It’s official. According to a BusinessWeek report, the social media boom has led to frenzied hiring by mid-size and large companies alike… but mostly large companies. There is now a huge need to fill new positions created solely to protect and enhance company image on social media sites. The report claims that these companies go through two steps – First, they scramble to hire social media officers. Then, they figure out what it is that social media officers do.

Since there is no real criteria for determining who is most qualified for these jobs, self-proclaimed social media rockstars are showing up at interviews, peddling their high number of fans and followers as proof of experience. Unfortunately, these numbers do not necessarily mean they know how to approach social media from a business context.

Personally, I think each new hire will either sink or swim. Regardless of what wins them the job, the world of social media is changing everyday, and the role of a manager is intense – strategy development, company policy creation, execution, tracking, reporting, etc. New metrics to measure social ROI emerge each day. Social media officers have a huge role to play these days (sigh).

Despite the uncertainty of the profession and industry in general, businesses still need to have a sound social media strategy or risk damaging consequences. So what’s a small business to do? How do you find a middle ground between the intense need and the cost/risk of hiring?

I suggest you find and consult with a person/company with a proven track record in social media, and at least have them develop your social media strategy. Oftentimes, a sound strategy is all a small business needs – the roadmap and guidance to navigate the social media waters in-house. Learn what to do and how to measure your results because ultimately, social media is just another word for PR.

What say you?

Flickr photo credit: silvertje

LinkedIn, the online professional network, announced today that the groups feature just got a makeover (I love makeovers by the way). Now, you can navigate group posts and comments faster and share more content in less time.

My favorite feature – “Top influencers this week”. Just in case you’ve turned off the weekly group email that tells you who participated the most, you can quickly find out by visiting the group home page. Notice how it states “influencers” and not “posters”… LinkedIn is using a more complex formula to determine who made the most qualitative contributions that week. Smart move.

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