When I was asked to write this I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to say, but not much of an idea how I was going to say it.

Unfortunately, at the moment, I’m also lacking the energy. I have been fortunate enough to welcome into the world my beautiful baby girl, an event that has seen me demoted in the family pecking order to the bottom rung, just below the cat. But, I wouldn’t have it any other way; I’m in the furnace, the engine room of the family; cleaning, cooking, wiping, changing, rocking, and burping all hours of the day. And I love it.

When we got back from the hospital it’s quite accurate to say that our house was devoid of any order or calm, mainly because I was flapping about the place like a headless fowl, and in fairness, the order in the house has been restored in direct correlation to the recovery of my girlfriend. Now we’ve got a rhythm, we know what we’re doing, and it’s fun. We know when we can sleep, when we’re feeding, when we should be playing and when we should be continuing with Latin and Oboe for gifted newborns.

In many ways I can relate this to the social media landscape and the way in which a surprising number of brands and agencies approach their social strategy and implementation. They’ve just got their new baby, the task seems almost insurmountable, the agencies start to flap, vying for control, perpetuating mismanagement, and all of this can result in utter chaos. What this mess needs is a strong hand. A leader.

PR agencies have always been set up to be that leader. Every day we think about how we’re telling your brand narrative and building relationships with consumers through editorial. Social media is just another way of building the relationship and telling the story. As that leader we know that your “baby” needs constant attention and entertaining, feeding and good hygiene – not just a new rattle, or fancy playpen. Because we already have that expertise built in to our daily operations we’re not running around with colourful toys desperately waving them for five minutes respite.  We’re bringing order to the dialogue, identifying where it happens, laying the foundations, concentrating on the long game, constantly delivering high-value messages to relevant spaces, building the relationship and most importantly driving conversation. Our agency likes to think of itself more as a “consumer engagement agency“, a huge part of which is the integration between PR and social media.

That seamless integration comes from good planning and understanding, as a “parent“, that your brand’s life has changed. It will never be the same again. Get used to it, stop flapping and bring some order back to your brand’s social presence. Work out your narrative (I’m constantly surprised at the lack of a social media timeline, how can you empower anyone to represent your brand without one?), your personality and who you are socially before you bring out the toys. Then you can start having some fun.