Social Media is best done by professionals
Twitter is gaining ground as a corporate communication tool, but is still a long way behind Facebook which has just past 300m users. Like every communication tool Twitter needs some knowledge of how it works and it’s own set of skills to be effective; but it is also just one of the many social media tools available to business. In fact, in my view, the choice of social media tools is already outside the skill set of most companies and now requires specialist marketing, creative, technical & customer facing skills to be used effectively.
The Social Media tools available today include: blogs, Twitter, social networks (Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, etc.), photo and video sharing sites, rating and review sites, forums, User Generated Content (on your own site and elsewhere), File sharing (Slideshare, Scribd, etc.), Music sharing, Professional networks (Linkedin, etc.), Bespoke Online communities, Widgets / Applications, mobile Applications (for iPhone, Android), RSS, Social Bookmarks, etc.
Needless to say, few companies are using this full set and even fewer are using these effectively. This is because most marketing professionals, those assigned the job of implementing the company’s Social Media Strategy, lack some of the skills required.
The skills needed to be successful (i.e. professional) include:
- Creative skills - graphic design, photography / photoshop, video production, music, etc.
- Writing skills - a combination of journalism and creative writing for blogs, ad campaigns, status updates, etc.
- Customer skills - we have to know how to be nice and solve problems
- Networking skills - if you can’t build a network, then use this to achieve your goals you won’t succeed with Social Media
- Marketing skills - obviously, you have to target the right people with the right content and calls to actions
- Some Technical skills - after all it all has to work seamlessly
- Analysis & Reporting skills - Is it actually working?
I’m sure I’m missed some out; but you get the picture.
Conclusions
- If you don’t have an objective you will waste a lot of time and you will struggle to see any real value from your efforts. My advice is ALWAYS start with the objective as this determines which tools and how you use them.
- Some aspects of Social Media are still best done by professionals. Don’t be afraid to admit this and find those you can actually work with.
Hope this helps.