As my good friend Phil Yanov asked me rhetorically last week: “What were all of these self-professed social media experts doing two years ago?”
(What… all 16 million of them?)
Let me think… Oh yeah, they were word-of-mouth marketing experts, weren’t they? Or were they viral marketing experts? I forget.
Don’t get me wrong: I’m pretty psyched that social media tools and channels are finally getting a lot of mainstream attention, but the SocMed “expert” epidemic is raging completely out of control. I haven’t been bombarded with this much bullshit since male enhancement spammers reached critical mass back in 2003.
If you want to talk to real Social Media practitioners who can actually help you, look no further than these folks:
(Yeah, there are many more, but this list is a good start. And if you can’t afford their services, they’ll hook you up with someone solid and reputable who can actually help you, not just cash your checks and run.)
It’s hard to tell the real thing from the posers these days, so BE CAREFUL whose services you retain. Just because a Marketing firm or ad agency claims to be in the Social Media sphere doesn’t mean they actually are. (Odds are that they aren’t.) Anyone with access to Google can pass for an expert these days, especially if there’s money in it for them. Don’t fall into that trap.
One last piece of advice: Next time anyone introduces themselves as a social media expert, do what the rest of us do: RUN!
Have a great Wednesday, everyone! ;D
Brand Building and Online Marketing Blog 
Very good points. As much as I “study it” and tell customers about it I realize that from a certain aspect we are still in the baby stages of the technologies but how we use it responsibly.
I remember the wild wild world of BBS systems and then Newsgroups and to a lesser degree web forums where it was really the “anti-social” media. Where people would hide behind what they think are anonymous user names tossing insults and 4 letter words left and right just because they can or could. Those early behaviors still have left a bad aftertaste in the mouth of the general public.
I have already been following Chris Brogan but thanks for sharing links to the others above. I have created a separate group in my RSS reader for social media and added those above.
It’s way too early for anyone to be an “expert” in online social media. Reminds me of the job listings I have seen that asked for so many years experience in a programming language when the language had not even been in existence that long!
All we can do is continually study what’s going on and hopefully use the same common sense behavior we hopefully use in the “real world.”
Hahaha! Great stuff, Ollie!
It’s been interesting to see “Social Media” get bantered about on a local/regional level in just the last several months. It’s almost as if it’s trickle-down – like, we get “the latest fashions” a year after they’ve shown up on the runway or something.
To me, though – your poster wins a huge award. That’s just teh. awesomeness.
Olivier,
Wow. I’m humbled that you tucked me into this group. And there’s no higher praise I can receive than being labeled as a “doer” instead of a talker. The nature of this kind of stuff is that if you aren’t willing to get your hands dirty, dig in, and figure out the nitty gritty, you have no business telling anyone else how they should do it.
Incidentally, two years ago, I was a corporate marketing director trying to move the big, sloggy branding and marketing cart down a rocky and cow-filled path. 🙂 Before that, I was a fundraiser for 6+ years. You want to see the true power of community? Raise millions of dollars, one at a time.
Thank you again for your confidence, friendship, and endorsement. Now, let’s go kick some ass.
Amber
Thanks for the comments!
In my area code alone, there are now a dozen such “experts” popping up out of nowhere. Ironically, the folks who could be social media consultants (and probably should be) aren’t. (They’re too busy with their other work because they’re GOOD.) The folks who have already “branded” themselves as social media experts are marketing peeps whose work in traditional marketing wasn’t that stellar to begin with.
I’m not sure if it’s a survival tactic or just an ego-based need to be seen as the expert in every new marketing or business fad that pops up. With most companies not being able to tell the difference between the real deal and hacks (easily a 1:100 ratio) it’s easy to see how this army of posers will invariably undermine the power of social media as applied to the business world.
Those of us who have pretty much made helping companies a religion should be concerned about this.
But hey, we have to be able to laugh at it too.
Nb: It only took 18 hours for Chris to resort to calling me “Ollie” 😀
To extend this out even further, I would say that anyone who says they are an expert on *anything* eMarketing related is full of it. Things change much to quickly. I have been involved with eMarketing and eCommerce to some degree or the other since ’96 and as much time and energy as I put in trying to stay somewhat ahead of the game proves to me that it is impossible. Once you think you get a handle on e-mail then you have to understand RSS. Then once you think you get a handle on RSS then you have to understand Twitter. Then once you think you get a handle on Twitter something new pops up about e-mail that you need to study. The cycle is endless and my examples above are one very small part of the greater eMarketing whole. So, if you meet with an Ad Agency or freelancer who uses the words “guru” or “expert” to describe their capabilities run very far away as fast as you can. *If*, however, you meet with an Ad Agency or freelancer who says they can apply what they know about eMarketing (and maybe what they don’t know but will learn) to help you meet a business need then these are the people you want to have a relationship with. Or, at a minimum, it is worth the time to study their proposal. Good post. Long time reader and first time commenter!
Thanks for finally commenting, Emory!
I wish there were a litmus test to separate hacks from the real thing. I guess company execs are going to have to go with their gut on this one – and maybe do a bit of research as well. (Unfortunately, most probably aren’t e-savvy enough to map out an agency or freelancer’s digital footprint.) If at the very least, the potential practitioner they are evaluating has a decent blog presence, that’s a start.
If you’re talking to an agency whose blog (assuming they even have one) gets updated once a month, run like hell.
Or if the “guru” talks mostly about using social media in the same way as traditional media (pushing rather than pulling), also run for your life.
Maybe we should put together a list of red flags to help companies separate the hacks from solid social media advisors?
I’m 100% open to suggestions. 🙂
Olivier – thank you so much for including me in the list. I appreciate that, especially coming from you.
For me the important thing is not being a social media expert, but rather being a real good marketer or a person with deep understanding of customer-facing processes. Social media marketing (or more broadly social media business) is not about doing marketing in social media – it’s about putting the social in marketing, about putting the social in business processes. And for that to be successful you need to really understand those processes.
It’s also by having a deep understanding of those processes that you will be able to help clients measure the impact of those new programs on their business processes.
Thanks again!
Francois
I hope I am seen as someone who is able to understand human nature and connect ideas and people so that value is exchanged – intrinsic and monetary. One day that may not even be called marketing. Borrowing from Deb Schultz: technology changes, humans don’t (not so much 😉
What can I do for you?
Olivier from my experience, the people that ARE the experts, such as the people you listed, are the ones that are busy LEARNING. They are teaching others, and pushing the edges of what is possible with this space.
And you nailed it, they would never refer to themselves as ‘experts’. Then again, they don’t have to, everyone knows they are.
And thanks so much for mentioning me in the same post with much smarter people. 😉
PS: At the Marketing Profs conf in Scottsdale I told my session that ‘If anyone ever refers to themselves as a ‘social media expert’, then run away!’
Olivier,
Nice post. I’m a copywriter and self proclaimed Social Media Enthusiast… simply meaning I’m excited about it, but far from an expert. I’ve heard it said several times, that the first step in Social Media is “listening.” I’m still in that stage. I follow the Social Media guys and gal you have mentioned above, and also Jason Falls. These are people that truly know their stuff and teach without even knowing it, all you have to do is hop on twitter, read their blog, and learn.
Sometimes I feel like a Jack of all Trades, Master of None. But in a way, is that such a bad thing? If you consider yourself a “master” at something, have you reached a point of complacency? I would rather be great and trying to get better. I think Social Media is this way as well. The people mentioned are the closest thing to mastering/being experts in social media. But as far as “great” at Social Media goes, there’s only a handful. Maybe I’ll go bother them with questions now…
Michael
Hey Michael, I think that Francois said it best in his comment:
“The important thing is not being a social media expert, but rather being a real good marketer or a person with deep understanding of customer-facing processes. Social media marketing (or more broadly social media business) is not about doing marketing in social media – it’s about putting the social in marketing, about putting the social in business processes. And for that to be successful you need to really understand those processes.”
This is why I included him in my short list. The guy is brilliant because he sees both the forest and the trees. Not a rare thing in our profession, but still a minority.
I guess a lot of it also has to do with integrity and professionalism. When marketing folks introduce themselves as Social Media experts, what is their objective? To help their clients, or help sell themselves? The client always comes first. There is something annoyingly self-serving about anyone who suddenly rebrands themselves as social media gurus just as Social Media is becoming the hot topic of the day on the internets.
Generally speaking, if you consider yourself a master at something, yes, you have absolutely reached a point of complacency. Truth: There are no masters. Even Yoda was deeply flawed. (Yes, I’m a geek.) If anyone ever believes that they have become a “master” because they’ve written the book or earned the black belt or won the gold medal, they’ve allowed ego to overtake good sense, and they’re done.
Take many Fortune 500 CEOs today: A year ago, you would have truly believed that these guys were business geniuses, right? Well, as it turns out, they aren’t. Many of them couldn’t run a sandwich shop if their lives depended on it. There’s a lot more bullshit and posturing in the business world than we’d like to admit. The recent economic meltdown has given us – I hope – a serious case of ‘The Emperor’s New Clothes.’ When make-believe reaches critical mass, reality can’t help but crash the party.
The lesson here is this: Ego and necessity rarely go well together. This social media “expert” epidemic is a perfect example of this.
Do many of us in the business and marketing world understand the power of social media? Yes.
Do many of us know how to help companies leverage social media to get real results? Absolutely. And you may very well fall into that category. Far be it from me to suggest that you aren’t. 😉
But those of us who do fall into this category would never dream of calling ourselves social media experts because we know there is no such thing. We are strategists and practitioners with a practical understanding of how to leverage social media in specific ways for specific types of clients, based on their individual needs. Most of the time though, every project is a learning experience. We discover new tools, new patterns, new methods, new tactics… You name it. And since the medium which changes daily, it takes a lot of focus to keep riding the crest of that wave. (Honestly, very few of us can do it alone, which is probably why so many of us know each other and communicate on a daily basis.)
The best type of social media consultant a company can ask for has the heart of a passionate amateur. They understand that pull is better than push. That messaging is secondary to substance. That brands are built primarily on relationships, not on media buy or smooth creative. And that ultimately, social media only truly work when client companies understand all this. Anyone who either a) sells social media as just another broadcast channel, or b) fails to take into account their clients’ internal culture before setting socmed goals is a hack. And they are many. The number of business cards being reprinted right now in the US with the words “social media …” is astounding.
Most of these self-proclaimed “experts” are the same guys who were selling “buzz marketing” and “viral” two years ago, when it was the popular thing to do. They were hacks then, and they’re hacks now. And they know it.
Keep putting the client’s interests first and be honest with yourself about what you know and don’t know, and you’ll probably be alright. That’s 90% of the battle won right there. 😉
Great to have you commenting, Michael.
Thanks a bunch for commenting, everyone. 🙂
Very nice, Olivier. Expanding on your original idea from the post really gave me a better sense of context, which is after all one thing we should keep in mind at all times. Whenever I talk to the professionals who deliver our services, those who do the work, on the floor, with our customers, I am in awe of their skill, poise, and experience. That right there is what we do as a company, that point of contact, that connection.
The rest is opening up and telling the story, reflecting that experience for others to see and join. A handshake is a good day of work indeed.
As usual, another dead-nuts-on post by Olivier! Being nothing more than a neophyte in the social marketing arena, I am happy to pick up scraps from all of you. Currently running an experiment based on one of Olivier’s ideas – progressing well with some minor changes along the way (I love the fluidity of social marketing).
O – I don’t want to steal your thunder, so if you are so inclined, share the project (still in its infancy). If not, delete these last two sentences 🙂
J
It’s all good, Jon. The thunder’s all yours. All I did was supply the static charge. The rest is 100% you. 🙂
Calling yourself a “Social Media Expert” is sort of like calling yourself a “Telephone Expert”. If you’re that focused on the tool, I’m not sure you’ve got any bandwidth left over to actually use it.
No time to post further — got to go find a “Hammer Expert” to build me a house…
I need a fastener expert to hold the nail straight? 😀