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Posts Tagged ‘Media Expert’

I’ve tried to steer clear of the social media guru conversation. I think it’s petty and short-sighted for people to moan and bitch about some up-start blogger or right-out-of-college entrepreneur type claiming to be or help make you a social media expert. No, I don’t think these people are worth the time or money and those who hire them will ultimately understand that, but elevating their existence to top of mind conversations is frivolous in my mind.

And then there’s the big reason: The companies and clients all you social media folks are trying to protect from the social media douchebags out there aren’t complaining about them. They know better than to hire someone who has no client list, no references and no proven track record. So stop whining about the blogger-gone-consultant type and do good work. I offered these thoughts on the matter when it first popped up.

Maggie Fox and her brilliant group of social media and public relations folks at Social Media Group have squeezed out another very useful resource today that helps put some distance between the “gurus” and clients. They’ve put some thought into a Social Media RFP (Request for Proposal) Template. If you’re a company or brand looking for social media help, you can use the questions posed in the template (free of charge) to help you find out the right background information about your potential consultant or agency partner.

Check out the PDF, download it and give it some thought as you entertain hiring help for your social media activity. It’s smart stuff.

Oh, and they’re also doing a webinar around the topic which you can sign up for at SocialMediaToday.com if you’re interested.

And as soon as I get around to it, I’m going to fill out the answers and post my RFP response publicly for all to see. If you’re a company or consultant offering social media, you might consider it as well.

What thoughts hit you as you read the questions posed in the template? The comments, as always, are yours.

One of the great things about online marketing, search engine optimization and social media is that your work is totally in the open for the world to see. Given the fact that it is, it makes me wonder what companies, agencies, and even our regional government is thinking when they’re hiring for help.

It’s pretty simple to prequalify your online marketing professionals:

• If you’re looking for a Search Engine Optimization firm, review their client list and go try to find them online through searches. Don’t just look for the SEO firm… of course you’ll find them on some results. SEO guys that aren’t busy with clients are busy getting themselves great visibility in search. The busy guys sometimes aren’t at the top – but their clients always are!
• If you’re looking for a Social Media expert, look for someone highly engaged in social media. I don’t mean the person who bought the most followers. I’m advising you to spend some time online and ask who is out there. Those with a good name will continue to rise to the top.
• If you’re looking for an Online Marketing Agency, go to the companies who you enjoy communicating with online and find out who they utilize for marketing. Look for folks with a great site, great email program, are getting some search results and appear in social media. In other words, look for the companies you work with that are well-rounded. Ask your Dentist, ask your local Pizza joint, ask your vendors, ask your plumber….ask… ask… ask. If you respond to their marketing, chances are that others are responding as well.

Don’t assume that you can’t afford the company. Don’t assume that they’re too busy to assist you. Great companies will refer you to others who can help you if they don’t have the resources or are out of your price range.

This post was written by Douglas Karr

Douglas Karr is the founder of The Marketing Technology Blog. Doug is President and CEO of DK New Media, an online marketing company specializing in social media, blogging and search engine optimization.

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Yesterday I read this call to action from Jennifer Leggio (whom I have an intellectual crush on, by the way) on Brian Solis’s blog. Then I saw the first video below on both Ad Contrarian and Ad Broad, both of which I love when I have time to read them. With apologies to all aforementioned and others who have complained about this topic, can we please get off the ego-driven, high-horse pedestal and shut the hell up about “social media gurus?”

I was asked about the advent of the social media expert (something I don’t believe exists) a few months ago. As a result, I recorded this video:

While the harsh tone then and now will be interpreted incorrectly by some, I still feel that way. However, my frustration has turned more toward those whining about the 20-something trying to make his or her way in the social media world, hoping to ride the wave like other digital natives and put food on their table. I don’t fault the uninformed for claiming to be something they aren’t. We’ve all spit-shined our resume a bit much at one point in time, I’d bet. I hope brands and companies are smart enough to see through that.

But attacking these enterprising young folks does two things that the “experts” doing the whining aren’t seeing:

1. For potential clients, it makes them doubt all of us as there is little apparent distinction between the experienced and the not in a field so young.
2. It can make you look like an elitist ass who’s afraid Johnny Icrediblog is going to take clients away from you.

While I do agree with Leggio’s assessment that your social media “expert” should have case studies, proof points and successes that point to integrated wins with an overall marketing campaign, the truth is that limits the pool to about 3-4 dozen folks in the world. No one has been doing it that long and that successfully. We’re all learning as we go. Yeah, there are a few with some good proof points, but this world, as we know it, is 4-5 years old at best.

I don’t like Leggio’s invitation for the “gurus” to jump in the comments to prove their worth. The gurus need to prove their worth to their clients, not Solis’s audience, or any of us for that matter. If they don’t, they won’t get paid much longer.

And while the video (produced on pretty damn cool software by the way) was cleverly done by Markham Nolan and is a funny, playful look at the whole guru phenomenon, it undermines the credibility of anyone in the social media business by implying anyone can do this and do it well.

(I can take a joke. It is funny. It’s just the dog pile that’s bugging me.)

The truth is that every social media manager, strategist, director, lackey, person or thingy at one point didn’t have a clue what they were doing. My first social media plan for a client was simply a PR guy connecting the dots between a communications need and a social tool that provided a solution. It didn’t make me smart. It didn’t make me an expert. But it made my client very happy and a career path emerged.

Since then, I make my clients happy or I get fired. I don’t give a damn what anyone else thinks of me. And yes, I know there are some experienced social media players out there who think I’m one of those “gurus.” I’m not going to defend my reputation or credibility to them just because I don’t live in Silicon Valley. Call my clients if you wanna know.

For them to make fun of the youngster trying to sell themselves is to make fun of each one of us at some point in our career.

My former agency colleagues rolled their eyes at me when I pitched social media ideas. Some of them still do. The ad blogs pointed to above are snickering about social media because of the funny video like it’s a fad and anyone selling it is a used car salesman in t-shirts and jeans.

And there are some in the social media world wanting to fan the flames of these character attacks because there’s some annoying dipshit with no provable reputation who criticizes their blog on Twitter.

It hurts us all in the long run. Please stop.

Sorry for the rant. You may return to your regularly scheduled programming. Or call me names in the comments. Enjoy.

With my last post slamming Brody PR, you might think that I’m a social media guy that hates PR firms. That could not be further from the truth. I would have just as easily posted a blog post about a social media agency had they done the same thing.

Kyle Lacy has taken it a step further, stating,

If your public relations firm is not writing, speaking, and educating their clients on how to use social media for brand management or communication… fire them on the spot.

With all respect, I don’t agree with Kyle.

The war isn’t between Public Relations and Social Media, I still value the expertise that Public Relations brings to the table. No social media expert (and I’d challenge all of them) is poised to leverage these mediums better than a PR agency who understands how to effectively communicate and build communication strategies with the public, working on and offline.

One thing we social media guys continue to forget is that we are in the minority. Public relations is the big guy – still pulling the strings and setting the tone for the largest companies in the world. Public relations firms still continue to get great results for their businesses and are a great investment for companies. Public relations firms are formally educated on effective communications, mediums, tactics, etc. They are some incredibly smart folks!

I honestly think the Social Media posse tends to over-exaggerate both the mediums and our own importance. Great marketers who worked in direct marketing, direct mail, database marketing and publications who’ve adopted social media love working in the space because it’s easier to use, easier to measure, and inexpensive to change direction on the fly.

The war between public relations firms needs to go by the wayside and social media guys like Kyle and me need to embrace them, help them, and learn from them. I’m looking forward to educating PR firms on the mediums, automation and analysis that social media can provide since, once they get it, they’ll love the results they can get from it and the immediate gratification it provides.

That’s my 2 cents on Public Relations and Social Media!

Photo of Kyle by Kyle Weller.

You might also find these posts interesting:

• The Impact of Social Media on Marketing and Public Relations
• Brody PR: When to FIRE your Public Relations Firm
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• Deadbeats on Display? Twitter – New AP Managment Tool

Image by jdlasica via Flickr

I read “Trust Agents” this weekend. Before you read further, please know that both authors, Chris Brogan and Julien Smith, are people I consider friends. Their publisher sent me a free copy of the book to read and review. I’m not unbiased here, nor do I intend to fake it.

But you can trust me when I tell you that even if these two guys weren’t my friends, this book is well worth reading. In fact, it’s well worth buying a few copies to give to friends, business associates, clients or potential clients and so on.

I can give you a synopsis of the book. I can tell you the five or six really good nuggets of thought and overall themes that Brogan and Smith illustrate and nail. I can promise you it will change the way you look at business and will give you a new perspective on the world. But a lot of other people will do that.

Here’s what I want you to know about this book more than anything:

It will empower you.

Regardless of whether you are a marketing or social media expert, a brand manager, an agency-side thinker, an independent consultant, a public relations person new to social media, a developer or programmer or just someone who wants to know more about this Internet marketing thing, this book will provide you with the tools needed to become a trust agent — someone trusted and influential on the web.

The empowerment comes not just in practical advice and street-level knowledge Brogan and Smith bring to the table, but from a perspective only these two can bring. Their message and explanation isn’t just rooted in marketing principles and brand work. It finds its evolution from game theory, psychology and even the inner confines of the lone comfort zone of most technologists: mom’s basement.

I won’t say it’s a blueprint. But it is. I won’t say it’s the best book to read to “get” social media. But it might be.

I just hope that you know me well enough to know if the book was crap, I would at least not say anything about it.

Buy it. Read it. Tell me if you disagree.

And to start your road to becoming a trust agent, help pass the word about the book.

IMAGE: Flickr Photo by J.D. Lasica.

• FriendFeed Blog
  We are happy to announce that Facebook has acquired FriendFeed. As my mom explained to me, when two companies love each other very much, they form a structured investment vehicle…
  (tags: socialnetworking socialmedia friendfeed social)
• Social Media — Content Before Engagement | Working with Agencies
  It seems like every time I meet with an agency, they bring along their social media experts. I’m not exactly sure what makes someone a social media expert. Perhaps it is someone who knows how to amass a lot of Facebook friends or how to put a lot of torque into their Twitter wrench.
  (tags: brand socialmedia social-media-expert)

Yet again today I was invited to a handful of events – in person and via webinar – to gain exposure to a social media expert and their take on social media marketing. As I review their profiles, their LinkedIn info, their sites and their blogs, I find no substantial information supporting the premise that they are social media experts.

Social media expert? Really? Perhaps they have tens of thousands of Twitter followers, hundreds of comments on their Facebook wall, and membership in a dozen or so networks. Perhaps because they’re a charlatan, a shark or a geek.

What would I classify as a social media expert? I love Peter Shankman’s list of qualifications and disqualifications for social media experts. I would add – that if it’s pertaining to business – I would like to see a long list of measurable results and references across a variety of companies and strategies.

Do I classify myself as an expert? I do – but not because I claim to understand it all. This is a young medium and its changing on a daily basis. It’s changing business behavior. It’s changing consumer behavior. My decade of experience evolving from direct marketing and database marketing, email marketing, etc. enabled me to naturally evolve into my current status.

I don’t claim myself an expert because of my knowledge of social media… I claim myself an expert because of the work I’ve accomplished for companies large and small to grow their business, retain and upsell customers, and reduce customer service calls by effectively utilizing social media.

Do I claim myself an expert because of the work I currently do?

• I’m a VP of a blogging platform I helped dream up that’s doubling its business each year.
• I own an up and coming New Media Agency (excuse the mess, we’re REALLY young) with a couple heavy international clients.
• The integration and automation tools I’ve developed in the blogging, email, video and mobile space.
• The 2 social networks I helped start and continue to help run.
• My own blog which spans 4 years (plus a couple more on other platforms) speaking to social media and marketing technology.

NO! None of this qualifies me as an expert.

I call myself an expert for three reasons:

1. Businesses seek experts, not gurus and geeks.
2. Calling myself an expert holds myself to a higher standard and expectation with a company that I must fulfill.
3. I fit the definition:

An expert is someone widely recognized as a reliable source of technique or skill whose faculty for judging or deciding rightly, justly, or wisely is accorded authority and status by their peers or the public in a specific well distinguished domain. An expert, more generally, is a person with extensive knowledge or ability in a particular area of study.

Am I smarter than the rest of the folks out there? Nope.
Do I know everything about social media? Of course not.
Do other experts always agree with me? Not a chance!
Has all of my work been successful? No – but much of it has.

I do believe that I have had an outstanding knack for analyzing business processes, marketing mediums, and determining how technology can bridge the gap. I don’t lie to clients and tell them they must be a part of social media if they wish to survive. I do share with them many of the successes, though! It’s a medium I personally believe in and hope to see mass adoption of – not because it can be manipulated by bad businesses – but because it can be leveraged by great businesses.

I believe social media connects businesses to prospects, builds improved relationships between customers and companies, pushes companies to improve customer service, builds transparency, and encourages thought leadership, entrepreneurial talent and evolution… all great for business.

And that, my friends, is my expert opinion.

PS: I’m sure if you go back far enough in my blog or comments on other blogs that I’ve torn into a few folks who self-proclaimed their expertise. Now it’s your turn.

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