In the nascent social media industry, branding oneself with the moniker "expert" actually subtracts from one's credibility. We in the biz don't tend to trust anyone who claims to be an expert. "Social media consultant" works ok, but "guru" is a little too strong.
There's serious resistance to claiming a particularly high level of expertise because (my theory):
1. The heuristics change so quickly, we're all in the process of learning what the next effective sets of strategies are, and
2. We're all following each other on Twitter, we're Facebook friends, Friendfeed subscribers, and networking in the same places, so we can be very easily humiliated for our hubris by our colleagues and competitors. Better to feel competent but not talk about it too much (writing about it, on the other hand, is expected).
But, if you're trying to become a thought leader in your industry, whatever that may be, you should really spend some time on LinkedIn's Answers.
Pick your category, read the questions, and do your best to contribute well. Kudos if your response is deemed a "Best Answer." The more of those you have, the more of a LinkedIn "expert" you become.
From worthy of pondering to totally inane, from practical to purely self-promoting, the questions are all over the board.
But getting in there and answering away is a good start to becoming one of those, you know, expert-types.
Comments
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