Image courtesy of Flickr user Percita
Over the last three years, I’ve met a lot of people who are their organization’s social media evangelist, lead, POC, pioneer, ninja, guru, etc., and I’ve met many others who are aspiring to take on that role. Hell, I even wrote my last post to help those people get started. While it’s easy to get caught up in all the hype that often follows the people in these roles – the promotions, the raises, the invitations to participate in selective working groups, the personal branding, the ability to make your living using Facebook and Twitter – I’d like to take this opportunity to help balance out the expectations. The following statements aren’t necessarily good or bad, but they do paint a more realistic picture.
So, if you’re itching to become “the guy” at your organization when it comes to social media, be prepared:
- To be expected to know EVERYTHING about social media, not only about Twitter, Facebook, and wikis, but also all of the policies, trends, statistics, and laws too
- To know who else in your organization is also involved with social media and if you don’t, why not
- To encounter people who assume that because you’re on Facebook or Twitter while at work, that you’re never actually busy with anything
- To justify the return on investment (ROI) of all the time you spend using social media
- To get dozens of emails from people every time a there’s a negative, controversial media article discussing the risks of social media (you should have seen how many people pointed to the Wired article came out showing how terrorists could use Twitter and told me, “see, that’s why we shouldn’t use social media)
- To be always on, all the time. No matter what meeting you go into, there’s always a chance that you may have to give an impromptu presentation
- To have people constantly asking you for your thoughts on the latest social media-related email/blog/memo/article/news/interview that came out
- To justify your existence to your managers when there are organizations who outsource their social media for a few cents per tweet
- To get inundated with requests like this – “I just read [insert social media link here]. Do you have like 30 minutes to meet with me so that I can ask you some basic questions?”
- To see your work (even within your own organization) turn up in other people’s work without any attribution
- To be told that “all this collaboration is great, but what real work have you accomplished?”
- To change teams and/or organizational alignment at least once
I’ve encountered all of these situations to varying degrees over the last three years, and at times, I’ve felt frustrated, excited, nervous, entrepreneurial, scared, sometimes all simultaneously, but through it all, I’ve always felt proud to be on the cutting edge of changes that need to be made. I’ve never wondered if it was worth it, and I can definitely say that I’ve always felt challenged and stimulated through it all.
If you’re considering being at the tip of the social media spear within your organization, make sure that you’re prepared…for everything.
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New blog post – If you’re going to be at the tip of the social media spear, then be prepared for this…([link to post]) #gov20 #opengov
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Interested in being the tip of the social media spear at your organization? Be prepared for…([link to post]) /via @sradick #assnchat
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Interesting RT @sradick Interested in being the tip of the social media spear at your organization? Be prepared ([link to post])
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Interested in being the tip of the social media spear at your organization? Be prepared for…. ([link to post]) #gov20 #e20 #opengov
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RT @sradick: Interested in being the tip of the social media spear at your organization? Be prepared for…. ([link to post]) #gov20 #e2
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RT @sradick: New blog post – If you’re going to be at the tip of the social media spear, then be prepared for this…([link to post]) #g
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RT @jenngustetic: RT @sradick: If you’re going to be at the tip of the social media spear, then be prepared for this…([link to post])
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Good advice Thank uRT @sradick Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for… | Social Media Strateg.. [link to post]
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Nice blog post by @sradick “Interested in being at the tip of the [social media] spear? Be prepared for…” everything! [link to post]
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Are you prepared to be an SM expert? Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Make sure you can handle all of this! [link to post]
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RT @maggielmcg: Interested in being the tip of the social media spear at ur org? B prepared 4..([link to post]) /via @sradick #assnchat
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Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for… [link to post] RT @ConversationAge:
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@sradick U seem to hit it on “Point” -Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for Social Media Strateg [link to post]
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RT @ConversationAge: Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for… [link to post] #cmnl #cmint
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RT @ConversationAge: Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for… [link to post]
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Not sure which side I’m on sometimes. — Being the tip of the social media spear ([link to post]) #gov20 #e20 #opengov (via @sradick)
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Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for… [link to post]
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RT @sradick Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for… | Social Media Strateg.. [link to post]
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In a few words:
yes.
yes.
yes.
yes.
yes.
YES!
YES!
sometimes.
yes.
not really, yet.
not really, yet.
yes.
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Nice one. I have stumbled and twittered this for my friends. Hope others find it as interesting as I did.
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Steve,
I can't believe how spot-on you are here. I can definitely say I've
experienced all of this. Good and bad, definitely. It's a
time-consuming, exhausting job. Love how many people think, “Oh, your
job has got to be so much fun just tweeting and posting on Facebook all
day. Wish I could do that!” Yep, think about being the tip of the
spear before you speak, definitely. I'm still waiting for the “fun.”
:o) It's definitely been an interesting ride. Luckily, the work pays
dividends when you reach out to folks who would never hear about you
otherwise. Love the ability to touch so many people around the world
through two-way conversation.
Thanks for the candid post!
Kristi
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Yep. RT @sradick Interested in being at the tip of the social media spear? Be prepared for this… ([link to post]) #e20 #gov20 #opengov
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Interested in being at the tip of the social media spear? Be prepared for this… ([link to post]) #e20 #gov20 #opengov
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RT @sradick: Interested in being at the tip of the social media spear? Be prepared for this… ([link to post]) #e20 #gov20 #opengov
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Localgovs, any of this sound familiar? [link to post] via @sradick #localgovchat
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Thanks Ike – glad to see that (for the most part) these points resonated with you too!
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@Kristi – oh, I think you still have fun! I suspect you're a little like me in that you enjoy all of this, even the challenges, to some extent 🙂 Glad you liked it!
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RT @rupertmike RT @sradick Interested in being at the tip of the social media spear? Be prepared ([link to post]) #e20 #gov20
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???… ?? ?? ????. ?????? ??????? ????? ??????? ??????????? ???????????, ? ??? ????? ?????????? ????????, ??? ????? ?? ??? ?????????. ???? ??? ???????? ? ???? ??????????????? ???????, ??-?????, ????? ????????. ????????? ?? ???? ?????? ?????? “?????????????”, ? ???????????? ? ?????????, ??????? ???????? – ???, ??? ??? ??? ?? ????, ? ??? ??? ???. ??? ?????? ???????, ??? ??????? ????????? ??????? ?? ??????????? ???????, ??????????, ???? ???? ??? ?????? ?? ????????.
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RT @tobyward @rupertmike @sradick: Interested in being at the tip of the social media spear? Be preapared [link to post]
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RT @sradick Interested in Being at the Tip of the Spear? Be Prepared for… | Social Media Strateg.. [link to post] http://friendfeed.com/e/ec7e66d3-bd47-4dae-a632-e0c1530060ec
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I'm not 'that guy' and don't want to be 'that guy' but I'm here to help make sure that he succeeds and that our organization succeeds in the social media sphere. A social media champion, if you will. What do I need to be prepared for?
plus, this is a nice post on what SM gurus have to face on a daily basis!
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