Manuela Battaglini has been the president of AERCO since October 2012. She herself is defined as a social media business consultant, teacher and trainer. He has reinvented himself and turned his passion into his profession, tells us in the profile of his Twitter account. It does not bite its tongue and speaks with realism of the goodness and misery of one of the professions of the moment.

AERCO-PSM has been working since 2008, what has been achieved in these 5 years? What are the challenges ahead of the association?

AERCO-PSM has managed to become the leading association of Social Media. The association has the great challenge of professionalizing social networks, expanding the social media throughout the geography thanks to a magnificent network of delegates that is increasing, give all the importance that deserves to the Social Media professional so that companies can See that they really need them and, in turn, that Social Media professionals are well paid. In addition, AERCO-PSM aims to reach the highly qualified professional since we are the association of professionals who are dedicated to social media, so it encompasses many degrees of knowledge, preparation and needs.

Who is Manuela Battaglini and what is what causes you to embark on the adventure or the challenge of presiding over an association like AERCO-PSM?

Manuela Battaglini is a worker who wants to carry out her work as best as possible, offers value and wants to learn more every day of her profession. What made me preside over AERCO-PSM, after the resignation of José Antonio Gallego, was his confidence in me and, seeing the challenge that lies ahead, I did not hesitate. Without great challenges life is very boring.

In statements not very distant to another medium of communication, you spoke of the numerous vendemúmos that exist in the social media. For what is this?

To what has been oversized this profession, the amount of carcasses and hustlers that are per square meter and the number of brands that want to be in networks without knowing why and then hire an inept agency, which charges them € 10,000 per Each application and for each action and do not get anything in return.

Are we facing a boom, a bubble of the “social” as it has been in other fields?

We are in an economic crisis in which it is tried to look for an economic exit and this together with the great ignorance that exists on the part of the advertisers, who want to be in networks but in format promotion / conventional advertising forgetting of the user and in haste to obtain a result . It is important to highlight the lack of knowledge, study, preparation and experience of agencies and searchers to develop good brand communication based on quality content, the study of the essence of the brand and an appropriate strategy for it.

Are not there created too many expectations around the social media?

Of course there are, it is a reality, and we have to spread the message that this profession is not only exercised by having taken a course of a week, nor by saying “give to like if you agree with …” and Get 300 likes at once. This is smoke, and it is to take the hair to the mark, because we all know that they are paying monstrous fees for not obtaining appropriate results.

There are companies that commercially are a success and their image in the networks is painful, as is the case of Ryanair, and also brings you without care. In the end, what really matters is just the price?

We are talking about a very special case that can not be extrapolated to all companies in the world under any circumstances. Ryanair has reputational crises as no other airline has, but it solves an essential factor, which is economic and affects millions of people in a sector as important and crucial as transport. If the question is whether I agree with them, the answer is absolutely no, and if I can, I avoid them.

What are social networks for?

First I have to extract the DNA of the company, extract its reputation online and monitor both the sector and the competition, and if I have to answer what social networks are for I would say that this question does not exist a categorical answer, it has a response for each company And for each particular case.

Can social media help sell more?

Let’s see what the real panorama of the company is, and what lame paws it has, and then design a communication strategy integrated into the global communication strategy, make good content, adapted to that brand DNA (deceit, miracle apps and formats that Have nothing to do with the personality of the brand), and we will obtain the desired result in a prudent time, aimed at our target, loyalty to current customers and gaining new customers. In addition, in parallel, a constant measurement of the actions must be done to see if that is the correct way that we must follow.

Do companies understand what the digital world means to them or is it something that is limited to having a profile on Facebook?

Many companies are surprised to see that the success stories are not on Facebook, but in online communities, forums, etc. Facebook is not an optimal platform for all companies, so when profiles are opened discreetly in generalist networks without a criterion or a previous study, it fails badly.

Training is fundamental in all professions but, it seems, training as a community manager should be something very easy, given the high volume of all types of courses offered, even many of them free and a few hours. Can not you put a little sanity in all this?

By the same rule of three is very easy to be a photographer. By this I mean that the boom of courses to learn any type of subject or hobby that is fashionable is very common in our country. We must be aware that this profession is not easy to exercise, that it requires a lot of effort and sacrifice, that is constantly dependent on a computer and / or mobile device and that we must have knowledge of many subjects that can only be transmitted by good trainers, What to know and identify who they are. It is a task of disseminating good practices. From AERCO-PSM we focus on quality training from the best professionals and we have a training offer appropriate to the professionals of this country.

What is a community manager really?

We’re going to talk about a social media professional. It should be the professional who implements the strategy of communication in social networks of a company, builds and manages the community or communities of the same, monitors their reputation daily by passing periodic reports to the departments involved and measures results. I say “should” because in theory and in an ideal world, in each company there should be a Social Media department composed of at least one Social Media Manager, who is the strategic profile and with constant communication with managers and department directors , Community Manager, more tactical profile, and an analyst, in charge of analyzing in detail the presence of the brand in networks.

What is your place in the company? Where is it located better within the marketing department, communication?

Its place should be in a Social Media department, because this discipline is transversal to the whole company, not just marketing, it is not just communication. It is also sales, after-sales, customer service, events, advertising, product … Well, as today is structured Social Media in companies, is not that there is a department, but the less bad. As I said before, ideally there is a Social Media department because the discipline requires it.

Is it a profession that has a future, or is it more logical to think that all employees should have digital skills?

In both cases, the profession has a future, only that it will mutate according to the needs and progress of each company. If a company realizes that all its departments have something to tell and form the leaders of each of them to manage communication, the profession is successful, in fact, it would be a dream come true for those who preach on a constant basis The benefits of Social Media. And if Social Media professionals are hired to manage their network communication and eventually drift into an independent department, then the profession will also have been successful.

Is not it shocking that a company controls to the maximum who are its authorized spokespersons and corporate messages, measuring their appearances and their interventions, and then put in the hands of someone who calls the Community Manager the daily and immediate communication with thousands of people to Through social networks?

It is shocking if they hire an inept person. It depends on the degree of maturity of the company regarding Social Media, the importance it gives and what it is willing to pay.

What factors should we take into account when hiring a social media professional?

Their presence in networks is fundamental. Monitor what networks you are in, how your communication is, what you talk about, who your contacts are and how you relate to them, how you manage your own online reputation. Their professional experience is also important, and know their achievements, coupled with training, as much progress has been made in the profession and not everything is learned by searching the internet. But please, never ask them what tools they use, because that is no measure of professionalism, and these are learned to use very easily.

Another problem that social networks have seems to be that is to measure their effectiveness. Has progress been made in this area? We are at a time when ROI is key when making decisions, and also in this area. How can a company know if your investment in social networks is really profitable?

Is not easy. It is not simply to apply the famous formula. We must know exactly what is the total amount that companies dedicate to Social Media, in addition, all the personnel involved, and in this heading should include all those employees who invest time in Social Media, whatever, since part of Their salaries are earmarked for Social Media. In addition, it would be necessary to segment the communication / advertising that is done through other means and to separate the benefits that come through that way and to stay only with what is achieved through Social Media. This is explained roughly and, as you can see, has much more substance than it seems and there are obstacles such as: that companies rarely want to say the investment in networks and that the calculation of wages is not easy either. Further, Requires a thorough monitoring of all the movements that users make through network actions, from which platforms they come, whether they have been influenced by the social media campaign or by another offline. Therefore, the responsibility of the most approximate calculation must be distributed to both the company and the professionals.