Want to be Successful at Social Media? Here are 13 Steps You Probably Missed (Pt.8)

In previous articles we have discussed Step 1. The Proper Way to Set Goals, Step 2. The Importance of Seizing the Day … Every Day … to Advance Your Social Media Goals, Steps 3, 4 & 5. What To Do Along The Way, Steps 6, 7 & 8.  Develop grit, Develop will-power & Develop the wisdom not to make your goals harder to achieve than they already are, Steps 9 & 10.  Replace poor habits with better ones & Expand your center of influence, and make yourself available to those who find you influential. Step 11.  Take Action. and Step 12.  Don’t let the risk of making mistakes slow you down, and Don’t swerve off the proper course.

Step 13. This is the final installment in this series, although I will be providing you with my Final Thoughts on this subject tomorrow.

In today’s article I will discuss the following questions: 

1. Do you need a Professional Social Media Strategist?
   
2. How do you choose one?
   
3. And what should you expect?

Do you need a Professional Social Media Strategist?

Heavy hitters are waiting in the ring.  Are you prepared?

When you decide that Social Media is the proper strategic course for your company, you will be getting into the ring with some pretty heavy hitters.

If  your competition is bigger and stronger, it is likely that you could use some professional help, at least for a period of time.  The quality and timeliness of that help could decide the match.  To avoid getting pummeled, someone needs to be in your corner who knows the ropes.

Do you need a Professional Social Media Strategist?  If you are preparing to jump into the Social Media “ring” with both feet — the answer is yes.  You can learn fundamentals from a book or a website.  But you can’t learn championship performance that way.

Gene Tunney, the world heavyweight boxing champion from 1926-1928, once said, “The way to know about championship quality is to learn from champions.”

How do you choose a Social Media Strategist?

Pricing:

Pricing is actually the least effective barometer in determining the value of a Social Media Strategist.

Despite this fact, it is the question most on the minds of entrepreneurs and managers alike, when they are trying to choose.

So let’s deal with it first.

Here are a few suggestions:

• You should hire for quality, not cost — but should never pay more than your level of commitment. Use the same common-sense business approach that has made your business successful before.  The price decision-making process really depends upon the opportunity you see in Social Media, and the level of commitment that opportunity warrants. 
• Don’t pay too little.  “You get what you pay for” has never been more accurate than in the field of Social Media.  Competition is immense, as everyone with a Twitter account or a Facebook page deems themselves sufficiently skilled to advise others.  You can hire these folks for $15 per hour in some places, but why would you want to?  Where’s the common sense in that?
• Don’t pay too much.  It can be argued that this is one function that demands highly paid talent.  As Red Adair, the renowned American oil well firefighter was fond of saying, “If you think it’s expensive to hire a professional to do the job, wait until you hire an amateur.”  On the other hand, Warren Buffet once remarked, “Wall Street is the only place that people ride to a meeting in a Rolls Royce to get advice from those who take the subway.”  Somewhere between these two extremes is where you will find the perfect match.
• Remember the economy. Things are tough out there, for every business.  You feel it and so do others.  There are “deals to be had” — so ask.
• Don’t fall prey to the Madison Avenue Mystique.  I have no complaint with big firms on Madison Avenue — or for that matter in Los Angeles, Chicago, San Francisco or Seattle — but just because you have been doing business with a big name advertising or marketing giant for years, does not mean they can advise you on Social Media.  If a large and engaged Twitter following is your aim, look at theirs.  I have been repeatedly astonished at the number of big firms, who tout themselves as Social Media experts, but have fewer Twitter followers than a small bakery in Hoboken.  Besides, they will take your $500 per hour fee, and pay their backroom functionaries a tenth of that and pocket the rest.  If any company should be making a killing on Social Media, shouldn’t it be yours?
• Skip the martinis. If the person or firm you are considering for this engagement, invites you to discuss it over martinis at your favorite restaurant, look elsewhere.  If they have the time or inclination to suggest that … they are not working hard enough.   Your perfect match will be hard to meet with — not because he is aloof, but because he spends 12 hours a day in front of a computer screen.

If you would like a general idea of the Social Media pricing models, click here.

Background and Education:

Of these two resume standards, background is by far the most important.

Social Media is tremendously important to the future of your company and your bottom-line.  You wouldn’t hire a newly minted college graduate to run your most important and potentially profitable division, would you?  (Well, I suppose some do — but I wouldn’t recommend it.)  Here what you should be looking for is practical, no-nonsense, boots-on-the-ground experience.

If the recent MBA graduate is trying to get your attention for this job, ask yourself when he graduated.  If it was less than five years ago, he doesn’t have sufficient practical know-how to run this crucial function.  If it was more than five years ago, Social Media didn’t even exist in its present form, so what good is the MBA?

Your perfect match should have at least as much experience running his own online business, as you have running yours.  After all, properly executed, he will be in charge of your entire Social Media function, and that is no place for on-the-job training.

What should you expect from a Social Media Strategist?

• He must learn your business. The person who is going to perform the actual Social Media strategy, management and execution for your business — must know your business. There are no cookie-cutter solutions, nor should there be.  He doesn’t need to look in every closet and waste bin — and he doesn’t need to see your financials, (unless, of course, he is helping you arrange VC financing) — but he does need to know your product, your marketplace, and your audiences intimately.  He must know what your customers want and need.  He must know why they buy from you, and why they don’t.  He must understand your competition and your industry.  After all, he is going to be representing you to the largest untapped market in your company’s history.  In all likelihood he will not know these things at the beginning, but he must be willing to learn.
• He must be willing to teach. Jack Welch, the Chairman and CEO of General Electric between 1981 and 2001 — a man who five years after retirement had amassed a 720 million dollar fortune  — once said, “An organization’s ability to learn, and translate that learning into action rapidly, is the ultimate competitive advantage.”  You may not be a Social Media aficionado, and your staff may not be up to speed on Social Media today — but to ultimately succeed, your company will need proficient internal talent.  And there is no better place to obtain it than from the person who set you on the right path to begin with.  Your Social Media Strategist must be willing to teach.

Tomorrow, I will give you my Final Thoughts on this subject.

Thank you for your time and attention,

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