Question: There are so many pseudo social media experts out there, each with his or her “solution,” that it’s become overwhelming to identify the real McCoys. What criteria do you suggest people use? – Jim Taggart, LeadershipWorldConnect

Answer: Thank you for asking a very important question, and for trusting me to answer it for you. I am asked this same question at least once a week.  Unfortunately, the real social media experts are buried under all the hype of the fake experts because the real ones don’t have time to go calling themselves experts so they can pitch you on why you should have 100K Twitter followers, and why you should hire them to do the job. The true authorities in any industry are not hard-selling 24/7. They are too busy strategizing, sharing, learning, educating, creating, experimenting, executing, testing, growing, and helping others thrive.

It is difficult for me to answer this question without being too controversial or self-promotional.  However, my intent is to always educate and create awareness. Thus, the answer is not only based on my opinion, but also years of business experience and thousands of hours of research and execution to back it up.

So, how do you weed out the pundits from the fakes?

First, let’s define expert.  Here is how Wikipedia defines the word:

“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.”

Having extensive knowledge about a topic beyond the average person makes you an expert.  Your skills training and credentials make you an expert.  Your years of experience and education make you an expert.  However, given the above definition, the word expert should not be a self-proclaimed title. This title should be earned and given by peers after a person has logged tens of thousands of hours, and the results should speak for themselves.

Hence, your social media expert is NOT:

• Someone who shows you how to use the latest feature on Facebook
• An individual who tells you to just create pages on the major social networks
• Your web designer or programmer
• Your previous mortgage broker who has moved on to social media because it is the next hot industry
• Your virtual assistant
• Someone who is simply online
• Someone who has five different types of businesses going at once to see which one makes the fastest buck

Am I an expert in social media because I live and breathe the Web every day? It’s possible. However, I wouldn’t use that term.  I am a student of my work. I am constantly learning, experimenting, and educating.  My expertise and knowledge are put to the test every time I have a new challenge, a client, or a new project. If I can’t prove that I have some expertise when the situation calls, it doesn’t matter what I call or describe myself.

The criteria on how to select a social media expert will depend on the individual business and its goals.  However, below are a few other things to consider when selecting a professional to help you with your social media or online efforts.  Please note, these are not listed in any particular order, and this is not meant to be a comprehensive list, but only a guideline to be used along with some common sense.

• Successfully using the Internet for business a minimum of three to five years. Social media for business has not been around long; however, the Web has been around long enough for some people to have a decent amount of knowledge and visibility.  For example, I started placing banner advertising for brands online in 1997-98. While consulting and completing my master’s degree in 2005, I started doing extensive research on the search industry and social media, then started my own business in 2007. There are many people who have been online just as long, if not longer.  You just have to do your homework and find them. Remember, it is not possible for someone to know everything about the Internet.

• Strong online presence. I don’t mean the number of followers they have on Twitter or likers on Facebook.  Google their name and see where they show up.  Where are they mentioned online?  Who is talking about them?  Are they published anywhere?  Who are they engaging with? How are they engaging?  How are they showcasing their expertise and sharing their knowledge? Are others praising them and referring to them as experts? Do they walk the talk?  Their online visibility does not have to be perfect, but it has to be strong. If someone’s online presence is virtually non-existent, do you think they can help you accomplish your online goals?

• Does not preach social media. An expert does not preach or shove social media down your throat right off the bat.  Instead, they give sound business advice based on what they have learned about your business. An expert will explain how social media can complement or enhance current efforts, not replace it.  A true expert may even talk you out of using social media.  I have done this with many clients because I simply felt they were not ready.  So my role at that point was not to convince them to jump on the bandwagon, but to help make changes in their business that would prepare them for the online world so they leverage it properly.  Social media may not make sense for every single business out there.  In addition, not every tool is for every business.  If your so-called expert starts the conversation telling you that you need to be on Facebook before evaluating your business, then there is your first sign to look for someone else because the tools should not even be discussed up front.

• Solid business background. It is not enough to just have online knowledge.  Being able to give someone effective advice about their business requires some form of business leadership.  An expert may have led a business and knows how every aspect of a business comes together.  That person should be able to walk into any business, analyze the current situation, learn about the products/service, research competition, understand the culture, review business objectives, and make a recommendation based on the needs and objectives of that business.

• Understands strategy. It is essential for a social media expert to have an understanding of strategy.  Do they know the difference between goals vs. objectives or strategy vs. tactics?  Can they pinpoint the strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats of a business? Do they explain a long-term program? Are they able to develop or recommend a sustainable and scalable plan? Can they answer your ROI and measurement questions?  All these questions and more are very essential.

• Recognizes social media is not a campaign. It upsets me to still hear people call social media a campaign.  I come from the advertising world, and a campaign was something that had a start and an end date.  Guess what?  Social media does have a start date, but not an end date.  An expert identifies that social media is a process, a program, an ongoing never-ending conversation.  Although, you may be creating short campaigns within your entire strategy, an expert should help you brainstorm ideas that have sustainability and fluidity.

• Explains integration. Social media is not meant to be used as a stand-alone.  As I mentioned above, social media should be integrated into the entire business strategy.  Is your expert able to discuss and integrate every aspect or department of a business, including the culture, marketing, advertising, public relations, customer service, business development, internal communications, etc.? An expert should be able to explain the how and why to any business. If the goal is marketing, they should be able to help you integrate social media with all your offline marketing efforts as well as explain how it impacts search engine optimization and other online techniques.

• Marketing or corporate communications expertise. Although I don’t think it is an absolute requirement, I believe it is a major benefit to select an expert who has a marketing, corporate communications, or public relations background.  Experts from these industries have the knowledge about selected the right target audience, conducting surveys, understanding consumer behavior, creating effective messages as well as responding to a crisis situation.  I have seen many people succeed online without these skills; however, it is extremely helpful to hire a person with some knowledge or has the willingness to do the research.  If you do look at this as one of the criteria, please make sure they are open-minded and are aware of the communication shift.  It is not wise to choose someone that is still stuck on the traditional way of doing things.

I hope this helps you and others to identify the real McCoys from the fakes.  Of course, when hiring any professional, asking for results and references are always a must.  I can tell you upfront that consultants cannot always share who all their clients are or publicly share case study information.  For example, my work is all based on a client’s business strategy, and this information is generally kept confidential. Thus, don’t be surprised if others tell you the same thing.

The most important thing is to do your research and take your time before selecting the right person for the job.  It is only a matter of time before the fakes drop off.

As you may recall, at the beginning of the year I wrote the “7 Signs Your Social Media Consultant is Really an Expert” blog post, which was very popular. This was meant to be a fun and light post covering the basics, and all seven signs I listed are good basics to consider as well.

Was this helpful? What other criteria have you used to identify if someone is a true social media expert?

QUESTION:

Hi Mirna.  Are there any sites that offer updates about Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter? I would like to stay in the loop with new things that come out, etc.  I thought I would pick your brain about some of your favorites. – Dawn P.

ANSWER:

Thank you for the great question Dawn.  As you know there are thousands of sites and many of them are very helpful.  Since I don’t have time to keep track of all of the sites that offer information on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn, I normally like going straight to the source to get updates and accurate information.

Here are some very helpful links for each of the networking sites that you asked about:

Facebook  Business Page

Facebook’s Blog

Facebook’s Developer Blog (Although this is for developers, I still find great information sometimes.)

You may also want to check All Facebook.

Twitter’s Blog

Twitter Status (The best way to get updates when the site is down, which seems like a lot lately.:D)

Twitter for Business

LinkedIn’s Blog

LinkedIn for Developers

You may also have seen my blog about LinkedIn. There are excellent training videos for every module of the site.

I recommend to subscribe to the RSS of all these blogs so you can stay updated on all important information.  Also remember, all of these sites have a “help” section if you need any questions answered.

Good luck!

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

QUESTION:

“Mirna, what’s your take on Facebook these days with the privacy concerns? I didn’t like seeing my FB photo, name, text box pop up online.” — Pam W.

ANSWER:

Good question, Pam!  Several people asked me the same thing, since I did not react much to the changes.

As briefly mentioned to you on Twitter, I think users should have the right to choose if they want to show others what sites they visited. However, I also see Facebook’s perspective on helping brands and other businesses boost their viral marketing efforts since this will also support the site’s growth.  To a certain extent, they were not thinking of the average Facebook user because they ended up causing a tremendous amount of confusion and commotion.

Although I think Facebook and other social networks do a very poor job at educating and listening to their users, I do believe it is the users’ responsibility to protect their own privacy.  Everyone online should be focused on having fun, educating themselves about social media and working on their strategies, instead of wasting too much time worrying about the Facebook changes.

We have to all remember that a huge part of using social media is transparency. It is our choice to make whether we want to use social media or not; and we decide what to share and how visible we want to be.

As you know, I share a lot of content and consider myself to be very visible online. But, I am also a very private person and don’t like sharing my entire life with the world.  Although, I allow everyone to get to know my personality, I am very strategic and extremely cautious with what I post or discuss on social networking sites.

If privacy is still a concern, here are a few tips when using any online tool or website:

- Use common sense.  If you do not want your competitors or great great grandchildren to see something, do not post or discuss it.

- Take the time to check the privacy policies before using a social media tool or application.

- Be responsible and use privacy settings when joining social networking sites.

- And last but not least, if you are using sites like Facebook for business, please remember to use them as supporting tools only.  Too many of us are concentrating way too much on these tools instead of focusing on what is truly important — our business strategy and our websites.

If you still have concerns, questions, and comments regarding privacy, please post them below.

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

QUESTION:

“What is the impact on your blog rankings if you take some of the blog posts and repackage them as e-zine articles? Effectively, you are using the content twice. Will my blog rankings be penalized? If so, how much?” — Rob B.

ANSWER:

The duplicate content penalty is used by Google and other major search engines to control spam, but not entirely for the reason you are asking about.  Here is what Google says on their webmaster blog:

“Duplicate content doesn’t cause your site to be penalized. If duplicate pages are detected, one version will be returned in the search results to ensure variety for searchers.”

The major search engines look for quality, unique content to list in their rankings.  Their goal is to minimize the amount of duplicate content  in their index so searchers do not get frustrated.  If you include your blog posts on other sites, the search engines may choose to include the site with the most inbound links and may not include your blog in their index.

The solution is to not completely rely on duplicate content when trying to drive traffic to your blog.  However, you don’t have to avoid duplicate content all together.  If your goal is to have your blog rank high in the search engines, I would suggest to list some blog posts as articles, but not all of them.

If you want to avoid duplicate content, but still want to re-package your content, here are a couple of suggestions:

- Change the title of the blog post and rewrite at least the first couple of paragraphs, so it is not  100% duplicate.

- Instead of turning your blog post into an article, turn it into a video and/or PowerPoint presentation, optimize them with keywords, and submit them to the appropriate sites.

I hope this helps and thanks again for submitting your question.

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

QUESTION:

“I met a social media strategist at a networking event last week who recommended I get a summer intern since I don’t have time to manage my social media.  I read your blog and find your tips very helpful and easy to follow.  Would it be possible to please share your opinion on this?” — Barbara H.

ANSWER:

Hi Barbara.  Thank you, I am glad you find my blog helpful.  My answer is absolutely NOT.  First, please run if a social media strategist told you this.  I mean it .

Second, I want you to answer these questions:  Will an intern understand your objectives, products/services, competition, etc?  Will an intern be as passionate about your business as you or someone who is employed by you?  Can an intern build relationships for you online and be able to answer questions, share their expertise, and respond to negative comments? Do you want that person to be the voice of your company?  Do you want to keep training new interns every quarter?  The answer to all these questions is mostly likely NO, right?

Using social media is a long-term process that should to be handled by someone who has been fully-trained and has enough knowledge about every aspect of your business.  You also need someone who is passionate about your industry and brand.  And, depending on the size of your company, you may need more than one person.

However, there are a few tasks that may be good for an intern, such as certain kinds of research, building reports, uploading blog posts and videos, starting new accounts for you, etc.  Basically, these are the simple tasks that don’t require for them to have a voice for your company online.

I hope this helps and thanks again for submitting your question.

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

QUESTION:

“Hi Mirna.  Just how crucial it is for a start up e-commerce business to invest in an SEO campaign, and when would you say is the best time to do that?” — Ali Badruddin

ANSWER:

This is a very common question and most e-commerce business owners fail to budget for (search engine optimization) SEO into their start-up plans.  SEO for e-retailers is as important as e-commerce site functions and the products you are selling.  Many end up spending a fortune on web site design neglecting to save dollars for SEO.  This is a huge mistake because majority of online users go to the search engines to research products so it will do you no good if your site shows up beyond page one or two of the search results for your targeted keywords.

SEO should start at the conception of the web site during the web design phase.  During this stage you will be making design decisions that will either benefit or damage your SEO efforts.  Starting early can save you from having to put more time, effort, and money in re-designing the site later.

I recommend starting right away even if you start slow.  If you are looking to outsource this time-consuming task make sure you do your due diligence and search for the right SEO firm or web developer who have experience with e-commerce sites.  Unless you are doing the optimization yourself, I would budget at least 20-30% of your investment into search engine optimization since this an ongoing process and not something you stop and finish.

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.

QUESTION:

“Hi Mirna. I am hoping you can help me. Every networking event I go to people are telling me I have to do social media for my business. I realize that social media can be another marketing tool, but can it serve another purpose besides marketing and where do I start with all this? Any insights you have would be very helpful.” — Andrian Pital

ANSWER:

Social Media can be used for many things besides marketing and attracting new customers to your business.  To just name a few:

- Public relations (brand recognition or to respond to a crisis like most recently, the Toyota recall)

- Creating relationships and building stronger bonds with existing customers

- Ongoing customer service

- Listening tool (observing what people are saying about you and your competitors online)

- Market research before developing a product or service

- Engaging with journalists/media

- Collaborating with employees (internal or external communication)

- Integration with offline networking efforts

- Finding joint venture partners

- Recruitment

As you can see from the above list, social media can play a role in every department of a company. There are a few steps you need to take before deciding if social media is right for your business:

1. Decide what you want to use social media for (see above list).

2. Know who your target audience is (age, gender, location, interests, values, etc.).  Of course, if you are a B2B the parameters would be different.

3. Identify your objectives.  These should be very specific and measurable.

4. Learn what social media means as a whole. Many people think it is about social networking only because this is all they are hearing about.  I designed the 15 categories of social media diagram to help businesses understand the entire social media landscape.  You will need to take the time to learn about each of the categories and the tools involved.  The tools and categories you choose should be based on your target audience and objectives.

5. Use social media as a listening tool first and observe what types of conversations people are having online.  Are they already talking about you, your company, your products or services?  Are they talking about your competitors?  Are they talking about your industry?  Are the conversations positive, negative, or neutral?

I recommend spending as much time as possible on steps 4 and 5.   It is really wise to learn as much as you can about social media before you jump on.  If everyone is jumping on Twitter and Facebook, you do not need to follow the hype if it doesn’t make sense for your business.

If you would like to get your questions answered by Mirna, please visit the Ask Mirna page.