A few weeks ago Marc Meyer of Digital Response Marketing Group had a simple, but impactful post on his blog that explains a basic social media conundrum: "I can show you how to use a social platform, but I can't show you how to be social."
Marc and I have put our heads together to come up with a list of things that social media consultants and/or agencies can't teach organizations to do. These are things that an organization will have to want to do for themselves in order to be successful in engaging in conversations and building mutually satisfying relationships with customers, prospects and other constituents.
A social media consultant or agency can't teach you to:
- Have a social media mindset
- Desire to be truly authentic
- Have a personality
- Be personable
- Really care
- Commit to transparent communications
- Embrace the value of having a measurable plan
- Want to implement internal systems to track all of your social activities
- Desire real relationships and conversations
- Want to be social in ways that matter
- Value opinions other than your own
- Comprehend that it's not always about the influencers
- Be genuine on- and off-line
- Trust your employees, channel partners or customers
- Share your knowledge for free and expect nothing in return
- Have social foresight
- Not want instant gratification
- Get the benefits of being an "unmarketer"
- Want to remove internal politics
What do you think? What would you add to the list?
