On Twitter Sarah Evans asked what the difference was between marketing and public relations to be answered on twitter in less than 140 characters. Here are some answers:

• Marketing is what gets people through the door, PR is what keeps them coming back.
• In my world? Marketing connects people to me as a service or brand. PR connects me to people as a person.
• Marketing gets people to the dance. In sales, you have to do your own dancing. PR makes sure there are people to keep dancing with.
• Marketing=first thing people see.  PR=showing what’s underneath
• On a cynical side, marketing is selling face - PR is saving face

Since I started in sales and moved to marketing, I wouldn’t agree with all of these answers, but I can see how PR people would.  To me: PR is media spin.  Marketing is messaging and buzz to your target audience. Sales is actually getting dirty to pay the marketing and PR people.

All too often, people in marketing, social media, PR, lead generation (SEO and SEM), and advertising have espoused how they deliver. I have to tell you: until the salesperson closes the deal, nothing happened.

Brand Autopsy has visual representation of the differences among marketing, PR, advertising and branding. It boils down to: Advertising is when you tell people how great you are. PR is when someone else says how great you are. But in PR the person saying it is usually a paid spokesperson. Referrals, testimonials, and customer reviews are truly the best sales tool.

I’m following people on Twitter and Facebook to see what the whole “Social Media” experiment is. Part of me believes that it is yet another get rich quick scheme.  However, not all that many folks are actually raking in cash. (GigaOm had to get another round of money this year, so maybe there isn’t enough money in blogging as the new newspaper medium). Then there are the shows — oh, so many of them.  I wonder how many actually turned a profit?

If you are thinking about jumping into Social Media Marketing for your company, here’s some advice:

There are No experts (here and here). Sure, people call them that. And there are lists of people to follow (here and here and here and here and here), but the industry is too young to have experts. (And how many can answer most  of Chris Brogan’s questions?) Plus the whole sector is in a constant state of flux: one day its blogs, then social networks, then twitter, then on to the next cool widget / tool / app. It seems to be like fashion - once everyone is wearing it, it’s no longer cool. More likely, once it hits mainstream, it is no longer useful because the noise level has become way too loud.

The key thing is that social media is just a platform for communications and connections. It is a tool like a billboard or a commercial, but it has to be engaging. People want to be engaged, connected, told a story — Entertained. The hardest thing to do in a  declining civilization is to keep the masses entertained.

The next step is to realize that without a goal and a plan, it’s just a crazy time sink.

• What do you want to accomplish?
• How will you go about doing that?
• Who will help you?

Chris Brogan has a nice post about how to build a powerful small network. You are doing that, but you are inviting people to buy into your Vision and take the ride with you. There’s an element of trust there, but if you can engage them with an authentic story then you are on your way.

“Companies that focus on earning love will thrive during hard times, and kick ass when good times return.” - Andy Sernovitz from Peter Kim’s Social Media Predictions for 2009.

One thing to remember is that although there is no capital cost (CAPEX) to social media there is a lot of man-hour cost. And if you are not authentic and kind of transparent, then your reputation may suffer. Also, if you are not prepared to expend the effort long term, don’t bother. It takes time to write a thoughtful blog regularly (at least once a week). It takes time to Twitter and use Facebook. Moderating a forum or starting discussing on a social network app takes an enormous effort. (And it is about the conversation). As David Armano wrote, “Although it is now cheaper to launch an initiative leveraging Web 2.0 technology - it requires qualified and passionate people to make them successful.”

It’s going to be conversations not tricks because SEO is Dead.  Search is getting local and smarter.  According to Bernie Borges at Find and Convert,  “”search” is a much bigger picture than SEO only…I like “SMO” because “media” doesn’t limit to engines.”  That means you have to have a strategy. Well, now’s a good time to plan for 2009!

Hubspot has a video series on YouTube that gives the impression that cold calling and other “old school” techniques will be replaced by this “new social media”.  There is one big problem with the video: Cold calling is not marketing. It’s Sales. Big difference.

According to Wikipedia,  “Marketing is a business term referring to the promotion of products, advertising, pricing, distribution channels, and branding.” It involves 4 P’s: Product, Pricing, Promotion and Placement. Sales is “act of completion of a commercial activity.” Two very different things.

I get that Hubspot is trying to say that Social Media is about New Marketing, much like what Seth Godin wrote about in Flipping the Funnel. But so many folks in Social Media (the so called SM Whores) use social media for broadcasting, which is only different from current advertising because of the media. Guy Kawasaki admits to using it to broadcast, which I refer to as spam. And Duct Tape Marketing has a post on to automate social media, which Jason Falls had to counter as the exact reason social media will fail. Social media is about being authentic; building a relationship; and either having a conversation or telling a compelling story. It is not another avenue to puke at people.

Which brings me back to Hubspot’s videos. If my employee was reading the paper waiting for the phone to ring, I would fire his ass. That mentality is no different than if I put up a new billboard or a full page yellow pages ad. For Hubspot’s Inbound Marketing to work, there is a lot of work going on: Twittering, responding, blogging, videotaping, interacting, Facebook, etc. There wouldn’t be time to read the paper. And I would argue that all of those methods are akin to cold calling and face-to-face networking. And likely the results will be similar for most businesses. In the case of service businesses (and especially consultants like many of the social media “experts”), social media would work better. But will it sell an oil change or a PBX?