Comments on: What it takes to be a social media agency. Part one.

By: How do you communicate in the age of social media? | Creativity_Unbound

How do you communicate in the age of social media? | Creativity_Unbound — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 01:44:24 +0000

[...] media is that you have to do it to get it. You can’t develop strategies, create communities, counsel clients or conceive ideas if you don’t do it yourself. You have to try new technologies, experiment [...]

By: The 30 Best Blog Posts on Social Media I’ve Read in 2009 « A New Marketing Commentator

Mon, 14 Dec 2009 16:37:06 +0000

[...] What It Takes to Be a Social Media Agency (Part One) by Edward Boches on the Creativity Unbound [...]

By: edward boches

edward boches — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 13:00:55 +0000

Amber,
Good Q’s and they give me yet another idea for a post. I do think that agencies have to play a role in the culture shift, not by talking, but by proving. We have done a few things: for ourselves, I created the Trash Talk from the Twitter Section SuperBowl event, using Twitter’s API to build a site that aggregated everyone’s comments about SuperBowl ads. This got half my company onto Twitter, along with some clients and peers in the industry. Did it again for the Academy Awards and when we moved to Boston. So, point is create opps that allow people to experiment. Ideally they will see the value and join the conversation, so to speak. For another client, that might not want me naming them, we set up listening stations, showed them all the content and conversation online and let them see that it’s not so bad or scary and that there were opps for them to get in on the conversation. Then we set them up, gathered some rogue accounts and put everything together, even leading the way in tweeting and generating content. But, and it’s a big but, the real opportunity is for companies to mobilize their employees. That’s a combination of finding out whose interested, training them a bit, allowing them some freedom within guidelines, and letting them go. Look at Zappos or even how Office Max supposedly used employees to launch Elf Yourself via email. As you said, this is all new. I don’t have 10 cases studies around employee mobilization, but I hope to. More importantly perhaps if others like you read this and think about it you’ll come up with your own ideas for how to do it, foster it, and encourage clients. Less business for me, but that’s the way it goes. Thanks.

By: Amber Naslund

Amber Naslund — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 01:50:40 +0000

Hi Edward,

Love it (but I always dig your points of view). Especially #3 and #5. When it comes to #5, though, culture plays such a critical role. I see soooo many companies struggling with social media not because they lack the tools, but because they lack the proper *intent* in the first place. It’s just a square peg in a new, shiny round hole.

Do you see a role for agencies in helping affect culture shift? Outside their scope? Or does that objective, advisory capacity help? I’m convinced that the businesses that struggle most have the most problems talking to each other and working together inside their own walls. Would love to hear your take.

(Oh, and thanks for the mention.)

Best,
Amber Naslund
Director of Community, Radian6
@ambercadabra
.-= Amber Naslund´s last blog ..March of Dimes® Selects Radian6 for Social Media Monitoring =-.

By: What it takes to be a social media agency. Part two. | Creativity_Unbound

What it takes to be a social media agency. Part two. | Creativity_Unbound — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 16:18:08 +0000

[...] Bob Rinderle left a comment that this was really about creating and defining a relationship agency. True. But as [...]

By: edward boches

edward boches — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 22:25:42 +0000

Bob:
Smart way of looking at things. Challenge right now is that clients have needs and they have existing agencies and the two don’t always align. So there’s what an agency has to do to solve everything and what a client should demand in its social capabilities. Relationship agency is a good term. I was simply using the topical vernacular.
Thanks for joining the conversation.

By: Bob Rinderle

Bob Rinderle — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:53:55 +0000

Great topic. Ad Age cites your new client on this: “Mr. Hsieh… understands that social media isn’t something you can simply bolt on; it’s a way of doing business and something that has to be baked into the culture.”

Tracking individual brand influence through firms like Radian6 is fabulous, but the key for agencies is media mix (and monetization). What is more valuable to a brand, reaching 12,000 active social media users, or reaching 12 million people through a 30-second TV spot?

Our industry is converging with PR, digital, direct response and traditional ad agencies all fighting for relevance in a similar space. As such, I think the issue is less about what it takes to be a social media agency, but rather, what does it take to be a relationship agency – and how does one effectively apply all elements of the marketing mix to accomplish this?
.-= Bob Rinderle´s last blog ..The Creator Economy =-.

By: edward boches

edward boches — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 19:30:51 +0000

Michael:
You still owe me drinks. Or I you. Not sure. Yes this requires people who know something about strategy, branding, content, integration, ROI and all that good stuff. (It’s what keeps me employed.) But there is stuff that the next great generation, as a I call it, knows how to do that we don’t. Need their skill, talent and technological acumen added to the program. After all, once we get those guys over the hurdle, we actually have to implement it.

By: Michael Troiano (@miketrap)

Michael Troiano (@miketrap) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 18:19:29 +0000

Great list, I’d add “An Understanding of How Client Organizations Function In The Real World.”

My most acute observation in returning to this world is that the biggest problem clients seem to have in applying social media is neither a lack of capability, nor a lack of will. It’s the inability of the people who *do* understand social media to get those those who *don’t* to take the handcuffs off, and let some experimentation take place.

Your average 24 yr. old twitter jihadi just isn’t going to help them get over that hurdle. It takes crusty old codgers like us, my friend.
.-= Michael Troiano (@miketrap)´s last blog ..The Bad Deli =-.

By: edward boches

edward boches — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 22:27:30 +0000

Lisa:
Thanks. Have been working on a variety of ideas in this space, in part for the agency and also for clients and the services we provide. A couple of things are evident for sure, the trends that I’ve written about recently, and the need for social media advisors to master all of the C’s: creator, curator, choreographer, collaborator, catalyst. Subjects for future posts. In the meantime, keep working on mastering choreography. That in itself is a challenge.