I had a funny thing happen to me on the way to Kelly Weppler’s class last Friday. There was a nice gentleman chatting with Kelly before class. They had begun to talk about the need for social media when I walked up to join them. Kelly introduced me as someone who works in social media. While the man was polite, his immediate response was, hey, people approach me every day about doing my social media, but none of them understand my industry. When we asked him what that was, he said, I am a mortgage broker.
Kelly responded by telling him he was in luck!! Cindy not only does social media, she also knows the mortgage industry. He looked like a deer caught in the headlights, because now he didn’t have an excuse not to hire me on the spot. If he really wanted someone to do social media then I was the perfect fit!! I don’t think he was ready yet!!
When you are thinking about getting social media started for your company, do some research, decide if you want someone who can write in your voice about the things important to your industry. This man was savvy enough to know you don’t just hire someone who knows social media. Merely being technically proficient at building blogs and working with Twitter does not necessarily make someone good at the writing articles that will draw in your customers & potential customers. If you find someone who write in a compatible style and has technical competence, then you can teach them about your business. You also need to be aware that if the person you hire is an independent contractor, you will need to feed them industry updates and pertinent information to ensure they are posting the kind of information you want out there with your name on it. But keep in mind, social media is not for selling a product, it is for educating, informing and entertaining. If you don’t do all of those things, people won’t read what you write.
Here is what another social-media expert, Jay Baer says about it:
Social Media Staffing is the Overlooked Success Quotient
So the way to win that game for business isn’t through apps and case studies and metaphor and magic. It’s with social media staffing, populating your online community with a cadre of truly outstanding employees who can inform, entertain, and assist your customers. That means you don’t base your social media staffing plan on who is the least expensive resource (interns) or who “grew up with this stuff” (interns).
Does that drive up the cost of the human capital managing your social media? Of course. As Charlene Li once said, social media isn’t inexpensive, it’s just different expensive. Why would you manage an online community that is the epitome of multi-faceted, real-time communication with people who possess a paucity of actual customer service or communications expertise? ”
Social-cindy. signing off for today…hope you got what you came for…
