Consulting to businesses on how they will incorporate Web 2.0 strategy and outreach via social media is a highly rewarding endeavor. I get to witness, first-hand, the means by which businesses are coping with this fundamental shift in our culture, our economy, how we make decisions, and how we market our goods and services to each other, among other transformative practices. I’m particuarly fond of assisting startup companies as they grapple with what creates community and fosters collaborative behavior among their users.
Yet there are times when I miss working with others on a team, toward a shared long-term goal. Of all the possible organizations, where does someone with expertise in social and collaborative media choose to lend a hand? In what kinds of business organizations can such a professional make the greatest difference and have the greatest impact on the bottom line?
Is it in:
1) Digital advisory groups within forward-thinking PR and interactive marketing firms?
2) Online Community Management within media and technology organizations?
3) Training and Development divisions within large, established organizations whose employees desperately need an understanding of how social and collaborative technologies are altering their job descriptions? This could include collaboration management, internally.
4) Online outreach–formerly PR or Marketing depts– within small to mid-sized organizations?
5) Newly-created Internet strategy positions within those firms who stand to gain the most from the Web 2.0 revolution?
There are quite a few roles that I can take on to affect positive change in the business world–choosing will depend on the specifics of the opportunity. Is your company embracing change and creating such roles or burying its proverbial head-in-sand and hoping social media will go away?
This thread is begging to be updated as things progress…
4 comments ↓
Nice Post!!!
website won’t succeed in today’s rapidly changing online marketing environment if it’s simply a static display of information….
I think it’s a combination of all five disciplines.
I tend to be more operational, just because of my project-management background. I think more about what tools to use, how to implement, and most importantly, who to hire to engage the community and keep it running smoothly, engaging with the brand and the community members, returning member feedback and needs to the brand, sort of like the Comcast Cares guy does, but that person also needs to be empowered, as Comcast has empowered Frank Eliason to bring issues to other business units (tech, customer-service) and have those acted upon. But I also have a background in online media marketing/advertising from my agency days, and in business modeling/revenue generation and video advertising from Revver, so I understand the business, too. My background is really, really weird, but it’s really prepared me, I think, to be a constructive part of a strategy team, because I can see how it all falls together a mile down the road.
Convincing others of this, of course, has been the hard part. But I’ve only been attempting this since January. I imagine I’ll get better at this as time goes on.
Here’s my thought: I think right now, you should be looking at some large online marketing and PR firms. You’ll get to see a lot of different clients, with varying needs, and see a lot of different business challenges. All of which will round out your skill set and help you understand the struggles those businesses are having to get with it on social media (and your solutions for each are going to be drastically different). Operationally, it’ll be up to someone like me to actually put that in motion.
But in business, it’s eat or be eaten. Zappos and Comcast are eating. A lot of other businesses are following suit. You’re in a unique position to offer advice and expertise to a wide range of clients, so I’d pick a larger agency. Working in an advisory group puts you in a bubble and doesn’t get you the practical, real-world business view of things. Training - well, you haven’t worked within business rules so it’s important to do that for a while, so you can anticipate the hailstorm of business-practice questions you’re going to get while you’re trying to train those folks.
Did that help at all?
Siobhan,
Very astute comments, thank you. As far as your point about gaining lots of exposure and varied tasks within the larger PR and Interactive Marketing firms — that does make a lot of sense, and I have been in negotiations with a few of them as we speak.
With regard to your point on training and development: I’m more concerned about the relatively less exposure to challenging situations; I’m not as concerned about the hailstorm of questions as long as I clearly define my areas of expertise. I’ve not been a cog in the wheel of too many large organizations for extended periods, but after working inside of EDMC corporation and FTI Consulting, two huge companies, I’ve had enough bureaucracy to last me a lifetime!
I am interested in your very cool professional path! Please keep me posted.
Another way to approach the job market is: What do I have to offer and who wants to buy that? I have billed my management consulting practice as “working in the white space of organizations” http://lpf.com/consulting There is a lot of white space where nobody is responsible in the whole Web 2.0 Enterprise 2.0 universe.
I suspect most corporations are not yet smart enough to know what questions to ask. That makes it difficult to give them a convincing answer.
Here’s my post about IBM’s employee guidelines I mentioned Wednesday night.
http://lpf9007.blogspot.com/2008/05/ibm-social-computing-guidelines.html#links
If you find two jobs, let me know about the other one.
Hal
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