Social Media is one of the hottest areas of digital marketing today. Everyone is on social media. Companies small and large are jumping into the pool of social media. That also means there are companies out there that have no idea what they are doing or where to turn when it comes to their social media. They are trying to incorporate it into their marketing efforts but with truly just don’t know where to begin.

So of course, when they start searching for help with this area, they find so-called social media “experts”. Not everyone claiming to be an “expert” in social media or any other area of digital marketing for that matter truly is an “expert” at anything other than BS. People are just dying to become Internet famous no matter what the cost!

So let’s take a look at some key points of a true expert vs a fake:

First of all, an expert should be active on social media and not just on one social media platform. They should have update their social media profiles often and also blog on their own blog or have some sort of blog platform perhaps through their work—somewhere to share their voice and skills.

They should also know and keep current on the latest news and trends with social media and digital marketing in general. In this industry, things change daily and an “expert” should know this. You have to read and research daily to stay up-to-date on everything in this industry.

An expert should know more than just Twitter and Facebook. Those are pretty obvious these days, but now we have so many other social media platforms depending based on niches, Pinterest, Google +, YouTube, Snapchat, Vine, Instagram are all dominating the social media atmosphere at the moment. An expert should be aware of these and others. They should know where the people in their niche can be found. They should be active on these networks, not just have an account. It is important to note that Social Media covers a very large area so no one can be an “expert” at every aspect of it.

Buying Likes and Follows

If the “expert” has tons of connections, but low quality connections then chances are they are a fake! They tend to buy followers because to them quantity is more important that quality. This is NOT a numbers game people! Buying “likes” on your Facebook page or paying for followers on Twitter doesn’t make you an “expert” on anything but being a fool. You want to naturally earn your likes, following, and such. I mean who in their right mind wants to pay $3 or more per follower on Twitter!

A social media faker will often only utilize their social media to promote their own agenda or company’s agenda, but provide little engagement with their followers. An true expert will actually respond to comments, tweets, etc and also share others’ content as well as their own. If all you see on their social activity is self promotion of their latest and greatest program or service please beware of this faker.

Fakers often have zero business sense. They could not run a legitimate business if they tried. They are just throwing crap against the wall to see what sticks. They don’t know how to turn followers and fans into customers. If they do, it’s usually broken promises and flat out lies. These people only see dollar signs and will never do any actual real work for anyone.

If someone you follow is  overly eager to get your business, make sure you watch them closely. If they sound like a used car salesman swearing that this is the only way or that is the only way—WATCH OUT! We’ve all met those types. There isn’t just one magical way that works in digital marketing. It takes several different moving parts to make things successful in marketing. It is also different for every business. For example, Facebook ads make work great for one business whereas they may be a total fail for another. Social Media should be used to complement all other forms of marketing. It requires careful planning and strategy to make social media work in your overall marketing plan.

These social media “experts” unfortunately aren’t always genuine. Many of the fakers have given social media a bad name and made it harder for truly knowledgeable people to prosper much like most other areas of digital marketing. Then there are the social media certifications as well but that would be another blog post in itself so we will have to examine that idea later. What do you think about the influx of self-proclaimed social media “experts”?

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