A Wicked Social Buzz

I haven't been in the search marketing business for that long, but I'm definitely gravitating towards social media.

I find that creating content and participating in social web is significantly more stimulating than... say... making XML sitemaps, geeking out infront of WordTracker, or crafting copy with judicious use of the phrase "Alabama tax lien attorney." Watching the links, comments and votes pour in after a social campaign is up there with hitting a home run or the jackpot in Vegas. It triggers strong emotions and a massive rush of endorphins.

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The buzz of brainstorming a massive social campaign and watching it spread is much stronger than watching the rankings incrementally improve during a manual link building campaign... it's a much bigger bang than modest pleasure of crafting a clever 301 redirect...

But Is It Sustainable?

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Naturally, I'd love to make social media the main focus of my workday. But as a Capricorn, and I'm way too practical to just follow my bliss without any kind of business plan. As I think about how to take my social media skills to the next level, here's a few concerns that come to mind:

1. The ethics of SMM are blurry.

Is it OK to make a second account? Ask friends for votes? Buy votes or automate them? Write fake reviews? Recycle content? Bury the competition?

I generally try to swing straight, organic, white-hat and transparent-ish (I don't want anything coming back to haunt me)... but I'm aware that the pressures of client expectations and making profits (a.k.a. stayin' alive) can really stretch people's morals and ethics. And if you think Digg and Stumble are competitive now (in the absolute infancy of the genre) it's only going to get harder. 2007 is to social media what 1996 was to SEO.

Will we see teams of professional voters and commenters? Rampant payola and Multi-Level Voting (MLV)? Online reputation extortionists and protection rackets? Social media username and brand squatting ("MrBabyMan" is already registered. Please choose another name.')? Account brokers? Officially sponsored story submissions ("$2999 for express home page submission, subject to editorial review")?

2. SEO is steady. SMM is volatile.

Just about any website can be helped out by solid SEO. Search algorithms are mechanical and more "impartial". In contrast, social media success depends entirely on the tastes, opinions and politics of people - and their feelings at the moment. Some brands are loved as "way cool" and others are poo-poo'ed as pariahs (i.e., Mircosoft's Zune's "Welcome to the Social" campaign ). You can give things your best spin, but ultimately you have no control over the outcome. The audience decides... and they'll either get a kick out of your story, or they'll kick the snot out of it. And if the sysadmins decide there's anything fishy about your account or voting history... GAME OVER.

3. Social media marketing can be hard on the nerves. The highs are spectacular, but the lows really suck. Every time the sever goes down from a traffic spike, the mob revolts and smashes you and your content with seditious smacktalk, and the burry brigade starts taunting you with libelous comments... it's enough to trigger a heart attack. Especially if weeks of hard work have gone into a project and an expectant client is sitting there, biting their nails right along with with you. I've gotten myself so worked up over social media campaigns that I needed crack open a beer at the end of the day to calm my nerves. I don't want to end up actually ordering that Xanax and Tramadol stuff that always shows up in the comment spam.

4. So many sites, so many profiles, so little time. Technology is a harsh mistress. The only thing my iPhone did for my life was seduce me into spending 15 hours a day online, rather than just 10 or 12. Nowadays, I find myself checking on my Reddit stories while hiking (!).

It's getting harder to find original content that hasn't been submitted already. More time consuming to post it to all the sites that are popping up, keep up with what is going on, AND find time to update 5 different blogs.

Some people have referred to social media promotion as "the new link building" because it's so massive and overwhelming a task. New social media account consolidator sites like Fuser are trying to make access to your Facebook and MySpace-type accounts available in one place, but the social landscape and user base are growing faster than tools and widgets designed to keep up with it. Sooner or later... we'll have to adopt 30 hour days in order to get it all done.

Social Media Career Ideas

I think that becoming a social media professional is possible and sustainable. But it hasn't yet evolved into recognized business marketing role yet... so we'll have to take define this emerging profession and market ourselves aggressively.

Here's a few ideas on how you can start to do that:

  • Become an expert a seeding and growing online social communities for corporate or non-profit sites. Many well-funded companies are throwing up massive web infrastructure, but they don't have a clue how to kick things off socially. You can use the same interaction skills you've sharpened on forums, blogs and Facebook... where there is a growing, commercial market for it.

  • Work with startups. Here in Boulder, there are tons of tech startup companies with venture capital and solid developer talent. What they seem to be lacking, in most cases, is someone with serious social networking influence and viral skills to make their concept popular. They spend $2,000,000 developing and launching a site. For promotion, they send out a couple of electronic press releases and do a half-baked Blogspot site. Then... while woefully carrying the desks out of the office, they wonder why their site never "caught on."

  • Seek cool brands that could be leveraging social media, but aren't. (Think: surfing companies, solar technology, DRM-free audio downloads.) Offer to help them out, and show them how they could benefit by participating in the social web. It's probably on the back of their minds already, but they don't even know what – or who – to ask. You might literally be the answer to their prayers.

  • Try pitching some traditional PR firms (if you've got boatloads of patience and professional tact). Work for them and help them understand how the Web is changing the world of communications. Help them realize these are no longer the days of pompous-sounding press releases and licking stamps. Teach them how to make "social media relations" a part of what they do.

What Do You Think?

If you've read down this far, you're also probably pretty excited about social media. I'd love to get your take on things: Do you think social media marketing can be a viable business and career?

What kind of issues, problems and potentials do you see with it?