Most public relations professionals would agree that two of the most knowledgeable resources for social media communication are CEO of The Geek Factory, Inc., founder of Help a Reporter Out and uber-networker Peter Shankman, and PR and new media strategist for Sevans Strategy, founder of Twitter chat Journchat and savvy communicatrix Sarah Evans.

Both have harnessed social media for the good of the PR profession and most of us PR pros tap into those tools on a weekly or daily basis (thanks to both of you). Sarah and Peter recently teamed up on a humorous but relevant post identifying 25 ways your “social media expert” might not be an expert.

The post clearly stemmed from the influx of so called SM gurus who claim to promote business growth through an intense social media “strategy” that often consists of adding some Facebook friends and Twitter followers.

It had many of us laughing out loud as we recognized so many claims that have become the tired but true examples of people misrepresenting their experience because many businesses don’t yet know what to look for. But they made one point I’d like to counter – “All of a firm or agency’s ‘social media strategists’ come from traditional PR or Marketing agencies.”

I think I turned a little red when I read that one, because, well, that’d be me. I majored in PR and I worked at a traditional and very successful and skilled agency. Truth be told, I did head up corporate communications for a social media advertising network where I was immersed in the world of social media, but my efforts were still largely focused on shaping the company’s communication strategy using my traditional background.

My past experience taught me how to create powerful communication and to get it in the hands of influencers – and to do it in ways that reflect the needs of specific target audiences. So I’d argue that makes me a very good resource to help create the social media strategy, which we do for a number of our clients.

I think it’s easy to see why a trained communicator is pivotal when you see many business owners make valiant attempts at social media engagement, only to fail because they don’t understand that social media is about conversation, and not the static dialogue involved in most other forms of marketing.

I’m guessing that what Peter and Sarah were getting at is that to counsel a client on social media strategy, a practitioner needs to demonstrate an understanding of the tools, of the nuances of social media conversation and have experience in putting those tools into play.

At RKPR we didn’t offer ourselves as counselors until we felt comfortable with our extensive research, our trials and errors and by implementing our own programs to teach us how social media could culminate in successful relationship building. Even today, we like to say we are our own best case study. And like everyone else, we’ll still scramble to stay on top of the latest information.

As PR practitioners, do you feel we are the best conduits for social media education for our clients? What qualifications do you think we need to help them develop a strategy?

Rachel Kay