Does the World Need Another Social Media Consultant? Maybe Just One More

Subtitle: Why I've hung out a shingle as a Social Media Educator and Consultant

Social Media Consultant is a popular job title these days. So popular in fact I'm hesitant to use the phrase to describe myself. I'm hesitant because I see consultants charging exorbitant rates for social media projects without actually sharing much social media knowledge or contributing to the greater good. I'm hesitant because social media is a constantly evolving field still in its infancy and no one can honestly call herself an expert. I'm hesitant because in some minds a social media consultant is the modern day equivalent of a snake oil salesman.

Social Media Consultant is an appropriate title for work I do though so I'm pitching hesitancy aside and laying claim. I'm laying claim to the title because I'm passionate about the work not only because it's creative and engaging but also because I feel I can provide solid benefits to clients and do actual good with this work. Doing good in my business life is as important to me as doing good in my personal life. That is to say it is of utmost importance to me.

I've been doing social media consulting projects for quite a while now but always interspersed with my other primary projects, never as my main focus. I could have kept on in that routine but I decided to make a change. Let me share a couple examples of the good work and potential good work that inspired me to take this step of "branding" myself as a social media consultant and to start focusing on more social media projects.

1. I recently gave an RSS 101 presentation to a group of business communicators. These were PR and marketing folks who I assumed would have a deeper grasp of social media concepts than they did. It was incredible to see light bulbs go off for audience members as they started to grasp how RSS feeds could streamline how they received information. Teaching people how to use tools that can simplify their job or make them more efficient is good work.
   
   After this presentation my own light bulb went off. It had been silly of me to assume the audience members would know more than they did because who would have taught them these concepts? Who would have taught them about these tools? Only a relatively small number of non-web focused companies have social media staff thus far so the knowledge wouldn't have come from in-house training. So if social media educators and consultants aren't out there making their services available how are people entrenched in their respective businesses going to learn? It was an inspiring lesson to me.
   
   
2. I recently received a pitch, directed toward my blog Consuming Louisville, from an advertising agency representing a very well know national not-for-profit organization. The pitch, in a word, was awful. It was abundantly clear from the email I received that the agency representative didn't understand what a blog was much less how pitching bloggers is far different from pitching newspaper reporters or magazine editors. Truthfully, I was embarrassed for the agency. I responded as kindly and as helpfully as I could about why the pitch they'd sent would most certainly not result in the coverage they were looking for. My fear was (and is) that they'd pitched other bloggers the same way and that some of those bloggers would blog about the bad pitch. In other words I was afraid that both the ad agency and the non-profit (one that actually does really good work) would be publicly shamed. Teaching this agency to better understand social media including how to better pitch bloggers as well as when not to pitch bloggers would be good work. It would help the agency better represent the non-profit and in turn help the non-profit do more good work.

I firmly believe that social media represents a monumental change in the way we communicate with each other and get information. I also believe that there is no going back from this shift. This shift impacts many aspects of society including business. I don't think this is a bad thing, in fact I think it's a really good thing. Sharing information where people are gathering and conversing is a good thing. Understanding why sharing information is far more important than "staying on message" is an even better thing. Companies and non-profits who don't learn and understand this are going to be left behind.

I'm focusing my consulting efforts on Louisville businesses and non-profits* because as anyone who knows me can attest I love Louisville and want to help the Louisville community as much as possible. Recently my friend Shawn Morton, a very smart and funny man left Louisville to join the Corporate Internet Marketing team at Nationwide. His title is Sr. Consultant, Social Media. Nationwide is a large company that not only "gets" social media but wants to be a leader in the space. They're well on their way to doing that by hiring a talented guy like Shawn. Though I'm happy for Shawn my first thought upon hearing the news was "why isn't a Louisville company hiring him?" We're the home base for similar companies who have similar social media needs (even if they don't know it yet). So Louisville is seeing a brain drain and Columbus, Ohio is getting some of our local talent. Not only is Columbus getting Louisville talent but some Louisville company has missed their shot at hiring a really great local social media mind. I want to fight both the brain drain element and the Louisville businesses missing out element. I don't want Louisville to be left behind in any area particularly an area that I have something to offer.

So. All that is a really long winded way of saying On a path media is now open for business.

*I'm not opposed to regional and national projects now that I've hung out a formal shingle but Louisville is my home base and I'd be happy to work on a full slate of Louisville based projects.