10 things they never told you about social media ...

Thanks to Jye Smith, who posted 10 things he learnt and was never told about social media and then added another 11 on here.


And all the stuff (bs) he had to wade through until he got there. Jye Smith is the digital strategist for Weber Shandwick and was the Head of Social Media for Switched On Media and @jyesmith on Twitter; he has learnt a lot and is a great one to follow and learn from.


Here they are:

1. Businesses do this for the bottom line, not holding hands
2. You don’t have to respond to everything that is said: just set expectation with your community
3. Data is critical, knowledge is success – know the difference
4. The biggest social networks don’t always have the best return: Facebook isn’t always the answer
5. Social media as a stand alone strategy, rarely does all that well (you need wider digital and other media support): try SEO, PPC
6. Understanding your or your clients sales funnel is critical to strategy (and selling it internally)
7. Social Media is bigger than marketing, PR and customer service – hence why it’s hard to pick a leader
8. Online communities can take years to build meaningful relationships: is your agency to prepared to hang in there? Is your client?
9. Social media campaigns can exist.  Set your expectations: if you want to run a 3 month social media campaign, just set the expectations (in the word of Scott Drummond: the party’s here for 2 months, after that, you can go home)
10. Social media experts exist: they’re just people who know a little more than the next person, in a given situation – I have no idea why it became “insightful”, or cool more to the point, to denounce social media professionals.

Another 11

These people work in this day to day.  Not just for show, or for a sense of belonging. Puts some food on the table. And these people have also been kind enough to answer the same question. Most of their answers will form new blog posts for me:

1. Gavin Heaton, (my hero) Social Media Director, SAP: how to deal with the “social” when it becomes “personal”
2. Jess Nichols: You need to find a balance between not sharing anything & oversharing everything. So many people go to extremes & can do more harm than good
3. Mandi Bateson, Digital Planning Director, Daemon Digital: How defensive people get when you take the conversation from a company level down to people – on both sides of the fence.  eg. managing internal or client astroturfers who are proud of their work and pounce on negative feedback b/c they take it personally
4. Alex Asigno, Head of SEO, Switched On Media: the importance of listening
5. Karalee Evans, Social Media Manager, Amnesia : In my humble opinion, the number 1 untaught lesson: how little ROI is understood in Social Media.  The misconceptions of Social Media as intangible needs to be addressed.
6. Lucie Snape, Digital Strategist, Ogilvy: the importance of managing your personal brand
7. Marek Wolski, Digital Marketer: Patience. Its a long term commitment that builds relationships. It takes time to create, implement & optimise your crm in social contexts.
8. Tiphereth Gloria, Social Media Manager, GPYR Sydney: how much people want brands to have a human face i.e. admit mistakes, be real, apologise, move on
9. Heather Snodgrass, Strategy Director, We Are Social: it depends how good your teacher is!
10. Nicola Swankie, Account Director, McCann: just how labour intensive it is
11. Kimberley Lee, PR Communications, ParkYoung: although online connection is great, don’t forget about the power of offline connections too.

Thanks to people on Twitter and following people like Trevor Young, Heath from ColesOnline and Gavin Heaton; who really do social media well as well as working for a business (Heath) or being a PR Warrior (Trevor) or just being generally brilliant and approachable (Gavin), they inspired me to run my own social media business and focus on SMO, business branding and now educating others as well (Aware Net Connect).


Social media is changing how we all communicate, do business and communicate with each other. I believe that each business big or small can become the face and voice of their business and learn what works by trying all kinds of social media sites, making mistakes, admitting to be human and communicating.


I learn a new thing every day; thanks to this wonderful career of mine.