Daniel Davies

Social Media is great and all that, but lately I've been questioning its viability in the business world as it stands. Its great working with smaller organisations who have a real passion about what they do; after a couple of pointers and a little bit of hand holding for a week or so they can be well away with Twitter, linking videos from YouTube and doing all the other good stuff that comes with it. Some of our clients have really taken to blogging, creating a really good public image and engaging with their customers well. I don't however think these kinds of organisations have the finances to fully support an industry themselves.

Unfortunately, its very different when it comes to large organisations, who do have the cash and budgets. People tend to start businesses because they have something they're good at. They devote their working time to doing what they're good at and earning money. Its thus very difficult to sell them Social Media as a consultancy based service. Why would an organisation want to spend a day with someone teaching them how to blog or post on Twitter? Even if they are able to truly grasp the concepts and get to grips with the tools, finding time to use them is virtually impossible.

Large organisations, the kinds with enough money to actually support an industry, do not want a thorough insight and understanding, they just want things to happen. A lot of my work lately has been involved in looking at how a Social Media presence can be made to “just work” for large organisations, and its having a really good impact, with very viable, positive outcomes.

And thankfully, as a developer of websites, I can create these bespoke tools for organisations. And this is why I question Social Media as a viable industry, at present. I can't see how large organisations can make use of Social Media Consultants, when what they actually want is someone who can come in and just make things happen. There needs to be a real, solid, product at the end of it, not just an overload of things the organisation should be doing for themselves.

Don't get me wrong, this is not actually an attack or an attempt to undermine Social Media Consultants. Actually its quite the opposite. For a Social Media Consultant to be their most effective they should not, in my opinion, be approaching organisations directly. Rather, they should be working with web companies, PR firms and digital agencies to teach them how to provide these services to their clients. Nothing would have been more useful for me these past few weeks working on proposals than having a handy Social Media Consultant providing me with inspiration for tools.