I agree that social media is really just another tool it’s not the magic answer to everything. It works best when it’s part of a plan that integrates good old fashioned strategic thinking and strong creative. I’ve seen many failed attempts at social media marketing as a result of a company letting a so called expert run wild with an SM tool.

Another issue I have with the “Social media expert” title is how can anyone be an expert in a medium that changes on an almost daily basis?

I have been in this business for over a decade and I have seen this Instant “Expert” thing before. First with Art directors vs. clients that have MS Publisher Templates. Then it was Web developer vs. clients with family members who kinda know HTML and can build a web site for free. Now its marketers vs. people who are experts because they have a lot of friends on Facebook.

Sooner or later the universe weeds out the snake oil salesmen and frees them to latch on to the next big thing.

Ruth

http://besttoddler.com

I agree there’s a lot of people that are now identifying themselves as ’social media experts’.

But while we always tend to focus/obsess on the individuals doing this, why is it that no one cares about the marketing AGENCIES AND FIRMS that have started offer social media services, despite having any talent to back up their offerings? To me, these are far worse, because they are pitching social media services to existing clients, just in an effort to make a fast buck. I’ve heard horror stories of firms charging SEVERAL hundred dollars PER BLOG POST. As long as they had ‘the right keywords targeted’, then the client was just fine with it.

Why is it that we slam the unemployed kid on Twitter trying to improve his job chances by putting ’social media expert’ in his bio, but the agency that’s scamming clients out of money by offering social media services that they can’t perform, why are they getting a pass?

Something to think about, IMO.

Whenever technology throws up a new medium – or a new twist to an old one – you get your early adopters and evangelists who immerse themselves in it, call themselves experts, and try and build a career on it. Maybe they even write a book.

At some point some agencies glimpse the bandwagon and hire them to impress their clients. They score, so more agencies do the same.

This is when the number of “experts” explodes – demand is high; real experts are rare; and the agencies can’t tell the difference between them and those bluffing and rehashing their way onto the bandwagon. A lot of these guys write books.

Shortly after that the new media goes mainstream: everyone understands what the expert once alone knew, and noone calls themselves an expert in it anymore. The new media becomes just another tool in the toolbox. The “Dummies for …” edition hits the shelves.

By this stage our original expert has either:
a) moved on to a new field to be an expert in that
b) had kids, got a mortgage and become a manager
c) written a book bemoaning the Johnny-Come-Latelies ruining his/her field

None of this is new. Or does nobody else here remember what it was like to know HTML before everybody else? I must be getting old.

This is a new field of study, and it is changing faster than most can keep up with.
BUT…

It seems that this meme is part of a semi-organized campaign to sort out some kind of ‘pecking order’ of A-listers and B-listers and so on.

I prefer to let it sort itself out. Because it will, just wait and see.

We’ve seen fake “experts” crawl out of the woodwork every time an online strategy shows signs of success – SEO, SEM, affiliate marketing.

While an agency might want a person or a few people who focus on social media, they should already be versed in marketing. New tools emerge every day, but marketing strategies remain the same.