One thing that really bugs me about social media, is all the self-proclaimed experts out there. Just because you have your own blog or work in the digital space, does not mean you are an expert on social media. I’ve called the post ‘mach I’ because I’m sure I’ll have further comment on this topic in the future.

This was highlighted to me last night when I attended the Anthill/Mumbrella event “Online Marketing by Design” – which was actually a talk about social media.

I was really disappointed by this event, and found it boring, with the same sort of discussions that have been rehashed for the past 18 months. It was a ‘for the dummies’ approach for marketers and SMEs who could’ve been provided with much more valuable insights.

There were a couple of questions their four-member panel stumbled over that weren’t that difficult if you actually have practical working experience with social media rather than just proclaiming yourself as an expert because you have a blog or work in digital *big eye roll*

One of these questions in particular was around metrics and campaign measurement. The specific question was (paraphrasing): “If a marketer came to you and told you they wanted 1,000 Facebook fans by next week, what would you do.” There was a lot of, ummm I don’t really know answers. Tim from Mumbrella said something about wondering if measurement was actually required or not before starting a campaign. Of course it’s required! How are we going to show people marketing is a valid option for their business?

If a marketer told me this (back in my agency days ;o) ) I would have educated them on the fact that this is not in fact a useful measure. I’d advise them on the myriad options they have in social media, which extend far beyond Twitter and Facebook. If they pursued the Facebook idea I’d assure them that yes I can get them 1,000 fans, but would that be meeting their objectives? If I simply agreed with said marketer and got them the 1,000 fans they’d look back in a few months and wonder what that is actually doing for them, and doubt that social media is in fact an area they should invest further time and money in. This would be bad for social media marketing as a whole. What I would do would be to talk to the marketer about other useful measures within Facebook, such as their engagement score, number of likes, comments, fan-initiated comments and content. Social media is about ENGAGEMENT, old metrics based simply on a number of hits, views, eyeballs (or Facebook fans in this case) are simply not providing a valuable measure on their own.

Why should you listen to what I say instead of these ‘experts’?

1. I don’t claim to be an expert, it’s hard to be an expert on something that changes from hour-to-hour, day-to-day. I’m a social media enthusiast and evangelist.

2. I’ve been working in online PR specifically on social media for almost two years now. Day in, day out.

3. I’ve been interacting in social media since before that phrase existed, in online communities before they were even called that. Think bulletin boards, IRC (Internet Relay Chat) and all the very basic forms of online communication that existed when the internet was first born.

4. I KNOW that social media can work for businesses both large and small, brands just need to work with someone who’s passionate about social media and what it can do for them, NOT someone who wants to further their own public persona.

If you’ve made it this far, congratulations.

I also saw a great graphic by mashable today on The State of the Internet, I love the section on how bloggers categorise themselves. I really think that 99.9% of those who think their style is ‘journalistic’ or ‘expert’ are deluded )

I wonder how many other people there are out there ‘working in the trenches’ as a former colleague commented on Facebook earlier today, who think the big-name bloggers out there are full of crap? Roll call please!

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