What do people need to know and be able to do to use social media to build their business brand and network?

The NSF STEP project worked with social media experts to define the work of the Social Technology Enabled Professional . The resulting profile defines the Social Technology Enabled Professional as one who “builds, maintains, manages and leverages online social networks to engage with customers, business partners, employees and key influencers with the goal of building organizational success”. Clearly everyone using social media to build a business may not do all of these things. Especially as a business grows and expands – new workers may be hired to take on some of the social media work tasks.

The STEP expert panel also identified six major areas of work (Conduct Research, Create a Social Networking Strategy, Establish an Online Presence, Create content to Engage the Community, Manage Online Presence and Engage in Professional Development/On-going Learning.; and 59 specific work tasks that define that comprise the universe of activities in which a Social Technology Enabled Professional might engage.