Articles, Social Media, Web

Bashing social media experts, strategists and gurus has shown it self to be the great digital hobby of 2009. There are literally thousands of blog posts dispelling the idea that someone can be an expert in social media.

Part of the problem is that many “social media experts” confuse the ideas of participation and expertise. Having profiles on social networking sites doesn’t mean you understand the nuances of the distinct cultural communities that exist within these spaces. Posting a video to YouTube doesn’t mean you know understand the nuances of setting up channels for a business. And posting your company’s traditional marketing on social networking sites doesn’t mean you get social media at all (although it often results in you gaining the title “expert”).

Self proclaimed “experts” also run down the theory versus practice road. There is an incredible amount of information that has been written about how organizations should participate in social media available online, but understanding core principals is not the same as having practical experience planning and launching social media initiatives. Social media is a dynamic environment that is constantly changing. Theorists simply can’t keep up with the fluid nature of the social web.

The areas of Social Media expertise
My big problem with the term Social Media is the semantics of expertise. A self-proclaimed expert in social media positions themselves as someone who understands the nuances of taking a brand into the social media sphere. The vast majority of these practitioners are really social media generalists – they have a narrow understanding of how social media works, usually based on the fact that they were early adopters of the technology.

When you deconstruct the skills needed to really launch a social media strategy, you realize it’s impossible for one person to be capable of it all.

• Strategy – Defining the objectives of social participation and how to effectively measure performance.
• Anthropology – Understanding the cultural nuances of the communities in which you will be participating.  And these differ by social media platform.
• Research – Extracting insights from the myriad of data available.
• Public Relations  – Monitoring social media activity and understanding how to participate in a dialogue in the social realm, and how to plan in case things go wrong.
• Technology – Being able to understand the technical integration issues, API’s, etc. These also differ by social media platform.
• User Experience – Seamlessly integrating the social strategy into the current brand user experience.
• Mobile – Understanding behavior relating to the portability of your messages and communication on a small screen.
• Marketing Strategy – Being able to ensure that your messages are seen and optimized for the communities you are trying to reach.
• Content Strategy – Defining the voice of the organization in the social sphere
• Analytics – Measuring the effectiveness of social media participation.
• And the list goes on…

The need for self-selection
Social media experts are 2009’s version of the kid in his garage building you a website in the 90’s – he can get the job done, but it isn’t going to be pretty. Amazing social media experiences require planning and building by a team with a variety of expertise. Having all of the abilities required to make a social media project successful concentrated into one person is next to impossible. It’s ok to admit that you’re a generalist – your perspectives on social media problems are an extremely effective way to help an organization deal with the complexities of the cultural shift towards social participation. But don’t be the kid in a garage.

Don’t claim to be a one-stop shop. There are plenty of social media experts – measurement specialists, social media researchers, cultural experts and content strategists – who understand aspects of SM in a narrow and deep way.

When I first entered the Web Analytics world, I was often referred to as a guru, mostly because the industry was new and niche. As the industry matured, Web Analytics was deconstructed into several core skills – technical implementation, deployment, optimization, testing, analysis, governance, statistics, etc.  The idea that one person could be an expert in a practice that spans so many areas seems ludicrous to me.

So why do we look at social media in that way?

Social media experts do exist – they’re just experts at social media something. The idea that a single person can understand all of the intricacies of your organization’s social media participation is next to impossible. Let’s start focusing on real social media expertise and really start to create change.