Maybe I just don’t get it. Maybe it’s because I’m in the middle of it and have no perspective or maybe it just doesn’t make sense.
Enough already with the self-hating social media consultant.
The latest to set me off was this blog by a guy named Tim Baker, which was retweeted by Guy Kawasaki. Baker works at a social media marketing firm, who wrote a blog called “Never Hire A Social Media Expert.”
Kawasaki tweeted last week about how “social media expert” is an oxymoron.
What point are you trying to make exactly? That you know what you’re talking about, but other poseurs out there in Internet land don’t?
Is it all just semantics and the term “expert” or “guru” just give people the willies?
Let’s face facts folks. Social media is being sold. I’m selling it. Guy Kawasaki is selling it. Chris Brogan is selling it. Brian Solis is selling it.* In order to sell it, you have to pitch your expertise to the folks writing checks. If you’re not an expert, then what are you? If you don’t know enough about the strategy and technique that goes into making businesses successful online, what are you doing?
I find it a little disingenuous for the household names in this business to shrug off newcomers and roll their eyes at the folks who use the buzzwords they created. There were a few lucky folks who came up with great strategies, were at the front of the way of the technology and built a following when people were looking for someone to follow.
Is the advice I give different that what Tim Baker is giving? Maybe, but a lot of it is probably similar. Business should share great content with their customers, look for ways to connect and don’t mistake quantity of followers with quality.
How do you learn this stuff? From reading what people you respect have to say – like Brogan, Seth Godin and other innovators in the field – by keeping up with the latest news about what each platform has to offer and by doing the work.
Where that puts me on the guru scale is up to other people. It’s my job to convince them to trust me with helping their business craft the messages which will make the Web effective for them.
The bottom line is that bashing on other social media folks has become an easy punchline, especially if you are looking to write a blog post that gets you retweeted and some attention. Look around, there are a lot of people who have come out of nowhere to enter this space. I’m not the only person in Oklahoma looking to convince businesses that social media is a great tool for them to add to the mix of how they promote their business.
Do I feel like some of these folks are less qualified than I am? Sure I do. I mentioned that on The OKC Show podcast and I’ve had conversations about it off line.
But it’s my job to talk to clients, write interesting blogs, engage online and walk the walk.
I hope that would make me an expert. All I can do is try.
* – These pros will say they aren’t selling social mediahat they are selling strategy, relationships or evangelism. I get it. It’s like when someone asked Captain Kirk if he was from space. He said, “No, I’m from Iowa. I just work in space.”
Social media is so new and there are lots of people who are jumping in thinking that it’s a big money maker and for some it is. Being on social media isn’t really about social media. It’s about engagement, conversations, and community. A few bad apples who are bolding claiming to be experts (and really aren’t) are spoiling the bunch.
I agree with @Tim. I see this a lot in the Social Recruiting and HR space. Anyone can post jobs on Twitter but it takes someone with a creative mind and experience to properly execute a complete and effective social recruiting strategy. Social media isn’t the holy grail of promotion It’s another tools in the promotional belt. This is exactly why I will never say I’m an expert. I don’t have all the answers just some experience in launching and executing campaigns doing what I love to do.
Jessica
@blogging4jobs
Thanks for your opinions on my blog post. As promised on Twitter, here’s my 2¢.
It seems to me that you’re taking the post out of context. What I was trying to say was that there are many snake oil salesmen (for lack of a better term) that are sullying the term “social media” to businesses that are finally starting to get around to it.
I see this day in and day out with clients that have tried social in the past with people claiming to be experts/gurus/ninjas/etc…. While there are some very brilliant minds out there, there are many phonies out there with no marketing/sales background that think having a few thousand followers on Twitter means they know how to handle million-dollar marketing budgets. When they can’t show results, or tell their client that you can’t measure success in social media, these CMOs think it’s just a fad or something not worthy of investing time and money in because there’s no ROI. This then makes my job twice as hard to flip them back into believing that social done right can be a great thing.
I’m not claiming to be an expert because I really believe there are no experts. There are some great minds and do-ers in this business, but most of them are actually DOING and not preaching about it 24/7 on blogs, Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. I just don’t believe you can truly be an expert in social media when it’s such an evolving area of marketing. Yes, there are some that classify me and many others that work in this field as ‘experts’ and that’s fine, but I think that those that are new to the game and are looking to hire social media people need to be on the lookout for those identifying THEMSELVES as experts when they can’t really back it up. If my post can help enlighten someone in charge of hiring a social media person to see beyond the self-hype of the candidate and ask the right questions and perform the appropriate due diligence, we’ll all be better off in the end.
Great discussion.
The point I’d add is to distinguish between the “expert” people in this industry and the rapidly changing technology and platforms in the industry. We all agree the SM sites and apps are going to evolve so dramatically in the next few years that keeping up with them will be a challenge for anyone.
What we know today will be different tomorrow. Today’s expert might be an expert tomorrow, but only because of what that person chose to continue learning from day to day.
So I’m of the opinion that, yes, there are SM experts. But being an expert in SM is not a finish line that you cross and therefore earn forever like most other “mature” industries. It’s an ongoing process and lifestyle. That leads some to mistakenly say, “There are no SM experts.” If they really think about it, what I think they’re saying is, “Some of us know a lot about it, but we admit the learning curve will continue to shoot straight up for likely a long while.”
Mike-
As I work in the social media space, I’ll add my two cents which are in line with much of what Baker says.
We could have had the same conversation years ago about SEO experts, affiliate guru’s and design hacks. The fact is that unfortunately too many people are more interested in helping themselves than helping businesses. The challenge for businesses who want to work with someone knowledgeable in the field is how to separate those who say they are successful and those who actually are.
In any industry where there is no licensure, standards or qualifications, anyone can claim to be an “expert”. I think the preaching of being aware of potential social media snake oil is simply creating awareness of the right questions businesses need to be asking before making a hiring decision–whether internally or with a consultant.
As someone who has worked with clients who have been taken advantage by so called experts, I encourage this conversation and awareness. Businesses need to be asking questions about case studies, provable ROI, measurement and documented success. Any professional who is truly an expert shouldn’t bat an eye at these requests.
I think the rush of “expertise” will level out in time and those who can’t demonstrate proven success will be weeded out. In the meantime, you are right…it is our job to educate businesses on how comprehensive strategies can elevate their profile and increase revenue. The important thing for any business to understand is while the technology may have changed, the fundamental principles of business growth haven’t.