A Measured Approach To Social Media - Sell The Burger Not The Beef
I’m obviously a believer in social media and its possibilities for businesses. However, I’m also extremely conflicted about consultants who solely focus on social media. Many of them, who I personally know and like, are extremely talented individuals and any business should feel confident to use them. There is also a large group of ‘others’ out there but there have been plenty of articles bashing the “snake oil salesmen” of the industry that I don’t need to rehash that discussion. And I should clarify here, the problem I'm defining isn't that all they sell is social media solutions/consulting, it's that they don't do so in a holistic way that takes into account other aspects of the business.
Businesses need to see social media plans that have taken into account their other needs, ones which have accounted for and justified against the other ways those dollars could have been used, and shown how you can cleanly integrate and compliment their other efforts. Otherwise you’re selling ground beef. It might be awesome ground beef, but without a grill, a bun and condiments you’ll never be able to compete with my hamburger.
