Chief Social Media Officer? Sounds as good as a Chief Blogging Officer
One of the first signs that a new online activity is becoming accepted within business circles is when people start wondering about a “Chief [online medium du jour] Officer”. I’m not terribly surprised that now there is talk of the Chief Social Media Officer (CSMO)–Yes, It’s Time for a Chief Social Media Officer | Mark Evans – Is it time for a Chief Social Media Officer? | Social Business | ZDNet.com.
I’m going to divert from a previous stance and disagree with Mark on this one, we don’t need a CSMO just like we didn’t need CBOs (Chief Blogging Officer) back in 2005-6. Hey, I was a CBO (CBO for Qumana Software) and looking back on it, I think it was a foolish way to draw attention to the importance of the medium as a communications tool.
Creating a new “Chief Whatever Officer” is a hard sell within companies. How long did it take for the CIO to be accepted? Five, Ten years? Yes, we think now that a CIO is key. Who else is going to manage our IT departments? IT is so key to our business…yeah we all know it wasn’t always that way. If memory serves IT grew out of R&D, Finance, and Engineering departments, folks who started to really crank on computers early on.
Is a CSMO any different? Won’t it become a business critical function? Yes, but I think it will become a business critical core competency not a job function. SocMed in a few years will become like using a computer, or email, or being web savvy. Isn’t it expected that you can ask pretty much anyone at a meeting or in an office to Google something, email an attachment or book a meeting online?
Wouldn’t you raise an eyebrow if a new employee said “What’s a Google?” or “Wow, I’ve never used email before…”? Heck I might find the person that hired them and smack them upside the head (“What are we going to do with a person who isn’t computer savvy in this office!?!”).
I think Twitter/microblogging, blogging, RSS, even basic social media monitoring will just be something everyone will need to know how to do. When? If you’re in a tech company, umm, a year ago? For everyone else? I think within three years, but if you want to have an edge over other potential hires, I’d say right, freakin’ now.
Social Media seems to be thriving in this economic downturn so if you can walk into an interview and show your employer how you quickly learned about the company, it’s competitors, and what people think about their brands, I’m betting you have a good shot at the job.
That doesn’t make you a CSMO, it makes you employable.
I am the Chief Content Creator for Hummingbird604. So there
Having the skills, or the core competencies – know how to use Twitter, a blog, social networking etc… – is one thing, implementing social media for business communications and collaborations is another I think.
A bit like with the "generation Y" thing; it is not because younger students use social networking or read RSS feeds (to play) that they can transpose these "skills" into a business context (to work).
I have just been appointed "Chief Social Media Officer" and although I don't really care for the title, it does point to some important details;
1) the function reports straight to the CEO, just like the other C-level functions within the company.
2) the responsibility is cross business unit and in my case cross company as I work for an industrial group of companies.
3) the function is not part of Marketing, nor Communications, nor IT…. it works cross functions as well.
4) the responsibility covers both internal & external use of social media.
Of course, you need a CEO and a company that really wishes to use these new tools and principles of communications & collaboration to fundamentally change it does things… I was just lucky to have found both the CEO and the organization.