04 May Will the Real Social Media Expert Please Stand Up?

Several years ago anyone who knew how to create a Facebook event was dubbed a ‘social media expert’. A lot has changed over the years and while many people who are Facebook and Twitter savvy understand how to use social media sites for their personal use, a social media expert is more than just someone who can update their status and personal page.

All it takes is one mistake

While interns and entry-level hires can bring energy and creativity to the tasks that they’ve given, they’re also the most likely to make rookie mistakes that can cost your brand or agency in the long run. Both brands and agencies have made national headlines in the last several years for social media disasters. Whether it’s posting to the wrong account, firing off a passionate rant in the heat of the moment, or not communicating in the brand voice, someone with experience in community management is your best bet.

It’s not just about daily posts

While the value and health of your social media community lies in well-crafted content and engagement, there is more to take into account when it comes to day-to-day social media management. Outside of technical proficiency, your social media manager needs to understand analytics and metrics. At the very least, they need to know the value of engagement over fan base and be able to take statistics and data and turn it into relevant actions for your pages. You should expect monthly reports with clear action items for program refinement as well as a list of new opportunities and campaign ideas.

Being active on social media doesn’t make you an expert

In 2009 it may have been an acceptable practice to assume all college or university students were social media experts, after all, Facebook was initially a tool for students. But that is no longer the case.  A few years and billions of marketing dollars later, social media management has developed into a very specific skill set. The person calling the shots on your brand pages needs to understand your brand, marketing and PR goals, as well as be a customer service genius to really maximize your results.

So what is an actual social media expert? It is someone who you would take advice from, and works in social media as a sole profession. They’re not a car salesperson by day and social media ninja by night – they actually live and breath social media and online marketing 24/7. A social media expert has a strong online marketing portfolio and is proficient in outlining their personal contributions to online campaigns. An expert also generally has some kind of education or qualifications in their industry, combined with years of experience in their sector.

It’s not enough to look at how many followers a social media expert has, instead ask for reference. If an ‘expert’ mentions the amount of followers they have, this doesn’t mean that they’re valuable hits, as there is a case for quality over quantity. If they don’t ask about your business and how it operates from the bottom up, they likely don’t care.

Social media is personal. If you’re a small business owner, you should be doing it yourself. It’s fine if you want to hire someone to post links and write blogs, but don’t leave all of your online marketing to someone else. If you’re going to use social media, do it yourself and subcontract out the stuff that’s either too time consuming or impersonal.

If you are hiring someone to take care of your social media, consider this: would you allow an intern or entry-level hire address a room full of journalists and editors, or deal with complex customer service issues? You would never allow an intern or entry-level employee the opportunity to speak for your brand on a global platform, so why would you trust them to speak to consumers 24/7 using social media platforms. When you allow an intern to manage your social media community, you are taking an astronomical risk. You are trusting them to represent your brand and your clients. There isn’t a business program or school in the entire country who would consider that a smart move. Do your research and hire an actual expert who comes with legitimate references and a portfolio of their work.

Social Media Scandals

An American Red Cross employee accidentally tweeted about “#gettinslizzered” from the American Red Cross account rather than their personal account.

An intern at Marc Jacobs vented about his frustrations with the CEO of Marc Jacobs over the Marc Jacobs International Twitter feed. The intern vented their frustration for not getting a job at Marc Jacobs by hijacking the account and using it to call Marc Jacob’s CEO Robert Duffy a “tyrant” on their last day of work.

An employee accidentally dropped an f-bomb on the Chrysler twitter account. Chrysler’s reaction was to swiftly remove the tweet from their account and the agency they used for social media from their payroll.

KitchenAid did some serious damage control following an errant tweet sent out from the company’s Twitter account during the presidential debate. The tweet reference Obama’s deceased grandmother who died in November 2008.