Comments on: Are you sick of “Social Media Experts”?

By: Kenneth Forrest

Kenneth Forrest — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 03:31:51 +0000

Helpful information. Nice one and I find it a very good article with a direct thought to anyone reading this article. Keep posting!

By: Social Media sucks!

Social Media sucks! — Mon, 14 Jun 2010 11:52:28 +0000

Haha, good stuff! I totally agree – social media has far to much hype and as far as the experts are concerned – those who can’t do, teach!

By: Automobili

Automobili — Sat, 20 Feb 2010 12:20:31 +0000

How long will exist SMEs? That is real question? If can owners monetize their efforts?

By: Auto

Auto — Thu, 07 Jan 2010 10:25:42 +0000

We are really sick from SMEs. People don’t behaviour on soc nets like we expects. They are unpredictible and they don’t use SMEs networks daily. SMEs can be good PR but to get monetize from them it is not easy.

By: Angel

Angel — Wed, 30 Dec 2009 23:27:27 +0000

Great post Toni, I think many people really are sick of SMEs.
I agree there are too many self proclaimed SMEs, however, I don’t agree that most business professionals know how to use Twitter. Web 2.0 is a totally different concept, and a number of traditional marketers and business professionals are still stuck in Web 1.0. They have not really gotten their arms around the shift of engaging consumers and prospects.

There is a whole lot of hype around Social Media, and I agree with Daniel and Jelena that without a Strategy you’re just wasting your time. So if your social media (“guru”) consultant isn’t helping you develop the strategy for your business, move on…there are plenty marketing experts out there well versed in Social Media that are helping clients develop and implement effective strategies as well as train their staff.

By: Toni Anicic

Toni Anicic — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 13:07:53 +0000

@James,

Thanks for sharing your experience. I totally agree, there can be a positive ROI in SMM but it’s not guaranteed, just like in any other form of advertising.

By: James Gurd

James Gurd — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 12:52:45 +0000

Ha ha most amusing with some spot on acerbic observations. I agree there are too many people claiming to be SMM/social media/SMO [edit at will] experts who are just shameless freeloaders hoping to drag some poor unexpecting punter into paying for a service they don’t need. I read an article today about how SMM was more effective than SEO for links and traffic building. No data, no validation, just a poor factless claim. The problem is, some people believe the hype.

However, I also know some very astute people who can help business (small and large) to make sense of what social media is and how it can be integrated into their existing business strategy to enhance customer service, customer communication, reputation monitoring, online PR and marketing.

If someone asks me “should I be using social media”, I say “I don’t know”. Of course I go on to explain why that is my answer but the fact is, social media is not the cure to all business woes, it is simply another communication channel that people can use to increase customer engagement and hopefully influence sales as one of the results. Is there a guaranteed ROI? No. Can there be positive ROI? Yes.

Just because idiots exist doesn’t make something worthless. I think your summary of when to and when not to is absolutely spot on.

thanks
james

By: Toni Anicic

Toni Anicic — Fri, 04 Dec 2009 07:08:21 +0000

@Sal,

You can “listen” to the stream on the web as well or even better (you get background images) as on any Twitter client.

By: Sal

Sal — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 20:24:12 +0000

^^^ what daniel said.

if you’re just hitting twitter on the web, and not using a client, then essentially you are yelling in a crowded room and not doing the most important thing you should be doing on twitter: listening.

By: Jelena

Jelena — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 00:49:26 +0000

great Not running a corporate account and not tiding social media to the companys employees on deeper level is mission critical regarding the SME hiring and noise that is created around SM strategy.
Is there a need? I think there is, but only for those who are not willing to experiment a bit and are willing to hire someone for the good cause – the transfer of experience (not for thinking out loud about best ways to use twitter but real hands-on experience).

By: Daniel

Daniel — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 18:12:29 +0000

I like your post, but disagree that all you need can be found on Twitter.com. I use several tools and clients that give me better control of how information is organized and how I receive updates. For example, I use Seesmic Desktop for most of my tweeting. But I can also use it for monitoring for specific keywords, so I can see who’s tweeting about a keyword when they tweet it. Twitter.com cannot notify me when a keyword is used. Also, Seesmic had built-in, private lists (just as Tweetdeck has groups) that I used waaay before Twitter came out with their own version of lists.

I think one thing that’s sorely missing a lot of the time with so-called SME’s is strategy. That said, a lot of clients only want to talk tactics. It’s the SME’s job to steer them away from the “shiny new toy” syndrome and make sure their strategy is in place.

By: Kathir

Kathir — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 12:11:48 +0000

Awesome! Well articulated.