There’s No “I” in Social Media!

OK, there are actually two “i”s in “Social Media,” but The Marketing Consigliere’s point is based on the real popular phrase he lifted this blog’s title from: “There’s no “I” in “Team.” Social media obviously implies groups of individuals communicating or collaborating. And in a Marketing group, there’s no difference. Leadership must learn that Social Media, in order to be successful, must be a team effort.

This week, Advertising Age asked “Does Your Company Need a Chief Blogger?” Beth Snyder Bulik interviewed three leading Social Media experts, one of whom The Marketing Consigliere has the privilege to know.  Geoff Livingston of Livingston Communications and the Buzz Bin blog had solid insight about “looking before you leap” into Social Media. You need to read this.

The previous week, Paul Gillin of Gillin Communications, who he doesn’t know, wrote “Are Social Media Jobs Just a Dodge?” in BtoB Magazine.  He could not agree with Paul more, especially on this one quote near the end of the article: “In short, every communication coming out of a company in the future will need to be aligned with a mechanism for seeking out and accomodating customer feedback.” THAT is C4ISR Marketing!  He will take this quote and run with it.

Social Media, “Web 2.0,” and “blogging” are not one-off “experiments” that can be assigned to and funded for one particular person only to be pulled if that person stumbles while finding their way. Organizations need to really invest in these new tools and include the enterprise in determining objectives and how to implement, share the burdens and reap the rewards of this aspect of Net-Centric Marketing .