All this Facebook spam really weighs after awhile. Makes you wonder how much people will trust using these networks for fear that they will have their walls hijacked with junk.

Any thoughts?

So you’re not a consultant in the social media field, but you’re looking for work. You’ve finally landed the coveted interview after sending out more than thirty resumes and you’ve gotten past the phone chat. You’ve told them you read Mashable, TechCrunch, Social Media Daily and crunch numbers for breakfast, lunch and dinner, and dream in terms of social media strategy.

Now what?

As you step into the interview, consider the questions that you will be asked, but also the questions that you should ask your interviewer. Starting today, we’ll start covering questions every aspiring social media superstar should ask before they get the offer. Read on today for our first question – what is your social media strategy?

We’ve all seen it before – the half assed social media strategy.  Strategy lays the groundwork for every single company that you apply to, and social media strategy is no different. Does the company have a Twitter presence? Facebook profile? YouTube channel? Foursquare account? God forbid a MySpace page?

If they haven’t thought up of a strategy yet, and its up to you, then you have all the power and are calling the shots – that is great. But if the company already has something that exists and are looking at you to hone it, ask – what is their strategy? Take a look at their social media presence, and then ask yourself these questions:

1) Can you adopt their voice?

2) Do you agree with how they frame their voice?

3) Do they value followers over overall content, or prefer a smaller following that is more engaged?

4) Who is the decision-maker when it comes to crafting the strategy? Do they look to outside consultants, or do they look inside, or do they look up to the C-level executives?

5) What do you see yourself doing for them?

A good social media strategy contributes to the fun of the game and adds value to what the company already has. Understand how the strategy is managed, executed and how results are looked at. This is one of the major foundations to a solid strategy that works.

What do you think? Tweet back at me or share your thoughts in the comments.

Dear Graduate, 

So you’ve done it. You’re finished with your finals, written all your papers and sent out your job applications and picked up your cap and gown. After almost 16 years or more in school, you see the light at the end of the tunnel, and as it creeps closer, you find yourself running faster and faster. For you, the real world and the experiences that come with it cannot come fast enough.

Graduation morning felt like yesterday for me. I remember waking up at about a quarter to seven that morning – the earliest I had probably gotten up in a long time, and walking down towards the student union from my apartment. It was one of the longest walks of my life, yet one of the shortest, and gave me the time and ability to reflect on the four years prior. With everything that I had done for myself in the time I had spent, I realized that I had come to regret nothing.  I hope the same applies for you as well. 

The experience of graduation in itself is surreal, from the putting on of the gown to hanging out with friends one last time to the pomp and circumstance of entering the graduation ceremony to a crowd of almost 15,000 people at my school – yours might be larger or smaller. As the names are read off of each graduating student you begin to realize how much has been accomplished and how much as been done, at least academically. Walking across the podium, you realize how many new doors have just been opened, among the many that just closed. It’s definitely a thrill in itself.

The sun will set tonight and you will call yourself a college graduate, something that in America, only 25% of people can claim. Tomorrow however, begins a new day – the day of the real world, and one that is not very kind and something that school never prepared for you. Amid writing all the papers, conducting all the lab work and staying up at night into the wee hours of the morning, college never prepares you for the work conflicts, social media fires and deadlines that you will experience in your first job out of college. Amid listening to all the great professors that you met in college, you were also never prepared for the traditions of the workplace, the push-backs on the new technologies you wish were implemented and the political bargaining that needs to be done. Alas, its all a challenge, and it will be a hard fought one too. 

But as your generation and every generation will do and discover, there will be prevailing winds and those winds will bring winds of change and winds of success. As the world will move forward, so will you, and you will help bring new, fresh ideas into the mix amid the old, tired and tried. 

So as you walk across that podium, look back and enjoy the successes behind you, but look forth to the challenges ahead. As a social media superstar, you have a lot waiting for you, and a lot of change to help bring forth.

Congratulations!

The Social Media Dude

In the traditional world of marketing, day-to-day activities are treated like a poker game – you never show your hand and you rarely if ever, reveal whom you are working with. If you do, it’s considered a near travesty and can cost you business because your competitors can poach your customers. 

The age of social media has taken competition and customer relations to the very next level. When customers complain over social media, especially over Twitter, everyone can see what is going on, and competition usually takes that moment to jump-in and pitch their alternative. 

The result of incidences like these are that brands have become a lot more protective of who their clients are, and try to keep them as hidden as possible. On Twitter, for example, companies can create private lists of those they care most about, and on Facebook, some brands opt for personal Facebook profiles instead of pages for added privacy when it comes to their brand. While both very strategic in nature, it doesn’t necessarily have to be this way.

The Confident Brand

Its obvious to say that if you are confident in your brand, you will sell it in the greatest confidence and want to show it off to everyone. No matter how many people complain about what you sell on social media, you’ll always know down inside that what you are selling is helpful, useful and meaningful to the lives of others. Furthermore, since brand recognition can be so powerful, its even more important to show off who your community is because its seen as a sign of success, and success perpetuates itself. 

Hiding oneself on social media is almost counter-intuitive to one’s brand image and strategy. To hide is almost to cower and equate oneself to fearing what the possibilities could be. A better alternative to the situation would be to instead enchant and show others why you are a company that is worth considering. Just as you would enchant someone through positive personality traits and good humor in real life, the same should be done over social media when building and maintaining a community. Showing that you aren’t fearful of others poaching your customers and that you are willing to be transparent will only help grow confidence inside and outside. 

What do you think? Share your comments with me below or tweet at me.

Today we salute our mothers for the great work that they have done raising us. For all the great things you do moms, Happy Mothers Day.