Is Hiring a Social Media Expert a Really Bad Idea?

Anyone who’s read this blog for any amount of time knows I’m a fan of both social media and blogging for businesses. Social media helps you listen and communicate with your customers. And, ultimately, drive more revenue. Blogs help you create loads of keyword-rich, link-worthy content to improve your search engine rankings for your website and brand. And, ultimately, drive more revenue.

That’s why I loved Peter Shankman’s recent post, “I Will Never Hire a ‘Social Media Expert,’ and Neither Should You.” Don’t let the title fool you. Peter isn’t dissing social media—he’s is a fan of the medium. He’s pulling an “Emperor’s New Clothes” on people who claim expertise in how to use social media without having any business focus. And, along the way, offers some great advice on how to get the most from your social media activities to drive more revenue (beginning to see a theme here?)

It’s a theme whose time has come. I looked at it here a couple of weeks ago when I asked whether social media is intangible. Chris Penn recently offered some useful tips for how to make social media matter.

But, Peter lists four simple keys to social media success (defined quite rightly, in this context, as leading to business success):

1. Transparency
2. Relevance
3. Brevity
4. Customer focus

Seems like a good list to me for any marketing activities. Which, ultimately, is the point.

Read Peter’s whole article. It might be the best 10 minutes you’ll spend towards developing a solid social media strategy. It might not convince you that hiring a social media expert is a bad idea. But what it will do is help you find someone who’s focused not on social, but on your business.

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