The Blog DoggerThe truth about social media consultants

Are they really as slimy as one blogger suggests?

Don’t you wish you were a social media consultant?

Here’s your life. Scour the Web all day, participate in countless conversations online—mostly with your friends who are also social media consultants; blog about it and then Twitter about the blog. Repeat.

Every so often you hook a large company and then you toss some jargon at it. “We’ll aggregate your RSS community of social networks—wiki!—tweet FriendFeeds and—Zuckerberg!—tag it.”

Next thing you know you’re paid to surf the Web and chat with friends.

“Social media consultancy, for the most part, has gone the way of the snake oil salesman,” wrote Jennifer Legio, a corporate communicator, on her ZDNet blog. “You have a social media consultant beating down your door, saying that he or she could satisfy this need for about $150 to $500 per hour. And you’re trying to weigh whether or not you’re being fed a line.

“Perhaps you are.”

And here’s where I backtrack.

Of course, there are consultants with an expertise in social media who are insightful, helpful and worth every penny they charge.