Date: Sunday, March 9 2014
Time: 12.30pm-1.30pm
Location: Courtyard Marriott, Brazos 300 E 4th St

By now, most organizations know that it’s imperative to have a presence on social media. Often times though, that means they just hire one person and put them in charge of ‘doing social media’. They become a “one man band’, tasked with doing everything from strategizing, writing content and managing the brand image online. If you’ve found yourself in this position, this is definitely a session you’ll want to check out.

Liz Gross is a Social Media Strategist and knows all about being ‘social solo’. At SXSW

Interactive this year, she’ll be discussing her experience in this field as well as direction that she hopes the industry will grow in. I managed to ask her a few quick questions about her work, what is needed to succeed in this field and what she hopes will come from this discussion at SXSW.

What is a social media strategist?

Simply put, a social media strategist is someone who develops and executes a social media strategy. I like Charlene Li and Brian Solis’ definition of social media strategy: “the channels, platforms, and tactics to support publishing, listening and engagement.” In my company, I’m a “team of one.” So I do the research that informs the strategy, get buy-in for the strategy, and implement the strategy. So at any given time, I’m listening to brand-related conversation in social media, creating content for our social network accounts, and responding to questions from our customers.

What got you interested in this line of work?

I started using social media when I was working on college campuses in 2005. It seemed to me like it was the best way to communicate with students. I love how authentic the medium can be. It’s a great way to leverage both one-on-one and one-to-many communication. It also results in a treasure trove of data, which I love to analyze to improve my practice.

What has been the biggest unexpected challenge you’ve faced so far? What was the biggest unexpected lesson learnt?

I did not expect that I would have to be a trailblazer for social business, and this was probably short-sightedness on my part. A lot of companies hire someone to create a social media program because they realize they need to be there to show commitment to customers. However, social media has implications far beyond daily tweets and Facebook updates. If done well, it can completely change the way a company does business. I wasn’t hired to change the way we do business, but I’m finding more and more opportunities to do so, and it’s challenging to champion that from my role in the organization.

I’ve learned that I always need to be proving my value. I’ve been in my position for a little over a year, and for much of that time I was the new kid on the block working with the fun tools that everyone wanted to hear about. Now, they want to know how I’m impacting the bottom line, and I should have spent more time during my first year laying the groundwork to demonstrate the value of social within a larger business context.

What kind of personal attributes is needed for someone to succeed in this field? Is it enough just to understand social media?

If you’re going to be the person who does it all, you need a wide variety of skills. You need to understand how social networks work from a business perspective, which is much different than personal use. You also have to be an excellent communicator, particularly in short-form media. You need to be an innovator, and always have an eye forward towards what might be changing. Excellent people skills are a must for internal communication; you need to have your ear to the ground to know what’s going on in your organization, have connections in all areas of the company if you need a question answered, and form relationships so people understand how social media supports business goals. Finally, you must have a thirst for knowledge. What you know now might get you the job, but you’ll need to continue to learn as the landscape changes, and no one will be spoon-feeding you professional development.

How do you see this field growing? If I wanted to be a social media professional, what kind of skills should I start equipping myself with now?

I honestly think as social media grows it will become less of a field/specialty and more of a core competency. Communication professionals should be learning how to use social media within the context of their jobs, whether that’s marketing, customer service, lead generation, brand management. These tactics will become part of a skilled professional’s arsenal, and in 3-5 years we won’t need someone in companies that runs social media, just like we don’t have executive officers for email. If you want to be a social media professional, strive to be a marketer, communicator, customer advocate, etc., that understands how to use social media to do things better.

Some social media professionals with a knack for organizational theory or leadership may be more interested in the growth of social business, which applies the concepts of engagement, feedback loops, and always-on communication to the essential functions of business. While I don’t think you’ll see too many VPs of social media in 2020, you will see VPs of social business.

Who should attend this conversation?

If you’re “the person who does social” in your company or organization, you should be here. If you’re a leader in an organization that is looking for someone to “do social” for you, you’d be wise to be a fly on the wall.

What do you hope to come from this discussion?

I hope we accomplish three things:

• Make valuable connections that will help us continue our learning and professional development after SXSW
• Better understand how to better manage our workload as a “team of one.”
• Explore what healthy growth looks like for a corporate social media program, and start to think about how we might guide that growth in our own organization.