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Have you ever heard someone say something that made you immedi- ately cringe, even though you knew that person was pardy right? I had that reaction while listening to an episode of SocialMediasphere.tv in April. The topic was "social media rock stars" and featured Amber Naslund. Naslund was asked if she had to replace herself as director of community at Radiano (which monitors and analyzes social media for PR and advertising efforts), what would she look for in a candidate? The first thing she said she wouldn't want was someone with a communication background.
Ouch! Here's her response: "I actually probably don't want somebody with a com- munications background. . . the truth is there's a lot of pre- conceived notions in corpo- rate communications that are very, very difficult to undo, and part of the reason that social media is struggling for adoption inside established companies is that they're having trouble jettisoning old ideas about how and what to communicate to their customers.
"...I came up through a nonprofit fundraising background.... We were taught that connecting...