Pre-Facebook, the very phrase “social media consultant” would have produced only blank stares from the typical layman.
Now, people like Marcia Conner make their living advising companies on how to use Facebook and other social networking sites.
“The work I do focuses on helping organisations to use social technologies to connect the people in their organisations,” says Ms Conner, a partner in the Altimeter Group and author of the forthcoming book The New Social Learning: A Guide to Transforming Organizations Through Social Media.
“They are complementary technologies that can be used to get that same sort of community feeling.”