Why I'll Never Be A Social Media Expert

By now you have probably seen them… the people claiming they can help you earn unlimited profits by setting you up on social media. These people claim to be Social Media Experts. What these people are doing is actually turning a valuable marketing channel into a wasteland of spam and incoherent babble. The truth is, there are some great people out there that do know what they are talking about when it comes to utilizing social media, but too often they get lost in the noise.

I did a quick search via tweetdeck on the phrase “social media expert” and well, there is a lot of chatter. I then went over to wefollow.com and did a search on “socialmedia”, the result 24,231 users have tagged themselves with this. Now, not all of these people are claiming to be experts so I thought I would look a bit deeper and went over to twellow.com, did a search for “social media expert” and wouldn’t you know it, 656 results. Justtweetit.com, 414 listings for “social networking” and the old standby – I did a Google search on the exact phrase “social media expert”… 1,450,000 results (at least the top results were others lamenting the other “experts”.)

The issue comes down to what are the services these people truly provide? How many of these experts actually have helped a company earn true ROI utilizing this channel? (You know actual dollars and not just some stupid babble about engagement.) How many of these experts can actually help you track if your efforts are producing sales or influencing buying behavior? How many of these experts helped companies integrate social media into their current marketing mix? How many of these experts know social media is more than twitter, Facebook and Youtube?  How many of these experts actually have marketing experience beyond setting up their own pages on twitter and facebook and pimping out their own services?

The problem and actually the excitement behind social media is there is so much unknown and it is a constantly evolving space. I think it is great that so many people are on board and I think it is awesome that companies and marketers are finding ways to utilize SM. I just get infuriated when I think what damage these “experts” are actually causing.

This is why, I never want to be considered a social media expert.

#twitterbirth - the birth of a social media baby

contractions have already started (5:15 CST). #twitterbirth

With that post I began the process of updating the twitterverse on the pending arrival of Torry and my new son, Logan. In addition to keeping a running journal on twitter of short updates I continually updated my Facebook status for our friends and family.

Why did I do this? I am not really sure.

It helped calm my nervous tension - it helped connect so many people to one of the biggest moments of our lives - it gave us something else to focus on - it gave me a personal log of how I was feeling at any given time during the 23 hour process - and there is a lot of downtime in that 23 hour process.

But in truth, to me the biggest point was the connectivity. I was able to push out messages and emotional status and I had many people (mostly on Facebook) thanking me for the updates - I am sure there were just as many wanting me to shut up, but the great thing about social media is that you don't have to act on a conversation unless you want to.

I first became aware of the #twitterbirth hashtag on August 7 in a post from @icelander as he and his wife were preparing for the birth of their child. I thought it was a cool idea so I decided to give it a try - if it seemed odd or intrusive I would have stopped - but it didn't, it was actually pretty fun.

In the process I also read about other people in the twitter world having babies at the same time, some examples were @kellytirman and the birth in the first family of twitter @ev and @sara.

There are so many uses for social media, but in the end it is about connecting people and sharing what is important or valuable to you - to me, the birth or #twitterbirth of Logan is as important as it gets.

Welcome to the world Logan, you have a great big brother in Bailey and the worlds greatest mother. I am already in love.

The Danger of rushing in to Social Media

As an advocate of how social media can be effective when incorporated into a corporation’s larger marketing program, it is painful for me to see when companies do it wrong.

A recent example of this was Marsh supermarkets and its Facebook Coupon. Marsh sent a $10 coupon to their Facebook Fans thinking that they would forward it to a few people – the result, mass produced coupons and some being sold for individual profit… Question here, what is the going rate for a $10 coupon?

As a result Marsh has decided not to honor the coupons resulting in an expected backlash. A Marsh statement reveals that this is one of the company’s initial initiatives to use social media as marketing.

This should serve as a lesson to any corporation jumping into social media (be it Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, etc) – make sure you have a solid plan in place, and like all marketing initiatives think through the campaign completely before launching it to the public. Something KFC hopefully learned from the Oprah debacle.

Social Media is hot, and it is smart for corporations to get in on it now… but only after you have decided what your desired outcomes will be. I think the Marsh coupon idea was a smart idea, but in my opinion they should have limited it to the actual Fans.

I don’t think Marsh should suspend future Social Media plans, but I think they need to realize the power of viral before launching the next campaign. I also think this should serve as a lesson for any other company wanting to jump the gun without having a plan in place.

Is this really my job?

Today I was sitting at my desk and realised how much my life is comparable to the average 12-year-old girl. I regularly check my facebook updates, send out tweets, view of the stats on my YouTube channel, go to Digg and promote articles I find relevant and monitor networking groups on LinkedIn - and I call this my job. If I started listening to the Jonas Brothers I would have to begin questioning what exactly has happened to my life.

It is crazy to think about how my role as a marketer has changed in just the last decade. In my first job I was excited to have email and now I operate almost exclusively in a virtual world. I simply can not imagine myself still being in this field if my sole focus was making brochures and writing white papers (not that I still don't do these things, but you know what I mean.) The thing that is most exciting is figuring out what is coming next. 

Social networking is here to stay and is an effective marketing tool, but only if you use it appropriately and too it's fullest. Having your CEO blog about the new color of his office is not utilizing technology properly. If you are thinking you don't know if social network marketing is for you, know certain aspects may not be - but don't rule out the entire communication vehicle as a whole. As the economy continues to seize and budgets get tighter you need to at least look at everything the net has to offer... I am looking at you B2B companies.

Just because you are not marketing a soft drink to a group of teenagers does not mean that social networking is not for you, it can be. Take a poll of your staff, find out how many people utilize these tools in there everyday lives. As the workforce gets younger these numbers are only going to rise - so it only makes sense to be where your audience lives. 

Despite everything going on in the news - this is still an exciting time to be alive and an exciting time to be a marketer. Marketing is and should be fun - embrace it. Explore the world of blogs and tweets and maybe flip over to ITunes and give the new Jonas Brothers single a listen - it can't be that bad... can it?

Adding to the Noise

Earlier today I decided to start a blog - I threw something up quickly on LiveJournal - and played around a little with the page - but my god that site is cluttered. So after one post I have officially moved my blog here to blogger. I like the clean interface (Google just has a way with these things.)

My dilemma now is this - am I just adding to the noise and clutter of the web - and if so, do I care? As someone who has dedicated years to marketing I absolutely love the direction our industry is going - so much flexibility and creativity is in play now, it is an exciting time to be a marketer. Even in this tight economy it is just fun to be a part of this technology boom.

From twitter, facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube - the rise in web 2.0 has presented a new world to marketers. It is amazing how inexpensive and vast these new vehicles are (but oh what a double edged sword that can be, especially if you are not authentic.)

So, this a redo of post one for me - time to add to the noise