One of the sea changes being seen by companies in this social media era is the new way they have been forced to communicate with their customers. Two-way online conversation as opposed to standard marketing messaging asks many questions of a company’s commitment to its customers but it also asks many questions of the company itself – not least how should it resource this new form of customer engagement?

That, undoubtedly is what Nestle has been considering in the wake of its Facebook Kit Kat meltdown where the online reputation of this major brand was undermined by the actions and words by an employee (or employees) who obviously weren’t qualified to represent the brand in social media.

Just as the first generation of web business spawned new job titles and requirements (e-commerce manager, online editor) so companies and the communication agencies that have so often done their “talking” for them are scrambling to recruit the right skill set to manage social media engagement – creating brand new positions in the process.

“A marketing department now needs a whole new set of skills to be effective. As you build your presence online you need people to create, manage and monitor,” says Fabio Rosati, CEO of the online jobs marketplace Elance.  he adds.

Rosati’s company has in recent years witnessed a huge demand for digital and social skills. In many businesses we are starting to see a mindset shift from social and digital media being an add-on to something at the core,” he notes. Who would have thought a few years ago that brands would be hiring social media ambassadors to liaise and curry favor within social networks? That was before Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube reinvented the way we communicate online. And that was before the burgeoning App economy created an estimated $1billion business almost overnight. Within hours of Apple CEO Steve Jobs announcing the new iPad, 20 iPad app development contracts were posted on Elance.

Hiring to meet social media needs creates huge headaches for most companies for the simple reason that they have to write job descriptions for positions that as yet don’t exist. Often they are looking to recruit hybrid positions – adding news skills sets like community management on top of traditional journalism skills such as writing and editing for example – and that poses the conundrum of whether you hire a young social media native without the core traditional experience or do you look to teach social media sensibilities to an experienced workforce?

Advertising and marketing agencies have been wrestling with this problem since the birth of mainstream digital communications a decade ago. In many agencies the answer was to hire a digital specialist who would be the go-to guy on all things web. Today often it’s social media that is being balkanized as a specialist role within agencies even as they talk up the importance of digital integration in general. Treating social media as a specialist product certainly makes it easier for agencies to sell into their clients but it also puts off the inevitable decision both agencies and their marketing clients must make – namely, the need to reinvent their natural broadcast skill sets to meet the challenge of two-way social communication.

PR agencies have long prided themselves on social interaction even as they lagged behind the creative agencies in terms of creating content. Perhaps then it’s no surprise that forward-thinking PR agencies like Edelman have launched digital content shops, specifically charged with creating the type of editorial content that resonates with social media communities.

In many way agencies – with a steady churn of smart ambitious young things – should be easiest vehicles to adapt to this creative disruption. Surely it’s the entrenched corporates that will struggle most with staffing for a new world? In past columns we’ve talked with likes of Dell, Ford and Pepsi about their move to incorporate social business thinking throughout their organizations yet when it comes to rethinking how a workforce adapts to social media no company has been more innovative than Best Buy. This was the retailer that encouraged a peer-to-peer employee social network – Blue Shirt Nation – that helped sales staff share product expertise and hence make more sales and most recently it’s been embracing Twitter through the formation of its informal Twelpforce customer service network.

John Bernier is one of two social and emerging media managers at Best Buy and he oversaw the 2009 launch of Twelpforce. Today some 2,500 employees donate part of their downtime during working hours to answering customer service questions via Twitter. Customer service is not in their job description and they don’t get paid extra for the time they spend online but Bernier believes that this communal corporate activity (employees otherwise might just be killing time during a lull in the store) helps build morale and a sense of working together. The most frequent Twelpforce contributors are noted in a regular leadership report and  also provide mentorship to employees wanting to become part of Twelpforce.

To some traditionalists this might smack of a company simply getting more hours out of its workforce for no more money. But as Bernier sees it, social media is creating a stronger understanding between management and rank and file and that will benefit all employees in the long run. Best Buy hasn’t hired a whole cadre of social media experts, choosing instead to leverage social technologies behind the firewall to encourage open feedback on new products, services and working practices. Bernier works as a conduit for that feedback, and as he puts its, “I’ve been able to connect with ground-level employees and then transfer their ideas back to the corporate level.”

Ultimately, says Bernier, writing social into everyone’s job isn’t necessary. But the principle of encouraging open, transparent and respectful pact with employees and customers is the only way to progress. “The company that operates in five years time as they did five years ago won’t be in business,” he believes.

In the age of Facebook, investing in social media hiring, training and educating today could be the best defense against obsolescence tomorrow.