Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?...

Reading an article today in the Sunday newspapers which quoted a "Twitter expert" and other "social media experts" I wonder what people think of this in general.

I looked at the website of the bloke who was the said expert and it looks like the efforts of a five year old traffic, seems to have very little traffic witha dead forum and the bloke had about 20 followers on twitter.

This seems typical of these self-professed social media experts. It seems to me that those who know what they are going get on and do it whilst those who haven't got a clue promote themselves as aforementioned experts but actually don't really know what they are talking about.

Or am I just an old cynic?

Re : Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?

Oh dear, this is one of my pet bugbears.

EVERYONE is described as an expert these days but usually only by themselves and their friends.

No there is no such thing as a social media expert, some people know more than others about social networks of course but that's pretty much it. The media just need to sensationalise everything else they feel they haven't done their job to the full level of hyperbole to which they strive.

Re : Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?

In my opinion there are no social media experts, however some people do have large followings on some websites that will therefore direct traffic to your website.

You have to keep in mind that the way social media works is if they like it, you will get a thumbs up or something simular and the site will give you more traffic, if someone is managing quite a few high profile user profiles on various social media, they can send you quite a few people.

However since there is no regulation for this, and 95% of all the SEO guys are scammers, I would just keep your money in your pocket.

The best thing you can do is network with people you know on sites like facebook.
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Re : Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?

As mentioned above, there are people who have very large followings on sites like Twitter, and have worked very hard over time to build up followers.

They know what sorts of methods will attract followers, and how to keep those followers by offering something valuable: perhaps for competition enthusiasts they post all the latest and best competitions on the net from their research and so on. Therefore I think it would be reasonable for them to market themselves as someone who is experienced in that field at least, even if not an 'expert' per se.

There is also the journalism aspect to consider: it is much easier to call someone an "expert" than someone who "knows quite a bit about this particular subject". So I think it is reasonable enough to refer to someone who has the appropriate credentials as an expert, which clearly was not the case in the situation you mention Chris if the expert had a rubbish website with no traffic and no presence on any social network!
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Web Design

Re : Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?

Expertise can be defined in different ways for different people. For me, an expert is someone who knows a lot about a subject, who dedicates time to practising the subject and who, most of all, understands the developments and changes in that subject now and in the future.

When it comes to social media marketing, it is so important to be fully engaged with current trends and upcoming trends and to have the ability to make use of these whilst always being innovative.

I have written a few blog posts about this here: http://www.zabisco.com/blog/

Essentially, what businesses need to be looking for when trying to find a social media "expert" is that that company has an understanding of the user experience and is able to understand your end user/target audience (Zabisco specialises in this). Only by understanding the target audience and their behaviours can you ascertain which social media, if any, are appropriate.
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Re : Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?

Good input Laura. I enjoyed reading the posts on your blog too!
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Web Design

Re : Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?

To identify an SM expert and to distinguish such a person from the self-proclaiming crowd do the following simple things:

- ask for a portfolio;
- then pick some of the sites, go to alexa.com, and check the percentage of traffic coming from social media sites ( Facebook and Twitter for example );

if you see traffic from them being in the top, usually right after google - here you have an expert.

This is tested experience.
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Re : Social Marketing Experts - is there such a thing?

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