No such thing as a social media expert

http://www.livingstonbuzz.com/2008/12/18/top-25-ways-to-tell-if-your-social-media-expert-is-a-carpetbagger/

This blog is titled “Top 25 ways to tell if your social media expert is a carpetbagger”. 

I could probably list about a million other ways to tell if your social media expert is a carpet bagger (they work from home, they offer free services, they rely solely on you “trusting them”), so this blog doesn’t really tell you anything that new, useful or interesting.  If this blog wanted to actually say something-it would list ways to make sure your social media expert is NOT a carpetbagger.  But that’s not what they did, and here is my beef:

From my perspective-any social media “expert” is a carpetbagger.  Social Media is still being defined, shaped and developed.  It is not a tangible thing-so to be an expert in it is a silly thought.  It’s like being an expert of the paranormal-it’s measuring something you can’t see, feel or measure-so instead these so called “experts” measure indicators like electro-conductivity in the paranormal sector or impressions in social media. 

Just because you have impressions does not mean that you have ROI, just like if a room has a high electro-conductivity, that does not mean you have a ghost.

The last time I checked-there was no set standard, no regulating group and no universal way to measure social media.  Therefore, since success can’t be defined-how can anybody be an expert?

 

 

Social Media experts

David Amano is a VP of Experience Design at Critical Mass, and also has a widely followed blog audience and twitter group. 

http://darmano.typepad.com/logic_emotion/2008/12/the-expertise-of-experts.html

Yet in Amano’s latest blog, he admits that he is not an expert.

I find this view very refreshing, and honest and respect Mr. Amano tremendously for it. 

Social media is a new medium.  There are no set definitions and no set standards, which makes it terribly difficult to rate anything.  Now there are some indicators of success (number of views, number of impressions, number of pass alongs or followers) however the technology is changing at the speed of light.  As soon as one indicator is defined and put into use, it seems to be outdated as something more new and accurate replaces it. 

Because of this changing medium, it makes if technically and physically impossible for anyone to be an expert in social media.  Granted, a person might know more about social media than another person, but they are not an “expert”. 

If I am a client, or an agency and am looking at expanding my social media department or spend, I would be extremely wary of anybody proclaiming to be an expert.  The social media movement has not been around long enough for anybody to gain enough experience to qualify themselves. 

If Mr. David Amano, who is considered successful by most of the current indicators of success in social media does not even consider himself an expert, I throw caution to anybody who does claim to be an expert.