The Social Media Partnership has helped young people find full time work over the past year, placed in to organisations using this very title.

Many companies within the public sector though are referring to people in this social media role as citizen journalists, but I think this is an inaccurate description of what they do.

Hope the new job is going well?

Whilst I agree with your key trends for 2010 I’m unsure as to whether we will see a decrease in email just yet, from a personal view demand for this is a high as ever and if opt in, is often much welcomed.

One of the biggest hurdles I envisage for 2010 is the internal resource issue – slowly but surely there is now a desire and interest to engage and communicate with influencers online but often not the hands to manage internally or budget to outsource.

There’s huge potential for social media to act as a cost effective solution, the technology is there, it’s just not used as widely as it should be. Of course old school business is largely mistrustful of ‘working from home’ and flexible working (unless there’s a very good reason for it) and it’s these attitudes which hold flexibility and progress back. But it’s at the very least a solution in times like this. It depends on your job of course but in a lot of cases there isn’t a need to sit at home and do nothing or just send an email or two.

Consumers aren’t only influenced by the internet because consumers won’t be at the computer 24/7. This means marketing campaigns must talk to the consumer in a variety of media.

How many times have you googled something when you’ve seen it on the TV or a bill board?

As to the question of ” can social media work on its own?” … the short answer is: I’m not sure. Nope its not a cop out answer! honest.. And No I’m not being a lazy thinker.

Ultimately it all depends on the brand, the size of company , the target audience and the marcomms objectives;

So for example a ‘challenger brand” aimed at students might rely heavily on aspects of SM strategy and tactics to kick start WOM in order to get much needed credibility within a very demanding ‘student’ audience. Or an SME might open up a twitter feed and facebook fan page to show off and start sharing its favourable customer feedback; smart thinking & cost effective thinking if you are a small company with a teeny budget.

However, like any other form of marketing, especially one reliant on the oxygen of content and conversation, Social Media probably really does need regular shots of other forms of marcomms activity, radio, pr,advertising, outdoor, dm and networking and so on if you want to keep the conversations bubbling beautifully.