The more I work in social media, the louder the chant becomes.

It’s a chant that has the power to make any social media practitioner cringe – the befuddled mantra of social media naysayers echoing: “What’s so hard about Social Media? I can just get a college student to do it for free, right?”

Wrong.

Many feel that social media should be entrusted to a select few who play all day on Facebook and are fluent in the OMG LOL dialect. However, what many professionals who are new to social media don’t understand is the complex nature of social media and that building a social program is much like building a house. As it is in every marketing practice, social media has many levels, ranging from tactical execution and everyday maintenance to strategic planning and program evolution. When artfully crafted, these levels exist in a co-dependent state, creating a strong and resilient structure that is both simple and innately complex.

While students, interns and recent graduates bring fresh ideas and vigor to the mix, they lack the knowledge and experience that comes from trial and error, learning from mistakes and creating personal best practices. So why limit the social possibilities to these select few when, the richer your social media mortar, the stronger your social media foundation will be.

Since social media is a business practice that has multiple touch points within a corporation, it is necessary to entrust this integrated program to a group of individuals, who collectively can think:

1) Holistically across all levels and verticals of the corporation
2) Analytically about quantifying, tracking and measuring social media efforts
3) Creatively to drive industry-leading practices and discoveries

While it is not impossible for one individual to house all of these qualities, social media is just that – SOCIAL. By working with others and using differing ideas to weave together a rich tapestry of content, strategy and analytics, your social media program will be all the stronger.

So whether you are a small business owner or a titan of the marketing industry, by letting one person handle your social media program, you are building a house on sand – no matter how elaborate the blueprint or beautiful the façade, a social media plan will not stand up to its potential without a solid team foundation to support it.

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