Jan 24th

Role of a Corporate Social Content Engineer

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by @nateriggs

I like that Jay Baer has the guts to ask us to put down the pitchforks when it comes to social media consultants. There are literally thousands of passionate people with ideas about how organizations can apply social web tools. But in the digital renaissance, not all ideas are validated. That’s all right. My belief is that it’s up to the clients to do their own due diligence on who they hire, to make sure that individual walks the walk, and looks beyond the technology alone. Jay ends his post with:

Remember that in social media, everyone’s a teacher and everyone’s a student.

I like that…a lot. It’s reminiscent of Jedi philosophy.

I also really love Andrew Ballenthin’s 8 Tips for Hiring a Social Media Consultant, featured in MarketVOX last week. There’s a broad definition of what being a social media “expert” actually means and Andrew is one of the first I’ve seen who gives organizations a guideline as to what makes up a true “expert” in the social media arena. His focus encompasses business communication as a whole, rather than in the narrow frames of marketing, technology or even web design.

Your Experts Inside
But what about leaders inside an organization who already have the trust agent qualities and skills necessary to be successful in social media communication? What about people like Tim Johnson and Steve Smith, who have a natural knack for things like publishing content on YouTube, keeping up with the speedy information flow of Twitter or managing conversations on a Facebook Page Wall? Chances are these “social media types” are already inside your organization and exist as an untapped resource.

Role of a Corporate Social Content Engineer
Content Manager. Director of Emerging Media. Community Manager. These are all the hot buzzword titles that corporations are looking to hire this year – and I’d like to challenge the set and add in my own.

A Social Content Engineer is something different. I argue that these are a rare breed of trust agents, because they have abilities that combine the creative chops to come up with content ideas that spread, the technical knowledge to operate advanced technology tools and media production techniques, as well as a keen understanding and passion for all things related to strategy, execution and measurement. These individuals also display strong tendencies towards being classified and an “Agent 0,” an element outlined by Brogan and Smith in Trust Agents.

We’ve started to learn that these individuals typically score somewhere in the Idealist quadrant of the MBTI assessment and tend to gravitate towards being Idealist Teachers or Idealist Champions in their personality type. Bryan and Marie are actually in process of building and conducting a benchmark study that will us help to further define the apparent relationship between personality types and an individual’s natural gravitation toward the operation of social web tools. Stay tuned. If you’re a “social media type,” you might be hearing from one of them soon…

What Makes a Social Content Engineer

Academic background in a communications related field, including: organizational communication, broadcast media, journalism, speech communication or applied communications
Intermediate to advanced understanding of audio/visual editing techniques and software applications
Background in a creative content field of study or work, including but not limited to creative writing, theater, music, event promotions, art or photography
A sincere and contagious passion for using social media
An expansive online network that includes daily usage on the big three – Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn – as well as at least one niche social network
A reasonably developed personal brand and digital footprint that includes some form of a blog, as well as other content styles such as video or image publishing
Basic knowledge of Boolean Search techniques and understanding of SEO/SEM concepts, including basic keyword strategy and online conversion techniques
Basic knowledge and passion for gadgets, including: mobile devices, video capturing devices, Mac’s, PC’s, servers and even GPS devices

Job Description Social Content Engineer

Manage and enhance Corporate social monitoring practices, including tool selection and acquisition, keyword and brand mention strategy, and traditional media related to social content
Lead the execution of the Corporate social media strategy by working across the organization to implement the video content (capturing schedules, post production, publishing and measurement procedures)
Ideation, development and refinement of ongoing content strategy ideas
Team leader for the Twitter group, including development of the targeted follower base, inquiry response strategy and process flow
Administer, track and report web analytics for all presences related to social media, the corporate blog, and conversion related to the corporate website
Lead the administration (admin) team of the Corporate Facebook Fan Page
Manage and execute on-boarding strategies for the Facebook, Twitter and other externally visible social outposts
Coach management and rank-and-file associates in social media proficiency, as well as adoption of and adherence to the corporate social media guidelines
Administer the development of the corporate blog content strategy and publishing schedule
Report updates to management team in weekly meetings on baseline growth, strategy adjustments and new content ideas
Attend national and international social media industry events and develop reports on new trends, technologies, communication tactics and competitive case studies

Out of your friends and business connections, can you identify anyone who has the potential to make a good Social Content Engineer?

Would you do me a small favor? If you do know someone who fits the description, tell them. Encourage them to think about how they could find a way to put their talents and passions to work.