Experts Everywhere!

So have you noticed how many social media "experts" and "gurus" are out there nowadays? Go ahead. I dare you. Throw a rock and see if you can't hit one. I'm always amazed (and a bit doubtful) when people introduce themselves as social media experts. It's like saying someone was an expert at PacMac the day it came out. I'm especially dubious of Twitter profiles that purport one's social media guru status.

As an example, LinkedIn lists more than 150,000 people who have "social media" in their description. Amazing that there are 5 times as many social media professionals on LinkedIn as there are plumbers! Listen, I know that social media is this year's buzz word, but there can't be that many experts in a field that started only a few years ago. And there aren't. I've been to quite a few conferences, presentations, and meetings where the social media "expert" was nothing of the sort and pretty much B-S'ed his way through it.

We're still in the beginning stages of this evolution, yet so many "experts" claim to know all about it. As a comparison, Amazon.com lists approximately 87 books about World War II that were written during World War II. By contrast, there are more than 37,000 books listed on Amazon.com about "social media," and we're still in the beginning of it. I think I might build a cabin with all of the social media books out there.

I like to think of myself as a social media professional, because it's part of what I do as my job. I also relish in the fact that I don't know everything. I love learning about some new tool, site, service, trick, etc., because it keeps my job refreshing. I think the real knowledge comes about when people who are involved in social media collaborate, share, and converse. So be wary of the self-proclaimed experts.

Update on Friday, October 2, 2009 at 5:10PM by Matthew Snodgrass

A great follow-up for this one: