Social Media is free, you are welcome to pick my brain
In its modern form, social often refers to the redistribution of wealth. Social is often directed towards people. Social usually contrasts with capitalism and therefore, we usually get the connotation of public, social, cheap, free; think of the social state, social worker, social insurance, social –ism ….it is all about catering to people at a decimal fee or even, free.
I and some of my fellow social media professionals {using this term to overly generalize the profession} will often get asked for coffee or lunch and then the supposed to be amicable encounter becomes a brain-picking session. Sometimes, I will get emails from long-lost acquaintances asking me if I can help them understand social media. I am sure many consultants and professionals, in other fields, will relate to this.
The Social in Social Media may just be sending a remotely conscious or largely unconscious signal to the brain that Social media should be free or very cheap at the most. Brain-picking sessions, in turn, send a conscious signal to my brain that as professionals, we are worth about the price of a latté per hour.
I am not even sure those who brain-pick even realize how much work it takes to understand a business and advise accordingly. Social media is pretty new for mainstream, its integration in an organization comes with the price of solid knowledge and hands-on experience. It takes different sets of skills and expertise, we are so passionate about our work, we love talking about the latest strategies, what works and what could be improved, and therefore, we give out a lot of advice that can be executed elsewhere.
However, I am going to disappoint a few by confirming that social media integration into an overall business strategy does not come cheap. We are consultants, advisors, practitioners, professionals who have years of experience and expertise in fields like traditional or Internet marketing, PR, business consultants, project management and so on. Our time is valuable. The tools we use may be free for now but social media integration takes strategy, implementation, monitoring, measuring and a real understanding of how social media works.
I mean, really, would you ask a lawyer, a dentist or a doctor to consult for free. I have a few lawyer friends and I know when I see them there is no way I am asking any question regarding the law.
Some will say that we are not lawyers; well, can you expect to get an accountant to do your income taxes for free or ask a designer to decorate your living room for free? The plumber charges us a pretty expensive hourly rate because he knows something we don’t. The concept is the same. Just fill in the job category.
I am going to generalize about social media professionals – thus enclosing a variety of people and skills – but ideally and without endorsing everyone in the industry, when you sit with a social media savvy individual, you sit with someone who has previous experience in a specific field other than social media, who will help you understand the social media landscape, someone who will dive into your business practices, your web properties, marketing initiatives, and help you define your objectives as well as give you creative ideas, strategic concepts and information on your industry.
Even when we do an estimate, we have to look at your organization, your online properties, your social media initiatives and right off the back, we can start giving you ideas on strategy and tactics.
I would like to add that I am helping pro-bono 3 associations and I do my share of free. Brain-picking sessions are not part of my charity work. If you want to know more about what I have done and what I do, please visit my Linkedin profile
If you are a company who does not feel you should pay for social media integration, I would love to hear your rational; if you are a consultant who relates to this, please leave a comment, and if you just want to add your 2 cents, please do.
Tags: social media
As a business consultant, I advise companies and entrepreneurs on how to integrate social media in their overall business strategy.
I define, implement and monitor social media programs in order to achieve business objectives.
I am also a major Foodie, fashion observer. Normal for a Parisian, right?
Please >>>
OK. On one level I sympathise, on another I don’t.
Let’s get this straight. When people ask you for advice, hoping to get something for nothing, it is an opportunity to engage with them and demonstrate your value.
Does this mean that you should give advice for free? No.
Does it mean that you have an opportunity to help them define their need and the value to them of having it satisfied. Yes.
Does it mean you have an opportunity to engage them in the search for a solution (for which you can charge.) Yes.
Frankly, if you don’t know how to do these things, there is a very good chance that you will be wasting much of your client’s time when you do start charging because you and they will not be focused on the value in your professional service.
Do think about your value, but remember, the value to the client is not something you define. They do. You have a part to play in preparing their mind so they can grasp it. Admittedly, this requires technique and a certain skill, but you can learn that.
If many people are asking you for free advice, and you know is worth something to them, but you are not converting a fair proportion of them into clients, perhaps you should think about how much fee revenue you are losing.
You could even consider asking someone to teach you how to convert more of them. Just don’t expect them to do it for nothing.
I get asked for free advice and help and to “pick my brain” so often I made it a service you can pay for and schedule with me via Tungle.Me a few months ago (uptownuncorked.com/2010/03/01/the-pick-my-brain-experiment/). That certainly cut down on requests, and narrowed it to folks who were serious about getting help only. Chris Penn is famous for putting a monetary value on his email contact form (christopherspenn.com/contact-me/). Nice post.
Leslie Poston
Twitter @leslie
SKYPE: UptownUncorked
LesliePoston.com: Everything You Need To Know
UptownUncorked.com Social Media Consulting: Bringing People Together, Founder
FilmPop.tv A Digital and New Media Agency for Independent Film, Co-Founder
You can read my work at Mashable, Style Career Publications, Technosailor, Media Bulls Eye, Louis Gray Blog, Blorge, Free Access Australia, Lost in Technology, Profy and now: Twitter for Dummies (coauthor: Fitton, Poston, Gruen)
Karima,
Sorry to be a Johnny-come-lately to this post, but The Brand Builder passed this to my virtual desk today.
This is an excellent post that echoes sentiments Olivier has rightly made before. I know others in the comments have seconded your thoughts that other professions don’t take lightly the expectations that “picking one’s brain” is an exercise in gratis/pro bono. As a web developer and an IT person by proxy, my profession is often queried for free advice or requests for next-to-nothing work. I don’t know that I’d be brassy to give someone the full invoice with discount after the fact, but I’ve turned aside many requests for work simply because I need to put paying clients first; favors don’t pay the bills.
Thanks for putting the social media profession in the same category. I continue to fight looks of amusement or derision because my bread-and-butter these days happens to be Twitter, et al.
All the best,
Mike
This is music to my ears. You paint a picture that is consistent with so many of our working days (across the world). Why are we still seen as not adding real value to a business? If we were then our time and expertise would be renumerated accordingly.
I agree it’s almost the word ’social’ that causes the confusion and problem, and love the way you describe this. Here in The UK businesses across the land hide behind fear, ROI and not enough time. Strange that they have enough time to listen to our thoughts (pick our brains), read our outline strategy documents and then feel they cannot proceed.
I wrote a post myself yesterday trying to see how we can forge stronger links with business in order for us ALL to succeed.
Great post!
I’m so happy to have read this and in recent months, I’ve felt my blood boiling more and more when it happens. It’ s about time someone said this out loud and I applaud you for doing so. It does apply to many professions, most likely in the services sector. Sadly, what I’ve started doing is really guarding my comments, protecting what really equates to intellectual property. It’s out there, it’s free, but acquiring, honing and then applying the knowledge we have takes resources, time and much dedication. It’s like any profession that requires you to be educated, then charge for it. Give it away, it will have little value.
Great post Karima. It can be a more grey area when it’s a good friend, relative or former colleague. It’s always easier when there is a professional level of distance and respect so that pricing can be seen as a signal of quality.
Keep up the great work.
Well stated. I think this is an issue that all industries face.
I’ve been plenty of guilty of asking a lawyer or an accountant of advice in a very casual setting (Happy hour, etc) about legal advice. They will gladly give out generic answers. I do the same with social media – there are a lot of ‘it depends’ in my answers. But the practice of scheduling some of my time for free is just not a possibility. I consider it almost an insult if someone wants to do it over lunch or coffee. Free is one thing – pro bono work is not a problem when it is warranted. But saying my hour is worth a $10 lunch is insulting.
Thanks for the wisdom. Keep it up.
I agree that people should not be able to pick your brain for free, but I can say that there is advice I give for free to convert them to a paying client. For example, your blog is free to them and so are your tweets, but to get specific individual advice/plan, there is a price tag. I always consider trades as well…in otherwords, will tweet for shoes…tell your friends. Or chocolate or wine…you know how it goes.
Thanks for a great post. I am definitely going to share it.
Unfortunately, the bottom line is that people will take advantage of you if you let them. I have been on the end of those ‘we aren’t sure if we want to move forward, can you give us some more details on how you would do this?’ calls where it’s obvious the company is picking your brain hoping to get the milk without buying the cow.
It sucks but when it happens, the best you can hope for is to learn from it, and move on. I’ve learned to discuss general ideas, but if they want specific advice on how to apply something to their unique setting, then they have to pay me to hear that.
Great post, Karima
I have an additional take on this (naturally). For me, I’m a “yes” person. It’s not in my nature to turn people down who ask for help. Obviously as my time restrictions grew I had to do so more and more. But still I have people that I let “pick my brain” all the time. I did find a way to mitigate some of that and derive value from it however…
Mail them an invoice afterwards. Do it at your full rates and include every drop of time spent. Then add a line item to the invoice discounting the entire thing. Yes, it still ends up being “free” but the person on the other end will do one of three things.
1. Feel like they got something over on you, in which case you know not to do business with them.
2. When faced with the actual amount of money that you just threw away to spend time with them they will offer to pay because they never thought about it in those terms before
3. Realize the value that you just delivered and try and reciprocate, usually through giving you work or referring work. People don’t want to feel like their “social capital” is out of balance.
The whole point is that you never allow yourself to be devalued. When I give you my time I view it as me “giving you money”, and I want you to view it the same way.
Lastly, there are two reasons you give something away. To benefit someone else altruistically, or to ultimately benefit yourself because you expect reciprocation. The people in the first group assumedly deserve your time if you can give it to them. The people in the second are an investment in your future. Then there’s a third group of people, those you don’t want to give charity to and can’t reasonably expect to benefit you back, those you need to say no to… firmly.
Cheers,
Matt Ridings – @techguerilla
The thing I find most annoying about the people who want to pick my brain is that, if the tables were turned and I were asking them to provide their professional expertise to me for free…no way would they do it. People seem to think that because my “expertise” (and I use that term gingerly
) involves Twitter and Facebook that it’s not actually worth money.
Karima,
This is a great post – I’m just sorry it took me so long to read it! As pointed out in the comments above and shown on this BlogHer post,
No. You Can’t Pick My Brain. http://www.blogher.com/no-you-cant-pick-my-brain people seem to feel that marketers, and especially social media marketers, should provide “free knowledge” which is quite unfair.
I may be an eternal optimist, but I don’t think people really think about it when they ask to pick our brains, nor do they understand that they’re asking you to provide for free what you would otherwise use to make a living. It’s up to us to find a gentle way to remind them that our expertise is what we do in the same manner as any other professional. If they would like to spend an hour or a day discussing social media then we’re happy to provide a rate that might not be as much as Chris Brogan’s $22K/day, but they’ll certainly get their money’s worth…assuming they act on the recommendations that we make.
Thank you for writing such an insightful and timely post!
Sharon
@sharonmostyn
There is a lot of brain picking going around. To the point I think I am not have much left of mine. I don’t mind share and connecting with people; however, sometimes it gets to be a bit much. We’re professionals and need to treated as such.
Another great article! I have exactly the same happen to me as a marketer, especially as I am a frequent public speaker, so people feel they “know” me already when they meet me and the assumption that goes with this is that I can “give away” my knowledge. Typically I overcome this by being happy to share the “what” for free – big picture ideas of what can be achieved through my approach to marcoms etc but if people want to know the “how” (getting into the detail) then this is what becomes chargeable.
Hello Sue
Thank you for your insight. I like your approach. I do believe, brain picking happen for every job category. As long as someone has to pay for something, they must see value to it. If they don’t value it or underestimate the time and effort it takes to do “something”, they will be reluctant to pay for it.
Thank you !
KC
Excellent points. And you bring up a problem that I’m having right now. As a young professional just starting out, I’m trying to give myself credibility. In order to gain credibility, I feel like I have to give a little glimpse of what I can do for free, otherwise I fear the prospective business contact will just assume I know a buzz-word or three. It’s as much my problem as their undervaluation of my time.
I had thought this was a problem mostly faced by the young professional just starting out. I actually blogged about it myself here: bit.ly/apIM4R It’s actually comforting in a strange way to know that I’m not alone.
Hi Kate,
We are not alone, and the brain-picking practice is not going to stop with our exposing it. However, I hope that it brings understanding to those practising it deliberately or not.
Thank you for stopping by!
I recently commented on a post ~3 Reasons Why Expertise Costs Money~
http://altitudebranding.com/2010/02/3-reasons-why-expertise-costs-money/
by Amber Naslund.
I do hope you dont mind but I think it fits and I woud like to post it again here
Comment by CASUDI
2010-02-10 17:00:41
This may be in a different space but relevant I think ~ I heard from a former (interior) design client today; who had NOT followed the last furnishing schedule I left for her in August 09 for her very small office
She sent me an image of what was wrong ~ I suggested a quick fix or that she return everything & start over. Great, very smart client with whom I had and still have an excellent relationship, so I asked her, having just read Amber’s post, what are the 3 reasons you pay my high Architectural and Interior Design fees?
Here is her response:
(1) I am paying you the professional, to avoid making mistakes and purchase items that are not a suitable design or the wrong sizes. We all know that a mistake is even harder to put right than making it right the first time. Mistakes cost money
(2) You spend a lot of time laying out your schedules, whether it is lighting, fixtures or furnishings or some other. These are instructions or guidelines which insure that the complete project comes and looks right together. Poor planning equates to poor looking design equates to poor return on investment.
(3) You have spent the time (many years) learning, gaining the experience & this has cost you time and money (and mistakes). You insure I have a beautiful design, without spending tons of MY time, and you make good decisions so I dont waste money and ultimately have an excellent ROI.
I may be OT posting this here but it does show how, what you write Amber can be applied across different disciplines
Needles to say I then sent my client your post. @CASUDI
Hi Caroline,
I am glad to see this issue tackled by many others, regardless of the profession.
Thank you!
Karima,
I totally agree and can relate. For what it’s worth (no pun intended) Chris Brogan recently revealed that he charges (US) $22,000 PER DAY for his time. (http://www.chrisbrogan.com/free-interns-and-22k-price-tags/) He got quite a response as you can imagine.
Good for you for posting this. You are right on target. And by the way, as I’m sure you already know, the more someone pays you, the more they will appreciate and respect your advice.
Sincerely,
Hugh
Hello Hugh,
Yes, all of it makes sense. I think Chris coming out with this post actually all made think a little more about our value.
Thank you,
KC