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In a post at "that other blog," I stress the importance of surfing the web for your job.If I had one suggestion for Bad Pitch Blog readers, outside of media relations, it would be to play.
We get so hung up making sure every question is answered that we never get started at all.
Want an opinion on something? Try it out.
Overwhelmed by all of it? Check out one small piece of it.
I'm not saying make with the clicky in the morning and pitch the client on it that afternoon. My point is that you have to start somewhere -- jump in and get messy./pontification
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2 comments:
Kevin, I agree completely, and I think that the more PR people get out there and "play" the more that they will understand how to pitch in the 2.0 space.
My question is this--if you're at an agency, who do you bill for this? Is it administrative time? Or "professional development"? During my tenure at an agency, I had a decent mix of the percentage of my time that was billable vs. non-billable, with a fairly reasonable (for the industry) minimum number of billable hours per week (50 minimum).
Aside from doing the surfing at home at night or on the weekends, and thus never "shutting down" I really don't see where I would have had the time, unless a client was willing to pay for this-does a client have a responsiblity to pay for "play" time if it benefits them?
I'm lucky that my current position requires me to know as much as possible about social media, so I'm learning every day.
How are agencies addressing this and continuing to meet other client requirements?
Great question Jennifer.
There are several ways to handle it I suspect. Assuming the standard 80 percent billable, it can be tough to fit in.
But I think some of it blends into the usual client work. You shold be scanning these spaces to see if your clients are being discussed in the first place.
Some of it needs to be an investment by the agency. Calling it professional development might sound dramatic, but I think the firm needs to make it clear that it is something they want employees to do.
My gut tells me it should be organic, but in the reality of billable hours, a creative approach can make it happen. Have the staff create a list of sites/services they want to know more about...see if you already have some experts on staff and then divide the rest of the list up so employees can investigate and report back. Not as fun as "surfing" but it makes it do able. If my colleague's presentation on Twitter, Facebook or whatever piques my curiousity, I will find the time to learn more on my own.
Hope this helps.
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