Mike Maney

I just read a great post by Ustrategy’s Ravit Lichtenberg on ReadWriteWeb highlighting the 10 Ways Social Media Will Change In 2010. It’s a great read and worthy of being carried under the ReadWriteWeb banner (I have no shame in being an unabashed fanboy of good tech reporting).

However (isn’t there always a “however”?), here’s where I disagree with Ravit. He posits that “Many ‘Old’ Skills Will Be Needed Again.”

An economic downturn coupled with the surge of social media eliminated many traditional marketing and PR roles. But this year, we’ll see the return of professionals to the field. Enterprises will turn back to marketers who specialize in understanding customer psychology and who are experienced in addressing these both offline and online. Research and development divisions will turn to customer experience professionals to draw on user needs and ideation as part of their product improvement and innovation process, and sales and support will continue to deliver services online. Expect to see job postings for social media managers, social media psychologists and social media executive administrators to help manage the infinite tasks involved with communities and social media campaigns.”

The reality is that the good shops, the smart companies, never lost sight of the core functions; they didn’t get blinded by the bright shiny lights. No, they saw the lights and worked them into larger, less tactical strategies.

As marketers, the new tools we have at our disposal couldn’t be greater. But they mean nothing/nada/zip/zero if they aren’t tied into a larger/boring/old school/smart/proven strategy.