Many people are looking at the evolving landscape of the web and seeing an opportunity to help clients take advantage of the new opportunities to connect with their audience. They go by many different titles; Social Media Expert, Social Media Guru, Social Media Strategist, Social Media Consultant, Social Media Junkie,  Social Media Evangelist, Social CRM Practitioner, E-Marketing Strategist, Community Manager, and so on.

As I have mentioned in a number of other posts, many people have added social media practices to their current expertise, which is a good thing to do if your plan to remain relevant, but that does not mean that social media is their specialty. 

Many  have learned how to use the social media tools and have created a plan to be the outsourced social media solution for their clients. Some have leveraged their extroverted personalities to gain thousands of followers and created a business model based on their influence. But is this enough to help a business truly be effective and thrive in this changing landscape?

What are the traits that a social media consultant needs to truly help their clients evolve with the time?

I have been thinking about that a lot lately, reflecting on what traits have benefited me the most and which ones have been stretched and pushed to their limits. I have found that there are three main roles that a social media consultant plays:

• Leader
• Salesperson
• Coach

A leader needs to have a clear vision of the future. This does not mean just being able to read the latest news release, but truly being able to understand what the future means for the way we do business. A leader needs to know how to steer the organization toward new opportunities while avoiding the treacherous pot holes that are on the path. More importantly however, a leader needs to be able to express the vision of the future in such a compelling way that people are willing to follow them.

The role of salesperson often gets a bad rap. However a true consultative salesperson is one who listens, understands what is important to their prospects, and helps them find ways to solve problems or reach their goals. Consultative sales is all about relationships. If you listen to all of the rhetoric about what social media is all about, you will hear people say words such as; relationships, relevancy, and value. All the things that a good consultative salesperson brings to their daily job. 

As we have all started to realize, social media is not something that can be effectively outsourced. However it is new and ever changing and does require ongoing behavior modifications. That means a social media consultant has to be willing and able to stand on the sidelines and provide coaching to the people who need to be on the field participating. 

The more I have been thinking about this and reflecting on my past experience, the more I wonder whether social media belongs in the agency world or should it be considered more of a business consultancy. Perhaps it will evolve to become a mash-up of both.