Eating My Words: The 9 Types of Social Media Experts

I recently cautioned that you should "Beware of Experts," saying, "There’s no such thing as a 'social media expert.' It’s too new, too big, and changing too rapidly for anyone to know everything about all social media."

My underlying belief, obviously, is that "expert" is the same thing as All-Knowing Master of the Social Media Universe.

Rohit Bhargava's excellent article The 9 Types of "Social Media Experts challenged me to expand my definition of an expert.  Rohit rightly points out that the fake-expert everyone hates is The Pretender, and then proceeds to astutely parse eight types of social media professionals (some of which will surely be on future lists of "Hot Jobs You Wish You Had"). He adds that much of the confusion around the expertise issue is that "many people who could be great at certain roles are simply trying to fill the wrong role."

This is a great point: since social media is not a fad, but a a paradigm-shifting toolset, we marketing/advertising/PR types are expanding our communication skill sets to encompass the new media. And of course, our social media groove is an extension of the strengths we already possess in legacy marketing and media. Different people are good at different things.

Which really clarifies things for companies trying to figure out how to get their social media raft in the river. For most companies, the divide between legacy media and social media isn't as wide as they think. It's a gap, not a canyon. And the bridge between the two is strategic thinking: first you decide what you want to achieve, then you aim the right skill set at it. Rohit's nine skill sets are:

1. The Pretender. I think of this person as a social media hobbyist. They're on Facebook and Twitter, maybe LinkedIn, but they have few connections and little first-hand knowledge. For example, they claim blogging expertise, but their own blog is on a free platform.
2. The Trainer/Teacher. Someone who can teach others anything is worth their weight in gold. They don't merely convey the mechanics of how to use certain tools, they inspire you to envision the possibilities.
3. The Professional Speaker. In my opinion, many social media speakers don't seem particularly adept with social media tools. But Rohit makes the point that these folks "often [create] inspiration and excitement about social media as a whole." In that sense, they're sort of big-picture teachers, visionaries with a giant megaphone.
4.  The Content Curator. Rohit believes that "content curators will be among one of the most important social media jobs of the future." As editors passionate about a specific topic, he foresees curators as "the ones that can help us make sense of the exploding amount of content online. The almighty search algorithm won't be enough."
5. The Event Organizer. From tweetups to meetups to national conferences, organizers bring the digital universe into the analog world where virtual relationships become real.
6. The Community Manager. An elusive skill set that demands equal fluency with "real conversations in real time and reacting to those conversations transparently." Elusive maybe, but definitely vital, and potentially the hub of any organization's social media presence.
7. The Content Creator. Great at writing blog posts, sharing thoughts on Twitter, and producing video. When you need original content to engage an audience, these folks are indispensable.
8. The Marketing Strategist. People who "solve a real business problem with a smart plan for using social media, and [are] entirely capable of admitting which business problems social media may not be the best solution for."
9. The Designer/Builder. I believe a more descriptive term would be "implementers." These are the folks who get it done—without them, the most brilliant strategies are useless.

Rohit goes into greater detail about the different types, and the reader comments are also interesting. I highly recommend reading his article.

Ciao for now!

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Many thanks to Terry Crosby of Terry Crosby Social Media Training for putting this on my radar!

Photo credit: ...oops? by jasmeet via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

Let's Twitter: @WanderNot

Beware of Experts

OK, this is a tricky thing since I am, myself, an expert in marketing communications. I understand the irony here. But it needs to be said, so I’m planting a flag—beware of experts.

Here’s why: Experts tend to be very attached to the past. Their very expertise lies in the tried-and-true. As such, experts are frequently the least capable of judging and implementing new ideas. They tend to be more comfortable making incremental changes to old ideas, rather than embracing a shifting paradigm. They also tend to explore new ideas in the context of entrenched assumptions, so they often "don't know what they don't know."

The only thing trickier than being an expert of the tried-and-true is being an expert of the untried-and-brand-new. Which brings us to newly minted “social media experts.”

There’s no such thing as a “social media expert.” It’s too new, too big, and changing too rapidly for anyone to know everything about all social media. The most knowledgeable people approach it with a “learner’s mind” every single day.

Even highly experienced people with specialized expertise in a specific medium—such as Facebook—work daily to stay on top of it. These people are rare, and if you make a strategic decision to be on Facebook, for example, you should definitely hire them to maximize your presence on Facebook. But don’t expect them to be equally expert in Twitter, Ning or LinkedIn.

And last, but not least:  No expert is a one-size-fits-all solution. No one—including me—is right for every project and every company. Expertise aside, there are many intangibles that make someone a good fit with your company’s culture and its goals. At the end of the day, your own instincts outweigh anyone else’s “expertise.”

 Ciao for now!

 ________________________

Photo credit: “is Social Media Expert” by Martin Ringlein via Flickr, used under a Creative Commons license.

Let's Twitter: @WanderNot