Give Me 5 When Evaluating Social Media Consultants

Years ago when Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) had just found its footing I decided to invest in a new, start-of-the-art telephony system for the office. It was time to graduate from the two-line cordless purchased at Walmart to call forwarding, remote access voice mail and multi-person conference calls.

This was during the hustle of the late 1990s so we needed to move quickly. A vendor was selected from…well…I don’t recall how. A contract was signed with no reference check. I handed over a deposit of $2,500 to initiate work. And then…nothing. In fact, I never heard from the vendor again as their phone line was (ironically) soon disconnected.

Yes, I was swindled out of some money by a con and I was certainly upset. Yet, I came to realize in time that I was to blame for shirking the basic responsibilities of being a customer – do your due diligence.

The due diligence issue became top of mind this year as I read the steady stream of blog posts about what a company should look for when evaluating a prospective social media consultant. Here are links to a few:

Top 25 Ways to Tell if Your Social Media Expert is a Carpetbagger

Social Media Consultant or Snake Oil Salesman?

What to Look For in a Social Media Consultant


All of this ranting about philosophies, expertise and tactics makes the vendor selection process for social media a whole lot more complex than it needs to be. You can always count on consultants to muck things up in an attempt to justify their importance.

Here are eight simple words to say to anyone who comes a calling with the promise of social media: “Please show me your five most recent campaigns.”

See…it’s not rocket science. In fact, in his meandering article about the pros and cons of social media, BusinessWeek’s Stephen Baker lands at the same conclusion -- only hire consultants who have actually done work in the area they are consulting in.

Oh yeah, here are Strategic Communications Group’s (Strategic) five most recent campaigns. They happen to be for Microsoft, Sun Microsystems, British Telecom (BT), BearingPoint and Monster.

Journalism Slides Closer to Its New Reality

The pounding, headache inducing drumbeat of Tiger’s tales of infidelity pushed a number of potentially market changing stories to the back page.

Here is one headline from the December 3rd issue of the New York Times that escaped my attention: Some Dallas Editors will Report to Ad Sales.

Whoa…I suspect a fair number of journalists view the idea of taking direction from and being accountable to sales reps as a harbinger of the apocalypse.

It’s understandable. Many newsrooms have historically been shielded from the economic realities of publishing, with the editor and writer occupants rallied around a shared commitment to a higher calling.

The downsizing of journalism during the past two years has landed like a sledgehammer -- producing anger, denials and despair. It’s something I wrote about in November in my well read and critically received “Open Letter to the Unemployed Journalist."

So, I have to ask: Is a closer integration between the newsroom and the advertising sales department a good thing?

At the Dallas Morning News, it is only the sports and entertainment writers who will be affected by this new structure. Plus, editor Bob Mong told the New York Times that they have been instructed to “fight back” if they are told to do anything unethical.

My take is that this is the reality of future news gathering and reporting. Let’s get over the anger and accept that the publishing business model will continue to evolve for newspapers, magazines, broadcasters and online news operations to survive.

The question I pose above is irrelevant. There is simply no room left for a pristine and uncomplicated separation of editorial and advertising operations.

Bitten by Boorish Behavior

Our reality entertainment fueled and social media infused culture had made competition for the spotlight considerably more intense. Pop artist Andy Warhol most likely never imagined the depth of desperation some would regress to achieve their fleeting 15 minutes of fame.

Consider parents Richard and Mayumi Heene who tricked the nation into believing their six-year-old son was in harm’s way trapped inside a renegade balloon.

And then there is the tale of social and political impostors Tareq and Michaele Salahi who crashed a White House state dinner as part of a play for a reality television program.

Although a disturbing trend, I assumed this boorish behavior was the domain of rogue individuals seeking unearned attention. That was until I stumbled across this story of a semi-professional basketball team tricking its community into buying game tickets.


Utah Flash owner Brandt Andersen acknowledged in his blog that their promotion of an appearance by Hall of Fame player Michael Jordan “didn’t go like any of us had hoped.”

Perhaps that would be because Michael Jordan never confirmed his attendance at the event. He never even acknowledged the invitation.

The lesson here for organizations employing social media marketing is that the tenets of acceptable corporate citizenship always apply. Be honest and transparent. Respect your customers, employees, investors and vendors. And never sacrifice your reputation for a little bit of interest and fame.

Web 2.0 Tools to Manage the Info Froth

Regardless of the meetings, conference calls and industry events on my schedule for the day, I block out 30 minutes in the morning and then late afternoon for my daily information in-take.

I troll a myriad of social networks and online communities for updates from my connections. I dial-up my RSS reader to see what’s new with the 40+ blogs I monitor. And I scan the nearly 100 e-newsletters I receive to tune in to the reporting from trade journals, business press and niche vertical media.

With a dozen clients occupying nearly ever sector of the technology and telecommunications market, it’s imperative that I track what’s timely and relevant to ensure Strategic Communications Group (Strategic) is proactive in its representation. Admittedly, the accelerating froth of news, trends and opinion can be all consuming.

This is why I get jazzed when I come across a Web 2.0 tool that has the potential to help me more quickly and efficiently digest, organize and share this ongoing flow of information.

Here are four relatively new services with potential. An introductory scan of their Web site got me intrigued enough to test each out.

1. Spokeo: a Web-based service that scours nearly 50 social networks to find information about your online contacts and connections. It’s a good resource for due diligence on customers and prospects, as well as gathering competitive intelligence.


2. Gist: free while still in its beta phase, this service allows a user to create a custom intelligence report on a business contact, prospect, customer or partner. Gist sorts through information about a contact from multiple sources – such as Outlook Email, Twitter, Facebook, etc. – and then organizes everything into a single, Web-based document.


3. Favit: a Web-based service that allows a user to create streams of information from multiple social networks and online communities. It’s a good way to save time when it comes to sorting and reviewing updates from contacts in social networks.


4. Toobla: an easy way to organize content from across the Web (i.e. videos, sites, presentations, etc.) in a series of visual folders that can then be shared with online contacts.

Tech Start-Up Envy: Why Does the Capital Region Come Up Short?

Driptech, Scribd, SolarCity, Zynga, Fitbit…they are all interesting technology start-ups recently included on BusinessWeek’s list of the “Most Intriguing New Businesses.”

There’s a problem with the list though: not a single company based in the Washington, DC region made the cut.

How can that be? Where I call home has all of the ingredients to nurture a world class community of entrepreneurial technology companies.

For starters, the largest buyer of information technology products and services has centered most of its decision-making here. That’s right, the US federal government spends billions of dollars each year on a broad set of products, services and capabilities.

In fact, the federal Chief Technology Officer (CTO) recently unveiled a Web-based IT dashboard that tracks a fair amount of this annual spend.

This strong government footprint has attracted a myriad of systems integrators that cater to the technical and innovation requirements of government agencies worldwide. Lockheed Martin is based in Bethesda, Maryland. SAIC recently relocated to McLean, Virginia. CSC moved last year to Falls Church, Virginia.

These government contractors – often referred to as “Beltway Bandits” – serve as a training ground for technical and management talent.

Moreover, they often develop interesting products and applications with potential to be spun out as distinct companies. Systems integrator Mantech did just that two years ago with the successful creation of information security vendor Netwitness.

The potential for robust technology transfer also resides in the Washington, DC region’s research institutions, including George Mason University, George Washington University and the University of Maryland, College Park. All have outstanding engineering and business programs.

And finally, there is a mile-high stack of smart, experienced money in this town. Venture capital firms like NEA, Novak Biddle and Valhalla Partners, as well as private equity shops like Carlyle Partners are all well versed in helping start-ups successfully grow and mature.

So, again…I ask…why is the Washington, DC region a tier two player when it comes to technology start-ups?

You can’t put us in the same sentence as Silicon Valley without snickering. And we fail to measure up to technology hot spots in Boston, Austin and New York City.

Perhaps it’s about ego and attitude.

Are we in the DC business community content with modest success rather than aspiring to create the next Apple or Google? Are we too comfortable and conservative because of the government presence?

The Many Lenses of Social Media

Thanksgiving is one of my favorites. It’s all things I love -- family, friends, food, football and…yes…social media.

That’s right – you know a topic has gotten big when it successfully competes with Brangelina and the woes of the Washington Redskins for discussion time at the Thanksgiving dinner table.

How many friends do you have on Facebook? Who are they – co-workers, high school classmates, neighbors? What is the fascination with this Twitter thing?

After taking this Web 2.0 banter in for about 15 minutes, it dawned on me how different each person’s experience is with social media.

For the over 50 set, participation in social networks is an unobtrusive daily connection to loved ones. I guess checking out photos of a recent vacation on Facebook or Flickr is a better than phoning your daughter one too many times.

Then there is the still single crowd who taps into online communities as a source of relationship intelligence.

“There is no such thing as a blind date,” one cousin explained.

Of course, there are also a host of unwritten rules that guide interaction on Facebook among prospective romantic interests.

“Friending someone you have just started dating is a major decision,” my cousin said. “You are sending a signal to her. It’s OK for you to be part of my online life and to know my friends.”

And to think my world of social media is primarily viewed through a business lens with a focus on lead generation, sales cultivation, search engine optimization and awareness building.

This year Thanksgiving served is a reminder that social media – like most things in life – is all about objectives and expectations.

One Blogger’s Take on Holiday Fare

Come Thanksgiving the frantic pace of the news room becomes more leisurely. The stream of press releases slows, and significant corporate announcements and product launches are shelved into the New Year.

For journalists, it is a welcome opportunity to pen more human interest evergreen stories along with those predictable trends to watch or year in review fluff pieces. It’s less compelling content, yet diminished readership and adjusted advertiser expectations tolerate such transgressions.

What does the holidays-induced news coma mean for bloggers? Should I delay opinionated thought leadership posts until business re-starts in January? Or is this an opportunity to grab attention now that the boisterous blogosphere has quieted?

I don’t think anyone can say for sure. There simply haven’t been enough holiday cycles to understand the influence blog readership and influence.

Personally, I plan to follow the lead of publishers, editors and journalists who have spent decades slugging it out for readership and the resulting influence.

I’m going to keep on writing – at least two posts a week. Yet, my more controversial posts will hold until 2010.