Have you ever had an experience where someone says something that makes you immediately cringe, but you also know that they’re at least partly right? I had that reaction a week ago listening in on Social Mediasphere TV, Jim Turner’s weekly show on Ustream. His panelists included several social media rockstars, among them Amber Naslund. Amber was asked if she had to replace herself in her role as Director of Community at Radian6, what would she look for in a candidate? The first thing Amber said she wouldn’t want is someone with a communications background. Ouch! Here’s her transcribed response:

I actually probably don’t want somebody with a communications background..sorry communications people…but the truth is there’s a lot of preconceived notions in corporate communications that are very, very difficult to undo and part of the reason that social media is struggling for adoption inside of established companies is that they’re having trouble jettisoning the old ideas they have about how and what to communicate to their customers.

So, if I were replacing myself I would actually want someone who is closer to a rookie and somebody who has the passion for connecting with people. I came up through a nonprofit fundraising background and to be perfectly frank when we were fundraisers we weren’t taught a lot about proper corporate communication practices. We were taught that connecting with the donors about the story behind the organization was what was going to connect with them at a level that compelled them to want to support it. I go back to those tenets a lot in my community work.

So if I was going to replace me I would probably look for a grassroots nonprofit type person who is really plugged into the people and not so much plugged in to their MBA textbook that’s collecting dust on the shelf. And I’d look for somebody that has a bunch of unrefined skills that is eager to get out there and do really good, hard work . This is not a 9-5 job, so I need somebody with the work ethic that can dedicate themselves to it but I want somebody with kind of a fresh slate because I don’t want somebody whose ideas I have to undo.

My initial reaction to Amber’s answer was to cringe, wince and recoil. I’ve got six years of corporate communications under my belt (and a shelf full of dusty MBA textbooks too, for that matter) and now the rockstar of social media rockstars is telling me that I’m not likely to be a good fit for a social media job? Yikes.

But then I stopped to really think about what Amber said (and it’s why I waited a week to write this post). Her basic tenet is that a lot of corporate communicators still want to control how, when and what is communicated to customers. They’re trying to fit a square social media peg into a round corporate communications hole, and it’s not working. They rely on models, rules, diagrams, pie charts or PowerPoint slides to define effective communication. And by they, I also mean me– at least a part of the time. I admit that I sometimes tend to fit communications strategies into my company’s current operating framework rather than challenging that framework and looking for more effective ways of reaching customers. Sometimes I get caught up in the process and mechanics of communication and forget to focus on telling a compelling story.

However, I don’t think that means professionals with a communications background couldn’t be effective in a community-focused social media role. Amber talks about not being able to “undo” a corporate communicator’s old ideas. It is hard to jettison those ideas when you’re still at a company that reinforces them. But I do think many corporate communicators are aware of the strictures that are often placed on us and in some cases are frustrated by them. Once they step away, some of those preconceived notions can be undone pretty quickly, primarily because they don’t have HR, legal, marketing or operations underscoring them right and left. Sometimes all it takes is a change in scenery.

I’m sure Amber’s right in that a young, scrappy, go-getter fundraising type would make a great community manager. But I wouldn’t entirely count out folks with communications backgrounds. Some of us may just be looking for the opportunity to undo some of our ideas. What do you think? Is it a matter of the corporate culture driving communicators’ approaches, or communicators in corporations clinging to their “old ideas?” How can corporate communications pros make a transition into a role like Amber’s?

Image via Flickr user danstorey14