The Social Media Expert, Who is He?
Posted: August 6, 2008 • Filed under: Social Media MarketingIf you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed to get the latest posts, Thanks for visiting! If you want to link to me or this post please read how to link to me
Who do you consider to be a social media expert and why? There are a lot of people out there who proclaim to be social media experts, I am not one of them. First of all what is a social media expert? Is it someone who knows how to use all of the social media platforms out there? Perhaps the social media expert is someone who knows how to make money from social media? Maybe the social media expert is someone who knows how to interact and engage with users?
In my opinion there is no such thing as a social media expert, there are only social media “learners.” This is because social media is a continuously evolving and changing medium based on social interaction and relationships. As social media learners we are all looking to get more information on the best approaches to social media. There are those who understand social media and relationships and those that don’t. I like to think that I do understand social media and relationships, yet I do not call myself a social media expert because social media is not an exact science, it is also an art. To me this is like saying you are an expert painter, well what are you good at painting? Still life, animals, landscapes? And who is to judge what one painting or artist is better than the next?
I try to spend some time each day reading up on how companies are using social media. I like to hear about the new and creative things that individuals and companies are doing so that I can learn from them and perhaps use their ideas for inspiration in the future. No social media strategy is going to work 100% of the time, that is because you are not dealing with numbers and statistics, you are dealing with human beings with emotions, and sometimes it is easy to misread people or make mistakes. It’s important for people to understand that social media is becoming more and more of a way of life, meaning that in order to be an “expert” you need to be able to read and understand people 100% of the time, and so far I have not met anyone that can do so.
Relationships are very fragile and should be handled with the utmost of care. It’s easy to spend weeks thinking of a social media strategy, but when push comes to shove if your campaign hits the wrong emotional notes, your weeks of strategizing to get conversions is lost. It may sound a bit touchy feely and a bit emotional but it’s the truth. Social media deals with more than just a platform, a conversion metric, or ROI, it deals with culture, sociology, psychology and emotion. The most effective strategy in my opinion is to be yourself. Treat your social media approach as you would a new friend, be honest, be upfront and try to better yourself and the other person. Once you change your mindset from one of conversion and ROI to one of relationships and communication, you will successfully be a social media “learner.”
Keep learning my friends
Thanks for reading
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