Just what is a social media expert?
Wednesday, July 14, 2010 |
K, folks, time to get a grip. There seems to be a lot of debate swirling about who is qualified to be a social media expert and who is not.
If you use social media effectively, are you an expert? If you use the telephone effectively, are you an expert? And if so, in what regard?
Here’s the deal: social media is just another vehicle for communication. Yes, there are folks who have developed apps to mine social media contacts for fun and profit. But most organizations actually just want to connect with their customers. Nothing nefarious going on there.
So, who knows how to connect with customers... hmmm....let me think.... Oh yeah, PR, communications and marketing people. It seems appropriate to me, therefore, that the expertise in communication transfers nicely to this new medium, and that social media forms a part of an overall marketing and communications strategy for a company.
If you need advice on how to use social media, contact communications and marketing professionals. After all, you wouldn’t ask the phone installer for advice on how to cold call a customer, now would you?
As always, your comments are welcome (click on “comments” in green)
Comments
Don Norris says:
The integration of marcom has been talked about fo at least 15 years and acted on by nly a few big networks that ow all th disciplines. I agree that silos stil exist even in the big brand agencie, although Canada does do better, but this has been driven by the desire for each discipline to own it's own P&L. This is changing look at DraftFCB or SapientNitro and the past will change and PR will eventually follow into the fold of these global network models. I have worked in the agency world most of my life ad worked very close with PR agency leadership as well, ad in my view the battle over social media may be what brings them even closer together and who knows the hitorical seperation paid and unpaid media may well be over.
posted on Friday, August 13, 2010 at 3:22 PM
Lisa says:
I agree with your comments about social media being another new medium - and that it aligns nicely with the expertise of marcomm professionals. I would also add that the interplay with technology does create unique areas for inter-disciplinary expertise. The advent of web-based and electronic communication in general created a strong market for people who can effectively liaise between tech gurus and content experts. I would argue the same with social media. The most fascinating aspects of social media, and perhaps a lot of the new jobs and experts, are at the intersection points between technology and content. :)
posted on Wednesday, January 26, 2011 at 6:04 PM
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