We’ve always said that we’re not “social media experts”.
We’re not. We try things, we experiment, and we have some moderate amount of success with certain things…but we’re not experts.
And there’s always been something that bothered me about that term – “social media expert” – but I could never really nail down what it was or why it nagged at me so much.
Now I can.
So now I can finally express why we’re not social media experts.
And I can also tell you why you’re not one, either…
At every casual networking event that we hold, the following two conversations each take place at least once:
The first:
Me: “What can I help you find?”
Random Recruiter: “I need geeks.”
Me: “Great. That’s most of this room. What can I help you find?”
Random Recruiter: “Developers.”
Me: “Great, quite a few of those floating around tonight, but you’re going to need to be more specific. What kind of developers do you need? And if you say ‘really good ones’, I will laugh at you.”
Random Recruiter: “Oh…ha ha…okay, I need a solid .Net developer that can write applications…”
Perfect. Now we’re talking the same language.
The second:
Me: “What do you do?”
Other Person: “I.T. stuff”
Me: “Great. So does everyone in this room. What do you do?”
Other Person: “I’m a very experienced developer.”
Me: “Great. Going to have to be a little bit more specific with this crowd. What do you do?”
Other Person: “I write custom .Net apps for…”
There we go. Now we’re on the same page and can get started.
And now I can play traffic cop appropriately, and make a connection between two people that are looking for each other.
Insert “eHarmony/Match.com” joke [here].
So you see, walking into a room and announcing that you’re an expert in a field that has become so widespread and generic doesn’t really do anyone much good. It’s true for “developer” as much as it’s true for “social media” and other realms, too.
My in-laws are convinced I just “build websites”…because that’s all that they really have the capacity to understand. They don’t “get” the differentiations between server, network and application architecture. That’s just not in their zone…which is fine. I don’t understand the intricate workings of my father in law’s 1948 Harley Davidson that has something called a “shovelhead” in it, either…beyond the fact that it sounds like a horse galloping when it’s idling, which is cool. I helped him figure out the math to extend the front end on another Harley, and even how to mount up a snowmobile engine and transmission into the sucker. And he did all the work himself – welding, frame bending…hell, he’s got yet another bike that he basically build from scratch.
But if you ask him, he’s not “a motorcycle expert”. He knows nothing of Hondas, or Buell’s, or any of the other random makes and models out there.
He’s not even “a Harley Davidson expert”…although I would challenge nearly anyone to prove they know more than he does about them.
So then I look at something like social media…and I realize there’s really no difference from “developer” or even “motorcycle guy”.
Social media has become so wide, so vast, so diffuse and spread out to mean so many different things…how can anyone possibly lay claim to being an “expert” at it all?
Great, you built a Facebook fan page that got 8,000 people to like it…but what about your Twitter handle that only has 14 followers and your Youtube videos that have gotten, at most, one view each?
Awesome, you built up a Twitter account that has 40,000 followers…but your Facebook page has 200 “likes”, and nobody can even find you on LinkedIn because you’re not there.
The 40 people you engage with on Path daily think you’re the greatest thing going…but those are also only the same 40 people that read your Facebook updates. And your blog. And your Tumblr account. And on Google+. And…
I think that’s what I’m calling for here…an end to the use of the term “social media expert”. Or “wizard”. Or “ninja”. Or any of the other useless titles people are slapping on themselves these days…
…because they’re just not accurate.
You may be the T-Rex of Twitter, the Foreman of Facebook, the Brando of Blogging…
…but you are not a “social media expert”.
Now you’ll have to excuse me…these websites aren’t going to just build themselves, you know.