What does a social media consultant do?

This morn­ing, my Kiwi com­pa­triot, Simon Young (@audaciousgloop on Twit­ter) answered the ques­tion in the title on his own blog, pre­dom­i­nantly in the con­text of explain­ing to peo­ple how his com­pany, iJump, makes money.

I fig­ure as there is grow­ing inter­est in the busi­ness value of social media, I would have a lash at the same ques­tion. So, here goes nothing…

I talk. A lot. I lis­ten more. Two ears, one mouth used in that pro­por­tion. By doing this, I can build an under­stand­ing of my clients’ busi­ness and get across the prob­lems they face — whether it’s col­lab­o­rat­ing inter­nally, talk­ing to their cus­tomers and stake­hold­ers in the right way, or under­stand­ing how the mar­ket works in the social media world to name a few com­mon issues.

I talk and lis­ten some more. Strate­gis­ing with my clients on build­ing an under­stand­ing of their prob­lems and the pos­si­ble approaches they might take in address­ing them is a core com­po­nent of my work. From these dis­cus­sions, which range from one-​​on-​​one with the CEO or mail room guy to large work­shops with the entire staff, we’re able to build a list of issues to be addressed and some think­ing about what we can do to address them. Some­times it’s quick fixes we can start on tomor­row. Other times, we build a six month to one year plan.

I research and write. Lots. For myself and for my clients. Those issues that need solv­ing? Some­times that very issue has been tack­led before. I want to know when, how, why, who did it and with what. So do my clients. I also want to know what the lat­est think­ing and case stud­ies on busi­ness use of social tools is. It’s my job to do that research and help my clients under­stand what it all means.

So, what words might be used to describe all this stuff? Inno­va­tion, change man­age­ment, cul­tural change, men­tor­ing, teach­ing, consulting.

The tech­nol­ogy part of this equa­tion, as Simon said in his post, is the least com­plex part. Under­stand­ing organ­i­sa­tional cul­ture, readi­ness for change and what moti­va­tions might bring about that change in indi­vid­u­als, groups and organ­i­sa­tions are the bread and but­ter of my work. How do we flat­ten cor­po­rate struc­tures? Encour­age fast, cheap and inno­v­a­tive exper­i­men­ta­tion and fail­ure? Change the man­age­ment mind­set from command-​​and-​​control to con­ver­sa­tion, col­lab­o­ra­tion and community?

That’s the cool stuff. That’s the stuff I love. That’s why acid­labs is unique.