Here There By Dragons – The Ever Changing World of Social Media

Jay Baer over at Convince & Convert, recently wrote an article talking about how even social media professionals are overwhelmed by the options available to them.

The technology and techniques are in a constant state of update and it’s difficult for even the most dedicated social media professional to keep on the cutting edge.

As he puts it:

We don’t have a technology and tools problem. We have an understanding and adoption problem, which is driven primarily by confusion and lack of time. In fact, I think we genuinely would be better off as marketers if we had a six month moratorium on EVERYTHING. No new Facebook features. No new social networks. No new YouTube functionality. No new Instagram or Foursquare or Viddy or mobile apps or near field communications or QR codes or the hot new skywriting app somebody is cooking up as I write this.

Now, if the professionals who dedicate a good hunk of their business time to trying to keep up with things are having problems, how do you think a normal business person would feel?

It’s easy enough to dip your toe into the social media mix–tinkering with Twitter, fooling with Facebook–but that’s not going to get you any real results most of the time. (Hey, you may get lucky… but businesses don’t run on luck.) At the worst, it could get you found for all the wrong reasons or end up taking time away from you running your business. At best, you’d still be wasting some time and getting frustrated.

The best course of action for anyone who cares about their business and wants to reap the benefits of the social media mix is to hand over the task of making a social media plan to a professional.

Good news is, there are tons out there–but they aren’t all created equal. Be sure to meet with your potential social media person face to face. Nothing beats an in person meeting to build trust and understanding.

And if there’s one thing needed when there’s someone else managing how your business looks to the world, it’s trust. (The understanding just helps them do their job better.)

What kind of questions do you have about social media?