Good points all Peter as usual. Haven’t met Sarah, but am sure since you’re working together she’s very credible as well.

I would say anyone who doesn’t know how to optimize a press release to make it more easy to search on Google and simply post releases as blog posts on a regular basis without any personal attachment to the blog.

Those who have no awareness of how to communicate with other social media leaders to get their clients visibility because they’re not part of the community with no personal connection whatsoever, nor have the credibility within that community or awareness of what makes them tick, but are simply spamming.

There’s others, but it’s late and I don’t want to give away all my secrets!:)

Bingo!

You wouldn’t hire a gardener without checking for dirt under the fingernails, would you?

I agree. I was voted Who’s Who in Technology back in early 2000 and always find it interesting when new people claim to know more than I do. I’ve also run a blogging group, a technology group, and attended numerous conferences on the topic.

I love technology and what we’re able to achieve using these tools. There’s always something you can learn which is why it’s so exciting. I find if someone pushes buying Google ad words that is an indication the person doesn’t know other more organic ways of communicating online.

There’s others, but I’m tired. Thanks for creating this! Very helpful!

They appear to have no life at all a part from posting about their “Free ebook” or Free training deals.

They also have no other photos except their one profile picture.

All of the above is so true.

Love the list and agree with the vast majority of it Peter. However I’ll take cause with 11 – MySpace (Full disclosure: I worked for them in LA until January) is still huge and a lot of traffic (and this includes FB) is from older users. A while back 40% of all moms online have a MySpace account (http://marketingtomoms.blogspo.....space.html). Probably dwindled slightly (will have to check comScore etc) but I wouldn’t count it out for a campaign to create awareness in that market etc.

P.

PS – Fancy being interviewed for the PR Week blog?

Great post. I’d add “rock star” to #1 and #2. Bruce Springsteen is a rock star, people.

This is a great post. I’ve been getting a little weary with people claiming to be social media experts. I’d been thinking of writing a post like this, but it doesn’t fit with my blog theme. At any rate, after 10 years of blogging – I was an innovator in 1999 on the open diary – and experiencing the rise and fall of Second Life – and hanging out on Plurk and, and, and, I still don’t think I’m an expert – and I have nearly 20 years of PR experience to apply to social media….

Peter and Sarah, you nailed it. Our network of PRConsultants are admittedly not promoting themselves as social media experts, but we were smart enough to invite Sarah to our annual conference to share with us her expertise. I believe all marketing professionals have to just jump in… the water’s fine!… and play in the space before you can really learn and grow as practitioners, and to be of service to our clients. Hey, not everyone can be an guru, but we can be wise sherpas helping our clients up the mountain, right?

Good stuff Peter. I’ve taken a look at the flip side of the coin and came up with a list of 5 signs you’ve picked the right Social Media practitioner: http://www.rickliebling.com/20.....ctitioner/

(cross-commented on Shankman.com)

First, inquiring minds want to know – did Peter or Sarah author 2nd sentence of #5? ;) Also, while there may be some truth to #11, folks shouldn’t summarily dismiss MySpace given its size and reach. After all, The White House included MySpace as part of its strategy (http://www.myspace.com/whitehouse) and other government agencies trying to reach certain demos should look at it as well (think DoD).

I’m just delighted by the PR people dropping in to say “Oh, I SOOOO agree, my rock star thought leader expert firm can’t stand those people because [insert unimpressive credential paragraph here].”

Social media is a tool, not a plan or a strategy. Being a social media expert is like being a scissor expert. I guess it would be cool to know all about the different kinds of scissors out there and what they do – but I wouldn’t let you cut my hair.

Thank you for taking the time to read the post and respond. I’m having a good time reading responses and learning what others would include on the list.

Best,
Sarah
http://www.twitter.com/prsarahevans
http://prsarahevans.com

This is the post of the summer, Peter and Sarah. I firmly believe that you have to practice what you preach and I think it’s about time we stood up and openly discussed the importance of practice as opposed to theory. I can recall the story I heard about someone teaching people how to use Facebook for $1,500. Unreal. Oh and here’s one for you. “Anyone who claims to have the “secrets of success.” That’s always a dead giveaway.

Angela Connor | @communitygirl

I loved this list. When I tell others in the business about HARO and they have no idea what I’m talking about and then brush me off as another 20 something blonde in PR, and don’t ask me more about it, I just smile:)
I also like the point that no one is an expert! There is always something to learn, which is exciting.

You hit the proverbial nail on the head with this article. With new social media tools added everyday to the internet it’s virtually impossible to be an “expert”. Thanks for sharing.

I’d add a few good indicators to match the bad:
- If someone tells you they don’t know everything, that’s a good thing.
- If someone says “we’re all still learning the best ways to use these tools,” that’s a good thing.
- If someone admits the metrics aren’t perfect, that’s a good thing.

And, as the inverse, run away from anyone who tells you they know it all, that everything’s nailed down, and they have the perfect solution to every problem.

Oh, also, I agree with Paul: MySpace got 70 million logins in May. That’s 70,000,000. A network that big is worth investigating. I’m not saying it’s the answer to everything, but especially for gov’t folks, trying to be go where the people are means including all potential audiences.

Thank you for having the stones to stand up and say this (and giving some good tips and tricks by which to analyze their “experts”).

“Social Networking” (for lack of a better term) isn’t a tip, trick, tool or strategy. It’s a way of life (or at least it will be in the very near future). Building on #10 – another way to tell if someone isn’t an expert is if they let you think you can compartmentalize your “social media” efforts away from everything else you do.

Added to #23 – another key sign they’re not a “guru” is if they talk about how many “hits” or “impressions” the campaign produced.

Peter, Sarah, this is a great list. We published a shorter version on this very topic about a year ago: http://traackr.com/blog/?p=36 I’d say it’s still valid for the most part.

If anything, I’ve become more radical on this issue than I was then and I would advise to stay away altogether from anyone claiming expertise in the field of social media. There has definitely been people behind quite a few social media success stories and there is a handful of social media superstars but it would be quite a stretch to call most of them an expert (ref. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expert).

Peter and Sarah:

Great points to be sure…I thought you might enjoy reading a post on the same topic which can be viewed at: http://www.n2growth.com/blog/s.....or-wannabe

Thanks Peter and Sarah…

I’m trying to dip my toe in and learn more about social media because, currently as an internet sales consultant I represented 30% of sales and over 25.5 million in revenue last year for my company but I’m still trying to figure out how to learn more about this and implement it to be even more productive at bringing in sales for a company. Any suggestions (or companies to work with to learn more about social media would be awesome!)

Great points! I’ve an instant distrust of *anyone* who calls him/herself an “expert” or “guru,” no matter what the field. And it’s amazing how many “experts” have 102 Twitter followers and have never actually had a client or run a campaign.

No published case studies? They’re not experts.

I’d add that if they believe your organization is going to just “adopt and adapt” without some discussion of how change actually occurs in your organization, run the other way.

And to points 1 and 2, yes, my business card does say evangelist. I got the title on the Internet Explorer team in 1997 and people tell me it fits.

This is a great post. It really helps me to understand who (or who NOT) to hire for strategic insight re: social media. In corporate PR, it is difficult to navigate expertise from hype. I have worked on the agency side, I understand the game, but this is a refreshing post – particularly in this economy.

Great post! I definitely agree about MySpace… while they may have millions of users, none of the users are targets of my organization. Additionally, I am finding that not only do different organizations/companies require varied and strategic social media plans, but each project requires something different. There is definitely no one-size-fits-all approach to public relations anymore. Thanks for sharing!

Ahem – have to say that I found number five to be very much the truth as well as worthy of a good chuckle as well.
Great stuff here for novices and, uhm, “Experts” to pay attention to, thanks Peter and Sarah!

“If I claim to be a wise man it surely means I don’t know.”. Kansas

“If I claim to be a wise man it surely means that I don’t know.”. Kansas

Peter, Sarah,

I posted a list of 3 tips to eval a Web 2.0 counsultant(http://www.cloudspark.com/2009/02/11/3-tips-to-evaluate-your-web-20-consultant/), you detailed it into 25 great items. As with any new area of marketing, people looking for experts need to know just what to look for and be cautious of anyone who doesn’t have the facts. In fact, I’m sure there is a SecondLife guru/expert somewhere still blogging about how its the wave of the future and you “have to be there” or you will fail…

Thanks for sharing.

“Your expert lists a bunch of sites but fails to demonstrate how he/she made the association relevent to conversion for their clients, who are…”

“only mentions Google Analytics as a validation tool.”

“uses ROI in every sentence.”

Keep up the great work Peter!

You hit this subject matter on the head. A few times I’ve posted on other blogs regarding this as well as on FriendFeed. One person that I noticed lately has 25 people on Facebook and 60 on twitter, but had in their profile social media expert. I’m sorry, but that is disturbing since they simply were pushing links of their four blogs several times a day and telling people how they can get 16k twitter followers in a month. Give me a break!

On the positive note your blog post will raise peoples awareness.

I believe that While on FriendFeed this week George Dearing was talking about PR agencies starting to implement social media. The conversation by the PR agencies started to trickle in about how expensive it was and that they’d have to pass it on to the customers. My input was that they’d have to be careful who they selected and had to add some criteria (won’t rehash it here). But they need experience with accounts, several thousand conversations, … before they could possibly considered having any expertise.

Great Post by the way!

Hi Peter,
So glad to see you talking about this.

Another red flag I’ve run across is if the so-called expert doesn’t talk about your goals and an all-encompassing marketing strategy that integrates Social Media as one part of a larger plan. This is key! Few people make money off of a Twitter page (or Facebook page) all by itself. You need an effective Website and likely a blog too at the very least.

Also, if they only talk about the latest tricks and tools, but know nothing of tried and true methods like posting to forums or online article databases, watch out. These are wonderful, inexpensive ways to promote your business online that many newbies aren’t even thinking about as they’re too busy becoming “experts” in the latest and greatest.

Thanks for sharing!

Stacy

Stacy Karacostas
Practical Marketing Expert
http://www.success-stream.com

It’s very interesting to consider that this post is necessary, isn’t it? It seems that every time there’s a new technology, “experts” spring up who convince others of their expertise. When they fail to generate positive outcomes, everyone blames the technology.

Hmmm…

Social media is simply another tool. We’ve had forms of it for decades, but the tools have gotten easier and the critical mass of Internet availability means more people can use them. This is all good, I think. But ultimately we’re still all just people learning to relate and using tools to help us do that.

The converse point: how does one communicate about those who have actually understood social media before the term was coined (take Dave Winer and Carl Malamud, for instance) in the sea of “trade press experts?”

Eric, I can’t take any credit for #5. It was all Peter. ;)

Regarding so-called experts . . .

Once upon a time, a Zen monk went on a quest to find the greatest Zen Master in the world. After many long years of searching he found that Master. To make his approach, he was forced to climb a huge mountain and, after days of climbing, he reached the feet of the Master.

‘Master,’ he said, ‘year after year have I searched, with a single goal in mind. Please, please tell me how I might become a great Zen Master like you.’

‘Print up some business cards’, replied the Master.

That about sums up the current state of things.

Sarah and Peter,

Thanks for a great blog. As someone with a little dirt in my nails, I question anyone who claims to be an expert in this new realm. An expert is someone who has dealt with something on an ongoing basis for years.

Agree with Sherri. Social media is a tactic to be integrated into a larger plan. There’s a similar article with a Land of Oz twist just posted today: http://tinyurl.com/mvep2j
LinkedIn, Twitter and Blogs, oh My! Social Networking in the Land of Oz

Wow. You know I read this post hoping to finally ‘out’ myself as a NOT a social media expert, but surprisingly I don’t commit any of the crimes listed. I’m not sure if that is comforting or unsettling.

I don’t consider myself a social media ‘expert’, yet most of my copywriting clients beg me to assess what their ‘gurus’ are doing for their money.

It is a scary world we live in where so many people have been burned by folks just out for a quick buck that they just want honest advice wherever they can find it.

My approach is to offer an initial consultation to at least give a 101 crash course, stem the flow of cash to useless tactics and hopefully arm them with enough savvy to at least be able to make more educated choices on who to hire in the future.

I’d say the biggest problem for clients is the media hype. Everyone thinks they MUST get 100,000 Twitter followers, but then have no clue what to do with them! Same with ‘getting on Facebook’ and ‘having good PR’. If a social media stat doesn’t translate to revenue, it’s not valuable.

Great Advice! I am breaking into the social media world as a new blogger and have found this article very helpful. Look forward to hearing more. Thanks!

Great post. Love the intern comment. : ) I would add: no mention of reputation management.

Great post – I couldn’t agree more!

That’s like me positioning myself as a PR expert. Just because I’ve been in PR for close to 20 years doesn’t mean I know it all. I have a lot of experience supporting multiple clients needs across a wide spectrum of integrated PR programs, but even then, I still learn something new every day. Plus, the approach taken for every client is different. The same is true for social media. None of us can profess to be experts when there’s still so much to learn.

I agree with Peter and Sarah on the MySpace issue. Sure, they may have had 70,000,000 logins, but who are those people logging in…and what type of information are they there for? My husband is a musician so he has a MySpace page, but he’s also on Facebook and finds that to be a much better reach to his audience. Too many MySpace users are kid bands and strippers who just want to post their ads everywhere.
(I could be wrong; I don’t claim to be a social media expert in any way, shape or form!)

love this – I’ve been scoffing at the term “guru” for a while and it always seems particularly ridiculous applied to social media – which is really still a rapidly developing field that seems to change week by week.

Good article! Along these lines, I receive email at least once a week from someone claiming their company can get my site moved further up the search engine food chain. Funny how these emails always come from Gmail or a similar free email account instead of a company I could check on to see if it were at the top of the search engine list itself. I suspect the social media are becoming so important that it will not be long before many of these “experts” are outright frauds, as these search engine gurus seem to be, rather than merely being instant experts.

This is so ironic! I was stopping by shankman.com to find out more about HARO and stumbled upon this post. I just wrote something this morning discussing the fact that it seems most of the people who are following me on Twitter are “social media experts” that are promising me to make me rich. This reminds me of when I heard Scott Stratten speak and he talked about how he hated it when people said that they make “viral” videos. “You’re not the one who gets to decide if it’s ‘viral’ or not,” was his reply. Funny. My post is here – http://bit.ly/i5BsD – but in fairness, only the beginning deals specifically with social media “experts.” Thanks for the GREAT post!

Love, four paws up and funny as usual! Wow, I should show this to the Seattle based socially wise crowd that is full of self proclaimed experts. Gotta get it off my card before I am outed!

Great post Peter and Sarah. You hit it dead on as I can’t tell you how many times I have heard the word “expert” from people pitching me their services. Google is a beautiful thing.

I couldn’t agree more! Thanks to Corey Perlman for posting this on FB! There is a rush of senior care “Experts” that have taken care of one parent, one time, and now they’re an expert?
I am worried about readers taking all info out there as gospel just because it’s written by a so called expert.
Thanks for bringing attention to this!

Good piece, but I’m inclined to object to gauging by specific references to tool use (blogs, MySpace, for example). Seems to me like strategy and needs should drive what tools you use. Sometimes Twitter might be the right tool; sometimes a blog might not make sense…

I also would welcome a follow up blog post to discuss responder Jeremy Leven’s “good indicators”–a list, sure, but also a discussion around what it means as a communications professional to say “I don’t know” or “I’m still learning” or “the metrics aren’t perfect” (I agree, btw) and still make it understood that that IS a good thing.

Excellent advice! There are too many “instant experts” out there. Thanks for sharing.

Love it, four paws up and funny as usual! Wow, I should show this to the Seattle based socially wise crowd that is full of self proclaimed experts. Gotta get it off my card before I am outed!

Nicely done. When my (copywriting) clients ask me about social media, I tell them an “expert” is anyone who has been on twitter six months longer than you.

HMMMMM!! Sounds like my industry. Saying you are a travel agent just because you like to travel. Look for professionals in every industry. Those with qualifications, experience and certifications. You hit the nail on the head and hope you get a lot of people thinking about how they are being taken. Thanks

Social Media, is to PR & Marketing what Photoshop was to artists. If you suck as an artist, you will create crap with Photoshop. Social Media is just another tool, like the telephone, email, or press release.

Awesome list, Peter. I particularly like #4: (All of a firm or agency’s “social media strategists” come from traditional PR or Marketing agencies). *sigh*

Very well done. Great companion to this post: http://thebrandbuilder.wordpre.....qualified/

I’m going to be sharing this.

I would add beware any strategy that doesn’t include active engagement (actually reading, and posting, on blogs, replying to Tweets, blah blah) needs to be avoided as well.

Great points…but I’d add one more Kinsey analogy: Passion. Is your social media expert passionate about social media and about your business?

#17 quoted for truth.

Couldn’t agree more! Thanks for this, Peter!

Would love to see more articles like this. Very helpful!

Okay, about to Tweet about this with a link. :-)

This is great stuff. I am usually suspicious at the outset if someone uses guru. Just seems to be one of those hype words. Thanks for the article.

This is awesome! Traditional marketing firms charging for a Facebook Fan page? Then who is there to engage with the community? Just like Jeff Turner says, “You can have SEO without YEO (you, engaging others).

I agree with most of what you’ve written here. There are a lot of people who do call themselves an expert, yet have really done nothing, have no testimonials from clients and recommend the very basics for which they want to be highly paid. I’ve also seen those ads where they charge to set you up basic social networks. If a person can’t be bothered to do this themself, they’ll probably never update or use the site, so why bother?

The only thing I do disagree with is the use of MySpace. It is NOT only for 14 years old, and if used PROPERLY and CREATIVELY as a marketing tool, you can see some great results. Like Facebook, you can connect with people in the book, music, film industry (or others) and those connections can lead to great opportunities.

I have personally connected with 3 New York Times bestselling authors on MySpace. No where else were they as easily accessible. Those connections resulted in one wonderful book review blurb for Whale Song (2007), and the other two will blurb my new novel once a publishing deal has been made.

I have also negotiatied with people in the film industry, all from MySpace. I’ve met actors via MySpace who have read my novels as a result.

And don’t forget, for a while MySpace was the #1 social network for everyone and Facebook started off as a school reunion type site, and for many is still used mainly to connect with old friends and family. Facebook has its purpose too as a networking tool.

So no, MySpace isn’t just a kids’ site. You just need to learn how to use it properly for whatever product or service you’re marketing. You don’t need to use every social network available, since new ones are popping up all the time, but I highly recommend to authors that they have Facebook, MySpace and Twitter as the very basics in marketing.

Cheryl Kaye Tardif,
bestselling author and book marketing coach
http://www.shamelessbookpromoter.com
http://www.cherylktardif.com

Your post was amazing and I plan to share this with others, you are right on. I’ve seen so many become speakers and yet you don’t see what they teach reflected in their own business. I’m sorry to see people be taken advantage of however it’s a good reminder that we need to do our homework before spending dollars.

Thanks, this was extremely helpful!

This list reminds me of the “Are You An Alcoholic” checklists put out by people who make money treating alcoholism. If you add enough warning signs, EVERYONE but the list maker is an alcoholic!

Hi
Agree with your points and so many brands are actually using social networking in a brand damaging way. The first point, however, should be anyone who works on your brand should always lead with questions @ the consumer, the brand and the business objectives – and then develop a strategy for how social media could help fulfill these objectives, complemeting other communication efforts as you highlight in #18.

Social media enables a more direct and transparent dialogue with your consumers and your influencers – it is not another “push marketing” one way dialogue communication vehicle.

Looking forward to the wave of strategic and innovative social media strategies as marketers really understand how they can better connect with consumers.

It would be great to develop a list of the best in class examples for us to share

Sarah, having had the pleasure to have met and have dinner with Peter, I had a sneaking suspicion that he was the one to have come up with #5! ;)

Great points.

I also blogged about this very issue on Dan Schawbel’s blog as a guest poster.

The article is titled: Could your Social Media “Expert” Be A Fake?
http://personalbrandingblog.co.....be-a-fake/

Enjoy

I love this! I worked for a company who had no clue how to incorporate social media into a traditional PR campaign. When I told hem about the tools, sites and numerous ideas and approaches to this it just “didn’t make sense to them.” Are you kidding me??? I tell all of my freelance clients the importance of having a well-rounded PR campaign and that includes social media, and not just Twitter and Facebook (although it’s a start if they have nothing) but SEO, blogs, and more grassroots and interactive approachs to publicity.

I don’t know what’s better, the post itself or some of the SM experts defending certain points…

Awesome. I have no problem with the list, since you didn’t call out “Social Media Jedi’s”. Cause that’s what I am.

Shazam

Many of the comments here have complained against people who bill themselves as experts (and rightfully so), but the thing is, to most clients, if you offer a service, they assume you’re an expert. Don’t you expect expertise when you pay for a service? Aren’t your current clients expecting you to have expertise in your field, even if you don’t call yourself a guru?

great and thanks… but I’m new out there, & looking for a coach, a real expert… so now that I know what NOT to go for, how do I do to get to the right person?
I might sound stupid and apologise, but It has been 1 week now I launch “SOS”… so if you know someone, please let me know.

xxx

Mag

Enjoyed the post and banter. Keep it coming!

Awesome. Lots of pretenders out there (for the record, I do NOT consider myself to be a social media expert).

Btw: I think a related discussion is that no, social media is not equally important to every marketing mix. For some companies, certain “traditional” marketing channels are going to continue to be the most efficient in terms of lead generation. Equally offensive as the self-appointed social media blowhards are those who sneer at any marketing approach that’s NOT social as if it’s somehow passe. Yeah, there are new social opportunities that should be qualified and investigated accordingly. But the self-appointed social folks that summarily dismiss all other marketing channels as if they are no longer legit are being pretty disingenuous, IMO.

This was a good post.

I love it and I get it because this exists in the traditional marketing world as well – I take serious issue with the loads of graphic designers, web developers and even social media experts who swear they can help you with your marketing when in fact they are woefully unprepared to do so. (You inspired me to blog about this issue as well.) But I have to agree with the posters who take issue with # 4 because it sounds like you are suggesting that an old dog can’t learn new tricks? I have to disagree. All great agencies are constantly evolving to understand and integrate new tools and technologies to provide their clients with a truly comprehensive marketing strategy. I don’t think it’s fair to infer that a traditional marketer cannot at least pursue a true understanding and capability with social media. On the contrary, I think that evolving in this way is precisely what defines a great agency.

my tweet about this:

Don’t learn about sex from Kinsey’s manuals/don’t hire social media strategists who read blog posts to become experts. http://bit.ly/12eth

(I’m an accountant by training and know better than to add nothing that matters – great article!

While I see some of your points, lists like these usually reflect the writer’s professional experience, likes & dislikes (me/us vs. “that guy”) and are used to point out phonies rather than promote good examples.

I mean, do you consider yourself “experts”? Who would you identify as an expert? Can someone do things differently than you, read different blogs than you, have different friends and still be considered a social media expert?

Or has the role become so narrowly defined that what you’re really saying is that a social media expert is someone who has done what you have done and had the same level of your success as you but just has been doing it longer?

I’m not trying to be antagonistic but it seems easier to point out the bad examples (never by name) than highlight people who are making their way along the path and are slowly “getting it”. I mean people have to start from somewhere and get experience.

Two blog posts per month is considered active now? Maybe I should get started again then ;)

so the really big money will be in the “certification” programs and ensuing professional associations (dues,dues,dues!).

workin’ on those now…:)

Liz, here are a few indicators. If they say anything like:

1. Witty Tweets cost extra
2. I’m so su.pr bit.ly
3. Customers don’t care about the product, just that I’m on Facebook.
4. I am implying that I am suggestive.
5. How will we do it? Brand. How much will it cost? Brand. Will you see results? Brand.

Also, a lot of times when they sneeze – Ahhhh-douche! – they follow with a Bless Me.

I think another signal is when someone says they can “do it for you.” If a SM contractor does copywriting, the client needs to put his/her mark on it and approve it. It’s good to have a system for creating and approving messages and copy. Handing a contractor the passwords and a brand guideline isn’t enough.

But I do think it is reasonable to pay someone to write social media copy and pay them to manage distribution, but only with good communication.

I try to avoid calling myself an expert, except ironically. You can tell when I’m being ironic if I’m talking, tweeting or blogging. All other times I’m completely non-ironic.

Bruce Springsteen WAS a rock star, peeps. Maybe you missed the early part of his career, that being from the 70′s 80′s and 90′s.

Great post, exactly the reason I don’t add social media guru extraordinaire to my website (even though I am one)

I totally get where Peter and Sarah are coming from. It is annoying to have put so much into building a reputable career and then have to watch unscrupulous opportunists who sell snake-oil to the masses. Enough of those smooth operators could eventually begin to tarnish the credibility of those who really are sincere in their efforts! What exactly is an “expert” anyway? I have worked in the career development field for ten years, have four certifications, hundreds of hours of continued education, and have helped thousands of people to figure out what they do best and how to get paid for it. Other people tend to refer to me as an “expert,” but I am not comfortable with that because it implies that I know everything. (I refer to myself as a “professional.”) That being said, it does annoy me to see all of these “career coaches” that are popping up everywhere and claiming to be experts because they have critiqued a couple of resumes! It is true, people have to start somewhere. But the reality is that just like the numerous “career experts” popping up all over the place, there are a whole lot of bandwagonesque “social media experts” who are neither expert, nor professional! The important thing for the “newbie” to consider is transparency, honesty, and sincerity and the newbie’s audience needs to recognize that they are only going to get what they pay for!

Yippee! Yes, this post is like hearing myself think… and I believe it’s dead-on with what many of us are feeling these days. I’d like to add “Unshared Egos” to your list, because as Torley Wong blogged back in March about these snake oil salesmen: “Social media is all about exchanging resources, be it knowledge or tangible goods.”

http://www.wisebread.com/7-way.....alesperson

Love all the nods and smiles on this one. Makes me feel not so alone :) Thanks for bringing Sarah into the conversation!

@Liz (#67) it’s one thing to be starting along the “path”, so to speak. It’s quite another to be such and present yourself as highly knowledgeable (and worth large sums of cash). I find it hard to put your comments together with the post. Peter and Sarah didn’t suggest that if you don’t read their RSS feed, you’re not worthy to be considered an expert. Rather, it is a caution for those neophytes to be cautious about those who can barf up some buzz words. Sadly, those most likely to benefit from this advice are the least likely to find this.

Really, quite helpful. I am deluged by people who say they are the savior in SM. I could spend all day reviewing pitches. As I see it, in the long term, things will resolve to people logging into everything through Twitter and Facebook. Facebook will run ads, for $, and people will click on them. At that point, Facebook controls the new media and the new resembles the old, where NBC would run ads and control the media. Replace NBC with Facebook and television with internet and you have a very similar model. Kind of what AOL was going for. The conversation is in danger because of hucksters. Carl, you are right about people not finding this because they are sort of lazy and will look for womeone to serve it up, Altop style. Does anyone have time to read their Altop site?

You can have all the social media available to you but if you don’t have the right sales person to build a relationship with a “fan” a “prospect” a “customer” and then sell the product, I’m not sure what it really matters if your twittering, blogging, facebooking, etc….

I feel that your social media “expert” is the one who knows your product, knows your client and or target audience and knows how to engage them interactively to ultimately find the product that fits their needs…once you’ve taken the time to discover what it is they are interested in and need.

It sounds like a lot of people are trying to make their role relevant as a Social Mediaist, when I, as a sales consultant think without 20 years of PR background etc, I can find the right social media tools to find the people I’d sell to for a company… I don’t need to be en expert, have a PR company etc to implement a social media plan, I need to be a creative thinker and figure out where the audience is for my product, go there and create relationships.

What amuses me is that every client insists on being pitched as the sine qua non of whatever it is he’s selling, but expects honesty from his SM “expert”.

Think of SM experts’ hype as their best demonstrations of what you want them to do for you.

@Leah awesome point! You said it best…

“I don’t need to be an expert, have a PR company etc to implement a social media plan, I need to be a creative thinker and figure out where the audience is for my product, go there and create relationships.”

@Leah – Yes, yes, yes! Well said, indeed.

@John Arleth – I would never be so impolite as to call that ‘lazy’. *ahem* Seriously, though, there are many who are quite ignorant of social media. They would be unlikely to find this article, and the most likely to be taken advantage of by these, um, less-than-scrupulous gurus.

I was a little leary of lazy. My apologies. There is no question, though, to hire an expert to help you, without having done a lot of research, first, is shall we say, short sighted. Peter nailed it when he mentioned Chris Brogan. I follow Chris closely and I don’t bother with many others. Except, Peter, of course. I read his email like a religion because there are real people asking real questions. Kind of a pulse of America exchange. I also read every ad and check most of there sites. Actually buy a lot of what I read about. It’s fun to have this exchange. The last one I remember is the PR guy who said Memphis was terrible, which he learned while visiting a client. I learned that the internet can be a painful place to learn social graces. So, again, sorry I referred to lazy. Just shows how lazy I was to type it, worry about it and sent it anyway.

Or, they tell you that they’ll take your social media presence “to the next level…”

Right, sure. Sell crazy somewhere else. I’m all stocked up. ;)

Peter and Sarah: I had to come back to this post and share a link about a company hiring an “influential blogger and social media expert.” That is ripped directly from the headline.
http://idek.net/JRc
I don’t know the woman they hired so this could very well be true but I found the headline quite appropriate for this post which has been extremely popular today.
Angela Connor

Great post! I wrote about the same topic back in February. Vented actually. I’m an American working in India and it’s worse here… http://american-in-delhi.blogs.....media.html

@John Arleth – no offense taken. Mostly, I felt it important to expand the idea to include the naive, along with the lazy (and there are the lazy ones, too).

And I have the same opinion of Mr. Brogan. And am glad I didn’t diss Memphis will visiting Fed Ex’s office. ;)

Social media isn’t brain surgery – you can become quite proficient quickly. I think I would agree that having a broad expanse of experience helps you connect the dots more quickly.

Social media is just another tool set – and really – not that complicated. Complex, but not complicated – make sense?

Phenomenal post and I agree with all that is mentioned by yourself and Sarah and the contributors who have posted~ One must execute the entire picture for the client if one is to succeed . It is by far more than FB and twitter ~ P.S. we dont say those words` we implement action and show and create and teach
S

I agree with Jennifer, strategy drives what communications tools you use to engage with your target audience.

Social media should be integrated into your public relations, marketing and customer service efforts. It’s not a stand alone strategy nor should it be one “guru” or select group of people that implement “add-on” activites to existing programs. Integration is the key and anyone who says or does differently doesn’t get it.

This is by far the best blog I ever read! It is so timely with people and companies espousing to be experts and you create a checklist to expose them as frauds!

Thank you!

Doh! I call myself a web-ninja… is that in the same ilk as “guru”? ;p

Great article – Very similar to this brilliant piece I read recently too: http://www.briansolis.com/2009.....thorities/

For the most part, I agree with the statements made in this article. I find the list quite funny actually. You have to be careful however, not all social media professionals spend a lot of time utilizing social media to promote themselves and their own name. I work on behalf of clients and 80% of my time in SMMarCom is devoted to the promotion and fulfillment of their needs.
I work for a strategic communication firm that has been dealing with social media as a marketing tool for over 5 years. Prior to that I was with some very progressive Fortune 100 companies that were utilizing social media, back then we referred to it as Omni-Media strategy. The better part of my day is spent developing social media programs and platforms for my clients. By the time I get home I am not so interested in tweeting or blogging for myself.
Trust me, if you spend 6 hours every day writing twitterscripts or bloggerscripts, the last thing you would be interested in doing is updating your facebook page or conversing with a friend in a virtual chat room. After 6pm my house goes tech free and an old fashioned phone or a bar stole is my favorite way of communicating with friends. This doesn’t mean that I don’t know what I am doing but I also have the client testimonials, references and case histories to back up my experience.
Using Google, FaceBook or even Twitter as a way of checking my credentials in social media is not going to work for everyone.

This reminds me of people who called themselves “computer consultants” when they were just a guy with WordPerfect 5.1 on a DOS machine in their basement.

There have always been posers, and there always will be. All of us in the trenches are usually too busy doing the nitty gritty work to do consulting – but that’s changing….

Some good points, but some self-serving-bordering-on-arrogant “flags,” as well. I have witnessed “novice” social media folks (but very experienced in “traditional” marketing and PR) come up with very innovative SM campaigns, time and time again. Often, these folks might not know or be influenced by perceived limitations of social media. Because of that, they throw out ideas the entrenched folks can’t see — the old “forest for the trees.” Social media is a communication channel. If you are a proven strategist in communication and can influence change via communication, then social media is just another way to get people involved in the conversation. I will take a proven communications strategist over a social media “expert” any day.

I don’t think it is wrong for people to call themselves social media experts, I think it is wrong for people not to check their numbers, according to the age old advice “caveat emptor”. for instance if someone has 1,000 followers on Twitter he simply cannot be an expert. 50,000+ still doesn’t necessarily qualify someone, but at least you know that person can “walk the talk” by actually achieving something in the social media space. I simply would not trust someone to help me with social media even if they DIDN’T call themselves an expert unless they had some very high numbers to back up what they are saying. The beauty of the Internet is that it is possible to check these numbers quite easily. So please do so! http://twitter.com/praguebob

Of course, here’s how you can really tell if you’re a social media expert, coincidentally penned 3 days ago:

http://www.rationalsurvivability.com/blog/?p=1121

/Hoff

Heh – you might get a kick out of this site: http://www.socialmediadouchebag.net

Your list inspired me to start a blog! I’m still trying to decide if I want to become an expert! http://leahkaiz.blogspot.com/2.....ocial.html

Okay, but here’s my question. It seems to me that many, if not all of you are involved in PR, Communication etc.

While I understand the need to have a cohesive plan to put social media together with your current marketing efforts, as a sales person, the one on the ground level dealing with the communication and relationship building and ultimately asking for the sale, I feel that I’m the one that should be using the social media tools and implementing a plan. In many cases I should be involved in shaping that plan because I know what the buyer wants, how they want to be communicated with, what my product is etc.

I know, I know, I said there was a question. Why does it seem to be so many are saying social media is a marketing tool and a PR tool and not emphasizing that it is a sales tool?

Maybe my job blurrs the lines between marketing and sales and tha’ts why I’m confused. Though there’s nothing in my job that says PR and Marketing, that’s what I’m doing along with sales every day. But how does that translate to showing proficency and credentials as many of you have exhibited above? You keep saying that by showing follower you are showing results… but what about showing sales? Isn’t that results based? And you can’t look up on line how many sales someone has made, so it’s not provable in the social media areans.

So is Social Media a PR and Marketing Tool? Or a Sales tool? Or both? And if it’s both how do all us poor sales people prove we are capable of being let loose in the Social Media tool box with out burning down the business.

You know your social media expert might not be an expert if they don’t even mention ROI, or if they invent some new type of ROI that doesn’t actually involve ROI. The frustration of hearing consultants make up ROI on “intangibles” made me stay up all night one night and build this: http://www.frogloop.com/social-network-calculator. The metrics are based on nonprofit online marketing benchmarks, but easily tweakable for other industries me thinks.

Brilliant.

Hey Peter/Sarah, I agree with you on some points. I have seen way too many advertising and marketing people say that they are social media gurus and yet when you look at some of the sites they are on, there are few people following them. The basic premise behind social media is to build a community and to get people talking to each other. There is so much information on social media that to become a true “expert” one would have to spend several hours every day on new and innovative social media tools on the web. Thanks for writing this post.

Amen and Amen! :D hahaha Excellent and Accurate list! :D

My company spends most of it’s time focusing on the technical implementation of social networks, so my perspective is more from the tech side than the PR or marketing side. I’d avoid ‘experts’ in social media who only focus on existing commercial networks, like Twitter and Facebook. Social networking should be integrated into your own site. The age of broadcast is long over, and the age of conversation is here. Prepare yourself to let go of ownership of PR, marketing and branding and focus on enabling your customers to handle it by giving them great products and services.

If your social networking expert isn’t talking about APIs and integration of 3rd party sites, if they think dynamic means Flash animation, and they think social networking means a ‘Tweet this’ link, run.

Josh McCormack
InteractiveQA
Social Network Development, QA & IA
http://www.interactiveqa.com

Recently many people have latched onto the word “expert” in the phrase “social media expert”. They spend a lot of time attacking the title, and a lot of energy focusing on a mainly semantic argument. I think the attention is often misguided. The reality is, social media is not new. How we use it, however, can be. I feel these attacks, however accurate they may be, often are being perpetuated by people trying to drum up business for themselves more than anything. And that, is as suspicious as the so-called experts.

The argument is also relative. In my industry (the ski and snowboard business), anyone on both Twitter and Facebook is pretty damn progressive. Ha!

Do your research. Don’t jump in without a targeted strategy. You’ll be fine. Good luck.

More on the topic: http://www.owstudios.com/oteam/?p=1365

Incredibly useful! A lot of ‘Social Media Consultancies’ seem to be relying on precisely the points which you mentioned above. Great one! Keep posting.

Cheers,
Shitij
@shitijnigam

Thanks Peter & Sarah! Someone had to say it…. :)

You answered nearly every question I posted to the “experts” in the blog I posted last night. THANK YOU!
http://elizabethshugg.com/2009.....h-sort-of/

Too few of he new “social media experts” have a clue about ROI and only have one “tool” in their “toolbelt” that they try to use for every client.

The simple truth is that every market segment is going to be subtly different and you need to understand all of the ways that you can reach that audience. There re many markets that for a variety of reasons social media will provide limited returns

Doug

One more: Your social media expert encourages you to have conversations with your consumers then follows that up with recommending scripts that will need to be written to manage the communication that may take place! My favorite recommendation from someone I recently worked with who was considered the social expert.

http://www.ieinteractiveservices.com
Vanessa Capozzi

Peter and Sarah,

Your comments are spot on – funny that your post was caught up by the scraping I did to figure out the growth in number of pages mentioning the term “Social Media Expert” in Google. Glad to see others similarly outing those who give the industry a bad name.

Paul

http://www.dyersituations.com/.....ia-expert/

I saw this cheeky post in twitter @FGrau, and I could only retweet it. I did love the comment about social media expert as a scissors experts… when will people understand than social media is just another way to communicate and that is more than money what is compromised here?

Thank you.

This is all fine and well for the Fortune 500 crowd, but some of your listed sins don’t really have a feasible alternative in the small business world. They are never going to pay for full campaign management, but they want to be on Twitter and Facebook. Should they just not bother getting any kind of help at all? For the market I have the most experience with, they won’t take that full-service, fully-tracked product because it costs too much. You can tell people it’s worth it til you’re blue in the face, but I don’t see how scrapping the relationship because they can only afford a $500 product serves either party well.

I also see a major disparity regarding in-house vs. solos and business owners. No, I cannot write a personal blog about my company, and if I did have a personal blog, my company’s clients will never, ever see it or any of my personal profiles. So if I ever want to go into self-employment, my experience is irrelevant because I have not been blogging as a solo the whole time?

Don’t get me wrong — I don’t call myself a social media “expert” (those are the people whose blog posts and tweets I frantically try to read a few times a day in between a slammed schedule of doing client work). But this article makes simple social media professional working joes seem like clueless scammers who are trying to rob clients blind. I don’t think that’s accurate, and I don’t think it’s fair.

I read Jen’s piece with real interest. I think she has a great point, however, I think she misses the point that it’s like a land rush out here. I get endless emails from people who have secret tools, secret affiliate deals, secret everything. And, am I the only one to notice the credibility pricing. $97 per month or $47, or $127. Want to make a fortune? Offer something for $96.97, now that is fine point credibility pricing.

I think there are lots of working people that can help but many of these folk would have lined the road to Alaska’s gold mines selling magic elixirs not that long ago.

I find the most interesting thing about this entire thread is how much people care about Peter’s question/opinions. Someone should bottle his savvy and sell it for $96.97.

Best, John

This article along with the other mentioned on so-called “social media experts’ are what I give potential clients. If after they read them, if they still want to go ahead, then good. They deserve that much from me. , then I will help them find someone. The toolkit is very full, it requires creativity and patience to make social media work.thank you!

OMG! My company did #17!!!

Nice points. Some “experts” or “gurus” even go beyond this and start calling them viral marketing experts. They never drove anything to their sites and will never drive anything to yours, either.

Good article! After SEO all the so called ‘guru’s’ now jump on the Social Media train.
These pointers give the online marketeers what they need to prepare themselves for the self declared guru’s!

Of all the things that bother me about the modern state of social media marketing, the titles people give themselves bug me the most. I’m in the Hudson Valley area of New York (where you like to skydive from time to time, I think) and we’ve got gurus, mavens, wonks and experts coming out the of the woodwork. It’s truly diluting the pool of truly talented social media marketers. I’m thinking of specializing in rescuing failed social media campaigns. I’ve had many, many clients that hired a local “guru” only to pay for a few profiles and a spammish blog. Pathetic.

I’ve seen several marketing companies that feel that #22 is all that they need to do for their clients. It takes a whole lot more than just setting them up, that is only the beginning.

Yes, it’s the wild wild west again and some people are touting themselves as experts or gurus.

It’s not good for business in one sense and very good for business if the client actually looks at the results those of us get.

Great post. You said what I was thinking!

#26 if their blog still forces registration with email vs. Open Auth options and/or integration with Facebook Comments plug-in. Oh wait….

To quote Bill Gates: “Talk is cheap (especially from “gurus”) show me the code.” Doctor, cure thyself.

I am always cautious of ANYONE who claims to be an “expert”, no matter who calls them that, but especially them selves!

I totally agree with the points mentioned above. People are making fool by saying such words like “I am social media expert” etc. but they dont have anything to showcase in their resume. and if they are maintaining a blog, they are simply re-writing chris brogan posts by playing with synonyms.

It’s awesome to see some of the people who know this post is about them, commenting, saying things like “You’re so right !”

I think something to keep in mind here also is, the best consultants will show you how to do it yourself, for free.

Sarah and Peter, you’re right on point as always. My additions are to run from anyone who:

1. Doesn’t first research your brand’s past and your current goals to strategically design a 3 month to 2 year plan including milestones and expected results.

2. Promises a magic bullet or the premise that a month or two of engaging is going to significantly boost your traffic or sales. If they don’t make it clear that initially you’re building brand awareness, relationships and word of mouth that earn trust. If you’re looking for fast bumps in traffic and sales conversions you want an SEO expert, though social media interactions will build your SEO too.

3. Doesn’t mention that social media marketing is one spoke in the wheel of your entire marketing tire. It should be integrated with your entire marketing plan and cross promote all of your marketing efforts. The hub of this tire is your business plan.

4. Once you get on the train don’t plan to get off. Building online relationships and social media accounts and then abandoning them after a few months is worse than not starting in the first place. This isn’t a one time marketing campaign. It’s using communication tools in structured ways to build a media ecosystem where your brand interacts with the world.

Love this. I love this because there is obviously a lot of hype for people who understand the space. I understand the space – yes. But I would NEVER consider myself an expert – for several of the reasons listed above.

I’m green. I haven’t had the time to do a lot of the stuff that would lead to an “expert” title.

But also, I think it’s also noteworthy to point out that sometimes the recommendations that you allude to above (start with Twitter and Facebook) don’t necessarily deem someone a poser. At the end of the day, clients may not be ready for things beyond Twitter and Facebook (if they’re even ready to do that).

So while I agree with what you’ve got going on up there – I think there is a lot that can be read into all of the points above.

Knowing your client and knowing where their demographic is talking is a huge piece of the pie. I know you know that – but an intern reading this list may read it and think “HOLY SHIT! We do a lot of Facebook and Twitter programs where I’m interning – AND THIS MAKES US POSERS!” – when in fact, that is not the case.

Find me an expert. I’d love to pick their brain. In the mean time, I’ll settle for people that are learning here, too.

“social media coach. Expert. Consultant. Guru. Evangelist. I’m dizzy….” I’ve been picking on those who tout themselves as the next big social media master for quite awhile. A 4 year old can set up a FB fan page…somehow these people seem to like titles but lack talent of any kind. http://thedailyblonde.com/2009.....an-expert/

Hi Peter and Sarah, great post. I always love spotting fakes :) #13 is my favorite. It’s a dead giveaway. It always surprises how these people dare claim what they claim when there’s no back up.

Definitely agree with Angela Connor and Jeffrey Levy: those who claim to have the key to everything, the solution for everything actually do not know what they’re talking about.

One thing that always raise the warning flag for me is those whose primary interest is selling themselves instead of listening to my needs or problems. If they can not summarize the things we need to work on, they’re obviously useless.

You are wrong about #15 — you don’t need to be a creator/blogger/squawker to develop a fantastic social media strategy and execute against it like a seasoned pro, that’s a silly idea.

Here’s my humble addition to the list:

Don’t trust people who complain about the sudden rise of social media experts (present company excluded).

I am very happy to say that this social media expert doesn’t fit a SINGLE one of those categories! That’s for validating what I’ve been told about myself and just starting to recognize! ;)

Excellent post! I am always amazed at how so many people think that by putting the word “expert” after their titles makes them an expert. If you have to call YOURSELF an expert, you’re not.

I get asked to do a lot of presentations to my clients on social media. My first question to them is: Why in the WORLD are you asking me to do this talk?! I have 20 years of experience in creating branded educational content — NOT in social media–they are two very different things. I USE social media, but I’m just sort of studying and reading and trying to get a grasp on it in terms of marketing (for the B2B market). I’m not sure you want someone like me talking about social media to your team.”

The answers I get back usually are along the lines of, “Well, we don’t know who to trust out there, because everyone claims to know it all. We know you and we know if you don’t know something, you’ll be straight with us about it and you’ll direct us to the resources who will know.”

So your list is a great resource to pass along. THANKS!!

I know your blog post was from nearly a year ago, but I just stumbled upon it now via someone’s tweet stream! Better late than never, right?! :)

Hilarious post! :D Another point might be; “they call themselves ‘expert’ even though social media is too young to allow anyone to be expert”. :D

In light of the comment where someone said that the “expert” quotes a price without knowing what the project entails, or giving specifics on what is offered, I thought I’d shed some light on why that occurs. I used to be approached all the time by people who didn’t have budgets and wanted free advice or work done on commission. I don’t work that way and in an effort to politely get rid of them I would quote a four hour consultation fee where we could explore their needs knowing full well they couldn’t afford that and would ultimately leave me alone.
It

Wow! There are so many comments, everything seems to have already been said, but I have to jump in away.

This is brilliant!

To repeat a couple of ideas;
Social Media is JUST a tool. I think people are just now getting over the buzzword “SEO” and are realizing it can’t be their only strategy. Just like being number one in a Google search won’t make you successful all by itself, either will having 50k fans and followers. If you don’t have a good message, then yelling to more people won’t help.

MySpace has it’s place, but I don’t bother with it 70% of the time, and a significant portion of the people I work with are even musicians. Even when it’s appropriate, it’s kind of annoying and time-consuming.

I’ll be checking a lot of the links in the article and the comments!

I too am reading this almost a year later (linked to from the DenverPRBlog) and found it to be very insightful and good things to keep in mind as a PR practitioner who is often asked for ideas and strategies around social media. I plan to share this with my colleagues as well!

Yikes. I am reading this over a year since the posting, and it is all unfortunately still so true. I have worked with internal people at previous firms, and with “specialists” brought in to create “viral-buzz,” and both have resulted in YouTube channels, facebook pages, twitter feeds and nothing else.

In my limited experience, agency clients are only aware of facebook fans, twitter followers and video views so that is all they are focused on. When these numbers increase, they feel like they are getting great ROI, and the retainer checks keep coming in regardless of any real engagement with the public, or strategy. It’s easy to buy into someone’s hype when you don’t take the time to learn about the field, and sadly, I’m guilty of being satisfied with surface-social-media. No longer! I’m educating myself on what a true expert can do, and your list opened my eyes to the scammers.

Yeah so far he seems to be an expert, but i wonder if i can learn about it and pursue my career in social media marketing….I plan to share this with my colleagues as well!

I suppose when Facebook was first starting out, the event invitations made a lot of sense. You’d invite everyone in your dorm to your room for a kegger. Was an easy way to do that. Logical.

It’s a rapidly changing world. Especially on the internet. People are scrambling to keep up especially in the marketing/internet arena.

Yes, many people are hanging out a shingle proclaiming themselves as social media experts and to hire them. Thanks for the excellent tips on how to discern people who actually know what they are doing.

On the other hand, everyone, even the hugest expert, started out as a newbie!

Thanks for the post. I’ve been thinking about hiring someone to help me with social media marketing and this information will definitely help me make a better decision.

Great post! I definitely agree with #8 and #15. I don’t know what planet someone would actually do number 20.

Thanks!

Like the others have said, this is a great article with vary valid points. Being in the PR business I know that social media should be considered a part of the overall strategy and not the strategy itself. And while Peter is correct to say that many firms are adding in-house “social media experts” to their teams (whether or not they have the track record to support the title) I think that the issue for many of these firms may not be about exploiting a new way to up the retainer. (At least I hope not.) Instead, it might be about finding a way to keep accounts profitable when you are not billing hourly. For monthly retainer clients that already suck up a lot of resources for an account team that is mainly focused on traditional media relations, how can a mid-size firm afford to develop, drive and maintain a social media component to the existing media campaign? I suppose that profitability shouldn’t be the motivator for having a social media component but in reality, it just might be. At the end of the day a publicist work is never done and there’s always about 100 more things you could do to service a client well. For me and many of my colleagues it has been and remains about finding a balance. With more and more clients requesting help with social media and more and more experts stating the obvious reasons PR professionals incorporate social media into client campaigns, I guess we just need to find a new way to balance.