PR and social media – an alternative view

Tim Hoang has just had a quick lunch with the Justin Kirby, founder of the International Viral & Buzz Marketing Association (VBMA). The meeting came as a result of an email exchange in Tim’s role at New Media Knowledge where, to put it mildly, Justin was rather negative about the way the PR industry has so far tackled social media.

One of his main criticisms was that “the PR industry gravitates around certain individuals – much in the same way that people consume media that reinforces their ideology” and therefore we all believe we are correct and pat each other on the back, congratulating ourselves on our own greatness. After all, there is no one to tell us differently.

To some extent I would agree – look at the social media-type events whether it is through NMK, Chinwag or the like – there’s very little variation in the people who turn up. Okay, some would argue that it is an open invite and therefore it is not our fault if others do not want to come. However, I think it is ours’ and the organisers’ responsibility to make sure we have as wide a breadth of individuals at these events as possible.

Ironically, our current situation contradicts the social media favourite ‘Wisdom of Crowds’ theory – the digital environment encompasses a huge range of disciplines and there should be more than the regular throng of PR’s and Will McInnes - cheerleader for the digital design community in Brighton.

The term social media also came into question. I know both Wolfstar’s Beth Jones and Steve Rubel have commented on this topic in the past. However, Kirby’s take on it is that it should not merely be labelled ‘media’ but ‘place’. A forum, a blog, a social network is a ‘place’ where people meet and the people are the ‘media’, the channel to communicate through, which he believed we (those of us purporting to operate in the social media) don’t understand properly.

His overall message was that PR practitioners and marketers were talking a good game but how many were actually doing it? Does the insular nature of our inner social circle mean that criticism of ourselves is avoided but is instead directed at those not in ‘the game’? Social media is valid as a label but its importance is overstated – and marketers need to really up their game if they are to really ‘exploit’ this medium, according to Kirby.

Although this post is expecting a whole range of abuse - whatever your thoughts are on Kirby’s comments, the meeting did highlight to me how small and self-congratulatory the social media crowd can sometimes be. Hopefully we’ll see people like Justin at more events soon.

The full interview will be on the NMK site once Tim gets his arse in gear.