The Financial Times recently ran an article claiming that social media networks are a threat to advertising agencies.

I can’t decide whether to respond with a “Duh” or simply say that social media is barely the tip of the iceberg re. the decline of ad agencies.  I’m not even sure that social networks can see the iceberg – that’s how far downstream they are from the major problems of the agency community.

There is nothing unique about social media in that – to use it - an agency (or brand) needs to: (a) understand the audience, (b) how, when and why members of that audience have selected the medium in question, (c) what messaging would be most effective as a result, and (d) how to craft that message so that it specifically meets the expectations a user may consciously or unconsciously have in that specific environment (i.e., the same person will consume a message differently when it’s delivered by radio vs. Facebook).

The FT article is a bit of a “when you have a hammer…” situation:  it’s written by the paper’s digital media correspondent and cites exactly one study on (only) social media.

If only agencies could fix all their problems by “getting” social media.  Agencies are going to need to fundamentally alter their compensation, organization and recruiting models if they are going to pull even with brands forever changed by the economy, a more knowledgeable consumer and the information overload we all wade through every day.

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