At Head Of Lettuce Media, people usually noticed right off the bat that we were quite like an episode of Perfect Strangers, as a right brain and a left brain working together. But it is what made us, as a team, work so well; we are good at what we do in our own fields of social media.
My former colleague, Antony, is more technical. He loves disruptive technologies, building new things to challenge current social media practices. He’s the gadget guy learning new tools to measure social media metrics.
I am however a connector, a collaborator and a fire starter. I know how to grow conversations, keep people entertained with content, put out fires, start engagements and connect people with other people, clients, and jobs.
Above all, I am the social in social media. I don’t do analytics.
Photo from: pannacafe.com
Posted by Amber Osborne | October 11, 2013
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I’ve heard quite a bit of frustration among companies and agencies running social media programs, “We hired this new guy to be our social media strategist. He’s great with project management, charts, graphs, and metrics. But he just flat out sucks with people.”
And then I get asked to help, “teach them be more personable like you.”
*head explodes*
These are also the companies that say… “Let’s make it go viral!”. Make note: things in social media go viral because people LIKE it, it’s entertaining or they have passion about the brand behind it. You’ve got to know your audience and how to connect with them first to have any metrics that are viable to analyze.
Forced sociability is going to be something that your social media audience will spot in an instant..."
"
The product without people is just a product.
Some people just don’t know how to connect with people, and that’s okay… some people really rock at what they do, if they are more technical, it should be left that way on both ends. Don’t make them your social media voice. Forced sociability is going to be something that your social media audience will spot in an instant and you could end up with a huge PR mess. Again, vice versa… this is why when I got my first huge corporate client ZVRS a few years ago, I called up Tony to help me out with the business and the technical end of things.
I am looking for an understanding among companies that, "it takes two to make a thing go right". In large agency teams, you have a mix of creative people and technical people. It should be the same in any social media department, large or small - don’t hire just one person and expect magic to happen. Yes, these rare unicorns do exist but again, usually only if you have an A-Team of specialists left and right brains. The more, the merrier you will be. I have learned so much in the last few years from my other side of the brain, Tony. Collaboration fuels success.
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Amber Osborne a.k.a Miss Destructo is the CMO at Meshfire in Seattle and former VP at Head of Lettuce Media in Florida. She's an award-winning Social Media Strategist with years of consistently delivering pioneering digital media solutions with diverse client exposure, ranging from small start-ups to internationally-known brands. Amber specializes in community management, brand development and creating engaging, unforgettable online personalities.
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