digiforce

With all due deference to the legions of social media experts who have sprouted up across the web, this is a difficult position to define, and not just because it is new. To start with, the technology associated with social media is trivial. Many idiots have managed to create a Facebook page. Any design or differentiation for a social media project is going to come from web designers or developers, not social media specialists.

So what does the social media specialist do? In a word, communicate. If that sounds more like a task more closely related to traditional PR or marketing than technology, it is.

A social media specialist is part community organizer, part content creator, and part listener. It is a person who likes people, has a finger on the pulse on your audience, and is engaging. A good social media specialist would be social without the Internet. The Internet though does impose a special burden in that anything your social media specialist puts out there can receive lots of attention and be remembered. If you want a cheerleader, you’re looking for a smart discreet one with a common touch and not an air headed gossip.

Though it is helpful at this stage in the development of the social web to have people with social media experience or understanding, as social media becomes pervasive, it is likely these functions will become a part of other job descriptions.