So someone has suggested that your company needs a “social media” strategy. Whoa daddy. We’ve seen over and over that companies don’t understand it. They either over-estimate it and make it too complex or under estimate how difficult it is.

From working in social media for the last three years, we’ve gathered our Five Fallacies. Hope it helps you understand what you need to know, even if the alliteration is cheesy.

1. You can get kids to do it. Yes, you might get younger staff or even college students to help you out with using Twitter, Facebook and the rest. There are all sorts of weird nooks and crannies in each of the bits of software. But the reality is that that what is important is not the technology but the content you put behind it. And that takes adults thinking things through.
2. It’s free. Yes, Twitter, Facebook and YouTube will put your content out for free, but it costs money to package it and develop it. That is JUST as expensive as before all these sites were invented. It’s called time cost. We are surprised that companies forget this. The reality is that a few decades ago before the Internet, most weekly newspapers printed all sorts of pre-written press releases. That was “free” in that the only cost was the stamp to mail it to the newspaper. But the cost was in thinking through the content, and how it would be packaged and sent out.
3. It’s “fun” for employees. Yes, it’s a nice assignment to launch campaigns on Facebook and other social media sites. We admit. It isn’t digging ditches. But the job of working in social media is like any other content or media job. And much of it is about skill; while Google’s search engine habits can be figured out, it still takes time to learn the tricks.
4. It’s different than before. Some people will tell you that this new era of social media is terribly different than before, that so many new things are happening that it’s a revolution. Yes, we admit that any change in media changes the message. But a blog entry that “goes viral” is very similar to an old press release that is picked up by multiple media outlets.
5. You can control it. One thing that is different than the old media is the sense of control. While you can do things to make  your message stay on track, you can no longer control it like the old days. There are no more embargoed releases; in fact the idea of a press release almost irrelevant. What you want to do with social media is realize that while you can’t control it, you can certainly steer it.

Contact Editor Garland Pollard for content ideas for your company or p.r. firm’s social media strategy. Or call him at 703-745-8602.