Yahoo! “Small Business Advisor” has an article about “Six Lessons Social Media Marketers Can Learn from Journalists.” It raises some interesting points about the importance of research, style, language, multimedia, and planning. But it also raises a question or two about personnel.

Consider your local social media company if you’ve met their staff. How capable are they of applying the lessons of journalism to their social media marketing operations. More to the point, can they do it on the basis of a series of recommendations on the internet?

The problem with a lot of online small business advice is that it boils down serious competencies into simple lists. If it’s so easy to act the part of a social media journalist, why employ that local social media company in the first place? Why not just do it all yourself?

The answer is that you can’t. Not well. Not without years of experience. And for that matter, neither can a social media company unless it has the benefit of a staff that includes competent writers and former journalists, as well as local SEO company professionals and tech guys. It takes more than one person to do social media right.