Well here goes my 1st blog posting written on OMM Writer, headphones on and soothing sounds in the background. Who would’ve thought there’d ever be a substitute to that “word” app?
Anyway, lemme tell you what is on my mind today?
It is the concept of a SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT and what that actually means…
Hardly a day goes by that I don’t read something in a newspaper, web site, blog or in an email invitation to an event about some SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT!
That got me thinking……
What exactly is a social media expert and who qualifies?
I could think of 3 reasons why some-one would consider themselves a social media expert:
1. They know stats:
- Did you know there are now 316 million+ people on facebook?
- Did you know there are close to 30 million tweets every day?
- Did you know there are 100 million + videos on YouTube?
This person always pulls out the stats and use those to make their case. ( really one of my favourites too!)
2. They have their own social media presence:
- Have a blog (or 2, or 3 …)
- Have a twitter following
- Have facebook, linkedin, friendfeed, myspace, blueworld, etc profile.
( I do have more than one of each of the above.)
3. They have done stuff on social media for clients:
- Set-up a bank on facebook
- Set-up a college on twitter
- Set-up a band on MySpace
- Set-up a blog for a travel company
( That’s me too!)
So, does this indeed entitle them to have the designation, SOCIAL MEDIA EXPERT, behind their name?
Does this allow them to claim they know more than every-one else and that they can charge for their expertise accordingly?
I really can’t say.
Reading “The Tipping Point” 10 years after it was published is quite an eye opener. The connectors, as Malcolm Gladwell calls them, did not have any tweets, wall postings or RSS feeds at their disposal. They are simply people that know how to connect with others.
Either they care about people in general, have a wide scope of interests or participate in varied activities. They therefore get in touch with a great number of people and are the real social connectors.
Do you need to be an expert to GET that?
Is social media not merely an online extension of good old fashioned face-to-face networking?
In my opinion, there are online social media experts. Plenty of them. They are not the people however, that speak at conferences, write books or charge for their services.
They are students, academics, business people, mothers, environmetalists, sportsmen and women who ARE connected in any case because of their passions, interests and networks. Social media is merely an extension of their networks and a tool they use to manage those relationships, be it strong ties or the so-called “weak ties.”
They are the ones that understand the power of the online social network and use it to their advantage. Very seldom, I dare say, do they do so for financial gain.
Next time you hear of a social media expert, ask yourself what qualifies that person to call him/herself an expert.
Posted by a wannabe social media expert.