Looks like Google is attempting to match Facebook’s “like” with their own version called +1. I can’t think of a more confusing name but I’ll wait to see it before passing judgment. Google has yet to release it so here’s a brief preview of what +1 will do and what it looks like:
With more and more companies looking to social media to drive business goals many are having a difficult time hiring for social media positions. Their desire to ramp up a social presence is outpacing their ability to hire the proper staff to do the job effectively. This, combined with the myriad of people with varying degrees of social media expertise, is creating confusion among executives on who to hire, what compensation level is appropriate and what title to bestow.
Many companies are going for the quick fix in hiring the young marketing coordinator or intern who definitely knows the technology but doesn’t necessarily understand the business aspect and the role social media needs to play in an overall marketing strategy. This can create frustration on the part of executives, who may have trouble grasping why social media is important and are looking for ways to prove its ROI.
Two distinct positions are becoming prominent with forward thinking corporations; the community manager and corporate social strategist. Many companies are looking to fill these roles with one position but it’s quite apparent that these two roles require very different skill sets. Here’s why:
Community Manager
Community managers are on the front line in a customer facing role and are the ones trusted by your audience. They’re the people that are the voice of your brand and are having online conversations with your potential customers every day. They have a passion (or should have) for the organization or brand and this shows in their discussions. The strange thing is that this person usually is not working in the marketing or PR department. They may be in customer support or a regional manager or cashier or may even be the janitor. They point is they have a passion for the brand, they know it backwards and forwards and when they speak to people about it their passion shows through. Finding the right person who has the online skills plus the passion is a critical component to a brand’s social strategy. (see Duluth Pack)
Altimeter Group
Corporate Social Strategist
This position is responsible for the overall social media program and is focused on deciding which listening and engagement platforms to use, educating executives on why social is important, integrating a brand’s social presence with customer service, marketing, PR, partners, stakeholders and most importantly delivers on the ROI question. A social media strategy won’t get off the ground without measurement therefore it’s important to find someone who has business experience who can tie in a brand’s social media efforts to overall business objectives. The difficultly lies in finding a person who knows the business side of things but also has a deep understanding for social technologies. Aim high when hiring for this role as it’s critical to your brand and customer relationships.
For a deeper dive into hiring for this position check out this article: Career Path for the Corporate Social Strategist.
The truth is that until social media begins to play a larger role in a company’s overall business strategy, these roles will be wrapping up into one job or is a part of an existing position. However, this won’t be the case for long as corporations are planning significant increases in social media staffing and platforms for 2011.
Altimeter Group
Standards for Hiring
So how should a company move forward in hiring a community manager or corporate social strategist? One social media’s thought leaders and the one I admire most is Jeremiah Owyang from the Altimeter Group who’s done a great deal of research into social media strategy and how companies can ramp up their social media presence. I combined his suggestions with some of mine in laying out standards for hiring and supporting the community manager and corporate social strategist:
Community Manager
Corporate Social Strategist
LinkedIn and Microsoft’s Outlook have teamed up to provide a powerful tool to help users utilize the power of their connections through their e-mail. This tool is still in beta but can currently be downloaded quite easily. This new add-on capitalizes on Outlook Social Connector, an Office 2010 feature that integrates social networking feeds into Outlook. Right now Social Connector is limited to LinkedIn, but Microsoft says connectors for MySpace, Facebook, and Windows Live are “coming soon”.
Here’s how it works:
When you open a message in Outlook from someone in your LinkedIn network, you will see LinkedIn information pulled from your connection’s profile below the message pane. You can see things like their profile photo, latest status messages, recently added connections and see any recent questions they’ve asked or answered. LinkedIn Connector will also add a LinkedIn contacts folder where you can you see your network connections’ profile photos, e-mail addresses and profile details such as their current job title.
This is a fantastic tool for any sales force or business development professional looking to build relationships.
[facebook_ilike]
At a recent Minnesota Interactive Marketing Association (MIMA) event, Michael Becker, EVP Business Development iLoop Mobile spoke about the ever increasing importance of mobile marketing.
The value of mobile is found in the convergence of a wide variety of media such as web, television, radio, social, and cinema, and it’s being increasingly used for such things as online banking, digital couponing, rewards programs, sweepstakes, point of sale promotions, customer service, geo location, CRM, mobile enabled advertising and a lot more.
Companies are beginning to realize significant return of investment through mobile marketing and Mr. Becker recommends companies start now in determining how mobile marketing will play a role in their overall business objectives.
Here are some interesting mobile tidbits from the presentation:
MIMA 1.20.2010 – EMBRACING MOBILE MARKETING from Ech03 on Vimeo.
Further Mobile Marketing Resources:
mobile marketing associa
direct marketing association
college of mobile marketing
Faris Yakob speaking at CATFOA
I’ve attended about 5 of these events, put on every winter/spring, and have recently noticed the demographic of the audience has been changing from just the digital geeks to …how should I say this…older… ahem….more experienced business professionals who have begun to realize that the digital space is becoming increasingly social and more relevant to their world. I say kudos to them.
Faris Yakob, formerly the Chief Technology Strategist at McCann Erickson, was the speaker at this CATFOA event and his theory that once you hit 30 years of age, everything you’ve learned up to that point about marketing, pr and advertising is now hard wired into your brain and new technologies and cultural dynamics have a harder time breaking through to your consciousness.
His point is perhaps a bit extreme but it holds a grain of truth as there’s been a rapid paradigm shift in the way communication technologies have become faster and more pervasive, as Faris talks about in his Fast Company article on Cultural Latency. Thus companies (mostly run by people older than 30) are slow to catch on to this paradigm shift and realizing this isn’t just a fad. This is real, it’s growing in significance, and it’s going to have serious repercussions for organizations if they don’t quickly grasp this new world of interactive social engagement.
People are starting to slowly catch on though as witnessed by the demographic shift at these events and the droves of Minnesota professionals flocking to such associations and events as:
Organizations such as the MN American Marketing Association (MNAMA), Advertising Federation (AdFed), Midwest Direct Marketing Association (MDMA) and Public Relations Society of America (PRSA) have been slow to incorporate interactive programming and have been losing members and event attendance to these groups. They will be in serious trouble if they don’t start bringing more interactive and social media content to their event schedules.
My guess is that five years from now we won’t be talking about digital marketing or social networking as it will be one discipline; marketing. And it will further blur the lines between what we perceive as marketing, public relations and advertising. There will definitely be an interesting shake out in the agency world in the next few years.
It’s a confusing world out there right now as for marketing and communication professionals as the digital space is constantly changing and the only means for learning about the newest and latest trends will from listening to such thought leaders as:
… as well as the attending events at the Minnesota associations mentioned above: MIMA, CATFOA and SMBMSP. You won’t be able to find this type of programming at local universities and colleges (MCAD is an exception) as it’s moving much too fast for schools for tenured professors to keep up so my recommendation is start learning fast by reading blogs, attending events and of course participating in the online social space through blogging, tweeting, commenting, rating, digging, voting, friending, linking, etc…
Don’t be left behind……See you at the next event.
With all the hoopla surrounding Facebook, Twitter, Flickr and YouTube many companies seem to forget the one social channel that’s probably most relevant to their sales activities; LinkedIn. Many companies are still trying to figure out how to make social media relevant to their business and are dipping their toe in the social waters by first throwing up a Facebook Fan Page or a Twitter account. However, they’re not thinking of how they can strategically utilize LinkedIn.
What I’m finding with many of my clients is that they don’t realize all the tools available on LinkedIn and how it can actually help address their company’s objectives. In fact, I’ve put LinkedIn at the top of most of my client’s social networking priorities, as it’s been a great tool for:
I’m still amazed at how many companies never stop to consider how they use LinkedIn as an organization and how their employee’s professional connections can help them with opening doors to such things as potential clients, new employees and prospective vendors.
Consider how many people are in your company and then think about how many people they have in their professional network and you then start to realize the power of the LinkedIn. Just look at your LinkedIn Network Statistics and you’ll find how many people you’re separated from by 2 or 3 degrees. I have around 480 connections and through them I have over 73,000 2nd degree connections with whom I’m a phone call or e-mail away from being introduced. Now think about how many connections your employees have and how powerful that network can be to your business.
You’ve probably already heard quite of lot of buzz about how LinkedIn can help network into a new or better job but consider how it can help your company reach its overall objectives. Here are a few useful resources to get you started:
