#frednmt3: Need to Build a Social Media Team for Your Organization?

Due to time constraints, I wasn’t able to cover all the info I wanted to share with attendees of my “How to Build a Social Media Team” session at #FredNMT3 last Thursday. There’s only so much a speaker can share in 60 minutes … perhaps even less due to cushioning for audience questions and commentary.

Still, the information that I was able to share was of high-value to numerous attendees; some expressed they had light-bulb “aha!” moments … others indicated they learned a lot from the material I presented.

Some of biggest take-aways I hope attendees walked away with include:

• To “build a team” is a rather misleading term since social media engagement and social business overall should be an enterprise-wide activity
• Despite the best practice of enterprise-wide social engagement, social media as a whole usually lands as a responsibility assigned to the marketing or PR department of an organization
• As of today, most social media job description expectations are usually unrealistic; most candidates cannot fulfill or meet all the requirements
• As you seek to identify social media folks for your “team” or organization, keep in mind that most individuals will have at least 1-3 core areas of social media expertise vs. an extensive buffet of generic social media experience
• Despite the heavy emphasis of tools on social media-related job descriptions, you really want to focus searching for someone with substance and marketing and communications acumen; try to not get too overly seduced with high numbers or big followings

I wish we had had more time to discuss this subject in greater detail. Some of what I wished we could have covered included:

• Evaluating social media resumes (what to look for and how to vet candidates and their level of experience)
• How to define your social media needs to better determine what team members or individuals you need to hire or retain
• What positions in an organization constitute being part of a “social media team”

… and much, much more!

I am strongly considering offering this as a workshop or seminar in the coming weeks. If you are interested in when I may debut this as a course or seminar in the Northern Virginia or Washington DC area, please sign up to receive my email newsletter to keep abreast of any updates.

Some helpful resources on this subject, as a courtesy reference, include but are not limited to:

• The Hectic Schedule of a Social Media Manager (infographics)
• A Social Media Specialist is Just a Specialist (Geoff Livingston blog post)
• From Community Management to Command Centers (Brian Solis blog post)
• Dell Social Media Command Center video

Need help or guidance? If you are an employer seeking to hire individuals to join or extend your social media team … or if you are a job seeker looking to improve your qualifications or resume to better attract social media-related job opportunities … please contact me to request a consultation should you need assistance or strategic direction.

I look forward to expanding on this subject in the coming weeks. Please stay tuned! And for those who attended my session, I want to personally thank you for being there. I realize you had other choices for breakouts yet you chose my session. THANK YOU!!!! I was honored and happy to have you!

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