The skills needed to be a social media professional have changed significantly. Here are 6 skills you need to be a great social media pro.

Basic/ Digest...

Listening
This one is still very much true, and perhaps even more so. The best social media pros listen the most actively and most aggressively.

Pattern Recognition
Instantly identifying patterns and being able to capitalize upon them are some of the skills that separate good social practitioners from great ones.

Visual Thinking
Today, with every social network embracing visuals and multi-media, being able to represent the brand visually is absolutely critical.

Statistical Analysis

Understanding what works, what might work, why it might work, and under what circumstances is a major differentiator within the social media professionals ranks.

Improvisation
Understanding how to handle a wide variety of situations with aplomb, humor and empathy is a huge part of the business now, especially for front line community managers

Public Speaking
If you really want to make a run in this business, you are going to have to merchandise your success internally and externally.

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Incorporate social media into day-to-day practices, and encourage employees to evangelize your message – with clear rules of engagement, of course.

Key excerpt...

In addition to encouraging the use of social media channels like Facebook and Twitter, we also have worked to vet additional social tools that benefit the business. For instance, we use a tool called GaggleAmp to align our social media messaging and promote social sharing across the organization. Employees can sign up and receive incentives for sharing social messages that promote product launches, new content assets, events, and other important company information.  We also use Salesforce Chatter as our internal social network for employee collaboration.

This is just another example of IT and marketing working hand-in-hand to evaluate and align behind solutions that benefit both departments. Together we evaluated vendors, engaged in various demos, and made a data-driven decision. By embracing social as an entity and working together cross-functionally, we were able to select our social tools intelligently.

Excerpted and condensed...

The fact is that there’s always been a hidden sales cycle to some degree. We sought advice from friends and family, we read magazines and reviews (OK, not technically hidden, since there were advertising platforms), and consulted with analysts, colleagues, and committees for large corporate purchases. Social media and search have accelerated, expanded, and democratized its impact however. It’s easier than ever to find multiple sources of information and expertise.

Aberdeen’s 2012 “B2B Social Media Marketing: Are we There Yet?“ report found that buyers communicating on social networks was the number one pressure driving adoption of social media marketing. Companies who thought they could manage the conversation by managing information may now find themselves at a loss.

However, unlike the old hidden sales cycle, the new hidden sales cycle can be discovered, monitored and engaged. This presents unique opportunities for brands to “be the disruption” or at least be part of the information flow.

CMOs are very involved in leveraging social media, which may be expanding that function’s strength.

Key excerpt...

Is the rise of social media in marketing making the CMO function stronger?

Recent surveys and research — including early results of our own Year 2 survey currently in progress — offer findings that point in the same direction. Within the C-suite, CMOs are most likely to be heavily utilizing socially-generated data in their operations and expressing high levels of optimism about the growing importance of social business for their function and for their business as a whole.

An important implication of this increased reliance on social data is the potential of growing strength and influence of the CMO function within the enterprise.