At a conference a couple years ago someone asked me what I looked for in a client. My answer was “commitment.” We used to hear from people who just wanted to put up a message board and then walk away, assuming community would happen—no understanding or attention span available for what it takes to develop it with purpose, trust, and personality. I haven’t run into that as much in the last couple years. Most people approach with a much greater understanding of the resources, persistence, and attention it requires to get closer to their customers.

Prospective social media clients now have a greater understanding of the commitment involved. They’re aware that appropriate skills and experience may not exist within the organization, and that community management can’t be assigned to a person who’s expected to do it in addition to another job. They know why they want to develop community around their companies, and they’re asking for more exact ways to measure what they’re looking for.

Overall, companies are also more willing to be comfortable with negative comments about their products or services. In some of the more fear-based discussions we had a couple years ago, we saw a tendency toward requesting previewed moderation. Increasingly, the word is out that progressive companies welcome constructive criticism, want to hear it, know that it happens whether or not they hear it, and if it’s happening where they can respond to people, that’s all to the better. Conversations now more often emphasize escalation paths and proper response than on fear about negative comments. We see more integration with customer service and support, and more participation by people higher up in the company.

Increasingly there’s a better understanding of the role good moderators can play in facilitating conversation, and also in the importance of employees being consistently in touch with and on top of what people are saying in the communities--what they’re asking for, what they’re talking about. They worry less about users running into offensive comments because they know users can ignore people they don’t like. Plus today’s features for social networking make it possible for users to decide exactly with whom they’re going to have connections in any event. Everyone’s more savvy, less wary.

Clients increasingly appreciate the value of the content that people create around their brands. They want better ways to bring it forward and make sure it gets noticed because they know this supports leadership in the community and brings in more quality content.

The purchasers of social media are also now users of it, and that makes a huge difference.