What should a qualification in social media look like?

Social media as a dedicated working profession is still fairly new. Whilst there have been a handful of pioneers banging on about this stuff and helping shape the theory for some years they have struggled to get the financial buyin required to unleash its true potential within organisations as a practitioner. This is changing fast and it is not uncommon to have CEO’s and MD’s making the call to specialists rather than the eager but eternally restrained grad. Some of us have managed to make that fringe practice of our generalist digital lives the main ticket. I am one of those lucky people. Frustrated over the years by watching social media drop off the plan at the last minute for other more ‘safe’ online media activity it’s now all I do and I feel very lucky for it. I would like to find a way to help others do the same and find their vocation within it.

Companies embracing social media

Every week I‘m getting someone wanting to come and help with the strategy side at my agency. From web-designers to programmers account managers everybody wants in. But what are the skills required to do this role and is it for everyone? This question set about my wanting to explore what a qualification would look like if formalised and I would love your input as to what the curriculum would entail.

One thing is for sure I don’t think doing the strategy side is for everyone. Just like I don’t think being a planner, creative or entrepreneur is for everyone despite the masses of people who continually kid themselves of where their skills and weaknesses really lie. Few can think of new and creative ways of problem solving just like few can actually deliver those ideas. So from the start lets not think everyone working as a social media professional should be a strategist there are many more parts of the machine that need oiling.

Where should they come from? Well most people I know arrived at working in social media by a happy accident. Most had little interest in technology to start with and still don’t but love what it enables people to do. They often fell into digital as a whole by following a personal interest online and found this Internet thing connected them with others easily and quickly around the globe. They maybe found it helped them do their job quicker and better and having this knowledge slowly made them the digital guy in their company. Personally social media caught my attention as I slowly begin to realise the futility of the other kinds of online marketing I was implementing. I saw the opportunity to be doing something new and pioneering more attractive than driving down fairly unimpressive conversion or click through rates that at best reached the wonderous heights of 1%. To me that was a good indicator it wasn’t working and a clue that there might be a better way.

I never really read all the books about social media and still have a tonne sat gathering dust on my bookshelf despite protests from my well-read semi-intellectual peers. I don’t attend many events but might catch-up on the highlights. I often can’t see the point. I’ve found if you are a social media citizen you inherently learn the ethics. If you do social media in your job you learn what does and doesn’t work mostly by making mistakes along the way. These books in my mind add colour to what you already should know and are generally written for people who are finding the transition from the broadcast mindset difficult. I don’t know how relevant they will be for the next generation who have grown up knowing nothing different. They serve as a catalogue of eloquent analogies to pull out the hat when pitching. They do work and do help you articulate your point but it’s often a way of justifying what you already know to be common sense. Again how long will we have to undertake this arduous task? If we are planning a study of social media that is going to be relevant to today’s students as well as tomorrows we shouldn’t teach them how to suck eggs.

In my mind it should be much wider than just ‘marketing in’ but more ‘social media for’. For organisations, for business and more importantly for people and causes. Looking at the organisational or institutional change for the better that can be brought about by the empowerment of staff through social media is the most powerful lesson. After all if you are part of the community whether as a business or a person and are building relationships with those influential within them you no longer have to market in a traditional sense. You know what they need because they tell you. They will even help you find a solution for that need. Because they need it you don’t have to convince them of solutions worth. That cuts out a lot of the old practices.

For arguments sake lets say it’s a 1-year masters that can be undertaken by working professionals who know they need to upskill or post grads. The general theory covered in the aforementioned books should only serve to deschool rather frustratingly everything they have previously been taught and not take up too much of the focus. It is amazing the outdated theory still taught by reputable academic institutions on business, marketing and PR. For me the deschooling begins and ends with some simple basics; you can’t broadcast in social media, you can’t lie or spin and you can’t hide. You have to be a good citizen. You have to add value to the network otherwise it doesn’t need you. You have to give to get.

From here on in I think you can move very quickly into the doing part. Students should be asked to identify, join and / or create communities around a personal interest of theirs. They must identify an unfulfilled need felt by the community and find a way to serve it by providing social utilities or currencies through social media. Success as judged by the community is the only really important measure.

It would be great to get down to the specifics and break it up into modules with your help to find a way of writing a syllabus and offering this is a recognised accreditation. There are a number of Uni’s / business schools that have expressed an interest in pursuing this discussion with my agency but I feel a true solution can only be offered by the industry as a whole and in the spirit of our discipline be crowd-sourced.