Comments on: The True Value of Social Media Consultants

By: Twitter Link Round Up — crowdSPRING Blog

Twitter Link Round Up — crowdSPRING Blog — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 20:55:06 +0000

[...] Blog) Juglir (upcoming iPhone app) In Era of Blog Sniping, Companies Shoot First (New York Times) The True Value of Social Media Consultants (Horse Pig Cow) How to Stay Up When The Chips Are Down (UserGlue) Battle of the Sexes – Social [...]

By: Caution Before Marketing | A Media Circus

Caution Before Marketing | A Media Circus — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 15:55:38 +0000

[...] The True Value of Social Media Consultants Share and Enjoy: These icons link to social bookmarking sites where readers can share and discover new web pages. [...]

By: Rhea Brown

Rhea Brown — Sat, 08 Nov 2008 17:14:20 +0000

I love this article but what I wanted to know too is the difference between hiring a PR person over a SMC because a few PR professionals that I’ve met are talking as if they also include that element of social media consulting as well, so it is a crime to decide to go with just one person to handle it all?

for my site thecocktailcafe.com, I aim to reach parents in a non-traditional way in that I wanted to create a place that you could go to during your lunch hour and get great tips, fashion finds for less, celebrity parent and their babies etc., but do I run the risk of watering down my initial goal when I start advertising myself?

By: jak

jak — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 15:30:18 +0000

Great post.

I love discussing the subject of “paying for posts on digg”. I have never done this, but find the discussion of this type of online promotion very interesting. I go back and forth on it. It is easy to label something like that as “unethical”. But when you break it down, you would be paying someone, with access to a media platform, to promote your sales/marketing/promotion content. How is that different from paying a PR person with great access to Home and Garden, or paying a SMC with great access to a list of bloggers? I see both sides. It is a brave new world of online marketing.

Enjoyed the post.

By: Cool stuff i’ve been reading from October 15th to October 28th | blending the mix

Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:30:45 +0000

[...] The True Value of Social Media Consultants | ::HorsePigCow:: marketing uncommon – What does being a Social Media entail and how should you measure a SMC’s effectiveness? [...]

By: Janet

Janet — Mon, 27 Oct 2008 15:35:43 +0000

Hear hear on the ethics and also transparency. If your SMC won’t tell you what they are doing to achieve the goals you set it’s likely there is some not so ethical things going on.

By: HugoNS

HugoNS — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 09:53:59 +0000

@Rosie

Let me rephrase what i have said in my last comment.
For me, first of all, a good SMC should know how to use social media tools, and believe me, when i say there are plenty of SMC out there, that don’t know how to use it correctly.

Then, of course I think, a SMC has to have an excellent and profound knowledge and understanding of the online communities where he/she want’s to promote something.

But where i disagree with you is that a SMC should only accept projects where he/she have enough reputation/whuffie. I think that, for instance, you could have an excellent knowledge about MySpace, without having an excellent reptutation/whuffie in MySpace.

Or imagine the example that I gave in my last comment, do you think there is any SMC with a good reputation in online communities for children from 8 to 12?

Again, I think you are speaking about a Social Media Opinion Leader, or Social Media PR, but, in my opinion not about a Social Media Consultant.

By: Rosie

Rosie — Fri, 24 Oct 2008 00:26:29 +0000

@HugoNS

The long tail for SMC springs to mind.

Knowing the tools are the easy part, makin’ the whuffie for a specific niche is the hard part.

I know in my case I only take on certain types of projects where I have enough knowledge and reputation, otherwise it’s not really fair on anyone (and I end up getting bored!)

I’m of the opinion that people should not take on any work that they don’t specialise in *or* they work very closely with someone who has the knowledge/reputation/whuffie.

I’m in the position where I get to choose what projects I work on. Sometimes this means I’m poor financially, but I have more chance of being loaded with whuffie in the longer term (by working on the stuff that I really want to do).

By: HugoNS

HugoNS — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 21:20:04 +0000

Hi. I’m sorry, but I don’t agree with you.
I think you are referring to a Social Media Opinion Leader or a Social Media Influencer.
I think a SMC should, in first place, know how to use the right tools to promote a service, product or brand online, using ethical methods. As a SMC you can’t have good reputation in all online communities, because, the most probably is that you only have a presence in some online communities.
For instance, imagine that some company wants to promote a product targeted to children from 8 to 12 on online communities. Do you think that they will find any ethical SMC with a good reputation on online communities for this target? Or imagine that is a product targeted for bikers? And so on. Do you get my point? Don’t you agree?

By: Andy Sernovitz

Andy Sernovitz — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 14:37:22 +0000

Kudos for putting ETHICS as a core criteria. It should be first on the list for anyone touching social media.