Last week’s piece about whether you need a social media expert got a lot of attention. Sadly, most people who commented were in the industry already — that is, they’re social media workers and/or acolytes with an agenda. Which means my writing resonates more within the emerging social media industry than it does for people outside it looking for answers. But that’s a discussion for another day.
But it is symptomatic of the problem with writing about social media — most of the people who read about it, share it, and comment on it are already in the business. How does that help anyone else? To me, it’s more evidence of the chasing our tails conundrum.
Case in point...
One of the comments that stuck with me, and turned into a wide-ranging, back-and-forth conversation, here on Examiner, then via Twitter, then on Friendfeed, and back to Twitter (and now, right back here on Examiner), was the one that implied I wasn’t a “true” social media expert because I don’t have 64,000 followers on Twitter.
You can look at some of the source material here, if you’d like.
@praguebob, who does have 64k+ followers, contends two things in our discussion:
1. He believes I’ve insulted the “true” experts by saying you may not want to hire a social media strategist who uses the word “expert” to describe himself, and
2. He believes that social media “experts” should have personal numbers to prove their expertise.
I don’t take issue with the word “expert” in regard to social media outreach. In fact, I said in my Examiner piece that I think it’s weird that this is the only industry where the use of the word is shunned. My point was that, if you refer to yourself as a “social media expert,” you may indeed be qualified to help others, but you’re obviously out of touch with social media norms and practices. Truly, that’s the only word social media types shy away from. Call yourself a “prodigy” (as I do in LinkedIn, though it’s somewhat tongue-in-cheek), call yourself a “guru,” if you’d like. I prefer “strategist.”
And let other people call you an expert. Just, you know, wince a little, give a self-deprecating laugh, and move on.
That’s all I’m saying - calling yourself a “social media expert” has become bad form. It shouldn’t be, but that’s how it is. If you’re studying best practices and reading up on the field, you know that already. But, hey, if you want to call yourself an expert, be my guest.
There are two pieces to his second argument. A) That having a large following on Twitter makes you an expert by default, and that B) NOT having a large following on Twitter means you’re not a “true” expert.
A) It’s impressive that @praguebob has 64k+ followers, especially if he, indeed, grew his base without “using any tricks whatsoever, no automation, no spam, no special tools, no SEO voodoo.” That’s quite an accomplishment. But mastery of a single social media platform isn’t enough. For instance, @praguebob doesn’t consider LinkedIn a social network, and therefore has no use for building connections or engagement there.
Would you hire an “expert” carpenter who’s amazing with a hammer but doesn’t use a saw, because he doesn’t consider it a carpenter’s tool? As I’ve written in the past, LinkedIn, as a social media platform, has power beyond its connectivity function. It would be irresponsible for me (or my team) to put together a social media strategy plan without looking at LinkedIn as a possible outreach vehicle.
And anyone with experience in social media will tell you that Twitter is just one platform or channel among many, and that (gasp!) Twitter isn’t the right vehicle for every company.
Basing your claim to expertise on the number of followers you can amass for yourself isn’t enough.
B) My @datingdad Twitter stream isn't necessarily meaningful to those looking for a non-stop set of strategic content. I'm not trying to build a large follower base; my follow numbers rise and fall, and I don’t pay much attention to them.
I do pay attention to follow numbers when our clients are on Twitter. In fact, our clients would much rather I spend time building awareness about their products and services than building a following for myself or my company. And I wouldn’t want my team to spend too much of their time building their Twitter numbers, when they could be doing that work for our clients.
I agree that too many people out there are styling themselves experts in the space and are giving those who are doing good work fits. I don’t agree that you can look at someone’s Twitter numbers alone and decide whether that person is proficient or not.
Finally, if you’re reading this, and you’re NOT a social media type, please tell me what you’d like me to be writing about. What would be useful and worthwhile to you?
Comments
My biggest issue with the "social media expert" moniker isn't the expert part; it's the social media part. Social media are tools that have many uses - some "social media experts" may be PR experts, or marketing experts, or customer support experts, or customer value management experts, and can apply Social Media to those disciplines.
So when I hear "Social Media Expert" I think "I can use a hammer. I'm very good with a hammer" in my best "Rainman" internal voice. Social Media is a set of tools, and tools devoid of any directed purpose are useless. We should stop talking about the tools we use, and start talking about how and for what we use the tools. I'm guessing you don't develop a "Social Media" strategy - you build an awareness-building strategy using social media tools?
The implication here is that a Twitter expert, or LinkedIn expert, or any other "tool" expert is of questionable value; let's stop talking about tools, and start talking about their uses.
Nice piece.
Great Post, thanks for sharing Eric! What makes someone an “EXPERT?” It is fascinating (and also annoying) to me how many people consider themselves “Social Media Experts”. What qualifies you?
recruitnik.net
I think you misinterpreted what I said about LinkedIn, so I will clarify this. LinkedIn requires you to select "how you know this person" when you issue and invitation to connect. If you say, "I don't know", then you must enter the person's e-mail address. There's also an option to get introduced indirectly by one of your contacts. So by it's very nature, LinkedIn is different than say, Twitter, where you simply click "Follow" if someone is interesting to you. At risk of sounding vain, I will add that my 150+ connections on LinkedIn are mostly CEOs of successful companies, people that I know personally, so I would say the "value" of my network there is probably much greater than that of those who have connected randomly with hundreds. But LinkedIn is a professional, reputation network, not a "social network" ala Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, or Orkut. LinkedIn is my "saw" compared to my "hammer" on Twitter. I have many tools in my bag, so not a one-tooled carpenter as you seem to think! :-)
I also need to address your comments about me, personally. First, I take issue with someone who bashes "experts" and then calls himself a "prodigy" (yes, unless you changed that on LinkedIn very recently, you call yourself a "social media prodigy"!). I said, and I repeat, there is nothing wrong with a person calling himself an expert if it's true. Maybe you are that "uber-expert" prodigy you claim to be, but your numbers don't reflect it, sorry. So to recap what I said, the numbers are important, if two people call themselves experts, I will first trust the one whose numbers are an order of magnitude greater. I wasn't even speaking about myself, really. I was thinking more like Mark Davidson, maybe Laura Fitton. But recently others have claimed I'm an expert. Actually nothing to do with my following on Twitter, I was consulting on Facebook and how to attract a small targeted audience there and on Twitter, things I've also done myself with other accounts. I "walk the talk". And you? :-)
See below, taken directly from Eric's LinkedIn profile (with CAPS added for emphasis):
ePR and SOCIAL MEDIA PRODIGY, Marketing and PR Strategist, Writer, Editor, Rainmaker, Troublemaker
Also from Eric's LinkedIn profile:
Eric Elkins eric@widefoc.us DOESN'T UPDATE LinkedIn often enough. Follow me on Twitter: @datingdad 2 MONTHS AGO
Great article. No such thing as a social media expert. The tools change, people change and they way people use tools change everyday.
A true "expert" per se is someone who is actively learning how consumers actively in this space; and then figuring out how to leverage that movement in a meaningful way for everyone’s benefit (i.e. the brand and consumer). Self proclaimed experts are a joke, in my mind. I usually ignore them.
Doesn't having experience helping clients achieve success and see real ROI with social media qualify you?
Hey Eric,
I've watched this and the previous article with interest. This is a debate (the "expert" bit) that affects the Thought Leadership Marketing space as well, as 'expert status' is part of the criteria for thought leadership.
For me, and others' mileage may vary, expert status, or thought leader status, is bestowed upon you by your customers, tribe, followers, whatever. While claiming to be such is not bad (though our mantra is that thought leadership (expert status) is attained not claimed) per se, it's not fashionable.
Thus, there are many shades of experts. One would call a truck driver expert driver. Logging millions of miles, by the "twitter follower" rationale would qualify him as such. You wouldn't likely put him in an Indy car, however, and ask him to ply his trade - it's two diff things...yet the Indy driver, and truck driver are both expert drivers with no name calling between them (that I can recall)
Semantics is fun, but it's what customers/fans think at t
Interesting debate. This is why I position myself as a "social media curmudgeon." It's very easy to back up. You want ROI? I've got your ROI, and it's swinging. Now everybody shut up so I can take a nap.
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