In the mid-90s the internet heated up. Every Wall Street Analyst became an instant expert on e-commerce, touting stocks that were trading at multiples of 50 and over. CNBC, acting mostly as a cheerleader, celebrated the American entrepreneurial spirit on an almost minute by minute basis, the rest of the media did the same. When the late 90s came around, web business fundamentals became exposed. We now know that these Wall Street experts, while perhaps foreseeing the potential of the net, did not really understand the business fundamentals of the effects of the web on business. An untold amount of web businesses went bust, people lost lots of money.

The survivors of that era are now the dominant brands that we all recognize, Amazon, Yahoo, Ebay, etc. For every one of these survivors there are untold casualties. At the time, I had a brief stint on Wall Street, and I remember some people trying to present the case for more careful examination of investment in many of the now defunct companies, but with herd mentality rolling like the wilder beast crossing the Mara River, perfectly reasoned arguments went no where, it was like spitting in the wind. And instead of the alligators getting a few wilder beasts, in this scenario the alligators got most of them.

Herd mentality is a powerful thing, in business and elsewhere. Think the Salem Witch Trials, Enron, or sub-prime mortgages. Think of the people who warned us against sub-prime mortgages, but hell, no one wanted to stop the good times! Good times (oh, don’t look now, but was that CNBC with the pom poms on this one too?). The people who spoke out against the Salem Trials were ignored (CNBC wasn’t around for this one, but I am guessing, FOX would have loved it), and as far back as 2006 we had warnings by serious, credible economist and business people about the sub-prime mess, but as you may have guessed by now, these folks too, were spitting in the wind.

So the latest thing that’s kicking up wind, much of it hot air from where I sit, is social networking and the social networking expert. Yes, there are plenty of people who do excellent work in the field, but in my career to date, I’ve never seen so many experts on one subject in the history of history. I wonder if there were “railroad” experts at the infancy of that industry. Yes, this is probably about the only industry that has self-designated experts at its very infancy, which may be appropriate, because the exponential nature of the growth of the net. The medium itself lends itself to this. Can you feel the wind blowing here? Whoooshhhh, whoooshhh.

I’ve read enough articles, attended enough conferences by now, spoken at several, mostly listened to mavens tout the power of social networking. For the most part, what I am seeing is lots of tactics, sans strategy, flailing in the wind. We know that most businesses, from the corporate giants, to middle market and small businesses, to educational institutions and hospitals, need to harness the power of integration of their mar/com strategies in order to deliver the desired results. Integration, done right, is largely driven by strategy.  We also know that silos are useless and that budgets and resources are critical. For those of you who follow this blog, you know our approach is integration – whenever, and where ever we can get it!

What businesses need to grasp is the difference between the social networking folks who talk tactics, and the ones promoting strategy and integration. Listen to the strategists and integrators. The folks on the rise are speaking about integration, the folks falling off their chair – but still speak with the absolute certainty of a recent college grad – are kicking up the wind.

These tactics guys simply riding the wind.

Look, social media is simply a tool, how you use it is critical. I have yet to see a repeatable, credible case where social media, alone, drove a business. Yes, the Haiti example is a wonderful use of mobile technology, a fantastic response to a tragedy. But, when it comes to business complexities, social media alone ought to be a tactic within a global mar/com strategy, and not a singular approach. Take a look at Volkswagon who use their TV commercials to drive customers / viewers directly to their Facebook page, rather than their website. Why? Because VW has a strategy for customer engagement on Facebook, and deliver other engagement programs once customers get to that space. So the television buy, messaging, social media and other elements of that strategy were developed at the same time to drive efficacy.

So here 10 areas of what to look for in rising star on the social media scene:

1. Their ability to integrate social media into your long term business objectives, whatever they may be – the strategy
2. They understand that the medium is in its infancy and that “they” are still learning about it
3. Their abilities to understand your entire business model, all customer touches, and characteristics of your market
4. Their abilities to deliver data based on their proposed program
5. Their understanding of market engagement programs
6. Their understanding of integration strategies, advertising, PR, word of mouth, corporate communications, and so on…
7. Their understanding of budget / resource allocation of your overall campaign as it relates to social media
8. Their understanding of the behavior of your customers online (in the aggregate, which includes email, blogs, CRM, etc)
9. Their knowledge / experience in delivering online programs that engage
10. What are their strategies to get you from “networking” to “commerce?”

Social media is real, it does have business implications that can work for or against you. So it’s important to get it right, and it’s important to integrate. Don’t get me wrong, there are plenty of people doing excellent work in this area. But I would just hate to see your business spitting in the social networking winds, because it will come right back at you.