Why EVERYONE thinks they are a Social Media Consultant

Given the steep downturn in employment, it should come as no surprise that many in transition will "try on" an industry such as SocMed consulting. And who can really blame them? It is a new field and they are trying to train themselves in it and generate business at the same time. Unfortunately, many of these folks are young boomers, X'ers, or millennials, and more than a few of whom tend to hold the self-centric attitude that they can do anything without working too hard. It seems easy to them at first, until they stumble upon (pun intended!) a rough spot in the landscape that proves to be more complex then they bargained for.

Thus, with anything tech these days, vendors must be thoroughly vetted before we will even take a meeting with them.

So, does all this circus-hype impinge on the potential benefits of SocMed? Not at all. It does offer a viable alternative to legacy ad methods. It is relatively low-cost and has very little downside risk if executed reasonably well. The top three things buyers respond to are info, info, and more info. Feature-benefit pairs play their role much later in the sales process and usually in the form of case studies.

The best lead generation tactic is to provide so much helpful information, that those who are ready to take their interest to the next level with your brand find the process seemless. SocMed is perfect for this.

To see how companies are executing SocMed fairly well, check out the big brands (i.e., Apple, Coke, NutriSystem) on Facebook.

The Broadcast Ad model is in intensive care

It is not etched in stone that content will (and should) remain free. I tend to agree with my former employer Rupert Murdoch that the ad model is evolving into something that barely resembles its former self.

As society becomes more technologically complex, there exists the temptation for economics to somehow match its pace, stride for stride. For a short while, people will happily come along for the ride. But, eventually, a point of saturation is reached. Yes, the brain can handle thousands of thoughts in a second, but it is not a qualitative process whereby educated and informed decisions can easily be made. Once we become too saturated with data, we need to pause, analyze the buffer, then communicate with others about our analysis. Only then can we make appropriate choices.

The ad model is suffering from implosion because there simply is too much advertising to consume. People are tuning it out. This should not only be expected, but welcome. As humankind pushes back at the breakneck pace of technology, new and innovative models for creating and distributing content will begin to emerge. Many of them will likely employ various methods for generating revenue such as advertising through product/brand insertion, and tiered pricing for different levels of access.  

The answer is not limited to mutually exclusive notions because we are in the middle of a major shift in the roles that technology & media play in society. It may take a decade or two for this shift to be complete, and in the meantime, businesses must consider employing strategies that embrace complimentary mutiple approaches in order to reach and connect with a temporarily exhausted end-user.