focus and you allow yourself to become a one-trick pony, you are only setting yourself up for failure. Balance young grasshopper.
You’re right, Jamie. Young pros have a responsibility to their own careers to not focus on one area of PR too early, unless they know this is the field they absolutely want to focus on in the future. In my experience, my intern coordinators were very open to helping me explore different areas of PR that interested me – as long as I asked and made this interests known.
It also begs to ask if more senior folks are missing the opportunity to learn new skills. If agencies always tap the younger PR folks for social media, are senior PR folks going to be dinosaurs?
Hi Kelley –
This is a great point, and I see it brought up frequently. If PR campaigns are using social media tools, it’s important for everyone – from the most senior employee to the most junior – to understand how they work and what the value is.
I’m an accountant, and even though we have computers with all kinds of bookkeeping and tax software available, every accountant I’ve ever known starts with pencil and ledger paper. Even tax returns – I’ve never done one on the computer without doing it on paper first. ALL the calculations are done by hand before it goes into the system. (Yes, even the really ugly ones.) If you don’t know what you’re doing, how do you know the computer does? Computers make mistakes all the time due to poor programming and human error. Without knowing that debits must equal credits, etc. how can you tell if there’s an error in the financials?
By focusing young grads’ attention on nothing but social media, you send them out ill-prepared for the real world because they do not have the building blocks in their toolbox. If social media were to go “poof” and vanish, could they function? I’m not so sure. Social media is a whole new world, full of unknowns, but the basics never die. Budgeting, press releases, understanding publicity / PR, sales, advertising… knowing these things can only enhance the ability of the young social media “expert” to deliver real assets of value to their clients.
Social media is one aspect of a sound PR strategy, but it’s not the only one and shouldn’t be treated as such.
You are making an excellent point! As an agency owner, it is very important to train and teach tomorrow’s professionals with all the necessary tools to create good, solid PR programs. Thanks for reminding all of us about this important point!
I think this is (as others have pointed out!) an excellent article.
I like Olivier Blanchard’s blog (http://thebrandbuilder.wordpress.com) who writes that his branding and marketing services take digital and social media and add them to your existing marketing mix.
Let’s not forget the billions of people with no social media! And of course, as Steve Rubbel pointed out recently, social media is a phase that will evolve into something else. We need to be looking up as well as looking down the tunnel.
Great article! I totally agree with it.
http://www.the33tv.com/news/kdaf-twinternship-walt-story,0,771747.story
I just received this link in an e-mail from a co-worker and thought that it would be a great article to share with everyone. It is about Pizza Hut’s Twiternship winner that is now in charge of Pizza Hut’s Twitter handle. She is being transparent in letting followers know who she is which I think is a plus because many Twitter handles are being run by similar people who act like they are the CEO or have young PR pros ghostwriting for the company.
“Fuller says he also expects Alexa to take Pizza Hut into new social media frontiers that the Pizza Hut brass doesn’t even know about yet. But, right now, Alexa is serving up the works on Twitter in 140 characters or less.”
Is there anyone reading this that sees a tremendous opportunity for young PR pros to lead in our industry? Instead of lamenting social media is getting siloed and younger PR pros aren’t getting the experience they need with “traditional” communication tools, how can we lead?
Thanks for your post Meg, it is great to see the ideas from a PR standpoint. As you said, social media is changing the PR/Marketing landscape. Social media is not the responsibility of young PR employees – it is the responsibility of the entire organization. If a company plans on leaving behind traditional media completely in the future, then it is appropriate to let the ideas of pitching media and strong traditional communications campaigns slide past new employees…but I think we all agree that is not happening.
As Roger Johnson pointed out in his comment, this is an opportunity for a younger generation to lead into social media, but it is different than PR. I am looking for a career in social media because of the intricacies that we are exploring daily. I would hope that companies will embrace the new discipline and the learning that comes with it rather than bypass PR fundamentals for somebody looking to build a career in PR.
Meg makes some great points and I think much of it comes down to the education and the work environment. I actually still find that my younger team mates embrace at least the tactics behind traditional PR, but whether it’s social media or traditional comm, almost no newbie is charged with understanding overall strategy, and I don’t know too many agencies who would let them rise up the ranks until they get it. Strategy comes from experience. But it’s a great reminder to talk bigger picture and include them in strategy development so they understand where the tools they are using fit in.
Isn’t this the same problem we had in the past when handing off media relations to the junior staff without proper training/relationship building/strategy context? I don’t think this is a new problem, just the tools have changed. The mindset of what a line versus staff management positions do not seem to be well defined in agency life.
I think what Meg is talking about is different. Handing off media relations duties to junior staff without proper training, etc. is more similar to the problem outlined in my last post on Thursday about handing off your foray into social media to junior staff. Meg is talking about young pros being pigeon-holed into a digital PR focus while missing out on opportunities to execute more traditional, offline efforts, which are just as important to experience.
To me, the real problem is that ad agencies and PR firms alike are still run by people who grew up knowing that it’s all about “spin.” Creative communication often ends up spinning a product a certain way and with no real method of tracking performance, ad guys and pr folk alike looked like heroes as long as the message resonated with the brand’s top brass. In this case, spin often beats real messaging. So, younger PR folk are being told all the wrong things. In a world of blogs and instant 140 character updates, press releases that don’t speak the undeniable truth in a believable way will be ignored. Press conferences where brands look to defer blame will become blogger feeding pits. I think the successful PR firms will suggest more mea culpas and show their clients how honesty may once again become an effective PR policy.