The Social Enthusiast

First of all, I want to say thanks to the people who’ve checked out this blog since we launched it “officially” last week. Our intent here with The Social Enthusiast is to focus on process over personality. It reminds me of the difference between wild west frontiersmen, tour guides, and commercial real estate agents.

What do those three things have to do with social media? Let’s see.

Social media is, after all, still social. It’s always going to be important to have a human face and name representing your organization on the social web.

That said, social media has matured past its “wild frontier” days. A few years ago, the biggest concern was having a guide who was knowledgeable about the territory. When there is no map, the guide you pick is all-important.

That was the case in corporate social media for the first few years. Often the most experienced guides were, by necessity of the demands of breaking new ground, somewhat larger than life: heavy on personality and significantly lighter on process. To be fair, at that point, not getting killed was a significant accomplishment. So if they were able to lead innovative, non-risk-averse companies into social media at all, that qualified as success.

Now, enough people have navigated social media as a brand and as individuals that we do at least have some reasonably accurate maps. Those maps should augment a social media marketer’s personal experience. Case studies, research and white papers can provide a rich set of resources for companies to use to set realistic expectations and get a feel for what the space has to offer their organization.

In part, this has contributed to the large number of “social media experts” and gurus with little to no actual experience doing real work on the social web for clients. While maps are good, you’re still traveling in a foreign country. You still need someone who speaks the language and knows the local customs.

You wouldn’t consider getting back to Des Moines from Rome safely and in one piece a “successful” trip to Italy. Just getting clients to engage in social media is no longer an automatic point in the “win” column. Successful social media initiatives get organizations to their desired goals and destinations. It’s the equivalent of the tour guide who makes sure that you see the sites that make a difference to you–whether that’s the Sistine Chapel, or the best gelato place in town. Because there is no “standard tour.”

When it comes to social media marketing, process is about figuring out your budget, your timeframe, and what objectives are “can’t miss” to define a successful trip. It’s even more important when you consider that the social web is where customers are now. Any business initiative into social media is less a vacation than a relocation scouting trip.

You may not be moving away from your current marketing footprint, but you can ill afford to not have a “second home” on the social web. You wouldn’t go into planning a vacation without a process for making sure you got the most value for dollars spent. You wouldn’t dream of opening a new business location without a process for site selection and for determining success.

Ultimately, a tour guide or a real estate agent who has a fantastic personality, but no process for helping you get where you’re going, is not going to be much help at all.

(Featured post image courtesy stock.xchng)