There seems to be a growing number of what I would call “social media educational seminars” going on around the country. The latest was held this week by MITX - the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange - here in Boston. The panel was called “Keys to Marketing Success in a Fragmented Media World,” but the event quickly turned into a back and forth exchange about the value of social media in corporate America. On the panel were:

• Larry Weber, founder, W2 Group
• Bo Piela, Sr. Dir., Corporate Communications, Genzyme
• Diane Hessan, CEO, Communispace
• Tom Gerace, CEO, Gather
• Marijean Lauzier, CEO, Digital Influence Group
• Deb Peckham, Partner, K&L Gates

Genzyme has been particularly aggressive in designing social media strategies and Piela told the roughly 100 attendees that corporate communicators need to stop thinking about social media as an add-on strategy and move it into the mainstream way of doing business.

Hessan rightly added that most companies, especially Fortune 500 firms, are doing more talking than taking action at this stage of the game, noting that companies are “dabbing” in social media but are far away, in her opinion, from the tipping point of moving massive traditional ad spending to new media. An honest assessment from someone whose firm builds online communities for companies.

Many of the questions were around the usual way to start a social media strategy and how to measure success. It seems to me that many companies still believe they need a locked down strategic vision plan and an iron-clad ROI model for social media before they’ll do anything. If there is anything we’ve learned over the past few years, it’s that you need to start somewhere, learn and adjust as you go.

Mike