If you ever Google "What is a social media expert," you will immediately come across blog posts criticizing the profuse usage of the term today. I'm not shocked by the criticism either. The term itself does not specify a person's true abilities when it comes to social media, and could easily mislead business owners who are trying to find a social media marketer who can help promote their companies online.
Social Media Marketing from a Business Perspective
Social media marketing is such a vast, fast-paced and complex field and it is not something that can simply be studied or practiced in isolation on one's own personal social media profiles. As a result, I do not classify someone as a "social media expert"(or "SME" for the purposes of this blog post) if they only studied it in school or if they were able to gain 1,000+ friends on their own Facebook friend profiles.
From a business perspective, the only reason why I would hire a SME is because I want someone to strategically increase my brand's recognition online in order to generate additional revenue for my company. As a business owner, I could care less about the history of social media and your friend page. I care a lot about whether you can understand my brand, my product, and/or my service and can figure out the best way to target and engage my ideal market and encourage them to make a purchase. I want to know that you won't apply a "one size fits all" solution to my company when it comes to your social media marketing efforts. I want to know that you will listen to my branding interests and truly get to know the ins and outs of what my company does and what it stands for before you start representing my business on various social media platforms. I also hope that you are great at customer service and won't do anything to jeopardize my company's reputation. Most importantly, I want you to not just gain followers for my brand online (e.g., 100,000 likes on my company's Facebook page). I want you to gain a lot of ENGAGED followers who will get excited about my brand and engage with it.
How to Tell If Someone is Truly a "Social Media Expert"
As a business owner, you don't want to waste time and money dealing with a social media expert or company that cannot meet your demands and your needs. As I mentioned before, social media marketing is not a "one size fits all" field, so it is absolutely crucial that you do background research on any potential social media consultant before hiring them to manage your online marketing needs.
Don't fall for a SME's glitzy website: It means that they have a great website designer and understand the importance of having a good website these days. That's about it.
Check their social media profiles, but don't rely on the profiles to make a decision: If a SME has a high Klout score and 1,000+ likes on their Facebook page, that's great. It suggests that they were able to effectively promote their own company and gain positive social proof. Whether that suggests that they can gain that same number of likes (or hopefully more) of loyal and engaged followers for your business is another story. Ultimately you want to know whether the SME can understand your company, effectively market it online, and also engage with your potential consumers.
Pick their brain about their marketing strategy: Someone may be able to perfectly recite current stats about Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest or provide you with great case studies from their past work, but that means nothing if the SME is not able to translate their knowledge of social media and experience into a tailored marketing strategy for your business. Make sure that the SME is truly listening to you and your needs and is willing to create a social media strategy that works for you. Also make sure that the SME is adaptable and is willing to make changes to their strategies as they (hopefully) keep up with the latest social media trends. Communication between you and the SME is absolutely essential. They should be willing to regularly keep you posted with their social media marketing work for your business, how they are engaging with your followers, and whether a follower had a question or made a comment that they cannot answer on their own but needs immediate attention (e.g., a complaint about a product or a negative review of a particular service).
Can They Speak Your Language? In today's social media world, the brands that are able to effectively engage with their online followers are the ones that rise to the top. Your SME must be able to talk to your brand's followers and engage them about your product or service. Why? Because your competitor is. In the social media world, people want to know that companies care about them and are listening to their needs. Ultimately, if you want people to get excited about your brand, you need to show them that you're excited about them as well. You are competing for your ideal client's attention, so you have to show them that, as opposed to your competitor, you truly do care about their needs and want to satisfy them with your product/service. If your SME is not willing to learn about your company, become a mouthpiece for your company and effectively engage your followers, then you should definitely find another one that will.
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