Chris Brogan comes out and gives a thinly veiled slap to social media consultants who want to get paid to teach companies how to play online. Okay, that's not a direct quote, but he is asking the questions on whether social media is ready to assume responsibility for revenue creation, cost-savings, and other business metrics that will ensure that food continues to be placed on our tables.
But at the same time more people are just starting to get into this, and so it’s all new and exciting and fresh all over again, businesses are starting to ask, “Hey, is there something here, or is this just another billable item like when we used to pay for someone to build us brochureware?” Businesses are asking how this stuff all threads into their world, their terms. They’re asking how we’re going to change their bottom line, deliver something to their top line, make this all worth it.
I've been selling social media to corporations for over two years. In that time, my services have had to expand and more technologies, more applications, and more uses for social media are found. Heck - we used to call ourselves a "new media" company, because we were focused on blogs, wikis, and well, blogs.
One of the reasons social media headhunter makes so much sense is that I can teach candidates how to interview for these positions. Companies call me and want to hire me for their social media positions, but they often don't know what those positions are meant to do. It reminds me of the survey taken in 2005 that said three-fourths of companies weren't satisfied with the results from their blogs, but 80% of them started blogs because they were told they had to have one. You can't evaluate projects if they don't have a point (ahh - an idea for another blog post just came to me). Back to Chris:
If you’re looking at this from a “working with businesses” perspective, I have a few things to say. You’re going to have to address all that stuff up top and a bunch more. You’re going to have to know how to convince Corporate IT departments to crack open parts of the firewall. You’re going to have to help write job descriptions that explain what these jobs do for these businesses. You’re going to have to get a whole lot less vague on the value you’re bringing to the table as a thought leader and strategist in this space. You’re not going to have an easy walk into the door of a not-so-Silicon-Valley place as a blogger or podcaster, so start upping your ante on skills and perspective.
I would say this was true when we started. My business was in Chicago, Seattle, Los Angeles, Atlanta, New York, and San Jose. Today, we have a whole raft of clients in our homebase in St Louis. The idea of social media has made the jump to the Midwest, and I don't have to educate companies before selling them anymore. It's not that there aren't companies who don't need education, it's that there are enough who get it enough to hire me without having to explain what everything is.
I get frustrated when I hear people calling themselves social media consultants who aren't. There is a lot of wishful thinking going on, but that's true in every industry. I'm not trying to be the cranky old guy - in fact, I'd like more social media consultants to sell their services and have great success at it. The more of us there are, the easier it is to convince companies to jump in (and the more successful my socialmediaheadhunting practice will become).
But....(and when you hear that, it's usually a big one), "consultants" who muddy the water by promising some customer communication nirvana aren't helping. Social media takes hard work, and the payoff isn't simply spending less on marketing. More than half of the complaints I get from prospects are from overzealous expectations. Having started a blog on GoDaddy and writing three posts, they don't understand why they haven't made any money or even got a comment.
And that's okay. An old marketing adage is the best prospect is someone who tried and failed. They bought once, which means they saw the value. It's up to me to show them how to realize that value.
