"In the land of the blind, the one-eyed man is king." - Desiderius Erasmus (1466-1536)
In every working environment there is a person regarded as the one who "gets" social media and will, therefore, figure it out for the company.
Because they are comfortable using Twitter and more, compared to the others in the company, resting on their shoulders is the weight of guiding the company through the greatest shift in how businesses work. Often this person is aware of the enormous expectation or of the naïveté of the rest of the company in perceiving this as a minor role for one person. Occasionally they relish it and rise to the occasion.
Being comfortable using a social network is not the same as knowing how to make money and grow a business in the internet age.
Social media is not a marketing thing.
...Not JUST a marketing thing. It is a complete shift in how we grow a business and it affects almost every spoke in an organization's wheel. It requires us to reconsider why we do what we do and who we do it for. For some of us, it changes how we spend our time when we work and it changes how we are expected to communicate and make ourselves available.
Having lived in the internet world for all of my adult life, the proverb above that I first heard from my brother many years ago has always been one of my favorites. There is one of these people in every company.
A lot is expected of the one-eyed man. What he really needs is for others to join him in his enlightenment so they can figure out the future together.
That's the only way that we change cultures and make progress.
Who is the one-eyed man of "social media" where you work?