I Will Never Hire a “Social Media Expert,” and Neither Should You

PETER SHANKMAN

POSTED ON May 20th, 2011

463 COMMENTS

I was going to call this article “All “Social Media Experts” need to go die in a fire,” but I figured I should be nicer than that.

But my title stands. If you call yourself a “Social Media Expert,” don’t even bother sending me your resume.

No business in the world should want a “Social Media Expert” on their team. They shouldn’t want a guru, rock-star, or savant, either. If you have a “Social Media Expert” on your payroll, you’re wasting your money.

Being an expert in Social Media is like being an expert at taking the bread out of the refrigerator. You might be the best bread-taker-outer in the world, but you know what? The goal is to make an amazing sandwich, and you can’t do that if all you’ve done in your life is taken the bread out of the fridge.

Social Media is just another facet of marketing and customer service. Say it with me. Repeat it until you know it by heart. Bind it as a sign upon your hands and upon thy gates. Social Media, by itself, will not help you.

bunny ©jimbenton.com

We’re making the same mistakes that we made during the dotcom era, where everyone thought that just adding the term .com to your corporate logo made you instantly credible. It didn’t. If that’s all you did, you emphasized even more strongly how pathetic your company was. You weren’t “building a new paradigm while shifting alternate ways of focusing customers on the clicks and mortar of an organizational exchange.” No, you were simply a freaking idiot who’d be out of business in six months.

Ready for the ultimate kicker? We still haven’t learned! We got thirsty again, and are drinking the same damn ten-year-old Kool-Aid without so much as asking for ice. Rather than embracing this new technology and merging it with what we’ve learned already, we’re throwing off our clothes and running naked in the rain, waving our hands in the air, sure that this time it’ll be different, because this time it’s better!!”

“It’s not about building a website anymore! It’s so much cooler! It’s about Facebook, and fans, and followers, and engagement, and influence, and…”

Will you please shut up before you make me vomit on your shoes?

IT’S ABOUT GENERATING REVENUE THROUGH SOLID MARKETING AND STELLAR CUSTOMER SERVICE, JUST LIKE IT’S BEEN SINCE THE BEGINNING OF TIME.

It’s About Transparency. It’s about not lying to your customers, and thinking that a good Twitter apology will suffice when you’re caught. It won’t, and you’ll lose. Customers will run away in droves, because they can. They can go wherever they want now – It doesn’t matter how loyal they were in the past. Lie to them and get caught, and say goodbye. It’s about using the tools to market to an audience that wants to help tell your story, because you’ve been awesome at providing them with the service they deserve. United’s reaction to “United Breaks Guitars” WASN’T a stellar example of a good use of social media. It was the exact opposite – It was knee-jerk crisis management, that would never have had to happen had United been focused on customer service in their marketing to begin with.

It’s About Relevance. It’s not about tweeting every single time your company offers 10% off on a thingamabob. It’s about finding out where your customers actually are, and going after them there. If you’re tweeting all your discounts, and none of your customers are on Twitter, then you sir, are an idiot. Marketing involves knowing your audience, and tailoring your promotions in specific bursts to the correct segments. “Social media experts” don’t know this. They’ll build you a fan page, and when all that work doesn’t convert into new sales, they’ll simply say “Well, we’ll just post more.” Don’t be that guy. Real marketers know when to market using traditional methods, social media, or even word of mouth. Go ahead. Ask a “social media expert” what a traffic planner does at an agency, then laugh as they quickly ask Google for help finding the answer.

It’s About Brevity. You know what the majority of people calling themselves “Social Media Experts” can’t do, among other things? THEY CAN’T WRITE. The number of “experts” out there who can’t string a simple sentence together astounds me. Guess what – If we have about three seconds to get our message across to a new customer, you know what’s going to do it? Not Twitter Followers. Not Facebook Fans. Not Foursquare Check-ins – NO. What’s going to do it is GOOD WRITING, END OF STORY. BAD WRITING IS KILLING AMERICA. Good writing is brevity, and brevity is marketing. Want to lose me as a customer, forever, guaranteed? Have a grammar error on any form of outward communication.

Finally, it’s about knowing your customer, and making sure your customer thinks of you first. When Barry Diller was running Paramount, he’d call ten people in his Rolodex each morning, just to say hi. That translated into all of Hollywood knowing this previously unknown executive’s name, because he took the time to reach out and communicate. It also translated into Paramount making billions in a time where other movie companies were struggling. Do you know your audience? Have you reached out to them? I’m not talking about “tweeting at them,” I’m talking about actually reaching out. Asking them what you can do better? Asking those who haven’t been around in a while what you can do to get them back? It’s not about 10% off coupons or “contests for the next follower.” For God’s sake, be smarter than that.

You’d never give the intern permission to write the corporate press release to accompany an earnings announcement, so why the hell are you listening to the 22-year-old who says “we’re going to do this social media thing because it’s cool?”

Social media is not “cool.” MAKING MONEY IS COOL. Social Media is simply another arrow in the quiver of marketing, and that quiver is designed to GENERATE REVENUE.

If you’re doing anything else with social media, here’s a book of matches, and I expect to never see you again after the smoke clears.

http://www.nothanks.com nothanks

Social media is a pointless and semi-harmful trend that the world will eventually laugh at like leisure suits and 80′s child actors. Listening to manipulative attention whoring douchebags is unwise regardless of how whizzy their delivery mechanism is. Engaging in social media is about as intelligent as publishing your phone number on a get-rich-quick blog and then sitting by your phone waiting for people to call. It’s morbidly stupid. Half of society is entranced with the fact that they have a new tool to get in touch with other people but they have yet to realize that the reason they are not currently in touch with those people is that they are being avoided. But through social media they all now have a forum in which to annoy each other. That will last for a few years till they all simultaneously reach the epiphany of how annoying they are and kill themselves. Oh, and in the meantime, they will have been advertised at by companies hiring “social media experts” to embed themselves and their messages into the various conversations. But as these people will all be dead, the messages will die too and the only thing that will remain is a handful of unemployed social media experts looking for validation that will never come and so they will also kill themselves. I guess what I’m trying to say, people, is grin and bear with it because soon enough all of these useless people and their unimaginably minimal impact on society will pass and they will be gone and the rest of us will look at each other and say: “So, what was that all about?” Then we will go back to whatever we were doing and within a month it will all be forgotten. So be it.
Debbie Wemyss

What an excellent commentary… A reminder of how to stay focused on the basic proven methods (and purpose) of marketing along with being aware of the limitations of the newest toys. Impactful writing – thank you!
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http://www.meetwarrenmiller.com warren

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.”
— Eric Hoffer

I would rather strive to be an expert learner. :)
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https://twitter.com/go2Juliet Chiming In

Peter, you wrote this like a Social Media Expert. You mentioned four things you need to know to market on social media: transparency, relevance, brevity, and knowing your customer. Many of us make that same mistake of thinking what we know about our field is so obvious, why should we have to explain it… it’s self-evident. But guess what, it isn’t like opening the refrigerator. Sometimes it’s like introducing a refrigerator to someone who’s never seen an electric appliance.

Sure, anyone can SAY they’re a social media ‘guru’. I’m the Queen of England. Then again, I think hiring someone with some background in your industry AND demonstrable social media expertise is the way to go.

It’s refreshing to hear you knock the hot air out of all these endless “paradigm shift” speeches and tweets. I think a lot of us feel at this point that talking about “social media” in quixotic terms is about as exciting as watching paint dry.

So I guess I shouldn’t mention that I think there are soc/med uses beyond marketing…in the realm of emergency management, national protests, art, and music, and a shyteload the 22-year-olds haven’t made up yet.

Excellent rant, by the way. I’d stay away from matches and crowds this weekend, if i were you.
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http://scottlazes.com Sal

I found this article through social media (a friend posted it on Facebook, and I caught it in my news feed).

If you think of social media in its simplest form (people using Facebook, Twitter, FourSquare, etc.), I would agree with you, but that perspective is shortsighted. True, it does not take a great deal of intelligence to operate a Facebook or Twitter account, and yes the qualities you listed in the second half of your article are generally important for most business to succeed. But I consider even this comment box (which is loaded with hundreds of entries) a form of social media. What’s written in these forums is less important than what it represents, which is an interactive community on an international scale.

You say that bad writing is killing America. Writing is not necessarily getting worse, you just see a lot more of it. This website alone consists of dozens of pages of code that somebody wrote so we could toss around speculative nonsense.

Social Media doesn’t make great business, great business make great social media. Every successful (legitimate) business has a website and a social media account (or several).

Does everyone need a social media expert? If you can afford one, yes. If you can handle it yourself, then no. Like every profession, there are good social media experts and there are bad ones. Try to find a good one.
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http://greenergrassmedia.com/blog Paul Merrill

I was just amused at your post’s lack of brevity after touting that quality.
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James

THAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANKYOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!

Your Article is on point. So many jerks are running around claiming to be “Social Media Experts” when that is the same as claiming to be an “going to the toilet expert”. Just as social media has become one inevitable aspect of marketing, going to the toilet is just one inevitable part of life. So yes, social media is vital nowadays, but if that’s all you can do professionally you’re worth jeck! If you add some marketing skills to your social media knowledge (and maybe a little more), then we can start talking…
http://www.linkedin.com/in/lindaph Linda Parkinson-Hardman

Oooerr, I may have stepped into a hornets nest here judging by all the comments (vacuous and otherwise) but if ever I read an article that shouted ‘social media guru’ this has to be it.

Social Media never has been about the technology, although the media and the hype seem to think that this is all it is. The clue is in the word ‘social’. It’s always been about people – who they are, what they do and why they do it. The technology is simply a mechanism with which you can start a conversation, now that might be a conversation with a lot of people, but it’s still a conversation and all the rules around good conversations apply.

Firstly, you need to listen to what’s being said without thinking about your reply instead (good listening skills), then you need to have an opinion or comment worthy of being included in the conversation at hand (knowledge and expertise) and finally, you need to have a good understanding of your own and other people’s motivations for taking part in the conversation in the first place.

Of course there are many other elements which I have either ignored or glossed over – but I liken those who ‘get it’ to natural networkers, who use the same skills and interests in a room full of people as they do in a LinkedIn group or Twitter conversation. Those that aren’t natural networkers struggle in the online environment of social networks and seem to just make lots of ‘noise’ instead.

When you are comfortable with true networking skills online and if you genuinely love to hear what other people think, then (and only then) you can call yourself a social media expert.
http://www.bestoffiverr.com Charleen Larson

In 2001, if you didn’t have any usable job skills, you called yourself a webmaster.

In 2011, it’s social media expert.
http://cheapcarinsuranceguide.org/ Rob

@Charleen – hilarious comment. It is sad but true though- social media experts provide as much value as my pinky toe.
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http://toshibaonline.info Toshiba Burton

Liz G I couldn’t agree with you more if you can’t fulfill the needs of your clients then you are wasting your time.
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http://cjstreet.com Carl Street

Peter,

EVERY wannabe “instant coffee”, something-for-nothing, short-cut taking, fundamentals-ignoring, company executive should be forced to memorize this, have it burned into their forehead, and be forced to face Madison Avenue 3x a day and repeat this while kneeling on broken glass.

I have been in sales and marketing since the late 1960′s; and am more “leading edge” with technology than most and I LIVE in Silicon Valley. I am continually amazed at how many so-called intelligent educated executives repeatedly fall for all the techno-alchemy.

I guess some just never get over their romantic belief that there must be techno-magicians that can spin straw into gold. In earlier times they would be the ones running to the end of the rainbow, kissing frogs, and trying to catch fairies. Truly, the more things change; the more they are the same.

Keep up your good work!

Carl Street
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http://www.marketingsurvivalkit.com Marketing Strategies

Social media can be useful and productive for online networking, Linkedin being a good example (and Facebook has that potential if it’s properly developed and maintained), but there are a heck of a lot of people spinning their wheels and wasting their time with social media marketing; and, I’m making an educated guess that the ROI on SMM is small to non-existent in the vast majority of cases. I haven’t had any personal experience with so-called experts or gurus, but I’m on leaning toward the skeptical side.
http://wirelessalarmsreview.co.uk Neill

I agree and disagree with the original post. I agree that social media marketing should not be the sole driver of a website or product and pursued in isolation. Rather it should be part of the marketing and SEO mix. If somebody wants to class themselves as a social media marketing guru that’s fine with me, just so long as they don’t portray it as the new kid on the block and that everything taught in the past is history and should be ignored. On the other hand, it appears that social networking is having a major influence on Google rankings post Panda. Just listen to the 1 minute video from Matt Cutts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2jYJV9zHy04
I’ve been around the internet and doing SEO since the 90s. Personally, I hate social media but in an endeavour to keep my Google ranking I’m doing all I can to bring myself up to speed with it – without having to hire a guru. And let’s not forget the other new kid on the block who is related to social media and developing at a massive rate – mobile marketing. It may be another shiny thing but we ignore both at our peril…………
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http://www.ubwebs.com/ hire a developer

Oh, I also have about 20 years experience in both marketing (in many areas and levels) and in resort and other development and operations. Been there, done that (at least to a fairly extensive level), got the tshirt.

So, I agree with Peter Shankman, you need people who’ve rolled their sleeves up and worked to engage with people (customers, partners, stakeholders) and are not just playing with the latest shiny tool.

However, yes, people pay me, and yes they pay me to help them with social media. Guilty.
http://www.mthai.tv mthai

peter, thanks you for restoring what it should be the simple common sense…
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http://renegade-advertising.com Travus

For me, twitter is all about a one-on-one connection with your customers. Hiring someone to do your twitter post for you kinda defeats the purpose. Many, if not most, of the messages directed towards your account will require some know-how in your area of expertise, and followers will want to see messages that fit with who they think they are following. either way, someone else managing your twitter wouldn’t be able to provide that.
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http://www.hounkpe-media.fr Samuel

I just got here from twitter, and all i can say is, “you spoke my mind”, and someting more : may i translate your article on my french website?
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http://www.bravematters.com Peter Wyro

I think we’re in for this discussion about every 10 years. If we turn the clock back, anyone who had access to web development tools could jump into the fray. It took a while before companies and marketers started saying that there’s more to marketing than software or a nifty new interactive channel. Marketing is still marketing; understanding who your customers are, developing insights about their perceptions and developing effective strategies that reach and help activate them to do something that ultimately leads to profit. On the good side, it’s relatively easy to differentiate a strategic approach from another firm that sells clicks and tweets and eyeball counts, but there’s so much noise out there that I’m sure it’s confusing and intimidating for clients.

There IS a social component to social marketing, but simply means that there’s more transparency in measuring how communities and brands interact. You still need to know a thing or two about how to research, plan, execute, measure and optimize to make it a worthwhile investment for any client.

Well said.
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http://websiteurl optifex

By this standard, then, having someone stand on the street and offer a ten percent discount is useless, too. In fact, in many sectors, especially service sectors, people go online to search for their doctor, lawyer, etc. And if you haven’t done your vertical search marketing, you’re not getting called. And guess what, it doesn’t matter if you’re the best doctor in Manhattan, you’re going out of business. Why? Because no one knows your there. In today’s world, build it and they will come no longer works, not just for the web, but also for mortar and pestle businesses sometimes now, too. And you’re also presupposing that all these experts in their field even know the first thing about computers. They may be all the way to the extreme of not knowing how to check their email. So it would be specious reasoning to know that these, say, ancient politicians, are aware they need to have a social presence, and even have the TIME to do these things. Should the person’s sole job be social media marketing? Probably not. Maybe they could help with the web or admin work. But it can be a death knoll to certain businesses to avoid this, and while maybe in 20 years it won’t be a job description, it’s putting your head in the sand to ignore it now.
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http://www.411grfx.com LuAnn Roberto

my litany to all my clients! Amen, Peter!
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Mat

As I have been using social media as a marketing tool and a gateway into meeting new opportunities…I would have to say that you have had a bad experience, or you’re just not seeing the big picture here. You’re referring to Social Media as the coined phrase of Social Network Marketing which everyone does, and kudos to you for knowing how to blog with the right keywords in place. What you’re not doing is using statistics to back anything up here when brands like Skittles, Coca Cola, Pepsi and countless other power houses are pushing money into a market that is creating easier ways to push their campaigns out.

I don’t disagree that there are a lot of people claiming the expert role in social media, and as a person who’s been deep within the industry for over 7 years, no one can be anymore annoyed than myself or anyone else who’s been forced to hear the bullshit people spew on the subject. Saying that someone’s an idiot because they’re tweeting on twitter their 10% discount isn’t the approach people need to hear to make a change. Name calling doesn’t work well, but statistics (real ones that is) and case studies help more with any type of situation.

There’s nothing wrong with getting yourself on social networks and giving discounts, contests and all the other good stuff that goes on, if there’s other avenues being created to increase the traffic that generates an ROI to fund that information.

In my experience you should create a social networking account for Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest etc… and have a regular posting experience with your already obtained customers. This helps with those customers having an easier way to spread any information with the least amount of effort, and rehashing your product to them as well. Increasing your social efforts should be relevant with the increase in the business as a whole.

I’ve never read your blog before but when coming into someone’s blog and reading it as a rant that has a “wah wah listen to me i’m so angry and i’m right so listen now!” type of attitude, why would I want to even read anymore? You have a following already so i’m sure that you don’t care what I think, however, the people I work with in the industry do and that’s because they know my professional background and respect my opinion. So before defending why you don’t care just know it’s OK that you don’t. Good Luck to you.
Mat

obviously you have no clue what common sense is..keep drinking his kool-aid…
Mat

small companies will have little ROI on social media, but that’s why spending or having someone within your company working this out. You need a presence, it’s the amount of time and effort put into that at the right times is what the bad thing is for most.
http://profile.yahoo.com/OTTZ7LCRIT7XTZNPCXBMYOBEGU Maria

i am sure you are a “social media expert” LOL
http://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=5221071 Ginger Ale

This is a provocative opinion, but it lacks support, so it comes out as outdated and biased. What are your facts for your claims? You states that social media experts can’t write. Really? We are generalizing this much? Yes, they are many and probably too many people who call themselves social media experts when in reality they have no understanding on how to use new emerging communications technologies to increase sales, but maybe then the problem is on the companies that will rather hire cheap labor than a real expert. So maybe the question is: Why are businesses not investing in social media experts?
John

The Article outcome states whats the Social Media purpose is for and its effects……just look at the people following this post and commenting on it……..

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