Public Relations & Social Marketing Insight

Management consultancies are taking their tussle with agencies for marketing budgets to the Croisette in Cannes.

Accenture Interactive, Deloitte, PwC, Ernst & Young and McKinsey will all be out in force at the festival. Purists might argue their presence is indicative of how industrialized advertising has become, but few can deny the influence these companies could wield in the broader marketing landscape.

“It’s natural for consultancies to be in Cannes because they’re doing a lot of the work that digital agencies do when it comes to connecting brands,” said Joydeep Bhattacharya, managing director of Accenture Interactive. “Most of the clients we will have out here will be CEOs and chief digital officers and getting them into this [festival] and showing them that we are relevant here [in Cannes] will be key.”

Here's the antidote for social media gurus. Don't be fooled by this terrible social media marketing advice.There are a lot of so-called “social media experts” out there. Dishing out advice, sometimes based on limited experiences, and sometimes based on nothing at all. Even the true social media experts sometimes share some misguided advice based on their beliefs and experiences. So with all this bad advice floating around the web, how do you distinguish between what you should -- and shouldn't -- believe?Have no fear! We’re here to share some of the worst pieces of social media advice we've seen to debunk all those misguided "best practices" and steer you in the right direction toward social media marketing truth and justice....

Rose Dawydiak-Rapagnani, a San Francisco-based communications strategist, recently struck out on her own to start a consultancy. In the first months, she signed up a company that made a strong impression. But after she wrapped up the job and sent along an invoice, the client disappeared off the face of the map. She followed up with them four separate times, and eventually escalated to seeking legal counsel.

"I still have not heard back from this person," she says. "It was a perfect storm of being too generous with my time and hoping for the best." Now, she is taking a more hard-line approach with clients by asking for some money down and discontinuing work if a payment is late.

Dawydiak-Rapagnani is far from the only victim of this kind of practice, which some call "professional ghosting." "Ghosting" is a term that is most frequently used in the online dating world, and it involves a romantic prospect neglecting to respond to texts or calls after a few dates.

Career experts say this practice is increasingly spilling over into the workplace, ranging from being fairly innocent—an overlooked email in a flooded inbox—to downright nefarious, such as avoiding paying consultants after they've completed their work....