Social Media is not Social Marketing

I was reading the discussions groups on LinkedIn recently and one caught my eye under the group "twitter innovators Innovation & Creativity Network of Tweeters".

It was 5 questions to ask your Social Media Consultant by Andrew Ballenthin
President of an Integrated Marketing Consultancy, Writer, Speaker, Community Marketing Blog Founder. I have reprinted the questions here:

5 Criteria For Qualifying Social Media Consultants

Social media has been around for over 10 years. The role of Social Media Consultant is a term that's much younger. How do know if someone is qualified in this field as a professional? Here's 5 questions to think about (for more details http://tinyurl.com/yfeqcam ).

1. How many years have you been practicing social media?
2. How many years have you practiced for clients/business?
3. What are your accomplishments with monetization, PR, database buiding?
4. What is your past business background?
5. How did you achieve your greatest accomplishmnet?

What experience and expertise do you look for with someone who offers social media services?

Well, I love social media. I have been playing with facebook, twitter, plurk, for over 3 years and blogs for at least 6 years. Web 2.0 is Web Deux or Web DO (as in Do something).

That said, I am skeptical. To build a viral buzz seems to be the goal of many social media consultants and it is akin to trying to capture lightening in a bottle. When done purposely, it almost always misses the mark.

How do you overcome insulting the intelligence of your user and make this a viable asset? Social media is not social marketing and I hope many the social media consults don't think the two are the same.

My suggestion is to tell the users they are being marketed too and act accordingly, while adding some value.

That is the real question, what is the value add a consultant of a social media campaign providing to the user? After all, it is all about the user.