Comet Branding - Branding | PR | Social Media

Fourteen of the most important social media skills needed right now.

Social media has been around for quite a while, but it took until the beginning of 2009 for it to gain significant mainstream acceptance and credibility.

Since then, it’s been impossible to attend a business-related conference that lacked a social media panel discussion or presentation. I’m certainly not complaining. This trend has been very good for Comet.

We have been adding new staffers and as we’ve planned for their roles it has led us to think a lot about the skills that are need to be successful working in social media. So, I thought I’d share a bit of a list here:

1.Research - It is our belief that the first step toward great communications results is research. This is no different in social media. In order to develop a holistic social media plan or a simple tactic, good research will inform your decisions and make everything you do much more successful and meaningful.

2. Business acumen – Access to C-Suite level discussions and decision making is only possible if we can offer well-rounded and strategic business recommendations. This ability can only come from experience and practical knowledge. We need to be able to look at a business and figure out what it needs to grow and help make that happen through social media.

3. Strategic thinking and planning – Although social media seems like it’s a wild frontier filled with random tactics, Tweeting and posting to Facebook, the businesses that want to make an impact on the right groups of people need to be strategic about their approach and plan for it. Because of this, it’s important to think beyond singular tactics and instead about how all of the tactics can work together and build upon each other to achieve objectives.

4. Strong journalistic writing and storytelling – True success in social media is fostered by great communication and social media gives businesses and organizations the opportunity to tell their stories directly to the people. Although you can anoint yourself as the best A, B or C since sliced bread, it doesn’t mean you should. Social media platforms give us so many opportunities for great storytelling and doing it right starts with journalistic storytelling. Is your message meaningful to your audience? Is it timely? Will the right people care? If we stay true to age-old journalistic ideals, we’ll all benefit.

5. Video production - The social web is fueled by engaging and relevant content. One of the most attractive forms of that content is video. It is such a rich tool for dynamic storytelling. The caveat here is that video for the social web needs to be very good, but it does not have to be great. Frankly, the slicker the video looks the less authentic it feels and the less accepted it will be on the social web. Because of this, we don’t need to be super-duper Grade-A class video producers, but we need to be pretty good.

6. Quick thinking, responsiveness and problem solving – Activity in social media happens every day of the year at all hours of the day. To be successful we all need to be attentive to the activities that will impact our business or the businesses of our clients. Because of this, we all need to be able to think on our toes and respond in meaningful and appropriate ways. At times we also need to think about the people (bosses, clients, etc.) we need to get involve if and when issues arise and how to respond in a timely manor.

7. Taking advantage of opportunities – The  positive side of the previous point is being able to take advantage of opportunities that pop up in social media. Keeping a watchful eye on what is being discussed and what’s happening can make a big difference and can help create unexpected wins. Beyond this, it is important to be able to skillfully leverage the various opportunities that can build success. Sometimes, though, opportunities can take time to develop. Be patient.

8. Relationship development – Much like public relations, social media is powered by relationship development, conversations and giving relationships what they need to be most successful for all involved. However, social media relationship development is not about figuring out what others can do for you; it’s about the value you or your brand can bring to others.

9. Get into character – You hear it in Theater and from Hollywood actors all the time- getting into character is very important. The same holds true in social media. I don’t mean that you need to adopt a fake persona, but if you are running social media programs for a client, you need to get into their mindset and get as involved in their activities as they’ll let you become. Knowing how they operate can give you a lot of insight into helping their customers experience the cool inside elements of a business that could really make a difference.

10. Design and user experience – The importance of the technology side of social media shouldn’t be understated. It’s huge. We all need an understanding of web programming/development so we can communicate with programmers to drive creative and user experience. It would be ideal to know some coding ourselves, but a lot can be said about having someone who is truly skilled take the lead. As blog and social platforms continue to evolve and become easier to use, we still need to have an understanding to communicate changes or the ability to make tweaks and changes on our own and to drive new ideas.

11. Personal working knowledge of social media platforms - Knowing about all of the social media platforms because we’ve read about them on Mashable.com is a great, but it doesn’t really teach the How, What’s Possible or What Happens If scenarios. We all need to be testing applications and watching the trends to find new platforms and tools. There are many lessons that can only be learned social media by doing it for ourselves. There is no better teacher than personal experience. If we aren’t out there writing blogs, doing podcast/videocasts and growing a community for ourselves or our own agencies/companies, all we can do is talk. If we are doing all of these things, we are learning every day and those learnings can then be used to drive strategy for our clients and others.

12. Proving results – If we can’t prove to our clients or bosses that the social media programs we are running for them are worth it, then it’s not worth a heck of a lot, is it? We have to show proof, proof and more proof. Just remember results can mean many different things for various businesses. Building a community on a Facebook Fan Page with 1,000,000 fans might net zero results for a business. Be informed and strategic about what success really means.

13. Restless Curiosity - Within every industry, there are people who are constantly restless and curious about what they do. They lead the pack. These people are always keeping tabs on new developments and finding new ways to do things. It’s simply in their DNA. The moment we become comfortable and satisfied with the current state of things in social media, that’s the exact moment to be significantly concerned. We should always be thinking about what comes next and evolving what we do.

14. What’s Next? Making it all dance together – Although there are many individual platforms and tools out there that get a lot of buzz and work very well (Facebook, Twitter, Foursquare, WordPress, Tweetdeck, Tweetie 2, Filtrbox, Shoutlet, etc.) social media success hinges upon the strength of the individual parts of the mix you use. What if you could harness the individual strengths of each platform for a gloriously choreographed holistic social media dance that strategically drives conversion? We feel that dance should happen on your Web site while it’s happening on the playing field of the individual social media sites. This is the end game we are working toward.

While this isn’t exhaustive, this is a list of the things that I feel are important and relevant.

What would you add to the list?

What would you remove?

Tags: Al Krueger, skills needed for social media, social media agency, social media agency in wisconsin, social media agency milwaukee, social media consultant, social media consultant milwaukee, social media milwaukee, social media objectives, social media skills, Social Media Strategies, social media success