Multidisciplinary, Passionate, Risk Taker… These are a few of the core competencies that describe some of the performance expectations that may be sought after from someone in a social strategist role.

With Social Media rapidly moving towards becoming a “mainstream” business communications channel, smart businesses have or will incorporate the “Social Strategist” position into their 2011 corporate payroll.

Being a relatively new discipline, the passionate social strategist will be faced with many challenges. The balancing act of fully defining their own role, while educating internal stakeholders is or will be a major priority in 2011.  Along with developing and leading education and training programs, the social strategist will have to work hard to gain  initial buy-in and/or support.

A few of the key questions when looking to fill this role might sound like “so what exactly does a social strategist role entail”?, or  “where do I go to hire the right person for this role”, or “who will this role report to?”, perhaps, “what type of education and/or training should this person have”?, and “how much should we pay this person”?

As with staffing any role, the hiring manager will be faced with many challenging decisions before they successfully “interview the best” candidate.

From my research and foresight in the social marketing industry, I believe those who are able to take a proactive approach and develop systems designed towards solving a business problem in align with the strategic vision of the organization will indeed succeed.

Those who are able to build their own personal brand should be given a priority. If one is able to demonstrate professionalism across the social landscape then this positive performance is a strong indication on what to expect in the future.

Other key skills that a social strategist may require in 2011 include:

• Business processes modeling - designed to increase value for the customer and efficiency for the company.
• Customer service orientation – the fundamental skills required to deliver exceptional customer service – the goal to develop a solution for all customers, including dissatisfied to share product information and encourage product innovation through cross-channel solutions.
• Self direction – the ability to self motivate while keeping in line with the businesses’ overall direction.
• Cross functional collaboration – the ability to work with internal stakeholders and to lead internal education and training, and inevitably become the “in house” subject matter expert.

It won’t be easy for the social strategist, it’s a long road with unforeseen results and probably very little or no additional support.  The expectations will most likely be high, and the results unpredictable.

With that being said, some of the expectations of the social strategist in 2011 include:

• Accountability for measuring and reporting ROI.
• Accountability for developing strategy and planning.
• Ability to lead the program forward.
• Ability to monitor competitors and trends.
• Ability to manage a team.
• Ability to use inexpensive third party tools and leverage the crowd to the work for them.

In the end, I believe everything boils down to passion and the desire for success!

I kindly thank the following authors for providing valuable information which I used as major sources of research for this article.

Thanks to @jowyang for: Report: Career Path of the Corporate Social Strategist: Be Proactive or Become Social Media Help Desk

Thanks to @sradick for both: Identify the Right People to Manage Your Social Media Initiatives and Social Media is Driven by the Person, Not the Position