If you are going to work in any client-based profession, realize that despite what you might believe, your job isn’t web design, marketing, PR or whatever sundry task you are invoicing them for. The reality is that your role, the nuts and bolts task that you must be able to accomplish is teacher.

Why is this so critical? Tonight we will use Social Media as our example, but before we get there let’s turn our attention backwards and look at how a marketing campaign is born.

The old story goes something like this: marketers and advertisers sit in a room and devise a brand message, they vett it for weeks to make certain that it fits within the scope of rigid market objectives — objectives culled from a six month old focus group performed at the local Ramada Inn. After the dust settles, the message is wrapped in copy and shipped off across as many channels as their quarterly budget allows. At some point the most sagely among them probe the campaign and try to divine how effective it was, but for the most part the job is over once the creative has been shipped off.

This flies smack in the face of what Social Media is supposed to be about.

You might be asking, “What is Social Media about then?” Great question. To me, it boils down to three simple steps: message, feedback and iteration. The message is devised and deployed for the sake of drawing feedback, that feedback is used to improve the message so that the campaign can evolve through iteration. Through all of this, real people are communicating with other real people to make certain that these changes happen in real-time.

Where does teaching come in? Right here.

The only way to make someone trapped in the first paradigm recognize the importance of the second is to hold their hands and talk them through it. This is some pretty heady stuff. Not only will they fear losing control of their campaign to the will of the mob, worse they fear the extra workload involved in integrating feedback into their plans. As much as they wan someone who can help them build their campaign (that is why they hired you), they need someone who can tell them why they have to.

Without knowledge your clients can become your biggest barrier, the only way to break that down is by actively teaching them. Whether it’s why you should use your hips in a golf swing, or the importance of