I had a wonderful conversation with Mark Schaefer tonight about this issue, and he reminded me that more than anything, what's needed is a laser focus on delivering what customers want. Those who listen more attentively, respond quickly and provide more than what's expected will the the big winners.

But, it's clear that in order to listen and provide in a way that is also profitable requires some baseline skills that we can apply all over the board, not just in social media interaction.

Yup, you can build your entire business on social media, but with out basic efficiency or quality assurance principles in your process, you'll miss out on a big chunk of revenue.

Just my 2 cents.

Thanks again for commenting Cali.

So, as you make excellent and unfortunately atypical (for us young pro bloggers) arguments here, I take away the importance of having a broadened skill set. And this broad skill set does not take away from being an authority or a specialist in a particular field, as some may argue. I think being multi-faceted–interdisciplinary–gives depth, breadth and dimension to a professional…or a marketing plan…or a *business.*

I think social media marketing is an immensely useful tool. But as we turn the corner in running businesses better, the bottom-line fundamentals will still be fueling business engines. Here's to working on fusing sound biz practices with new, innovative methods.

Really, really great work here, Andrew.

Also? That horsie photo is *still* cracking me up.

The other day we had a great discussion going on a Dutch blog. They called out the gurus to tone down and actually show their skills. It basically came down to this:

Most one hit gurus can live up to their self proclaimed legacy is the fact that they drag their guruness from door to door day in and day out. And if you won't open, they will follow you around in the super market.

I don't think that business fundamentals have ever really been thrown out by companies who are actively monitoring and tracking their social media expenditure. What I think is that too many of the blogs I read are so obsessed with social media issues to nod at integration with more traditional forms of business.

I'm with you on the call for social integration, and especially your call to analyze at the network level. You may rock at Facebook but suck at Twitter. Is that your fault? Maybe…or maybe your customers just like Facebook better….

Thanks again for sharing!

And I'm in complete agreement that it has to begin far above execution. Every plan I outline has an over-arching goal, key objectives, supporting strategies and actionable tactics.

I use a similar planning model for email, direct mail, etc.

And oddly enough, it's the traditional stuff that I've been able to articulate that's won me far more respect than the new social stuff.

That's the conversation I want to have. Can we track customer interaction via social networks through conversion? Is it possible to have that sort of record-level visibility so that we can determine revenue streams based on individual customers rather than groups? Is it important that we see in that much detail?

Okay, before this turns into another post, I'm going to shut up and say thanks for getting it.

Maybe I should have been more rant-y, but I think there are real experts out there in marketing, in PR, in customer service who are leveraging social tools to do their jobs better.

And to some extent, I think the “gurus” who have thousands of followers get how to play the game. And maybe even make money. I just don't think that model will work for the rest of us non-experts who are trying to make sense of how the basics fit with new media.

So rather than just call them out on their one lucky hit, I'm hoping we can talk about how perhaps some of the principles they used to attain guru status can be applied strategically.