In our industry as a social media agency, much like every other industry, there are “leaders” that rise to the top. Most of the time, the “leaders” are seen as the ones you see in the press most, or the ones that have written books, or the ones that have enough ad budget to extend their brand across many mediums everyday. I would assume that those things are a pretty decent litmus test to determine who indeed is doing at least a pretty good job. I mean, if they have enough revenue to embark on a strong PR campaign or spend so much ad money, then they must be doing something right, no?
Some people will assess people in our industry by the design of their website, or their rankings in Google for key terms. And some will judge them by how many times their name appears on a panel for a conference. While I also see these as viable PIECES of a test, they are a bit dishonest to me. Why?
- The cobblers kids don’t have shoes. We all know this adage. I can see a ton of competitors of ours that are REALLY good at what they do, yet don’t rank/have the BEST sites…because they are too busy actually doing client work. I can relate to that. We do a good job on keeping up with our SEO, and I still monitor and respond to as many conversations in my industry as humanly possible during my already 12 hour days. But I could do more with more hours. So make sure you dig beyond those pieces and talk to them about case studies and realities.
- Those who can’t do, teach. I believe that if someone’s main source of income is through speaking or teaching in a space where they had less than a consistent/stellar career in, they are not truly experts. What they ARE experts at is speaking or teaching. We see this all the time in advertising. Some of your best advertising industry bloggers and writers have never written a media plan or even a tagline in their life. And many teachers have done nothing other than attend school and then go into teaching – so their knowledge is somewhat limited to theory rather than application. So before you assume the author or speaker or teacher is the best in the industry – look closer at their case studies that THEY implemented.
- The big dogs aren’t necessarily the meanest. In the ad industry you see this fallacy a ton. Every major conference has the SAME speakers from the same top 4 agency families. They tend to be so far removed from the day to day business that they have no grasp of the client’s needs or issues at this point. But, since they have a good name behind them, they get preference above anyone in the industry that is actually PRODUCING great stuff. Now, of course some of them have a long history and their agencies are doing stellar work, but it would be nice to see a showcase of the smaller guys who get the same results with much less dollars.
- If you are really good at your industry, you have less time to talk about being good. I see the same names quoted in stories, and floating in my Twitter feed all day long. I’ve been asked about other “experts” in social media when someone is vetting a panel discussion. For some people they name, I can attest to their good work in the space that I’ve had the privilege of seeing/experiencing. But for many, I always offer, “if they have enough time to tweet 1,000+ per day and update their Facebook pages as much, what WORK could they be doing? They may indeed be social media experts, but be sure to ask how they have monetized it for a client.
- More followers/friends does NOT mean more adept in social media. You can buy friends and followers. Cheap. But, someone that has organically developed a large following (which may mean as little as 50 followers on Twitter,) is likely more proficient in social media than those with too many fans – especially if they tweet once a week something self-promotional.
- If the people managing your dollars aren’t social, then they don’t know social. Most importantly, when you are selecting a social media management company, look beyond the bells and whistles and dig into their personalities. There’s a balance between spending TOO much time in social daily, and not spending ANY time. If your account rep or team of “experts” or planners inside of a social media agency don’t have profiles in social media, and have REAL conversations – then likely they don’t really GET social.
So when choosing a social media agency, see how social they are. Don’t let them sell you on theory, and don’t buy them on their hopefully really amazing PR or positioning. First try and be social with them in social media – and see how that goes.
