Social Media as a Tool or a Strategy?
Prior to leaving my last job, leadership was talking about adding a position with “social media” in the title. While I applauded the additional resources, I suggested that might be kind of like adding someone to the PR staff with “news releases” in their title.
Then just today I came across this from social media guru Chris Brogan:
“What are people doing taking titles like “Social Media Manager?” To me, this is a scary thing. Why? Because it’s like being the fax manager or the email manager. You’re naming yourself after a tool.”
Interestingly, around that same time I heard Josh Bernoff, co-author of “Groundswell: Winning in a World Transformed by Social Technologies,” who was the keynote speaker at the PRSA Healthcare Academy Conference in Washington, D.C. in May, who made the same basic point as his overall theme: Social media is a tool, not a strategy.
Yet we’re seeing more people, some in fairly prominent positions, carrying a social media title, including a keynoter at the upcoming Healthcare Internet Conference.
But I keep coming back to this central point, made so well by Chris Brogan:
“…social media is a set of tools and tactics that people use as part of their larger business communications efforts. They are functions of a job, not something shiny that hides off on a magical island away from the job. They are part of a job function, not a standalone vocation.”
Don’t get me wrong: You still need a strategy for how you are going to use social media tools, just as you need a strategy for how you are going to use your Web site. But your Web site isn’t a strategy either.
They went ahead and filled the social media position at my last place of employment, so they obviously didn’t agree with me. What about you?