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“Expert?”

So if you know me at all you’ll know I have a big problem with Expert being used with Social Media, or any other new Web thing! I have a few reasons for this.

The one I want to focus on is, this stuff is too new for ANYONE to be an expert! If your marketing yourself, sure you want to pump yourself up, hell I’ve done it, in the title bar I had Social Media Expert for a while. Mostly just for SEO rank but that’s a whole different story. I understand that, I’m not a big fan though. On the other side if your looking to hire someone to do the work OR consult don’t fool yourself, the person your working with may know WAY more then you when it comes to Social Media but they are far from an expert. I’m always amazed to find out new tools that have been around for a while that I didn’t know about. One person can’t know everything in this space. Does that mean they wont get you results? Of course not! Can someone else do a better job? Maybe, maybe not. There are a lot of different ways to market your product so everyone will give you a different answer.

What you have to do is find someone you feel you can trust and listen to them, it’s not a bad idea to seek second, third, etc. opinions but don’t be surprised if you get different answers. Ask questions from anyone your talking to. Ask if the first guys plan would work, if second guy shoots it down completely maybe guy two sucks. Go with your gut! Hey, this stuff usually isn’t like blowing your whole budget on a TV campaign so you can play a bit and if the guy you got isn’t showing a progress, can him!

Whats your feeling? Had any luck? How about horror stories?

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By Bill on November 19, 2008 - Filed under: New Ideas,Rants,business
  • I totally agree with your post and the expert bit always winds me up, we never stop learning from all people no matter if they are a missionary in japan or a single mom who is struggling to stay off welfare..... I have built a team that have entrusted me to deliver for them... I have 10 happy bloggers that ere not blogging before and together we all make one great expert toward our goal of freedom and choice. thanks for a great post, its good to see good honest people come out of the internet...
  • Wow, you are totally echoing my exact sentiments here. In fact, I've said some of the stuff you have verbatim -- sm is too new for anybody to be an "expert" ... it seems like suddenly everybody's an expert, but if everybody's on the same level of expertise, then they're really just average, aren't they?

    Truth is that we are all still learning. I may have more of a handle on SM than Person X, but Person Y may know more than I do. I think it takes a wiser person to admit that they're still a student of their preferred discipline (regardless of what it is) than to proclaim themselves an "expert."
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