So You Want To Hire a Social Media Expert?

I've found that most social media practitioners don't like to be called "Experts"; but rather, prefer being referred to as professionals, strategists, practitioners and maybe, on occasion, a "Guru" ...it is kind of an endearing term.  These individuals or companies understand social media and know how to use the tools of social media strategically to help others expand their presence, enhance their brand, and understand their market. We are seekers of best practices. We love to share news, facts and information about ourselves and others who are doing exciting, innovative and positive things in business and our communities. We are collaborators, conveners and researchers. People like to follow us because we contribute information that they find valuable and interesting - because we connect, engage and collaborate.

In Chris Brogan's book, Social Media 101, he explains a few things to look for in a good social media practitioner:

• They may not know every social network that was ever built, or every podcast currently or formerly in production, but they should know more than a few.
• Social media types probably should be making media of some kind themselves.
• They should have some length of experience under their belt, in some form or another. 
• They should be relatively "known."
• They should be able to make something happen by way of the media they create; in other words, their efforts should be somewhat impactful.
• They shouldn't be afraid of transparency, and definitely should welcome criticism and debate.

In addition to Brogan's recommendations, you might want to consider a few other criteria in your search for the right social media strategist, such as: What are their credentials? Is their primary career something other than social media? i.e., are they a realtor, public speaker, meeting planner, etc., etc.  Did they just recently decide one day, "Hey, I'm going to practice social media, or I'm going to teach a Facebook class."? ...if so, they might not be a good choice for your business.

There's a lot to consider when it comes to learning the different facets that comprise the world of social media, according to Liana "Li" Evans, author of Social Media Marketing. It isn't simply just Facebook or Twitter, and the Facebooks of today will be the Friendsters and MySpaces of tomorrow. Social media is constantly changing and requires a strategic approach to be effective. You need a social media practitioner that is not only experienced and respected in the industry, but also one who practices ethically. You can hurt your business more than help it, if you choose to align yourself with the wrong company or practitioner.

One of the best ways I feel you can find a good, solid social media practitioner is by listening in the social web. What are they saying?  Are they social?  How do they interact with others?  Do they contribute to the conversation in a meaningful way?  Do they practice what they preach?  Are they strategic?  Can they produce results?  What do others think of them? ...say about them?  Do they share their knowledge?  Do they re-share and edify others who are contributing to the conversation and the industry?  Is practicing social media for business their primary career?  What methodologies do they use?  Take a look at their website, their blog, and their overall presence and following in the social sphere.

If, after listening for some time, you find that you are inspired by them, then you may want to think about scheduling an appointment to see if there's an opportunity to work together. A good practitioner will be able to tailor a strategy to achieve your specific goals, track the results, and re-adjust the plan as you go along.

Enjoy the conversation!

Little things to do every day - just keeping it fun!

Have you you added your social media profiles to your email signature?  Do you use it when you comment on blogs?  Have you added video to your website?  ...your Facebook?  ...your blog?  Do you upload and share your latest presentations?  Did you remember to tweet about them?  There are tons of little things you can do every day to enhance your presence in the social web.  Developing routines can help make the day-to-day challenges of keeping up in the social web a little easier, while leaving you more time to just have fun making connections and keeping them.

A tool I really love that helps keep me organized is XeeSM. It allows me to keep all of my Social Media profiles stored in one easily accessible place.  I just use my personal XeeSM url to direct my connections to a single place to find me. It is an amazing time-saver!

2010 Recruitment Strategies for Success hosted by Jobing.com

Social Networking for Today's Phoenix Employment Marketers
Wednesday, April 28th, 2010
8:00am - 5:00pm

With over 350 million active users on Facebook and Twitter growing exponentially, social media and its power as a recruiting tool has become too large to ignore. Although creating a recruitment strategy that incorporates these new tools can seem like a daunting task, we've compiled the most experienced professionals in social media to ensure that you succeed in this process. Integrating Twitter, Facebook and other social media platforms into your recruitment process can seem overwhelming.
Join fellow Phoenix industry leaders at the Social Networking for Today's Phoenix Employment Marketers Recruitment Symposium to learn:

• How-to Use Social Media to build relationships and recruit top talent
• The importance of online employment marketing and branding to your recruitment strategies
• How to monitor and manage online conversations
• Current recruitment and employment marketing trends in Phoenix

In Phoenix's competitive recruitment world, any advantage could mean the difference between finding a perfect candidate in a timely fashion and spending months sifting through unqualified resumes. You can't afford to miss this local and cost effective opportunity to learn from local professionals, leaders and experts in your community about social networking and how to make it a successful and measurable tool to find great local talent.

Keynote Speaker

Jeff Hunter
Vice President of HR Solutions, Dolby Laboratories - BOSE

Jeff Hunter is an award-winning technologist, strategist, author, and entrepreneur. He currently serves as the vice president of HR Solutions at Dolby... (more...)

SOMA Leadership Class - Definitely Worth The Investment!

I recently attended the Social Media Academy Leadership Class and wanted to share my experience. This is a rigorous, fast-paced course on the Social Media phenomenon and application of practical business methods and models that, when applied, will help individual consultants, managers, teams and companies to have a targeted, positive impact in the social web. I highly recommend reading the 2009 Mindshare Report, an enterprise social media status report published by the Social Media Academy. For a copy of the full 220 page report, click here. The report shares new ways to create a better customer experience and the importance of Social Media in the competition for mind and market share, as well as making the case for why companies who are not present in the social web are unable to compete in today’s market - Well worth the read! If you don’t think you have the time to read the full report, start with the Executive Summary to see the value of this groundbreaking research on Social Media.

In the Social Media Leadership Class we learned that corporate presence in the social web needs to be managed in a direct way, integrating corporate objectives, teams, brands and products, using the NCP model (Networks – Contribution – Participation). Companies need to be where their customers are, including the various networks, groups, tools and initiatives – places like LinkedIn, Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, SlideShare, YouTube, Flickr… Before attending the Social Media Academy, I was a huge opponent of MySpace and couldn’t even consider a practical use for it; however, what I learned is that there are a lot of customers on My Space. MySpace reported $1 Billion in additional revenue for 2008, as part of the $23 Billion overall advertising shift to online media last year. The eight-week intensive training began with an overview of the socio economic changes our society is experiencing and the social media impact on corporations.

We learned about social media assessments and vulnerability analysis. We reviewed various tools, places and spaces and discussed what makes sense for business. Then came the really exciting part: creating and crafting a Social Media strategy. I really enjoyed the team interaction in the class and the group presentations were excellent. We operated very efficiently in team-based implementation scenarios, where we put everything we were learning to practical use. The class was very hands-on and we learned so much about topics like the changing face of marketing and public relations in the Social Media age, the shifting of ‘human resources’ to ‘human talent management’, and how Social Media affects departments like logistics and procurement. We worked with major analytics tools, such as Techrigy, Sysomos, ScoutLabs… We broke down budgets, resources, planning, and ROI considerations, and learned how to create a profitable social media consulting practice, as well as apply our learning from a social media departmental management perspective.

There were several great speakers during the course of the class, including Axel Schultze, our main instructor, who brought an amazing wealth of industry knowledge and value to every class. Axel kept the class exciting with his dry sense of humor, practical examples and positive insight – a world-class leader; John I. Todor, Ph.D. did a superb job of explaining how Social Media fits into an overall business strategy, and methods for turning challenges into opportunities through applied use of Social Media; and finally, Adrienne Corn did an excellent job of explaining the process of leveraging human talent in the ‘new’ human resource department.

My overall experience with the Social Media Academy was outstanding. In my opinion, the Social Media Academy offers the broadest educational experience available on industry-accepted models and methods focused on reaping the greatest benefit from the social web. The Social Media Leadership Class was excellent and definitely worth the investment! Marita Roebkes did an outstanding job of keeping our class organized and was always available to answer any questions we had during the course of the class. I highly recommend the SOMA Leadership Class, as well as its instructors, speakers, founders, and graduating students, who are all extraordinary leaders in their own right.

For more information on the Social Media Academy Leadership Class, click here.