Are you a Social Media Expert? I’ve heard and read an abundance of material about what makes someone a Social Media Expert, a Social Media Guru, a Tenured Social Media Consultant. We could easily write a book on this topic in lieu of a blogpost.
In my humble opinion, there are very few Social Media Experts. After all, how can any of us be an expert on an industry that’s so young and moving at such a rapid speed? Certainly, there are pioneers and early adopters that are leaders in this industry and they are clearly experts on certain aspects and tools in the industry. However, one thing is for sure. If you are going to be presenting yourself as a consultant, speaker, blogger, writer related to social media, you’ve got to be a user of the tools demonstrating your own social media strategy.
I received an interesting phone call last week from a practitioner wanting to speak at one of my events. We’ll call him Neophyte Joe to protect the innocent and uninformed. Neophyte Joe made several faux pas that told me in the first five minutes that he hadn’t done his homework on social media. I’ll be writing a post soon on Neophyte Joe so stop back to read about him.
In the interim, here’s a link to some great videos compliments of one of our favorite Social Media “Experts” Jeremiah Owyang in his blogpost Social vs. Traditional Marketing Agencies.
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great post! i see someone as a social media expert who understands that flogging a brand with diggit! & twitter will not result in a successful engagement or will not build trust in your brand and can also explain and direct a campaign that builds your message using various platforms and technologies.
the question is a social media expert someone in business or marketing circles has heard of or one that is just known to the social networks?
First off it’s a subjective term… Secondly I think there are experts – whom are easy to find.
We had a great discussion recently on my blog about “Social Media Experts” – http://tinyurl.com/akze24
This spurred a follow-up post .. What Defines Expert? What do you think?
Andy Brudtkuhl’s last blog post..ROI of Web Strategy and Social Media
Glad you didn’t name him Jim! Looking forward to your post!
Jim “Genuine” Turner’s last blog post..Blogging Networks Feeling The Economic Pain
She called him Joe to protect the innocent, so he could be you Jim, or me. We’re scared Angie!!!
Thanks for shining some light on this hot topic, Angie. There’s a lot of BS along with the buzz these days. I feel sorry for the businesses trying to sort through the shameless promoters to get to the genuine pros.
Just a note: Many of us who now work in ‘Social Media’ actually started years ago when it was called ‘Community.’ I was an early AOL Greenhouse Partner (the rather infamous incubator) and we knew that the power and the pulse of our sites –our chat rooms, message boards, events and games — was Community. What frustrated the heck out of us was two things: lack of bandwidth which forced even passionate users to bump along at 1200 baud, and fledgling technology. Most of us saw the potential and stuck around, working on community based sites from The Palace (avatar chat) to online ‘diaries’ and eventually found our way into what is now ‘Social Media.’
The principles that grew out of those early efforts circa 1995 are still pretty much intact — only the tools and technologies have radically improved. In fact, I still work with some of the same courageous companies who early on were my pioneering partners in disruption.
So it is entirely possible to have nearly 15 years experience in Community/Social Media — and for those early adopters in the 90’s to have been eagerly waiting to jump on the emerging tools the minute they hit beta. I am not saying there aren’t authentic experts with just a couple of years’ experience. But there are way too many ‘Social Media Douchebags’ who have scant background in anything relevant (branding, customer experience, research) busy convincing businesses that having 5000 Follows is the way to build their bottomline.
IMHO.
I am so happy I discovered this site!
Sarah Browne’s last blog post..Seven Signs You May Be Ready for a Social Media Detox.
I don’t like the terms “expert”, “guru” or “rockstar”. I wouldn’t expect an insurance agent to call himself an expert, so why do we take it on for this new medium?
It’s funny: for some people it’s about knowing the tools: if someone can spout off 10 different social networking platforms or sites, they consider themselves an expert. But that’s like saying someone with a box of crayons is an artist. It’s not about possessing the tools but knowing how and when to use them.
That’s why I call myself a “digital strategist”. My passion is in determining how best to meet certain objectives. Sometimes it may be social media, other times it may not. But I’m not going to use the tools just because I’m aware of them: that subtle understanding of the applicability is much more important.
Andrea Hill’s last blog post..The Twitter feature I’d pay money for (Twitter, Tweetdeck, are you listening?)