Now that title may at first glance appear somewhat pretentious but even being someone who manages social media for a large company like myself, I have a hard time proclaiming guru or expert status.
Here’s the thing. You can’t be an expert at something that first of all has really only started culminating the last couple years, and second, changes almost every week. You can call yourself a social media ninja, bad ass, maestro, whatever the hell you wanna call it….but there’s a 96.87% chance you are no guru or expert.
First, to say something positive (I’ve been trying to start off all my recent blog posts on a positive note), I love social media and I love how excited everyone is about it. It’s reshaping company/brand PR/Marketing efforts in a way that is healthy, creative, and cost effective…most of the time. I’d say my only complaint about it is that it’s made internet life quite a bit “noisier”…which I expected to happen.
Now then…..my point in this post is that to those claiming to be social media experts or even someone that claims to be in the know with social media and it’s big picture….this is probably not true. Just because you have a twitter account and you know how to use it, doesn’t make you a social media marketer. There’s an art to understanding that social media is all about people, about meaningful conversation that is genuine, relevant, intelligent (sometimes), and more importantly: REAL.
No one likes repeated spammy comments on Twitter, their MySpace comments section, or their Facebook walls, etc.
Also, you need to understand that because you have accounts on all the various sites, it does not make you an expert. If you want to eventually be an expert or guru at social media, the most important aspect of it that you need to understand, more important than the tools themselves that are at your fingertips is PEOPLE. To be really good, you need to ‘get’ people….different types of people, their interests, personalities, various thought processes, locales, etc. You might say to yourself..”ok that’s basic segment marketing analysis,” but we, as social marketers, have to understand that this landscape is different. The consumers of social media don’t like to be spoon fed empty one way communications about products, services and other crap. They are smarter than the old consumer, they have a lower attention span, and they put up with less bullshit than ever before. They have the power to immediately weed out and block all crap, unlike email spam which is and will always barely be under control.
The other side of this on the tools/technology side is that you need a cohesion that takes the sum of all the parts of what you do for a company or client. There should be a high level premise and plan on how all the accounts/tools all tie together to push out one message and a wave of consistent content. If you don’t have that, your efforts are null and void. Might as well head home and start gardening.
To be a social media expert or guru, you need to understand all the tools, how they all work together and you need to have a passion for human beings and their behavior, good, bad and ugly. If you understand that stuff, have a vision, and are fascinated with human beings, you will be a social media jedi one day. I hope I get to be one too. 
Anyone who calls him or herself an expert is clearly *not*. Couldn’t agree more. Hence why I call myself a “blogger” and publicly balk at anyone who calls me an expert. It’s almost an insult these days.
I think most social media marketers / “gurus” / consultants are really good at marketing themselves. But can that translate to business? Sometimes yes, sometimes now.
I’ve babbled about this a lot on my blog, most recently about how Twitter popularity means about as much as a cup of coffee at 7-11. Nice analysis here.
Agreed. I still think I have so much more to learn to even consider myself an expert at this stuff. The Twitter popularity contest is getting a little annoying as well….gives peeps a false sense of ego boost and usefulness and skill level…we shall see..I’m sure that will level out eventually after it hits a social saturation point.
I’ve been thinking about and writing/tweeting on this topic for a while now. I’ve been disgusted by a lot of the behavior of some of these people. Then on the other hand some are the best people in my feed. It’s the bad ones that make the whole profession look bad.
Give these the once over: http://search.twitter.com/search?q=attn.+jackassletters
[...] 10. They actually have a personality and GET people. [...]
Great observations Rich. Like your attitude. We’re mostly all just bozo’s scrambling for a seat on the bus. The one’s in the first two rows have found the name tags and put “Expert” on them. Best. Nick
Rich, I believe you included all the right ingredients in your last paragraph, but perhaps in the opposite order of importance. IMHO, social media haven’t changed the fundamentals of good marketing, the first of which is to understand the target market — the people. Everything else flows from that. Social media are just a great new way to understand and delight the customer.
Pax,
Michael
Right on!
I think claiming to be an expert in this area is a bit arrogant. How can anyone be an expert, when there are so many platforms of Social Networking and the way each can be used differently for diferent purposes, makes this an infinite wealth of knowledge.
Really, the only way to approach it is in the form of a coach, mentor, teacher, consultant, or whatever word for facilitator you can think of.
Technology is a tool to help PEOPLE deliver a message. I whole heartedyl agree, that understanding people is critical to be effective in this business.
I agree with this article 100%. If a CEO or company decides they want to join the SM bandwagon (because everyone else is doing it) and starts throwing out Tweets and Facebook pages without a period of monitoring and observing behaviours and interaction rates, they run the risk of an epic fail on the most important building block of successful SEO/SEM/SMM strategies and that is TRUST!
It has been my experience that any online community is a micro organisim with similar but different “rules of engagement”. I 100% agree with Rich on the statement “[Social Media] has really only started culminating the last couple years, and second, changes almost every week”.
The importance of cross channel marketing cannot be trivalized either as Rich mentions in the second to last paragraph. If employees are not up to speed on your online efforts or if you fail to integrate your printed marketing, brick and mortor marketing with your online efforts the results will be frustrating at best.
Re Nick’s comment: Yes, I think we’re all bozos on this bus!
I’m alone, got to clone . . .
Rich –
Found this to be refreshing. The reality is that web marketing is a living media and there will continually be spikes in trends like the social media movement we’re currently experiencing.
The main point to remember is that any web marketing is bound to change, so we as web marketers, need to be ready and willing to learn the new tools and trends to keep in the game.
Thanks for the all the comments everyone!
Tracie – You are right and the challenge is convincing old school marketing cultures to embrace the importance of being nimble. It’s tough when there’s years of one outlook grinded into everyone.
[...] probably tired of all the new social media “experts” that have cropped up that are more savvy as used car salesmen than they are true marketers who actually care about the conversation. The buzz-word minutiae that [...]
[...] 10. They actually have a personality and GET people. [...]
[...] at 47 Project is the latest to proclaim ain’t no party like a Scranton party there’s no such thing as a social media experts, with his post “Social Media Expert? You Have Lots to …” Now that title may at first glance appear somewhat pretentious but even being someone who [...]
[...] NO! None of this qualifies me as an expert. [...]