Your mom is an expert.
by that damn redhead on November 19, 2008
in Etymology, Rants, Social Media
A fellow social media enthusiast Bill Deys, whom I was lucky enough to meet at the PodCamp Michigan ’08 afterglow, touched on an issue that has eaten away at me for a long time, and that is the (over)use of the term “expert” in the social media realm. He made a point that I’ve been preaching since I can remember — nobody can call themselves an “expert” in social media. SM is so new, and things are changing so quickly here on the web, that it’s literally impossible for any one person to be an expert. Yet, it seems like everywhere I click, somebody new is proclaiming themselves to be an expert on it.
Stop it.
There is only one person I can think of that truly does deserve the title of “social media expert” under his name on a business card and that is Chris Brogan, and even he prefers to just say he “advises people.” He acknowledges the overabundance of self-proclaimed “social media experts” and started a list of things he wants every “expert” to be able to know, which is a good way of educating, humbing, and challenging himself and other students of social media, the majority of whom are his readers.
Did you see that word I used right there? Students. That’s exactly what we are. On the internet, ideas seem to exchange 100+ times faster than they did when we relied on paper as our main read medium, which means that we can hardly keep up with the changing ideas, techniques, strategies, etc. before what we just learned has already become outdated.
But that’s okay, because we are still learning.
Brian Solis, credited as being one of “the original thought leaders who paved the way for Social Media,” says social media
… is about facilitating interactions between people online. Just because we have the tools to engage, doesn’t make it any easier to do this the right way.
Social media is about sociology and the understanding that with the new social tools available to us, we can more effectively observe the cultures of online communities and listen to and respond directly to people within the communities.
Sociology – The study of human social behavior, especially the study of the origins, organization, institutions, and development of human society.
(Source: “Will the real social media expert please stand up?“)
See the language he used there? Tools. Understanding. Observing. Cultures. Communities. Development. That is the vernacular of education. Doctors and lawyers call what they do “practice” for a reason — knowing that their field is always changing and there is always something new to learn.
One may argue that I’m just a pedant for semantics, but I truly believe in the power of language and when the masses misuse or abuse certain expressions, meaning gets lost among the societal understanding.
Remember in the ’90s when “alternative” music became, well … mainstream? People failed to understand the irony. The word “alternative,” in the sense the music was intended, meant “employing or following nontraditional or unconventional ideas, methods, etc.; existing outside the establishment: an alternative newspaper; alternative lifestyles.” No so much if it’s all over the FM radio airwaves and MTV, VH1, etc. The alternative to “alternative music” was anything but “alternative” … like polka or flamenco. Those are alternative!
Along the same lines, if everybody and their brother declares themselves and “expert” in social media, does that not cheapen the very meaning? If everybody has the same level of expertise (theoretically), then “expert” becomes less “expert” and more “average.” Then once again we struggle to find meaning in terms which there should really be no confusion in the first place.
Bill has the right idea. He says
What you have to do is find someone you feel you can trust and listen to them, it’s not a bad idea to seek second, third, etc. opinions but don’t be surprised if you get different answers. Ask questions from anyone your talking to. Ask if the first guys plan would work, if second guy shoots it down completely maybe guy two sucks.
Hmm … that sounds a lot like what people do with doctors and attorneys. There may be something to this idea.
What are your thoughts? Can we all be experts and not average, or are we just cheapening our language and making the very field of PR/SM more blurry than it’s already become?
In the meantime, I’ll be not proclaiming myself an expert on anything, only a student.
I love this post for a lot of reasons and I agree that people who tend to call themselves social media experts are mostly garbage. However, I think people involved in social media communities need to be careful that the spirit behind this idea isn’t misinterpreted.
I’ve seen people who are incredibly green with respect to their involvement in social media respond to this idea with ‘well, if there are no social media experts, I guess I’m a social media expert.’
It’s important that *we*, as members of a community, assign and acknowledge people like Chris Brogan and Brian Solis as social media experts… otherwise, people seem to think the title is up for grabs.
Love the “Your Mom is an Expert” title, and Bill’s idea for getting second and third opinions from people you trust. I think he’s pretty smart — and that goes for you, too, Stacy!
Glad to see you blogging on the regular. : )
Ah, group hug! jk. Thanks for the awesome words, IMO sparking a full blog post is cooler then a comment. Both are awesome but this means more. AND I love the discussion!
I don’t know exactly how I feel about your comment, @ Shannon, about “us” assigning people experts!
I’m not sure that is anyone’s place. It’s not like there is a governing body over social media like there is with doctors and lawyers. Why do we even have to assign titles. Can we just look up to people?
Everyone is an expert to someone!
Great piece – awesome topic.
While I’ve been using forms of social media for ages, I still feel like a n00b. This is mainly because I have never used social media in any way that I take some qualitative analysis from it. I just used it as a social tool and – on occasion – as a promotional tool that I now realize made me look like a tool.
Anyway, I am glad there are so many people that think they are “experts,” because it help me see how to approach others that ask me about using social media to market themselves. I know NOT to act as if social media is the end-all device. Also, I know better than to get folks’ hopes up too. It takes work and everyone is not driven enough to do it. I feel sorry (well, not really) for all these experts that are selling individuals/companies magic beans to make a quick buck. I really hope they don’t ruin the power of social media before it really gets started.
I didn’t get to meet you guys (thatdamnredhead and Bill) formally at Podcamp, but I’m sorry I didn’t. I follow both of your blogs now and you guys provide great stuff to consider!
We studied communication and PR in school, respectively, and we were taught to call ourselved “practioners.” We think you’re right on target with the comparison to Doctors and lawyers.
The cool thing about social networking is that I found this article from Twitter, and we get to do this at work because we’re on the social networking team.
@Bill While I do agree with you that “everyone is an expert to someone,” I thinking @ShannonPaul is right in that “we” as a community need to do the assigning of who really ARE the experts. In group situations, leaders will naturally emerge when they earn the respect of other group members collectively. The self-appointed leaders will eventually fall by the wayside if/when they prove they can’t put substance behind their claims. Luckily, the web is a hard place for one to be tyrannical, so those that attempt THAT will fail miserably unless their name is “Google.” The internet is probably the only place that runs on pure democracy, and for that we should be thankful.
@Hubert — I think many, if not all, of us still feel like n00bs sometimes. To people in my immediate meatspace, they “see” me as an “expert” simply because a) they know I’m a computer geek, and b) therefore, my familiarity with SM trumps their UNfamiliarity with it. In the same vein as @Bill’s point, everybody is an expert to someone. I’m an expert to the people I usually encounter offline, but when you put me in a room of OTHER SM-types, I will feel like the n00b, questioning how much I really know. I do that all the time, actually. Maybe it’s good that I do, maybe it keeps me grounded. I don’t know.
@Emma+Meghan I also studied communication and PR in school … technically my degree is in “organizational communication,” which I just tell people is a long word for PR, which it basically is. Why such an elusive title, I don’t know. Anyway, I’m not sure how I feel about the title of “practitioners” … it sounds too formal. I like “enthusiast” but that doesn’t quite capture it, either. And where do you work that has an actual “social networking team”? I need to get a job there!
Stacey,
I think you put this all very well: “I truly believe in the power of language and when the masses misuse or abuse certain expressions, meaning gets lost among the societal understanding.” I was going to say that expert is one of those words that is just getting all the color sucked from it — like when you suck the syrup out of a snowcone or something.
I agree with you that Chris Brogan brings something to the discussion every single day. But beyond that, the people I look up to are those — like you, suddenly — who make me consider the “tools” differently, or who help me just consider the world differently. That, it seems to me, accounts for why the people who use SM merely for marketing funnels (which is fine I suppose) leave me cold. I rarely will re-think my perspective on an issue just because I was invited to a VIDEO FOR A NEW WAY TO INCREASE MY TRAFFIC, or whatever.
The thoughtful comments on your post (and on mine, on a similar topic) give me pause and hope both; hope, because people in the community are really thinking about this. Pause, because will the people in the community be the ones pondering these questions?
But thanks for a great post, regardless.
Merredith’s last blog post..How to Save a Life: Humanizing Technology