Accreditation for Social Media?

This post was inspired by Olivier Blanchard's "Is your Social Media Director qualified?" post from yesterday and a comment that I wrote there.

Six months ago it was doubtful that I could walk into an agency or company and outline social strategy, or break down platforms to incorporate into their campaigns and have them listen. Now? Everyone is listening. Even Oprah.

Social media strategy is in high demand and companies are scrambling to implement it. The reason why? It augments and perfects pre-existing techniques perfectly. Add a few steps to your marketing thought process and understand the technology's implications? You're golden. (Granted this is a TALL order.)

When any new profession emerges onto the cultural landscape it is quickly adopted by a few great people and once it starts to gain traction is immediately followed by the snake oil people. In this environment: if you can spin, you can win.

Unfortunately, this leaves a lot of great people out in the cold (Seriously, hire Sonny Gill already) and a lot of under-qualified but silver-tongued people in positions of power (that they really have no right to be in).

Granted, it's money for consultants who usually get half their business from coming in and cleaning up someone's mess. However, the bad taste about social is likely to remain in that company's mouth.

What solutions are there? Well, I thought of one: Accreditation or Membership within a certain organization that was willing to vouch for that person's knowledge and expertise.

This could be as simple as merely giving the person a Yay or Nay vote. This obviously would become political at some point but due to the current community's small size I don't think it would be an issue...yet.

Could this work? I don't know at this point. Most people barely have a cursory knowledge of social media. But would a shiny button on a blog help? I certainly don't think it could hurt. We could even leverage something like Scribnia to take a lot of guesswork/framework out of the developing the community.

Photo Credit: dpstyles

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tagged as accreditation organizations, accreditation process, social media accreditation, social media advancements, social media collective, social media guild, social media union, social media win

donna

Yeah i guaranteed that social media agency is more effective in social marketing since it was start and now some other seo user use their strategy....

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chickass123

hdbbstephen on Twitter

I would recommend that people involved in the social media marketspace can use communities like Social Media Club and the Altimeter Wiki [ http://wiki.altimetergroup.com/page/Social+Medi... ] to create a virtual association and source of referrals.

As time goes on, these organizations will be able to sort the wheat from the chaff and become a powerful resource. I believe that it is also important to choose as a "standard" a group or organization that is not looking to make a buck from the 'accreditations' or referrals.

(Social Media Club is a non-profit, free resource to its members and visitors. Disclosure: I am putting together a SMC for New Hampshire http://smcnh.com)

edwardboches

Edward L Bernays suggested this years ago for PR. Never caught on. Doubt this will either. Fundamental thought is good. Note that BL Ochman writes about this frequently, relating that there are 5,887 self declared SM Gurus on Twitter, according to their bio/profiles. So, we all know what that means. Nevertheless, smart clients and consultants who hire firms or people are dumb and even if they don't know social inside and out they'll do their homework, hopefully. At least that's what I've found with the clients we've retained.

Stuartfoster

Glad to hear it...can't wait to see your approach.

prostylus

Like a good thought leader, you're way ahead of the curve, Stuart.

Another approach would be to offer social media accreditation via an existing and well-recognized communications group, like the International Association of Business Communicators. IABC already has accreditation programs, so it knows what's involved.

This kind of partnership would not only allow IABC to present itself as a forward-thinking organization, it would also provide its accredited dues-paying social media experts with a ready-made marketplace of business communicators.

All they need is a proven social media expert to help them define the terms of accreditation, and reap full props for building IABC's socmed program... Hmmm.

Shama Kabani

We are already working on this! = ) Thank you for shining light on this.

Jeff Stolarcyk

Like you said, six months ago, this was something most people weren't even talking about. Which is why I maybe think it's too soon to talk about quantifying/accrediting

For instance, what are the real KPIs? As much as I'd like to think I know the answer, I think there's still some debate about defining impact (as we see in the article that inspired this post). In fact, the best answer I see tends to be that it varies from project to project.

Also worth considering: the right person doesn't always need a trophy/certificate/etc. I know when I fell into my current job, I got recruited because of my writing background and my early-adopter mentality, not because I knew jack-all about how search engines work or even really how social media worked. I taught myself very quickly because I was immersed in it. Granted, I wasn't stepping into a director role, but the most qualified person on paper isn't always the best.

brandonchesnutt

Absolutely!

It's why I put this up today: http://thelostjacket.com/testimonials Good idea?

Not a bad idea.

I guess the real debate would be: what hoops must one jump through in order to become a member of this sophisticated club? Must they eat their own dog food and be active online (obviously)? Receive an acceptable number of LinkedIn recommendations? Fight another social media expert in a Mad Max-style death match?

Overall, I'm not opposed to the idea of a third-party organization lending credibility to an agency or individual's social media capabilities. Honestly, I think it could work. But, are we at that point where such an entity could create a universal checklist that can effectively measured one's ability to navigate the Social Web?

Unfortunately, I don't think we've reached that point. In the mean time, I think it rests on the shoulders of the individual (or agency) to earn validation from their community (offline and online). If you are good, people will vouch for you.

At least I hope...

Thoughts?

I think this idea might suck. But I do want to have a dialogue about it. Weigh in!

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