Social Media offers many benefits to many different businesses. It can help you build your reputation, attract potential customers, and communicate with your clients. Smart businesspeople everywhere are piling onto networks like Facebook and Twitter, trying to get their piece of the pie, and realize these benefits; in an increasingly-crowded and noisy market, there are a lot of people trying to find their way. Guiding them to do it — the art of social media consulting — is fast becoming a growth market.
Like any growth market though, social media consulting is attracting its share of idiots. They’re easy to spot, if you look at the title. Many are self-proclaimed experts, gurus, or mavens. However, in their ignorance, by self-proclaiming such a title, these “consultants” are giving themselves away. The fact is that proper social media marketing, if you can call it that, hinges on interaction. The biggest benefit businesses will get is from participating in two-way conversations with their customers. It’s the gradual back-and-forth that will grow your brand over time, as well as improve its visibility. Andrew Hyde wrote a decent post about this the other day.
This being the case, any expert or guru title is oxymoronic. It’s like talking about how great you are at listening. It’s like going to a party, climbing up on the couch, and announcing that you’re the best qualified person in the room to have a conversation. And also that everyone else is inferior at the act, because they don’t hold the right credentials or skills. Pretty ridiculous. But more times than even I expect, this very approach is used.
Consultants using this approach may have short term success, but their lack of focus on interaction will stunt any real benefits from their efforts. Over time, their clients will become wise to the trickery, and seek out someone taking a more sustainable approach. Consultants who get it, and who avoid the social media guru complex, will enjoy better long-term success, better serve their clients, and better contribute to the growing social media landscape many of us treasure.
If you’re looking to get into social media consulting, please avoid the guru complex. If you’re looking for someone to help with social media, do your due diligence, ask around, and select someone who does it right. It’s worth it.
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