Metz, The Social Concept

Why Would You Want To Do Work In "Social Media" Today?

January 22, 2010

Three and a half years ago, when I began my first consulting firm, I just wanted to do it as an experiment, just to see if I could make money doing what I loved – advising brands on how to make money using social technologies. Mind, this was the old days, when Chris Brogan was only a “marketing” expert, Jeremiah Owyang had not yet joined Forrester, and the iPhone was still over a year from release. We could see, roughly, what the future would look like, at that time, but no one had really bought into the value proposition of social technology, save a few bleeding-edge brands, and a few innovators.

Remember, just because innovators and early adopters jump onto an idea, that doesn’t necessarily give it enough traction to stick. Most technology ideas don’t make it across the chasm.

I speak at a lot of universities now, so I’ll point these remarks at the folks that I’ll meet at UC-Santa Cruz in a few weeks. Here’s my question:

Why would you want a job in “social media” at this point in time?

I doubt that young job-seekers, right out of school, are really clear on what running a social customer management implementation for a brand really entails. It’s really hard work, and it entails the tracking of thousands upon thousands of conversations, most of which will go exactly nowhere. It demands competing for fractional attention of many largely indifferent consumers (or B2B buyers). It’s honestly not that much different, on bad days, from a crappy sales job.

That said, if you’re fortunate to work with an organization that is:

1. Really bought-in to the concept of social customer management

2. Absolutely dead-set on a people-centric strategy

3. Determined to execute against value-focused metrics (revenue, value-to-the-organization

4. Willing to let you make strategic iterations on a day-to-day basis

…you might have a chance at finding an enjoyable, fulfilling job in the field. If you don’t have a clear sense of #1-4 being present at your prospective employer, politely refuse the opportunity, and walk out the door.

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