Edelman blasted for claims it never made
Last Sunday, a Chicago Tribune article focused on Edelman in its look at reverse mentoring, in which older executives learn about the digital space from the younger workers who grew up within it. The article notes than 95% of Edelman’s US senior executives have “rotmens” (that’s “mentor” backwards) and that the program is being rolled out worldwide.
Let the spinning begin!
Gawker headlined its view of Edelman’s program, “Huge PR Firm Has Bunch of Kids Digital PR Strategists” (the strike-through is Gawker’s, not mine). The story lead:
Here is just the latest example of how a large PR agency can be a huge, huge, huge, hustle, staffed by hustlers, who will charge you too much money to do dumb, simple things, on the internet. Edelman!
The Gawker post asserts that clients will be overcharged for work performed by 23-year-olds because the senior people don’t get it. (I left a comment more than 24 hours ago that hasn’t appeared yet. Something tells me it never will, since I asked if their claims were backed up by evidence of shoddy consulting).
Gawker’s point of view, though, is not far off from the assertions in a post by Gini Dietrich of PR agency Arment Dietrich, who repeatedly insisted that the article claimed:
- Edelman is turning digital strategy over to its Gen-Yers
- 95% of Edelman’s senior staff are clueless about social media
Dietrich’s provocative headline, “Edelman Admits They Don’t KNow Social Media,” introduces a post that suggests that Edelman’s senior staff has no idea what they’re doing when it comes to social media. And in response to dozens of comments, Dietrich continues to insist that Edelman came right out and admitted it:
Edelman executives told the Chicago Tribune (and Sun-Times) that 95 percent of their senior leaders, 95 percent, don???t know how to use social media. I did not make up this stat. It???s in the article.
There’s more. PRNewser wondered, “We’re honestly trying to figure out how chatting it up all day on Instant Messenger equates to advising major corporations on their digital communications strategy.” Loudmouth Design and Communication headlined its article, “Big and Dumb,” and claimed the story characterizes “top PR agency management, who are used to hawking their expertise as current and dare we say ‘cutting edge’, completely in the dark and seemingly out of touch.” Law and More says the Edelman example should lead clients to unbundle their PR needs.
The problem is, nowhere in the article does anyone—Edelman or anyone else—claim that senior management doesn’t know how to use social media, only that 95% of the members of senior management are participating in the reverse mentoring program.
As Edelman Digital President Rick Murray (who heads up a team of some of the smartest people in the business, including Phil Gomes and Steve Rubel) said in a tweet, obviously reacting to the criticism:
That is, Baby Boomers can be well-schooled in social media and still glean tons of insight from those younger employees who were born into the digital era and have grown up networked 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
Also, nowhere does the article suggest that the junior staff is setting social media strategy for clients. Nowhere. Not even a hint.
I’m with BlogHer co-founder Jory Des Jardins, who commented, “I think it???s brilliant that (Edelman’s) sr people are learning the more tactical aspects of (social media) from the digital natives on staff. Even if we old folks get the promise of social media, we don???t necessarily know how to build our Tweetdecks. Kudos to Edelman.”
But more, I’m bemused that so many people drew faulty conclusions from the article (which, by the way, was pretty poorly written in its own right) and then slammed Edelman based on those inaccurate assumptions.
10/29/09 | 12 Comments | Edelman blasted for claims it never made