I am not a social media expert
Sunday, February 21, 2010 at 10:16AM I am not a social media expert.
I am an enthusiast. I am happy to share anything useful I may have learnt (for whatever that may be worth), but I make no claim to be able to advise others on how to use SM to grow their business.
However, as Charon QC pointed out in his Outsourced and Ghostwritten post this morning, there are all manner of experts or even "mavens" and "gurus" who are staking their claim as paid social media experts.
I have been participating in a debate on Twitter this weekend about the wisdom (or otherwise) of outsourcing your law firm's tweets to legal marketers or other social media rockstars.
For what it's worth, the solicitors and barristers I follow on Twitter (many of whom are using Twitter very succesfully for business development) were universally against the idea... but then again none of them would claim to be "gurus" either.
I may not be a maven, but I know enough to recognise an attempt to court controversy and boost web traffic for a new business when I see one so I am stepping back rather than fanning the flames.
What I will say is that if your web marketer, PR agency or guru suggests you outsource your tweets to them then it pays to ask them a few questions about their social media credentials and track record.
Ian Lurie's post on his Conversation Marketing site:- 10 Questions to Evaluate a Social Media 'Expert' is a good starting point if you are looking for some relevant questions to ask.
If they have radical ideas about outsourcing social media content and the like then ask them for hard details about the clients they are using them for and some solid data on the ROI those clients have received (Olivier Blanchard's slide deck on the Basics of Social Media ROI which I have linked to before is an excellent resource if you are struggling with how to define this).
If your social media "expert" can't answer these type of questions convincingly then think long and hard about handing over your money.
Anyone can have a theory on how best to use Twitter, but my personal view if they can't lay out their track record convincingly and actually demonstate some ROI?
I couldn't give two hoots.
Reader Comments (6)
Great post.
Some advice for life there. You should never hand over any money to anyone before sitting down and seeing their track record, testemonials and case studies etc.
If someone was going to use an "expert" perhaps the best thing they could do is simply pay on results. i.e. Sure, do my blogging etc I will pay you when I get a client.
Of course "testemonials" should read testimonials!
Before you use anyone's services for copy etc you should make sure that they are able to spell!
Really enjoy your blog. I've often wondered whether there is any way in which it could work to get help with the social media. IT is a phenomenal time sink. If you have a Facbook Page, want to participate in Linked In, on Twitter, Squidoo, have a few You Tube videos, find interesting forums to participate on etc there must be a way to get help with it all. Surely you don't have to do every aspect of it yourself? I suspect it is possible to outsource SOME aspects of it. However, as in most areas of life, to delegate well you need to know what's involved, and what success looks like, and have a fairly good idea of how to do it all yourself first. So, although I don't currently use any assistance, I would not rule out some well considered targeted delegation to an external trusted provider.
I don't know if you have seen this YouTube unmasking of the thing called the "Social Media Guru". If you had I think you would have linked to it.
The video has very strong offensive language, be warned. It is also very funny.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZKCdexz5RQ8
The right way to "delegate" social media, is to encourage everyone in your firm to get involved too. Don't try and take it on all yourself. Instead get some training for your staff, encourage them to make social media part of their daily routine, and simply do what I am sure you already ask them to do every day in the real world: be advocate for your firm.
The best way to find out about the result that you are going to get from yout choosen media expert is to go through his/her job history and achivements and as well as his/her abilities to control the deals.then if you may want to change your mind , it wont matter.