The duties fall into what I’ve done, or will be doing, or should be doing, for the various organizations and individuals that I advise.  It uses “organization” and “enterprise” to allow it to work for both corporate positions and non-profit/political positions.  Feel free to use it, with attribution to this site:

Chief Social Officer Job Description 

 Primary Duties:

• Leads enterprise-wise social direction, via creation & execution of vision and mission statements, for areas such as: Social (general), Social Technology & Communities, Social Media
• Enables and may also enact social media strategies, campaigns, and ensures the optimal use of in-house technical and community platforms
• Maintains awareness of social technology & related trends, and communication of this aspect throughout the enterprise
• Networks with bloggers, especially those writing about social tech & communities
• Sets & advises on the organization’s policy on social activities & processes, including privacy & data-related aspects

The above list of duties is just for starters, and any future updates will be linked into this post.

The CSO job requirements are another matter… and now the post takes a humorous slant.  Having read in the past many technical job experience requirements that were not actually possible for someone to have, this part was a pleasurable release to create.  Maybe it will help continue the trend of impossible requirements when a click-happy recruiter inadvertently uses this writeup below thinking it’s the real McCoy?   And, remember this is early 2008, so maybe in a few years this list can become the norm:

CSO Job Qualification List:

 Required:

• Experience creating and executing online social media campaigns, for in-house or out-sourced teams (minimum of 10 years)
• Creation of online social applications for at least 2 different major social networking platforms, via having led 5 to 10 person teams (minimum of 10 years, 15 years preferred)
• Thorough knowledge of the following technology & platforms: blogs, social bookmarking, social networking, social news, microblogs, video sharing & media streaming, photo sharing, social software & applications, integration of messaging & social networking applications, widgets & gadgets, ad integration, viral campaign management, podcasting, and all open source software (minimum of 10 years, 20 years preferred)

 Optional:

• Creation of infinitely scalable social applications in the 100 million to 750 million user range, including simultaneous usage of 5 million or more users
• Creation of viral online social campaigns with growth from zero to 100 million views/adds/opt-ins within a 30 day period
• Achievement of simultaneous top placement of a story or webpage on the 5 top social news sites, including: Digg, Fark, Mixx, Newsvine, Propeller, Reddit, Shoutwire, Sphinn, and Technorati.

For now, we can leave out the ability to leap a two-story building in a single click.  And yes, I can count to five (see final bullet above if you didn’t catch it).