Fantastic stuff here.

In this report, the 2010 Social Media trends are foretasted by:

@petecashmore PETE CASHMORE Founder, CEO Mashable
@armano DAVID ARMANO Senior Partner, Dachis Group Author, Logic and Emotion
@chrisbrogan CHRIS BROGAN President, New Marketing Labs
@peterkim PETER KIM Managing Director, N.America Dachis Group
@seth SETH GODIN, Bestselling Author, Entrepreneur & Agent of change
@litmanlive MICHAEL LITMAN Social Media Strategist Consolidated PR
@tamar TAMAR WEINBERG, Community & Marketing Manager, Mashable
@johnbattelle JOHN BATTELLE Founder & Chairman Federated Media
@mariansalzman MARIAN SALZMAN President, N.America Euro PR, Trend Spotter & Author
@mzkagan MARTA KAGAN Managing Director, US Espresso- Brand Infiltration
@danzarrella DAN ZARRELLA Social & Viral Marketing Scientist HubSpot
@emarketer eMARKETER Digital Intelligence
@drewmclellan DREW McLELLAN Founder and Author The Marketing Minute
@idc CAROLINE DANGSON Digital Marketplace Research Analyst IDC
@jasonfalls JASON FALLS Social Media Strategist Social Media Explorer
@charleneli CHARLENE LI Founder Altimeter Group
@gauravonomics GAURAV MISHRA CEO 2020 Social Online
@marc_meyer MARC MEYER Principal Digital Marketing Response Group
@emarketer JEFFREY GARU Senior Analyst eMarketer 2010
@jimmy_wales JIMMY WALES Founder Wikipedia
@alecjross ALEC ROSS Sr Advisor -Innovation State Department
@CraigNewmark CRAIG NEWMARK Fonder of Craiglist
@scobleizer ROBERT SCOBLE Technical Evangelist Rackspace
@dmscott DAVID MEERMAN SCOTT Marketing Strategist & Author World Wide Rave
@roncallari RON CALLARI Social Media
@ravit_ustrategy RAVIT LICHTENBERG Founder & Chief Strategist Ustrategy.com
@equalman ERIK QUALMAN Author Socialnomics
@pgillin PAUL GILLIN Writer, Author & Social Media Consultant Principal
@adambroitman ADAM BROITMAN Partner & Ringleader Circ.us
@cbensen CONNIE BENSEN Director of Social Media & Community Strategy Alterian
@mikearauz MIKE ARAUZ Strategist Undercurrent
@nenshad Nenshad Badoliwalla Co-author Driven to Performance
@adamcohen ADAM COHEN Partner Rosetta
@danielwaisberg DANIEL WAISBERG Head of Web Analytics Easynet
@commnunitygirl ANGELA CONNOR Journalist & Community Strategist
@trendsspotting TALY WEISS CEO and Head of Research TrendsSpotting.com

Findings: Major trends in 2010 Social Media

Across many of these predictions, we have identified the following trends suggested to influence 2010 Social Media: Mobile, Location, Transparency, Measurement, ROI, Privacy.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

People ask me “What do you do”? My response is “I am a social media strategist”. Then I get a blank stare and the proverbial question of “what is that”?

I have also noticed  other people titled as a “social media strategist” and yet their profile and background do not show any experience, training or knowledge of strategic development. Given what has been asked  I have decided to define this ambiguous titled called “strategist“.

Wikipedia defines a strategist as a person skilled in designing and planning action and policy to achieve a major or overall aim. A  strategist has the ability to combine the creative, perceptive and holistic insights of a strategy with the pragmatic and systematic skills of a planner to guide strategic direction in context of business needs, brand intent, design quality and customer values.  Enough of the academic definitions let’s try and make this simple.

A Story About Strategy

Someone wants to meet you to discuss how you can help them with their business. They say “lets meet downtown on Wednesday”. A strategist would ask “where are we meeting and what time?”. The prospect responds “lets meet at 2:00 pm at the corner of Elm and Main Street”. The strategist would respond “Can you give me a specific address?”. The prospect would say “1102 Elm Street”. The strategist would ask “Who will be at the meeting?”. The prospect would say “Myself and our Director of Marketing”. The strategist would ask “Do you have a specific agenda you’d like to cover?”. The prospect would respond (slowly) “We want to discuss how to use social media and produce results with it?”.  The strategist would then ask “how much experience do you have using social media?”. The prospect would say “We have profiles everywhere, a Twitter account, a Facebook page, a Linkedin group and a blog”.  The strategist would then ask “what are you doing with it?”.  The prospect responds “trying to create revenue with the people who follow us”.  The strategist would say “OK, thanks for the information and I’ll see you on Wednesday as discussed”.

Prior To The Meeting

Notice that the strategist asked a lot of questions before even meeting with the prospect. The answers to these questions clarified the  information necessary to  meet and provided a background about what the prospect wanted to accomplish and how were they currently pursuing the goals.

Subsequent to getting the preliminary information the strategist would then do his/her homework before the  meeting. The homework would include market intelligence about the prospects business (the value proposition and the markets needs), their customers (where they are and who they are), the competition (what they are doing and how they are doing it), their web presence (traffic,content,  use of social technology and design), their employees activity on the web and last put not least what and why the market may or may not respond to the value proposition and how is it being marketed.

The Meeting

When the meeting occurs a good strategist would start by simply asking more questions like:

1. What results are your current activities producing?
2. Do you know what your competition is doing?
3. Do you know where your customers are?
4. Do you know what content is in context to your markets wants and needs?
5. What are the key benefits of your offerings to the marketplace?
6. How do your employees feel about the organization? Are they active on the web and what are they saying about your company?
7. What do your current customers say about your product, service and reputation?

I could go on and on but by now I hope you get the point. Near the end of the meeting the strategist would share with the participants his/her preliminary findings to the very questions that most prospects cannot answer. The strategist would use pictures to illustrate the value of having the right data needed to answer the right questions. The strategist would then say “I don’t pretend to have all the data required to guide you at this point but I know how to get you the data and that is the first step in developing the right strategy. Without the right strategy and knowledge you are wasting time, money and likely creating risk for your brand.

A strategist knows how to ask the right questions and get them answered with data. From these answers a strategist is skilled at working with the prospect to offer them necessary knowledge and help them through the use of the knowledge to reach their goals. A strategist educates, guides and facilitates development of a road map for the entire organization to reach their aim.  A good strategist then transfers his/her knowledge to the client so they can reach the goals on their own over time. A good strategist helps an organization execute towards the goal but does so with knowledge, training and a method that brings lasting value.

A label doesn’t make anyone a strategist without having the knowledge, experience,  skill and mind set that goes with being  a “strategist”.  A strategist isn’t someone who will get you more followers on Twitter rather he/she will provide you with the knowledge of how to attract the right followers.

It is difficult to go anywhere without having a road map and directions on how to get where you want to go. Knowing how to define the road map and what routes will get you there is what a good strategist does.

How is that for explaining what a strategist does?

While the business digital divide – at least in the marketing and media industries – feels to be closing, there’s another rift less discussed:  a divide between those with digital influence/share of voice and those without.  And it’s a rift that grows wider daily.

Many businesses and individuals who embraced content marketing years ago are seeing strong returns and are far ahead of those starting today.  I started pondering why this is and jotted down the following list:

1.  The web rewards a long term commitment. We’re weary of companies and people not only new to us, but new to a network.  For example, even if a company you know creates a digital channel, they’re still in many ways starting from scratch for creating a digital reputation and interacting through social technologies.  I’ve seen this to be true across channels and networks.  While in the future we will see no difference between a company’s digital and physical presence, (they will merge) today this is not yet so.  Since we’ve not realized this yet, many experience growing pains and may or may not push through them to see real rewards.

2.  More content = more potential entry points, more links. It kills me to see companies again and again misunderstand the web, and miss the benefits of creating archives of digital content by removing or deleting material.  Yet, those companies who comprehend the value of building out their content over time just continue to accumulate more digital influence and steadily gain greater share of voice.  More content = more hooks in the water for search, more potential pages for users to share and helps establish a brand as referential.  It’s not about quantity or quality alone – you need both.

3.  Those who have been at it awhile have refined their digital processes.  This takes time, especially if you/your company are unstructured for it or are technically unsavvy.  Although I would argue at this point you don’t need someone such as a social media expert, you just need a good marketer (all marketers should understand the web by now).  As an aside, how any company can hire marketers/PR pros who are not fluent in digital media is beyond me.

4.  Sophisticated people and companies have already built a tribe. Those with comprehension of what a digital society enables have been building an organic, opt-in subscribers base for years.  Many are reaching tipping points where those subscribers are producing strong ROI for that company or person.  In many ways, a subscriber base/community provides the ultimate marketing advantage over competitors.

5.  Key relationships with other influencers have been formed organically over time by showing a long term commitment.  In addition to a subscriber base which allows for influence at scale; intimate, personal relationships (the non-scalable kind) with others on the leading edge of the digital divide creates mutual growth.

6.  More iterations of campaigns leads to better marketing.  Those who have been engaged in digital marketing for nearly a decade or more have an innate understanding of leveraging the web for end business objectives.  There is no replacement for experience.

7.  Understanding of how pull PR works. While some companies continue to engage in the cat-and-mouse game of media pitching, a few smart marketers and even media organizations are embracing a pull strategy.  You could do both, sure – but so few companies have the faintest idea how to pitch a blogger.  Smart push tactics do work, but they should still feed into a pull strategy.

8.  Attraction of web-literate team members.  Marketing/PR agencies and companies who cling to the past are not going to attract the same talent as those pushing boundaries.  Web-savvy communication professionals want to work with other web-savvy professionals.  It’s really frustrating not to, and with hiring paradoxically harder in a downtown yet no slowdown in demand for talented digital marketers, there is no reason they have to.

9.  Marketers who take a “head in the sand” approach to digital hold companies back. Social media is not new, and if you think it is you’re already devastatingly far behind in digital influence.  Ignore the social web at your own peril – companies who take a wait and see approach have already yielded a lot of ground to agile competitors.  Marketers who treat the web as an experiment thrive.

10.  Others have already grabbed SERPs/domains/social sites. Those on the wrong side of the digital influence rift are facing challenges such as reputation management issues on search engine pages, loss of brand name URLs/profiles and missing the chance at having a community.  Users may have already decided how certain brands should be perceived digitally before that company is able to carve out a reputation for themselves.  This also applies to professionals:  how many of you don’t own your name on key channels, or appear on page one of searches?  It’s a loss of incalculable value not to have these.

This is a (very) short list of items explaining the widening divide in digital influence.  If you’ve got more, add them in the comments, I’m curious to hear.

In my previous posts on, I pointed out some good and some bad on the social media job front. A few asked what I thought social media jobs should look like, so I’ll do my best. But I’m not going to write this like a typical job description, because I think the content is more important than the format.

Social media-exclusive jobs are okay for now, as foundation building for companies needing to learn the ins and outs, understand intent and strategy, and educate their internal folks. But eventually, these kinds of jobs will fall by the wayside (or at least evolve) when social media becomes part of each and every role in one way or another, perhaps with specialists that have particular experience in application of the tools within their roles. (Think of it this way: we don’t have email managers that do nothing but. The *use* of email and digital stuff touches every role, whether it’s inward or outward facing).

Attributes

In my experience, the folks who grok social media best have a lot of attributes in common:

Curiosity: The desire to explore new ideas, in detail, and without specific direction to do so. Curiosity about the intersection of human interactions and technology is a specific aspect that’s helpful, and a passion for the potential of the work and the organization’s purpose is key to instilling that in others, both internally and externally.

Innovation: Ignore the buzzy nature of this word for a moment and concentrate on what it really means: the introduction of something new. Social media implementation requires new approaches to existing processes, both internally and externally, including communication, strategy, execution, measurement, reporting, and training. (This needs to be carefully balanced with realism and pragmatism, too, but I’d rather rein someone in than have to prod them forward.)

Motivation: Folks thriving in social media jobs are self-starters, often capable of creating clarity from a bit of chaos, and devising their own marching orders without constant direction or specific instructions. If you can instill and nurture this in others, too, so much the better.

Collaboration: “That’s not my job” and “get out of my sandbox” don’t play well in these kinds of roles. They’re far too new to be that rigid, and they definitely need cooperation and work with others across the organization.

Translation: In many companies right now, we need people that have the patience and clarity of explanation to teach others about the impact of the social web, and who work well across departments within a corporate culture. These roles, most critically, need to know how to work and educate across silos, in the terms that make sense to the relevant colleagues.

Humility: The goal here is to elevate the entire company and your colleagues as contributing, valuable members of the community and leaders in the industry. Not you and your “personal brand”.

Diplomacy: Social media roles are today’s change agents. If you expect instant sea change inside your company without a lot of legwork, communication, negotiation, discussion, education, and trial and error, this job is NOT for you. And the outside community will present challenges to you; you need to be able to handle them with patience and tact. It’s a balance of emotional intelligence here.

Connectivity and Awareness: This is a people job, inside and out (and I don’t just mean community roles). You need to be able to talk to people, work with them, socialize with them, connect with them in multiple places. Understand how the network and the people in it need you (and don’t), and how all of those interactions work together to encourage more, deeper, and better connections that ultimately elevate the quality of your work and company.

Expertise

Business Process/Planning and Analysis: From the mid level on up, you want someone who understands financial frameworks for profit and loss, strategic and long range planning (including how to write goals and objectives), and how to map out execution at a tactical level. The key here is the ability to think at a global company level, not within a silo, and not in a linear fashion.

Social Media Anthropology & Participation: If you have someone spearheading social media, I feel pretty strongly that they need to be using it themselves in order to fully understand its implications and unique culture. Yes, that means familiarity with the most widely known tools and technologies, and some of the most consistent and popular applications (for better and for worse) of same, and interest and observation of what’s new on the scene (without the tendency to chase everything new because it is). Academic knowledge is good, applied is even better.

Hedgehog Management: Social media programs that are well thought out have lots of moving parts to manage and drive. People who excel at social media jobs can tackle projects that span multiple networks or areas, and keep all the pieces moving toward a bigger, crystal clear goal (or in Jim Collins’ terms, Hedgehog Concept).

Customer or Client Service: Whether it’s a formal title or not, you really want someone who has experience communicating with customers directly, and fostering those relationships in order to meet their business goals. The most powerful bit of social media is in mobilizing those relationships.

Written Communication Skills: Yep. Sorry, folks. I think this one is really imperative. So much communication and engagement online is in the form of written communication. If you can’t write coherently and professionally, you’re going to struggle. On this note, I also think a lot of social media positions will and should include elements of content marketing, which means that the ability to create and contribute solid content is key.

Social Media Roles And Responsibilities

Again, let me say that I’m writing this from the POV of a job that’s heavily or exclusively social media, and I don’t think these jobs will exist like this forever. And this is a broad, sweeping list that’s not meant to tie to any one job description (though I’m quite certain I have experience bias), but instead give you things to consider if you’re in need of a role like this in your company. A few things that might fall under this umbrella:

• Establish and use listening platforms to gauge the health of the brand online, and potential for participating in new communities
• Build outreach initiatives outside of sales or marketing goals to give our brand a personality and voice within the industry and the communities we care about
• Engage the community actively and responsively, both in relevant outpost communities and existing resident channels (like brand communities), and teach and empower team members to do the same, with consistency and clarity
• Build training programs to help other areas of the company learn and tap the potential of social media for their roles
• Collaborate on internal communication programs to inform and educate around social media initiatives and their broader implications
• Create and facilitate content in multiple media to further engagement goals, both internally and externally, and contribute resources and expertise to prospective and existing community members
• Consume, curate, and share relevant, interesting industry information and content with internal and external communities.
• Understand and observe the parallels and implications of other online activities, including web analytics, email, and search
• Communicate and collaborate on how social media activities impact other business operations, including customer support, human resources, product development, sales and business development, and translate online community and social learnings into business insights
• Establish relevant metrics (new or existing) to map the impact of social media activities in both a qualitative and quantitative fashion, and amend strategies based on learnings and patterns

Reporting wise, I’d put this position under whomever is charged with driving customer experience and a sustainable, positive company presence through online channels, and whatever business function is being most heavily supported by these initiatives. That might be someone in PR, marketing, customer service, client or donor relations, even product management. It needs, in whatever case, to report in to someone who gets the importance and potential of this, even if they don’t necessarily understand the “how”.

Your Turn

There’s no way my list can be exhaustive, nor can it possibly cover every subtlety and nuance of individual positions based on unique business needs. I’m painting with a broad brush, with the hope that it gets the gears turning for all of us to think critically about how these positions fit into business, from multiple perspectives.

So I need to hear from you! What’s missing? What would you included or have you included in your job descriptions? What have you seen that articulates the need for these jobs well? I can’t wait for you to weigh in. Comments are yours.

Maybe it's an artifact of the native-adopter digital divide. Maybe it's merely a blind spot to our own complex behavior. Whatever the reason, what most of us think about how teens use the internet is wrong.

Myth #1: Teenagers are much heavier users of the internet than "we" are.

Fact: Even when you take out our work lives, adults 25 - 44 are the heaviest users of the internet. It's not our kids who are online all the time, it's us. Just at home, we're browsing ~34 hours a month, compared to 10 for the teen set. Even when it comes to relatively new behaviors, like watching video online, adults consume significantly more.

Check out these numbers from recent Nielsen research:

 

 

Myth #2: Teenagers are much savvier users of the internet than "we" are - connected around the globe, loose in social networks, generally leading the charge into a brave new world.

Fact: Just because technology has changed doesn't mean being a teenager has.

This is a sketch I shared at work recently about the profoundly different ways that "grownups" (us) and teens use social networks and media. Teens are much more likely to have a closer-in world view, to be cautious when putting themselves out there, to be worried about how they'll be perceived. While we're out boldly networking with everyone from our high school sweethearts to someone we met at a conference the other day, they're typing with the same people they sit across the lunch table with.