Why You (Might) Need a Social Media ConsultantEarlier this month I came across a post on Brains on Fire called “Why You Don’t Need Social Media Consultants.” The author of the post basically says that social media is common sense and that you shouldn’t need to hire a consultant to help you essentially be yourself on social networks. From the post:
“If you listen REALLY closely to their advice, you start to realize that most of it you already know. Because you have all the basic tools you need: Your humanity. Your ability to communicate with people around you. And your intuition. Because when you think about it, using social media is just a natural extension of yourself. Asking questions. Listening. Responding. And remember, social media apps are tactics. And tactics are tools. Sure, you might need some guidance on how to use that bandsaw, but you picked up a hammer and pretty much got the gist after you hit your thumb a few times.”
I agree with the author…to an extent. I think social media is easy to grasp because I do it for a living and know the ins and outs pretty handily. However, as the post comments point out, you’d be surprised how many people have a problem with social media marketing, if not for themselves then for their business. It’s one thing to create an account on Twitter for personal use and update it with what movies you’re excited to see and what you’ll be cooking for Thanksgiving. It’s another thing to figure out the best approach and highest ROI for a company profile.
The best argument I can make pretty much echoes the one Danny Sullivan made last month when he countered Derek Powazak’s opinion that SEOs are b.s. We’ve all heard the “SEO isn’t rocket science” argument and that “all you need to do is hire a decent web developer.” In Danny’s post (read it if you haven’t yet — very eloquent), he points out various scenarios where people DO need SEO, like a real estate agent who doesn’t know how to rank for her local market, or a man who sells shipping cases and has dupe content/dynamic URL issues. Sure, all of these issues seem like a no-brainer to us, but for many business owners and webmasters, they’re hard issues to tackle without a little bit of guidance.
I think it was Danny who had a great analogy in justifying why you would hire an SEO (or SMM) consultant, which I’ll paraphrase here: “Everyone knows that you need to exercise and eat right to stay healthy and fit, so why would anyone hire a personal trainer or nutritionist?” Sure, everyone knows that in theory, but some people need the support and guidance of an expert to help them get on the right path to wellness. Other folks need a customized diet and regimen that works specifically for them and caters to their individual needs.
Look at that guy needing to hire someone to help him build muscle! What a sucker!
And that’s no different than a business hiring a social media consultant to help them determine where they need to participate and what exactly they want to say to their audience. Maybe they just need to learn the basics in order to get the ball rolling, or maybe they have an in-house social media marketer but signed on for a company-wide training led by you to help everyone else understand the importance of SMM. Or maybe they’re all well-versed with social media but need some guidance on how to roll out a contest or sweepstakes across multiple social networks. Whatever the need, lots of people still require the help of a social media consultant, whether it’s for a few quick questions or to help with a full campaign.
I argue that yeah, lots of people don’t need a social media consultant, just how lots of people don’t need SEO help to get their site ranking well, or they don’t need a personal trainer to get in shape and achieve washboard abs. But others do need help, even if on paper social media may seem like a “no-brainer.” It doesn’t mean that the company is stupid for not being able to do it themselves; if anything, it’s great that a company is able to identify an area where they’re deficient and are hiring people to help get them up to speed. Isn’t that better than complete ignorance of a situation or, worse, mishandling something because you’re too proud or cocky to hire outside help?
We work with a lot of great clients and teams of smart, successful people. Helping them with their social media efforts is extremely rewarding because we get to lend a helping hand to a variety of issues, from basic training to building customers to running advanced campaigns. Some companies and people don’t need our help, and I say good for them, but a lot of companies do need some advice and assistance, and there’s absolutely nothing wrong with that. :)
Its nice to read a balanced view about this when so much moaning and groaning going on regarding social media as a practice.
The biggest issue that SMM has though are the unproven "gurus" who do fire up an account then talk the talk after an estimated 5 minutes of "getting" some aspect of social media and promising the sun and moon and the stars if you simply "Be real", its a little more than that and SEO is tainted with the same issue unfortunately.
Much like Danny Sullivan points out though and which many of the tech natives forget, is that huge swathes of businesses are NOT aware of technology, search engines and the intricacy's of web development and although Social Media has gone along way to removing the entry barriers to promotion and networking on line, it will not mean that anyone can simply walk in and "go their thing" as well as manage and maintain all the aspects of their off line business ( or even the on line one!).
Hence there is a requirement for those who can and do dedicate themselves to study and testing, creative thinking and application of Social Media Marketing and its own various incarnations, just like in every single industry on the planet, exactly like you said about personal trainers, and well said it was.
Spend your time doing what you do best, right? I agree that while some may be able to achieve their own success with social media, most need guidance, ideas, strategy, creativity, insight and experience on their side.
You can be smart enough to learn and excel at just about anything … and you can also be smart enough to find smart people to be even better at it then you, because it's what they do.
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I think that the destination of a consult of any area is rendering help. So, it is necessary to turn to a consultant when you can't afford to cope with a problem by yourself… or if you simply want to do your best, because with the help of a consultant you can achieve better results in shorter time.
great post; we all have our strengths and weaknesses. I'm glad businesses need my SEO help. I'm currently working with a social media/networking consultant to maximize my efforts in social platforms like Twitter and FB.
Excellent post, thanks! Of course I would say that, I'm one of them! I have always believed, regardless of authority or industry that you "stick to your knitting" as it were, as Aaron, do what you do best. I am a big fan of outsourcing, cleaners, gardeners, dry cleaners. This is not different. Yes it is simple….as you point out. But include it as part of an overall business strategy, for engagement with customers, staff and all your stakeholders and the risk goes up, as does the return and the benefits to the business. Thanks Rebecca.
A social media consultant is necessary for newbies, to my mind. I have rather large experience in this area, so what for do I need a consultant?
Well Anna, you could consider one for the simple reason that a fresh set of eyes mgiht help you stop things that have been overlooked or just to brainstorm new applications and strategies from another perspective.
For example, I would mention that you might want ot consider adding some share this buttons on your blog posts in on blog.oxagile to allow that information to market itself a little more with very little effort or you could make some changes to add in some more "humanisation" to the site overall as it has a very corporate feel and this can in turn make it a little unapproachable.
Also you could consider adding twitter profiles for your staff on the country contact pages to open up opportunities for marketing and support requests in tandem.
You might disagree of course and have your reasons for not doing these but that's just an example of little points that can make a difference in Social Media.
You only need a consultant if you don't know what you are doing yourself or if you don't want to do the work.
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Some people are too confident to accept that they don't know or can't do something. Such people will never consider hiring a consultant. I will if I do it seriously.