I come across a lot of people who claim to be a “Social Media Expert” just because they know how social media works. It takes more than a basic understanding to call yourself an expert in any sector, especially social media. I have spent close to 7 years building up my knowledge around social media. Do you call yourself a social media expert? Here are 7 reasons why you’re wrong.
1. You’re Not Socially Active
Late last year I was a keynote speaker at The Great British Business Show speaking about social media and online marketing and I wasn’t the only one. I saw a lot of other “social media experts” in the other seminar rooms and when I did my research on these “experts”, they were barely active on social media. The famous saying of practice what you preach definitely stands when it comes to social media.
2. Lack of General Social Media Knowledge
If someone asks you questions around how many users Facebook has, how much unique visitors Twitter receives monthly or which social network has the most user uptake… will YOU be able to answer this? In most cases no. If you are calling yourself a social media expert you really need to keep up to date with your social media knowledge, especially when it comes to new features.
3. You Don’t Have a Website or Blog
Social media isn’t just about connecting with people inside of social networks, it’s also about having one central place where a potential customer can find all of your social networks and the best place to have this is on a website or blog. If you are calling yourself a social media expert without having a website, you won’t be respected as an influencer in the social media industry.
4. Social Media is Just Your Passion
It’s great to have a passion for what you want to do, I know I definitely do when it comes to helping small businesses build their online presence. If you wake up in the morning and don’t like your job you can’t call yourself an expert. An expert needs to be someone who always wants to learn and grow and enjoy doing this.
5. Not Measuring Social Media Activity
Using social media is one thing but you also need to measure your activity to see if you are generating traffic. As a social media expert, you need to be constantly changing your strategy to build your network and if you don’t know how to do this, you won’t be seen as a social media expert.
6. Not Using Social Media to Increase Your Network
Just like I said above, if you aren’t measuring your activity, how do you know if the message you are sending is actually helping you increase your network following? If you are just using social media to talk at your followers, you aren’t using it to increase your network. If you are calling yourself a social media expert, you should know exactly how to constantly increase your network, especially when it comes to Twitter.
7. You’re Overly Biased to a Specific Social Network
When I hold a keynote seminar or run one of my social media and internet marketing masterclasses, I will always share my opinion around all the social networks and what works best for ME however, I will never show bias towards one network. Where my customers are may not be where my clients customers are so for that reason, you need to share focus until you have researched enough to be more specific.
If you are going to call yourself a social media expert, you really need to make sure you are worthy of the title as once you become an expert, you become a thought leader and there is no turning back.
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