OK, so there are lots of 2009 lists and reviews circulating right now….some thoughtful, some funny and some thinly disguised attempts to lift one’s leg on social media’s grandest hydrant of them all, social media expertise. I think the theory is that by being the creator of a “best social media something” list, one must be, by definition, a social media expert in order to create such a the list.
Or so it is hoped.
I don’t really have a top best list….I just have an opinion. On social media expertise.
I will admit that all of the claims to being a social media expert, guru, and/or bestower of social media certification (please include check for $2995.00) rankle me as they have been rankling social media consultants all year. Ok, for several years. See Beth Harte, Mack Collier. Most recently though, with the exponential increase in Twitter adoption, it seems that anyone with 10 Twitter followers is now a social media expert. See BL Ochman on this one.
You will notice that BL wrote a blog post on this topic and used more than 140 characters to make her point. There are many many more blog posts where that one came from. Back in the early days of social media, writing thoughtful blog posts on topics was one way to communicate one’s knowledge and expertise. See Toby Bloomberg’s Diva Marketing Blog, where you will find five years worth of insightful, instructive and thoughtful posts, interviews, and content.Toby, BL, and many others …in fact a definition of social media expert can be found everyday just by reading Marketing Profs Daily Fix.
As an aside, I do wonder if Twitter has dumbed down social media….in fact, enabled, if you will the rise of the social media expert. Twitter’s 140 character limit was not I don’t think designed to communicate expertise but you can Tweet often, Tweet loudly and auto follow everyone and think yourself an expert apparently.
So my rule of thumb… I have learned that when anyone has to tell you that they are honest, the best, an expert, etc. they probably aren’t. Whether it is the real estate agent, the mechanic, the contractor that tells you how honest they are, or the consultant that tells you that they are an expert, my rule of thumb, is to immediately assume that they are not honest and/or don’t have a clue. If they are honest, have expertise or whatever the attribute, others will be saying that about them and/or there will be many available opinions of them other than their own.
The social media expertise lesson for 2009. Run fast from ANYONE who uses the “E” word to describe themselves!
I would like to share the links to what I thought were two of the funniest moments in the social media expertise “debate”: Become a Social Media Guru in Two Minutes or Less @ 72nd Ave, Social Media Gurus Anonymous.
Also, I would like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year….2009 was nothing if not a challenging year so let’s just hope for a challenging and rewarding 2010.
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Bravo!!! Happy New Year my friend, the best is yet to come!
Marianne – great post and esp your insights about twitter. With all the “e” twits – er Twitter people I mean,no wonder consultants can’t find clients .. there are none .. the whole world is comprised of Experts. Guess I better be looking for a new gig in 2010 .
Appreciate your kind words about Diva Marketing.
All the very best for 2010 and thanks for sharing your family with us.
Thanks Taughnee…..I am thinking you are right!
Oh Marianne, how very true! I have one issue – if we stop using the “e” word…what are our standards? If we have abused the “expert” title so badly (and I think in many ways we have), what standard do we apply not only to ourselves, but to our clients? Am I then a devoted social media… trainer? Am I a passionate social media performer? Am I a tried and true, tested and established, social media marketer?
The ‘expert’ status cannot ring true in an environment that changes as rapidly as social media does, but if we cannot use that to describe our status (and prove it with some results) what are we to use?
Have you a new, effective term?
For those, like you, who actually do know what they are talking about? p.s. let’s kill “guru” also, if we can.
Happy New Year, Marianne!
I think you are onto something as far as Twitter and ‘dumbing down’ social media, and perhaps the qualifications for being a ‘social media expert’. I recently was referred to a potential client after I successfully met the criteria they were looking for in a social media consultant. One of the criteria was having 10K or more followers on Twitter.
And unfortunately, I think many companies are relying on numbers simply because they aren’t sure what to look for. And the ‘experts’ on Twitter know this, so they are padding their numbers.
Oh well, I think there will be a lot of shakeouts in 2010. I think the ones that aren’t hacking it will go do something else, and a lot of the ones that are, will be hired by larger companies. Should be interesting!
Toby, well you will always have your brownies to fall back on… but then again the loss of your expertise would not be a good thing!
Maybe the “2 kinds of people in this world” theory which applies here….two kinds of people in social media, the experts and those that think (say)
they are.
Thanks for commenting…and all the best in 2010!
Happy New Year Marianne! and, boy! do I agree with you! After a local podcamp, the number of social media “consultants” boomed out here in w. mass. It seemed that anyone who could figure out how to make a Facebook Fan page and use Tweetdeck could consider him/herself qualified to help businesses (and even college students!) with social media.
The other thing that’s happened is the numbers of “consultants”–even marketing firms–whose pitch is not just to build the FB page and Twitter account, but to do it *for* you. So the whole notion of businesses using social media to have direct interaction with customers goes completely out the window….
IMO, 2010 is going to be a the year we have to prove our true expertise over popularity-contest “experts” (or “social media snake oil salesmen” as Steve Baker called them in his last BusinessWeek column) It’s also going to be a lot of teaching: teaching clients that you can’t guarantee anything Intenet–whether it’s SEO or numbers of followers–but can get their status quo to change.
Yvonne, I am not necessarily trying to kill the word expert, I am only trying to recommend that it be used as defined by the “social media encyclopedia” …
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert “An expert ( Audio (US) (help·info)) is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well-distinguished domain. An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability based on research, experience, or occupation and in a particular area of study. ”
In other words, an expert is recognized, not self identified.
Agree, “Guru” can just be totally eliminated from the vernacular!
Happy New Year to you Mack!
Yes, I agree that one of the explanations for claiming expert status based upon “followers” is that it is a data point in what seems to be a vacuum of data points but would people really hire a lawyer, an accountant or a heart surgeon based upon their self described expertise based upon the NUMBER of clients or based upon the number of their satisfied clients or successful results?
Hopefully, time WILL shake some of this out and maybe even in 2010!
Tish, Thanks for commenting and here’s to 2010! May it be the year that results are required!