I’ve been seeing social media consultants pop up like dandelions, especially as the economy gets tough and people turn to consulting while they look for other work. I do some social media consulting myself. My focus is on helping companies build online communities, and social media usually plays some part in this strategy. However, I’ve started to avoid using the term social media consultant because of the negative connotations that seem to be building around the term. Some social media consultants are the real deal while others have very little to back up their claims, and it’s important to be able to filter out the snake oil salesmen to find the ones with real experience.
Jeremiah Owyang points out that you need to:
“recognize there’s a few different types of social media experts, those have have done it, and those that say they can … anyone who has been using social media tools for personal use could brand themselves as having social media skills and experiences for corporate –yet we know it’s often very different.”
So how do you tell who is the real deal and who is the snake oil salesman? If you’re planning on on adding social media consulting to the services you offer, what experience will you need? Read the rest of this entry »
Though I couldn’t attend OMMA Social San Francisco (I’m so far away, and my travel budget is currently non-existent), I did enjoy this article from MediaPost summarizing five key takeaways from the social media conference. The article’s author, Catherine P. Taylor, makes a number of good points, but what interests me most is the impression she got that social media, while still white hot with professionals working in the space, has yet to catch fire with clients.
The problem is a familiar one. Those of us who champion the use of social media tend to be fairly zealous about its use, but trying to transmit that passion to others, especially to key decision makers, can be a trying affair. For instance, I’ve had recent experience with a Managing Director who actually didn’t use a computer, so you can just imagine how easy it was to convince him of the value of having a corporate Twitter account.
Of course, it’s to be expected that senior executives exhibit a degree of technological inertia. Luckily, they all still speak the same basic languages: Return on Investment (ROI), Brand Recognition and Corporate Image. Even if they don’t speak all three (take a small consulting firm, for example, which depends on word of mouth rather than aggressive branding), they will understand one of the above: ROI, which is what I’ll be covering in this post. Read the rest of this entry »
The first thing I want to say about this resource is that it is a little out of the ordinary. Incredibly useful, but different in that its obvious target is students. I’m not pitching it as a resource for students, although it does satisfy that job very nicely. Instead, I think Exploratree is an incredibly useful tool for web working professionals, once you get past the student-oriented veneer and take a look at what’s underneath.
Exploratree bills itself as a resource for discovering, sharing, and creating “thinking guides.” A thinking guide is, essentially, an analytical tool you can use as an approach to problem solving. Admittedly, the thinking guides have lots of application in a school setting, but for professional consultants, who are often only as strong as the tool box they bring to bear on a client’s issues, the possibilities are endless.
Read the rest of this entry »
It’s not always practical to copy the big fish when it comes to consulting. You’re one person, and they’re a massive organization, with backshop support, after all. Still, just because you’re not Ernst & Young or KPMG, doesn’t mean you can’t employ some of their tactics to net you some business.
What does a potential client want from a consultant? Well, an affordable rate, for one. But an even more basic consideration is “Can this person do the job?” If you happen to be a web developer, it’s easy to answer the question. Just point the client in the direction of previous work. If you’re offering more high level, strategic consulting services, it’s not so simple, since you probably didn’t deliver a publicly viewable product.
That’s where the case study becomes useful. Even if you’re bound by a non-disclosure agreement, you can usually produce a document outlining the basics of your past engagements (still, be sure to always check with your client first). You’ve no doubt seen them before, since every big firm offers them via their website. Lucky for us, since we have a lot of source texts to work from. Let’s look at what makes a good case study.
Read the rest of this entry »
I’ve been seeing social media consultants pop up like dandelions, especially as the economy gets tough and people turn to consulting while they look for other work. I do some social media consulting myself. My focus is on helping companies build online communities, and social media usually plays some part in this strategy. However, I’ve started to avoid using the term social media consultant because of the negative connotations that seem to be building around the term. Some social media consultants are the real deal while others have very little to back up their claims, and it’s important to be able to filter out the snake oil salesmen to find the ones with real experience.
Web Work 101: How To Escape The Cubicle
