There is no such thing as a social media expert

Many businesses are looking for people within the Social Media Industry in hopes to find help with their own Social Media efforts and to no surprise, these self-proclaimed Social Media experts are easy to find, just do a quick search on Twitter.

In order to find the appropriate person your business is looking for, you do need to do some research about them as well as ask questions prior to the interview to ensure you are not wasting your time.

Let’s begin with those that title themselves as guru’s, mavens or experts within the field of Social Media, those people are ones you would want to mark off your list of people you want handling your online reputation. Ego is not welcomed, confidence is, and you need to know how to distinguish between the two within this haystack.

To understand fully you need to know that the Social Media Industry changes instantaneously. It does not allow experts to exist, to be an expert, there is little to no room to grow or to learn. Instead, by one calling themselves this actually hurts them, this Industry can only be made up of people who specialize in it, there isn’t even time before something else will change or be born within Social Media.

You also want to be wary if the person your business is searching for is actively promoting themselves within various Social Media communities and how they handle themselves on these sites. A Social Media Specialist is not idle, nor do they ignore major social networking sites, their presence should be seen repeatedly throughout each day.

This is also where you will be able to see the types of interactions they receive and how well they carry themselves. A good Social Media Specialist will have prominent loyal followers and not only share good content but interact with his/her community regularly.

Anyone can title themselves anything and since the Social Media boom people have come out of the wood work to capitalize on an Industry that does not need a certificate to be employed in, however, knowledge and passion are key essentials that drive this Industry’s success, if you don’t have either, it will become evident in a short amount of time.

The Social Media Industry is not a 9-5 job, it is 24/7 and those who are successful in this Industry will know others that have had the same or greater success since the actual group of people that make up the Industry is not as large as it looks.

As a business you should also ask questions such as:

Why do you use Social Media?

What caused you to choose this field?

How do you expect Social Media to benefit my business (allow them to give the cliff notes version)

And finally, learn some well-known Social Media Specialists or writers and ask them if they recognize the name.

Of course, your overall choice will be dependent on what you are looking for as well as what type of vibe you get from the person. Not all choices are based on research or questions but to know that you are in fact looking for a needle in a haystack is a start and if all else fails just know that there is no such thing as a Social Media Expert gives your business a leg up.