17 May Do We Finally “Get It”?

On Tuesday I had the honour of taking part in the judging panel for the CorpComms magazine Digi Awards. During a well-earned break I had a chat to James Poulter, Adam Vincenzini and Chris Reed about how things were going in their respective agencies and roles, and we all reported the same thing: being insanely busy since the new year. And so I wonder: has the penny finally dropped among the UK’s companies and brands that social and digital media isn’t going away?

I don’t know whether it’s partly down to the role of social media director in a comms agency, but it does seem that such individuals are all under a serious amount of pressure and stress just at the moment. The demands of juggling tactical client work, strategic consulting, proposal advice and new business input, internal training, reading and research, and agency marketing on social networks are becoming harder and harder to manage. And I think it’s because more clients are asking about social media and/or being more receptive to ideas and/or releasing more budgets towards this type of work. It may be different in the States (interested in your opinion, US folk…), but in the UK at least companies have been loathe to release significant money to fund digital media activity. Now it feels like we’re on the tipping point.

I don’t want to sound like I’m bitching about the amount of work I have on – I’d far rather be stupidly busy than sitting at my desk picking my nose to pass the time. But something, somewhere has to give, and it seems to be the agency profiling and marketing part that’s faltering. I’ve seen a very noticeable trend on Twitter this year where once highly active people are now pretty quiet. Me included. Blogging’s not so prevalent and resource sharing isn’t as high on the agenda.

So have these guys grown tired of Twitter and bored of blogging? I don’t think so; I think they’re all working their asses off. What about you? Have you noticed any changes in 2011? Do you think companies are finally catching on?

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