Why PR should lead social media efforts

Digital and advertising agencies have their strengths, but …

As social media becomes a more integral part of many companies’ operations, there’s a battle being waged behind the scenes pitting public relations, digital and advertising agencies against one another.

The prize they’re pursuing is the mandate to help companies create strategic and tactical social media plans and campaigns. The winner gets to play a key role, and the losers will be relegated to minor, supporting roles. This battle is particularly interesting, because for decades the three agencies happily coexisted. There was crossover, but in reality there was little competition.

Social media, however, has changed the landscape. Rather than the three agencies’ having a genteel lunch, they suddenly find themselves in a mixed martial arts contest for the biggest chunk of the social media pie.

The question is: Which agency is best suited to lead social media?

Is it PR agencies, which know how to tell stories but traditionally have not created or developed websites, widgets or applications? Is it ad agencies, which put together great creative ideas for campaigns but have little experience conversing with consumers? Or it digital agencies, which can build great widgets but aren’t storytellers?