Toby Bloomberg used to be business blog consultant. Now, she refers to herself as a social media consultant.
Just for fun, I asked Toby what that was and here’s her reply.
My off the cuff answer would be – to help clients maneuver their way through the blogoshpere mitigating risk .. in other words helping them avoid the land mines. (Social media is the only strategy I know that has its roots in a culture; and the culture self-corrects if people color outside the
accepted lines.)That begins with developing a strategy and setting goals. The benefit to that, as in any planning exercise, is spending time thinking through the process and the details. Success in social media is greatly attributed to making sure t’s are crossed and i’s are dotted. The more this industry matures (and yes, I do believe it is an industry) the more moving parts it seems to have .. it reminds me of a kinetic sculpture. By moving parts I mean: authoring a blog (multiple genres), blogger relations (see my post today www.divamarktingblog.com), social media as a research tool
(secondary and primary), advertising (on blogs and in RSS feeds).Sure you can launch a blog without a strategy or the help of a ‘social media consultant’ but I would caution people who think that social media is a just a nifty, new type of a website .. they are missing the larger picture and the more significant long-range benefits.
Wow! Seems to me Toby knows from whence she speaks. I told her she should teach a course on this.
I’ve asked a couple of other consultants to speak to this issue, and will post their replies later on. You may wish to opine as well. If so, please leave a pithy (or not so pithy) comment.
This is also what I call myself. My clients range from small businesses who want to begin blogging to large firms who have great blogs, but want to help them be seen and appreciated.
I’ve also helped social networking sites launch and I’ve taught PR execs how to communicate (with transparency, levity and professionalism) in the blogosphere. Some of what I do is directly related to video games and communicating with gamers, or taking part in social networking and social bookmarking (tagging), but most of it is directly related to blogging, podcasting and vlogging.
Comment by Robyn Tippins — December 13, 2006 @ 11:12 am
Toby’s got it going on – and she’s right. It is an industry!
Comment by maggie fox — December 13, 2006 @ 2:45 pm
Social Media Consultant – I like what it says, but I think I’ll stick with business blogging consultant. Something like 3/4’s of marketers haven’t heard the term, web 2.0, and our biggest problem is getting too far out on the edge. More titles, even clear ones like SMC, will make it harder for us to sell our services, at least IMO.
Comment by Jim Durbin — December 14, 2006 @ 11:14 am
to me, a social media consultant is versed in ALL forms of social media(wikis, blogs, etc) , and how they interrelate.
Comment by mark — January 6, 2007 @ 6:30 am
I agree with Toby, it’s not just about setting up a blog (or not setting up one), it is about crafting a more comprehensive strategy around how you are going to get impacted by this larger environment around you or can benefit from it.
R
Comment by Rajesh — February 8, 2007 @ 1:19 pm
Sure, blogging can be called a part of social media due to the fact that people can comment on your posts.
However, I really have a hard time calling a business blog consultant a social media consultant just because it is a popular term these days.
Social Media is generally thought of using various techniques and avenues to harness the power of social communities and softwares to market your goods or message.
Just like there are many parts to being an SEO, if you are simply a good link builder then I would not really call you an SEO. Rather I would just call you a Link Builder.
Knowing and consulting for just one of the hundreds of aspects to social media is hardly being a social media consultant.
I don’t mean to come off as rude but all people are doing to just jumping on a new catch phrase for the value that comes with the term.
Comment by Social Media Consultant — December 2, 2007 @ 10:43 pm
I’m another using this term, my clients are educated in SEO and other parts of online marketing and believe that Social Media Marketing is the next step when SEO is used to it’s maximum. For me I have to know everything that could fall it the SMM category, which at the moment is anything that isn’t SEO. Blogging is a big part in it but SMM has to go 3D. Getting audio and video in use early will only help my clients in the super broadband days that a re coming
Comment by Colin Boyd — February 28, 2008 @ 3:45 pm
I think it’s just another term to confuse the suits.
Comment by Patrick Sweeney — September 29, 2008 @ 5:00 pm
I agree with Toby; by integrating all the aspects that deals with social media marketing under one term, social media consultant, you’re able to state clearly the ability to connect blogging and the social media sphere of tools and sites as a whole.
I’m not really about titles, but it does lend itself to give a definition to others what it is professionals are doing in this space.
I for one promote myself as a Social Media Educator and Ambassador, and not any kind of guru. I guess consultant could be added, but I want to educate and spread the word of the best social media marketing practices and yes, adding Social Media Consultant to the terms, might be confusing, but really, it’s in how we communicate it and sell it.
Ed Bisquera
Social Media Educator/Ambassador/and now Consultant! 🙂
Follow me on Twitter @edbisquera
Comment by Ed Bisquera — September 13, 2009 @ 2:57 pm
Here’s another interpretation: http://javasocialnetworking.com/2010/02/what-is-a-social-media-consultant/
Angela @ Java Social Networking
Comment by Angela Denby — February 17, 2010 @ 6:44 pm