I’ve known a few people who, after grad school, opted for the Corporate Way and took positions in Corporate Marketing. One of the problems with working for Fortune 100 firms is that if you are not working in the ‘right’ area and you become unemployed, then finding a new position often puts people back into that Catch-22. In today’s world, the current Catch-22 is, “Five or More years of social media experience.”
This begs the question, “Is 5+ years of Social Media experience too much?”
Really, it isn’t. The problem is that people who are relatively new to Social Media often think that FaceBook and Twitter are the only Social Media around. The truth of the matter is that Social Media has existed for some time now. More importantly, what counts is not that a person is just “on” social media, but how they have used it.
I remember using CIS (Compuserve). During this time, I met someone on it, who at the time, worked on something called Oracle, which at the time was the new “it” system in distributed computing. As a result of another threads in another group, we realized that we both lived in Chicago and we met for lunch. Small world. Or not. CIS wasn’t a fun, GUI interface back in the 1990’s and the mode of communications was usually an X.25 dialup.
I also contributed to an Electrician’s Board on Prodigy Group in the 1990’s. They dubbed themselves “The Secret Society of Electricians.” No, I wasn’t an electrician, but I did have expertise in a related area, and I was invited on their Board. One year they had a meeting in Mystic. They extended an invite but I could not attend. I was a little sad when their Tee Shirt they gave me (which said: “Electrical Safety is no Accident” on the back) finally had to go, as with age, the imprinted area had developed a not so pleasant smell that would not wash out. This group, which met on Social Media, was actually featured by Prodigy due to the success of bringing people from across the country together in one place.
My first exposure to FaceBook was in 2006, when I joined with my .edu email (a then requirement). In 2011, that seems like such a long, long, time ago.
Perhaps the most difficult thing about Social Media for newcomers is to figure out how to use it, especially if they have been working in a marketing function that has not fully engaged Social Media. The biggest problem I see is that companies often start with a chosen Social Media and go a bit willy nilly, hoping that whatever they do takes off.
Check out Social Media is not a “new” invention.
