I often fall on the line of PR / Social Media pro, which is really developing into a very strong niche in the PR / Comm industry.
In the northwest (especially in Seattle), most of the PR groups and many advertising agencies have exactly one person who "gets it" and they often only know the strategic side, and have little tactical support from the team understanding.
Your statement about billable hours is entirely correct, as my core team spends roughly 2/3 of our time educating ourselves. With conferences like TechCrunch 50 and Demo08, having a 25+ new companies that may influence the social media sphere becomes a significant task. In fact, just reading a site in detail (like Mashable.com) and wrapping your head around the new information is a full-time job.
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I often fall on the line of PR / Social Media pro, which is really developing into a very strong niche in the PR / Comm industry.
In the northwest (especially in Seattle), most of the PR groups and many advertising agencies have exactly one person who "gets it" and they often only know the strategic side, and have little tactical support from the team understanding.
Your statement about billable hours is entirely correct, as my core team spends roughly 2/3 of our time educating ourselves. With conferences like TechCrunch 50 and Demo08, having a 25+ new companies that may influence the social media sphere becomes a significant task. In fact, just reading a site in detail (like Mashable.com) and wrapping your head around the new information is a full-time job.
Keep up the good writing.
~Barry