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More thoughts on the social media expert question
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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?
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