Social Media “Experts”

I’ve recently seen an upswing in people claiming to be social media experts by starting their own social media consulting companies. I have to be honest. I question anyone who claims to be a social media expert. Reason being that to be an expert in something, that something has to be somewhat well defined. There has to be a body of knowledge that the so-called expert has consumed and can use better than others. So I decided to a little research into whether these so-called experts have the valid experience (according to me) to act as consultants.

To my surprise, many of the social media consultants seem to understand the potential for social media to help businesses communicate more effectively with consumers. What I didn’t see much of was examples of how these consultants intend to help these businesses. Let me explain.

Social media is a tool. A very powerful tool. Very few companies have found the right way to use this tool and continued experimentation will be necessary to figure out the best approach. Regardless, these seems to be some confusion by many of these so-called experts on what value they can bring to their clients. My theory is that many of these consultants have convinced themselves that since they have a blog, have 500 followers on Twitter and 250 friends on Facebook, they can be a social media consultant.

Let me be clear about this. Social media popularity does not make you qualified to be a social media consultant. When I want to see if a person has a REAL following on Twitter, I check to see the ratio of “following” to “followers”. If you follow as many people as follow you, then you’re not it’s not likely that you’re influencing people (edit was for @GeorgeDearing). You’re probably just trading fake popularity. If you have lots of friends on Facebook, that doesn’t mean you know how to market to people on Facebook. If you use GetSatisfaction, that doesn’t mean you know how businesses can use it effectively.

Social media doesn’t change the way consumers make decisions. They’re still going to use standard decision-making analysis when choosing to purchase a product (compensatory or non-compensatory). They’re still going to be affected by their attitudes and involvement with the product. The fundamentals of consumer behavior have not changed. Not by the internet and not by social media. To truly claim to be able to help businesses reach their consumers, a consultant must not only be aware and knowledgeable about the latest and greatest new tools, but must also have the experience and/or education in  consumer behavior and how consumers go about deciding on which products to buy. The tools are new but the fundamentals are the same.

I have plenty of faith in the majority of these new social media consultants. Mainly because, as one of my friends put it using the old saying, “in the land of the blind, the one eyed man in king.” Companies are in dire need to get involved in these new networks of communication. Even if you don’t have the right experience or education, if you can help them connect to this new world, you will probably be helping them to some degree. But I feel that after the dust settles, many of these companies will realize that they’ve paid a hefty price for very little return. The real value will come when people combine the fundamentals of marketing and consumer behavior and apply them to these new tools.

I potentially see myself moving into this area of social media consulting. But before I do, I’ll make sure I can provide real value to businesses other than making them a Twitter account, a Facebook fan page, and getting them lots of fake followers that will never amount to any consumer spending or solid brand awareness.