All hail the guru
Here we go again, the social media guru/expert/master/savant/wizard is under fire again. As they should be.
Yesterday we saw posts issuing a call to action for the self-labeled expert and today, we have the retort. In his post, Jason Falls at socialmediaexplorer.com states that:
… 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.
As one of those 20-somethings trying to make it in the PR/corporate communications world (note that I didn’t say social media), I want to point out that it’s people of all ages that can suck at what they do. If you’re going to call yourself an expert, you had better be able to prove it. And the number of twitter followers YOU have—That’s not proof.
Quantifiable metrics such as unique impressions; engagement such as time on Web site, videos viewed or even retweets; pipeline created (in a B2B world) or sales made are all proof points of the success of a program. Now, this blog is not the place for me to post my resumé, but rest assured that to this 20-something, those are important metrics.
Regardless of your age, social media is but a platform. How you use it is the key. And the results and goals are the locked door. Do good work and you’ll be successful.
I hate you for saying it so much more succinctly. Heh.
You’d be wise to adopt one of my many mottoes: “Brevity is beautiful.”
See you next week!
Part of me says this comment should just be the one word “Speak.”
The other part is trying to remember if I removed all mentions of guru or expert from my social media properties a few months back 😉
heh…
I like the idea of “speak.” The definitions of success vary differently depending on the use case of “social media.” B2B, B2C, sales, PR etc… all have different needs and goals.
Thanks for writing this. I clarified on Jason’s post, and I will here again, that my original post did not indict 20-somethings. It was a blanket statement for anyone who claims to know something they don’t really know, just because it’s popular.
Hey Jennifer, appreciate you popping by. The age thing, to me, was and is a non issue. It’s really, like you and Jason both said, show results. It’s like my journalism profs used to say, “show, don’t tell.”
Works the same here.