Call them strategists, consultants, directors or project managers…but one thing is clear: put “social media” in front of any of those job titles, and you’ve got the latest, trendy job that’s popping up on more and more job boards and jobs listing websites.
With more and more companies, from big corporations to small businesses, jumping on the social media bandwagon, how do you know if you should join the social media rat race?
Bloomberg BusinessWeek recently published an article that points out how exactly these social media strategists/consultants/project managers work. In essence, these people spend all their time in front of a computer, monitoring every single conversation being said about their company’s products or services, and take part in the discussions, respond to customers’ questions or comments, whether positive or negative, and promote products and services via various social media platforms and online communities.
Some small business owners seem to think marketing via social media can have no negative effects, but those working the social media side of a business still need to be careful. For example, before launching the 2010 Accord Crosstour, Honda set up a Facebook fan page for its new car. However the page didn’t attract positive comments — instead, it got a lot of negative comments about the new car’s design, which turned into negative buzz and snarky media commentary.
In addition, businesses have to make sure they’re hiring someone who knows what they’re doing when it comes to social media — it’s more than playing around on Twitter and Facebook all day. Ideally, these people are supposed to be able to identify a company’s needs and solve them with social media strategies. So if improvements aren’t seen after the Facebook page is founded and the tweets are going nonstop, that “strategist” is actually a bunch of BS.
Read the full article to find out if your business could benefit from a social media point person.
