Last night I was having drinks with a friend and a lady sitting next to us at the bar joined in once she heard we were talking about Facebook, Twitter, and public relations.

She said she had been in PR for 15 years and was preparing a course to teach MBA students about the importance of PR for business strategies. And she gave some examples of advising clients about social media, Facebook and Twitter.

I asked her if she is on Facebook or Twitter. She said, "No, not personally." But, she said she knew "all about Facebook and Twitter."

I said that you can't advise clients about how they should best use social media such as Facebook or Twitter if you aren't involved in Facebook or Twitter.

She strongly disagreed.

There seemed no sense in continuing that discussion because her position is nonsense.

- You cannot know much about social media by reading about social media.

- If you don't blog, or aren't involved in blogging through reading and commenting, you cannot know about blogging.

- If you don't use Facebook you can't know what is acceptable behavior on Facebook.

- If you don't use Twitter you cannot know what is possible with Twitter.

You cannot get it unless you are in it.

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Please see:

The "Experiential Gap" . . .

PRWatch: PR Firms That Don't Blog Yet Offer New/Social Media Practices

PR Firms That Blog