A few months ago, I was giving a presentation to a class on social media at NYU when the students posed this head scratcher of a question: “once everyone signs up for Facebook, starts commenting on blogs and just generally “gets” social media, will it be its own type of PR job anymore?”
I had considered this before, but just in an abstract way. After all, so much of social media is still evolving. But since these students were planning out their careers, the question suddenly became more than academic.
I haven’t reached an answer, but progress has been made. Here are three arguments for and three against. I leave it to you to jump into the mix and offer your thoughts. Even an “I don’t know” is worth offering because it helps everyone understand the relative degree of uncertainty.
Will social media be its own job in five years?
Yes:
1. The huge growth in the number of channels and their diverse features means specialization in social media will grow deeper. In fact, there will be multiple types of social media specialists (think SEO and virtual worlds).
2. It won’t be social media relations so much as community relations that takes place on social channels. Just like community managers take years to hone their craft and build credibility with local businesses, NGOs and “feel good” community groups, so too will social media community managers. They’ll be more like “ambassadors for hire” than modern PR pros.
3. Mainstream media has been around for decades, and everyone knows how to read a newspaper and watch the local news. But media relations professionals are still in high demand because consuming the news and the art of informing its direction are radically different things. So even when social media has been around for decades, social media specialists will be needed. Remember, a lot of people can barely string together coherent written sentences. (Um, let’s not bring up the whole “math” thing with PR people!)
No, Social Media Won’t be its Own Job
1. As the utopic dream of the Cluetrain Manifesto comes true and “Regular” employees at companies are freed to use their natural voices to communicate directly with stakeholders, the job of social media specialist will become as anachronistic as telephone switchboard operator.
2. Like speaking programs and analyst relations, social media will become a tool in the typical PR person’s toolbox. The road to this day will be paved by norms emerging out of corporate social media policies and a settling of expectations for the required amount of interaction among the public. True, there may be some people who are better or more experienced at social media, just as dedicated speaking program proffesionals rock their own worlds. But it won’t be different enough to matter in such exclusive terms like it does today.
3. Social media will be found to be so superior to other types of PR outreach methods that PR jobs will essentially be ONLY social media relations. That includes each company having its own “media arm, communicating directly with their publics. Since everyone is in social media, no one will call it that. They’ll just say “public relations.”
