We are all more comfortable hanging around with people who are like us. It is a lot easier to pop into a discussion with other copywriters, or other web designers, or other management coaches, than it is to get engaged in discussions with a group focused on manufacturing, or financial services, or small business strategies.

But there are many, many benefits to making the effort to “move in” with your target market, to become at home in their world:

* Get advance intelligence. If there are changes coming to your clients’ industry, if there are going to be shifts in the way they do business, you’ll learn about it much more quickly from them than you will from either your peers or from the media. [more]

Getting advance intelligence about your clients’ business is priceless.  It might tip you off that there are new opportunities, or it might give you the ‘heads up” that it’s time for you to reinvest in your new business efforts.

His post springs from Pizza Hut hiring an intern to manage its social media strategy and this sparks … well … a rant from Goldsborough that hiring an intern to manage social media is tantamount to hiring an intern to manage customer service. Take a quick look:

Would you ever put an entry-level employee in charge of your brand perception, advertising or customer service? That’s what you’re doing when you hire a twintern or someone who’s new to the professional world to manage one or more of your key online consumer touchpoints. Try putting that last sentence in a PowerPoint deck as your strategy and present it to your boss. Then let me know what the reaction was if you still have a job. [entire post]

At High Tech Connect, we’ve seen a dramatic surge in demand for consultants with social media skills and experience and we’ve drawn the conclusion that anyone in marketing MUST be fluent in social media.  But we’re also seeing an economic squeeze that’s driving the work to the millenials who may know how to talk social media but don’t have the more important skills of how to help a company create demand.

We’re watching this topic very closely.  What do you think?