The more social media is taken in-house, the more the role of the specialist social media agency is questioned. To survive, the key is to grow up.

Last October, I suggested social media agencies shouldn’t be doing the day-to-day management of social media and instead it should be taken in-house (nma.co.uk 19 October 2010). While for some brands this may still never be the case, it’s certainly a trend that has continued since then.

As a result, a question that always comes up is whether social media agencies will still exist in a few years. The truth is that even if you have an in-house social media manager who’s truly brilliant, you’ll need some aspects outsourced, not only due to a lack of resources but to also keep ideas fresh. The same question arose about digital agencies, and also around mobile and other digital disciplines. While some have been integrated into bigger agencies, specialists still exist and are certainly still needed.

Brands want a holistic view and to be able to tie social media into their other marketing or business channels. Social media agencies will get snapped up by bigger agencies looking to provide a 360-degree offering, such as Essence buying Punktilio (nma.co.uk 26 May 2011).

However, having one agency do everything won’t always result in the most innovative or fresh ideas. Already so many brands are now doing something within social media, meaning more needs to be done to get cut through. Brands may not need social media agencies to manage their Twitter feed,but the value a specialist agency can give is not only in understanding the fine details of social media, but in having a maturer view of the wider market. This could include understanding the increasing need and complexity to add paid components, the nuances of different communities and blogs, social commerce and the contacts that it may take the in-house team months to build itself.

For social media to be taken seriously, and to maintain a serious place within a brand’s agency structure, agencies need to make sure they mature with the channel, or they place themselves in a dangerous silo where they won’t fit with how brands want to operate. This means social media agencies, while staying true to their beliefs about the channel and the power of advocacy and word of mouth, need to also understand that the market has changed and brands want a grown-up conversation, of which paid media will play an increasingly important part.

Source: Charlotte McEleny, NewMediaAge, nma.co.uk

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