I recently completed an internship in Social Media Marketing, then immediately landed my first private account. As I worked on the project, a glaring fact became quite apparent. I began to realize that simply setting up a workable Social Media campaign is not enough. To be completely successful, and to provide the customer with added value, optimization of their Web site must also be considered. It does a consumer little good if their page cannot be found in search engines, no matter how well their Social Media efforts may be. Social Media is at best only half of the solution.
This underscores the need for formal education in Social Media. I realize this notion is hotly contested. I've even been told that Social Media is little more than a communications venue, no different than cell phone usage or e-mail, and certainly there was no need for education for those, was there? This is the kind of outmoded thinking that will soon go the way of all flesh. Future success in Social Media Marketing requires much more than the efforts that are currently employed. An expansion of disciplines will be needed to fully employ the benefits of Social Media Marketing.
This means vast re-training of the work force, a paradigm no doubt many will find both distasteful and unnecessary. Yet the future of the forum is dependent on both technical and business acumen. Change has been described as akin to the mating of elephants; it takes place at high levels, among a great deal of stomping, shouting, and other loud noises, and requires 18 months to produce results. Yet change is on the horizon. It behooves all of us to undertake the steps needed now to continue favorable outcome for the future. Those that fail will find themselves in the wake of the same who suffered in the dot com expulsion.
The semantic Web 3.0 is fraught with needs of deeper understanding of technological understanding, and is based in ontologies that astute business people have an understanding of. In earlier posts I've mentioned the rise of techno-business. This concept looms large on the horizon, and only those with the combined scientific and liberal arts understandings will be prepared the challenges they represent. No doubt a few will find a way to fake their way through, but the majority must find itself prepared for the coming paradigm shift. Those sufficiently trained will be the best equipped to succeed in this brave new world.
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