This post was originally published on the WebMarketCentral blog in April 2009.
In most areas of life, experience with a particular field of endeavor is considered a vital component of expertise. If you needed surgery, for example, you’d probably prefer to have it done by someone who had performed many surgeries before than by an individual who’d merely read quite a bit about medicine.
When it comes to social media, however, MarketingSherpa reported yesterday that a majority of marketers don’t believe any experience is necessary to be a social media expert. According to their report, “two-thirds of marketers who work for organizations that have not used any form of social media marketing or PR consider themselves ‘very knowledgeable” or “somewhat knowledgeable’ about this emerging strategy. Their overconfidence in unproven ability can doom social media initiatives to failure.”
The article goes on to state, “Clearly, there is a disconnect between personal exposure and professional ability that is unique to social media. And this disconnect is one of the most critical dangers to the successful adoption of social media as a marketing strategy. This was confirmed in MarketingSherpa’s Social Media Marketing and PR study where we found that the ‘lack of knowledgeable staff’ was the most significant barrier to social media adoption…A better approach to adopting this strategy is to seek the advice of an agency or consultant specializing in social media if no one within your organization has proven experience.”
I was recently part of a LinkedIn discussion about what constitutes social media expertise. The general consensus was that the field is so new and still changing so rapidly that almost anyone can claim to be an expert, dubious as that label may be in most cases. Still, most companies could save money and get a better return on their social marketing initiatives by bringing in an outside firm or consultant with some experience, who has clear concepts of social media strategy and an outline of services that can be provided.
Ultimately, social media marketing is an in-house activity. No outside expert will ever be able to carry on in-depth conversations about your industry or products the way your own subject matter expert employees can. But an experienced consultant can help create an appropriate strategy for your business, select the right social media tools, and train your staff so you can minimize costs, avoid missteps, and maximize the return on your social media marketing efforts.
Social Media is new, but the need to plan before you execute is old. Do not get sucked in by the technology before you lay out a strategic plan for its deployment. What is your objective with Social Media? How will you accomplish that objective? How can you measure that you have accomplished that objective? If you cannot answer those questions you need to slow down and get some help or improve your own knowledge. The so call Social Media experts of today may not be the Social Media experts of tomorrow for two reasons.
1) The field is changing rapidly (almost daily).
2) As it evolves, it will reach new levels of maturity and sophistication involving many skills that are not technical in nature.
I think at this time you really only need to concentrate your social media on twitter and Facebook and of course you want to submit your pages to D I GG
I fully agree with @Jack Wilson,, the technique might be new but the principle rules are the same,, there has to be a carefully crafted strategy for penetration…otherwise it can really backfire and all the efforts will go to a total waste.
Thanks for the info, and it is a good thing too for a experience of work would be most likely your expertise.
Eric Rubio
seo surrey bc
““two-thirds of marketers who work for organizations that have not used any form of social media marketing or PR consider themselves ‘very knowledgeable” or “somewhat knowledgeable’ about this emerging strategy.”
This is why a lot of people do get scam, subscribing to some sites and buying their products believing they’re social media gurus.
Sadly true Peni.