April 15, 2008 173 Comments

What I Want a Social Media Expert to Know

expertThere are lots of people throwing “social media expert” out there. Hell, I had it as part of my “about” on my blog, but I’ve chosen to just say that I advise people. It’s more accurate, because expertise is fairly darned fleeting out there right now. With that in mind, I’ve been thinking about things I want a so-called expert to know (and I want you to add to this list, or call me out if you disagree):

Strategic

  • Which department you think your role should fall into.
  • How your role ties to marketing, PR, advertising, R&D, finance, HR, sales.
  • What tasks you’d expect a community manager to perform, and how would you measure them.
  • How you expect a company to engage in “the conversation,” and what processes will go into place to make any of that matter.
  • How to turn blog posts into business leads.
  • How to listen and find where people are talking about you.
  • Ways to report your weekly listening and community work to a very senior level person in a huge company that has about 2 minutes of time to hear your briefing.
  • Know about 100 people in the space who are doing something. The more diverse the profession and location, the better.
  • How to launch and operate a blogger outreach campaign.
  • How to tie other media into social media as an integrated campaign.

Tactical

  • How to install a blog (pick your software) on a hosted server.
  • How to edit the sidebar to include a widget, or an embed, or anything.
  • How to create, edit, and post at least one other type of media besides text.
  • At least five social network accounts active, including but not limited to: LinkedIn, Yahoo! Groups, Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube.
  • How to find and subscribe to a podcast WITHOUT using iTunes.
  • Five stats worth knowing for any blog/website.
  • How to structure a blog post so that humans and Google like it.

I’m thinking there are probably another 40 things I could add to either list, but instead, I’m going to let YOU. (Ones that I agree with will go up into the main post until we have a pretty decent list.)

And remember, call me out if you disagree. What’s your take on what you expect a social media expert to know?

The Social Media 100 is a project by Chris Brogan dedicated to writing 100 useful blog posts in a row about the tools, techniques, and strategies behind using social media for your business, your organization, or your own personal interests. Swing by [chrisbrogan.com].

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Photo credit, Joe Shlabotnik

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  • http://www.mdurwin.com Michael Durwin

    It’s a testament to the pace of the world these days that so many are concerned with what departments “social media experts” fit in. It took a decade before webmasters became entire departments of specialists.

  • http://www.mdurwin.com Michael Durwin

    It’s a testament to the pace of the world these days that so many are concerned with what departments “social media experts” fit in. It took a decade before webmasters became entire departments of specialists.

  • http://www.pistachioconsulting.com Laura “Pistachio” Fitton

    This is a solid writeup of what a blog-focused social media expert should know, but I think we’re fast learning what I’ve argued for a long time. Roles in social media need to specialize, just as they always have in media generally. You’d never ask your art director to do the ad buy, etc. Even social media marketing (as opposed to social business, enterprise and other deeper uses of social media) expertise crosses many emergent discliplines: community management, monitoring and response, blogger relations, social network marketing, video and other multimedia, integration with other social platforms, widgets and streams, and more.

    Also, if the position being hired for is an executive who will build a team, some of the nitty-gritty hands-on skills are overkill and less important than the ability to recruit the right people, inspire change, articulate the opportunities and to good old-fashioned just “lead.”

  • http://www.pistachioconsulting.com Laura “Pistachio” Fitton

    This is a solid writeup of what a blog-focused social media expert should know, but I think we’re fast learning what I’ve argued for a long time. Roles in social media need to specialize, just as they always have in media generally. You’d never ask your art director to do the ad buy, etc. Even social media marketing (as opposed to social business, enterprise and other deeper uses of social media) expertise crosses many emergent discliplines: community management, monitoring and response, blogger relations, social network marketing, video and other multimedia, integration with other social platforms, widgets and streams, and more.

    Also, if the position being hired for is an executive who will build a team, some of the nitty-gritty hands-on skills are overkill and less important than the ability to recruit the right people, inspire change, articulate the opportunities and to good old-fashioned just “lead.”

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  • craig johnson

    I am in need of an ‘expert’ who can assist in the promotion of my website, can anyone help?

  • craig johnson

    I am in need of an ‘expert’ who can assist in the promotion of my website, can anyone help?

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  • http://www.squaremartinimedia.com Alan Underkofler

    This is a great start and I am really looking forward to seeing the follow up post! I would add:

    How to identify where your clients customers are within Social Media and where to focus your Social Media efforts

    Some knowledge of working congruently with traditional marketing, internet marketing, and social marketing to achieve one goal or many goals, all marketing efforts should support one another in some way…

    @Leif I think you have a good point… This is something we all fall into but at the same time as I was reading the comments I was thinking the same thing somewhere in the back of my mind…

    @David Evans Your response is a bit sad to me… I get we are all busy but at the same time this reminds me of a conversation with one of my clients yesterday… The client was complaining about the economy, disappointed in sales, and when provided a solution/tool to help create stronger relationships with his customers the response was “I don’t have time”, my response to him…”you can’t afford this excuse” Meaning you can’t afford not to take the time to engage your customers, clients, following, and tribe. This rings true for all of us!

    @Pistachio I think you are right on… The value of hiring a Social Media expert/leader/educator/consultant or what ever name we want to place on it is not can they do everything and know everything… The value you is can they direct, move the project in a direction, and have a team to implement all the different parts! So I would add as an expert do you have a team of people or other consultants to specialize in different aspects of Social Media.

  • http://www.squaremartinimedia.com Alan Underkofler

    This is a great start and I am really looking forward to seeing the follow up post! I would add:

    How to identify where your clients customers are within Social Media and where to focus your Social Media efforts

    Some knowledge of working congruently with traditional marketing, internet marketing, and social marketing to achieve one goal or many goals, all marketing efforts should support one another in some way…

    @Leif I think you have a good point… This is something we all fall into but at the same time as I was reading the comments I was thinking the same thing somewhere in the back of my mind…

    @David Evans Your response is a bit sad to me… I get we are all busy but at the same time this reminds me of a conversation with one of my clients yesterday… The client was complaining about the economy, disappointed in sales, and when provided a solution/tool to help create stronger relationships with his customers the response was “I don’t have time”, my response to him…”you can’t afford this excuse” Meaning you can’t afford not to take the time to engage your customers, clients, following, and tribe. This rings true for all of us!

    @Pistachio I think you are right on… The value of hiring a Social Media expert/leader/educator/consultant or what ever name we want to place on it is not can they do everything and know everything… The value you is can they direct, move the project in a direction, and have a team to implement all the different parts! So I would add as an expert do you have a team of people or other consultants to specialize in different aspects of Social Media.

  • http://www.hellriegel.net Oliver T. Hellriegel

    Excellent post, Chris. I never felt to call myself an expert. Being in the interactive industry right from the start, I’ll let other’s do the talk, at least as long as clients and prospects do believe I’m the right guy to talk to ;-)

    Oliver.

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  • http://www.m4tthias.com m4tthias

    Hi Francine. I echo your thoughts. A Social Media Expert would be a project manager who is capable of integrating all forms of social tool to produce results for a client.

  • http://www.how-to-weld.net/how-to-weld-an-introduction-to-welding/ How To Weld

    I have a long ways to go before I can be called a Social Media Expert

  • http://www.how-to-weld.net/how-to-weld-an-introduction-to-welding/ How To Weld

    1. Blogging is NOT only thing in social media, social media goes beyond blogging

    2. Measuring social media, the different approaches to it.

    3. Marketing via social media, you have the first mover advantage and then you have content to keep it live. If you dont have content, dont bother.

    4. PR as an industry and it people should look into to this as an opportunity arena, unlike SEM where you will need specialists and the ad agencies are stuck with selling banner space on websites.

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  • http://twitter.com/Debbie_h2o Debbie Horovitch

    I agree with everything on the list & thank you for posting it – it tells me exactly what you expect my competencies to be & that is very valuable information for my business.

    I don't think there are a lot of social media experts out there. But I do know that every industry has businesses that feel they're falling behind in social media knowledge and understanding (some haven't even started). The best people to help the industry grow and transition are the ones what are already experts in that industry, and can help their entire field and supply chain improve business/marketing with strategic integrated social media.

    Every industry is different. Every business is unique. Everyone is new to social media (to varying degrees). The only thing I'm an expert at is Media Planning, Buying and Negotiating (traditional media). Since I've spent nearly a year completely immersed in social media (full-time as I was job hunting), I've returned to my industry as one of the leaders in integrating social media into traditional media campaigns. I feel like an expert, but it doesn't mean I'm an expert for everyone in every field.

  • http://twitter.com/jarrodhiggins jhiggins

    Great article. I wrote my own piece about my thoughts on social media. A little less eloquent than yours, perhaps, but from a slightly different perspective. I'd love to know what you think.
    http://jarrodhiggins.com/?p=75

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  • hadleythom

    I know I am a bit late in commenting as the post was written in 2008, but I am inspired to do so because of the posts continued relevance.

    You are right, 'Social Media Expert,' is a loaded term. It was refreshing to see someone differentiate between strategic and tactical. Seems to me, that many just go straight for the tactics, instead of developing a program conducive to individual needs.

    Thanks again for this post.

  • Name

    Darn to useless

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  • http://twitter.com/dawnarteaga Dawn Arteaga

    what kind of Web site are you hoping to develop? I'd be happy to give you some ideas. you can find me on twitter.com/dawnarteaga or online at http://www.dawnarteaga.com

  • http://twitter.com/tele2002 Gary George

    Hey Chris, we were just talking about the people who sell themselves as social media experts and how actually the changing scope and the enormous scope of social media would mean that very few people, if any, could actually be an expert without defining a market vertical they operate in. So it was refreshing to read your entry here :)

  • http://dbagsforsale.com/ douche

    Sure this is an old post, but it still seems timely. For every expert, you should have one of these bags, complete with social media expert pencils. http://dbagsforsale.com

  • http://dbagsforsale.com/ douche

    Sure this is an old post, but it still seems timely. For every expert, you should have one of these bags, complete with social media expert pencils. http://dbagsforsale.com

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  • http://twitter.com/reallychill reallychill

    just watch out for pseudo “experts” http://reallychill.org/comedy/breaking-news-new…

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  • http://www.calumbrannan.com Calum Brannan

    Great post!

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