After doing a little research within my own communities on LinkedIn, Facebook and Twitter, it is clear to me that this space will soon be inundated with even more social media consultants and experts. <— like we need more of those.

The same thing happened almost ten years ago with search. Take a look at the job boards today and the resumes posted there; I am sure you will find a several hundred, if not thousands, of people with similar skill sets related to paid search, search marketing, search engine optimization, pay-per-click, etc.

It’s probably already happened with social media; and the question we need to ask ourselves is “what can we do to differentiate ourselves from everyone else, especially during these tough economic times?” What I think will differentiate the common skill sets of blog design & consulting, twitter expertise, RSS gurus, social search, etc. is the following:

Community building: not in the form of thousands of twitter followers or RSS subscribers. Community building in the form of direct, one to one interaction between a brand and its constituents with the end result being brand affinity, trust and strong relationships. Not only defining the strategy but flawless execution.

Global Social Media: Launching a social media program and consumer engagement here in the U.S. pretty easy. We know and understand the tools that people use to interact. The skill set that will set itself a part from others is the knowledge and expertise of launching global social media campaigns that are measurable. This would require a keen understanding of the different geographies, the social tools, and social networks; and more importantly, the culture dynamic is it relates to the social web. Easy to talk about; difficult to execute.

Integration: integrating social media into existing marketing campaigns and programs is not easy. A Facebook app, a blog and an associated twitter account doesn’t count either. True integration should happen at every single customer touch point (i.e. the web, outdoor, channel, retail, etc.) and only a few companies do this well (ie. Nike, Virgin America). A person that can define a strategy that accounts for each touch point and ensures a tight social integration will definitely be a hot commodity for any business. Again, it boils down to execution.

Am I off base here? Please tell me what you think. Hat tip to Tatyana Kanzaveli for giving me the idea for this post.