You are crap at social media ... and it shows
Context. Let's first qualify who "You" is.
I have recently finished a decade working in "social media" most of it based in central London. Over the years I worked with a lot of people from across multiple agencies. I loved my job, the people were great fun, especially those I worked closely with. It was a good time.
But, I was often frustrated by the lack of technical understanding within the industry.
Who should have a detailed understanding of social media?
Not everyone. The average user? No. Clients? Not at all. That's what they need experts for! But people who work for those clients; who work on social media strategy or activation? They should understand social media shouldn't they?
Would you take driving lessons from an instructor who couldn't drive?
Would you? No, of course you wouldn't. But for clients, who themselves struggle with social media and need social media experts it is not as straightforward to assess whether someone is an expert or not. I have met and worked with plenty of people who have great social media job titles: strategists, executives, directors and so on. These people generally look the part, have great powerpoint skills and are super comfortable in client meetings. They walk the walk and talk the talk. But most of them are crap at social media.
How do you tell if someone is crap at social media?
People occasionally might make mistakes. There's no better way to go viral than to drop the ball on social for a client. Mistakes should be avoided obvs, but mistakes, unless regularly repeated, are not a good way to tell if someone is crap.
Social media platforms change often. Social media professionals need to keep up and they do that through use. Good usage. So here goes. I believe that you can see when a social media professional is crap: when they are not good.
They are professionals, they should be good at social media.
What is good social media use?
It depends, but let"s take Twitter* for example to start with. Most Twitter users consume content, treating Twitter as a news feed. Some mainly broadcast on the platform, in a bid to get eyes on their content. A small percentage enjoy trolling, or whinge and others use Twitter as a communication tool, to connect and engage with others.
What usage would one expect from a social media professional? Perhaps bit of everything, no?
Trolling would hopefully be limited to occasional whinging at airlines about flight delays or similar. If their profile seems deserted might they just consume? Never respond or engage? Don't be fooled by the oversharers; retweeting or sharing social media articles from Mashable, Techcrunch or god forbid Social Media Examiner.
They don't use Twitter?
Okay .... we'll let that slide. Maybe personally they are not a Twitter fan, but this is a social media professional, they have social profiles right? Take a look at those. How information dense are they? From their social profiles, where do they link out to? Is there any consistent personal branding strategy applied across all social profiles?
This digital professional, web native, person trusted with the keys to drive your brand strategy across social. Do they not express their own original thoughts anywhere? Do they not have a blog, or at least a website? Or does a long ago acquired vanity URL just point to an about.me page, or worse their Instagram profile?
If they're crap at social media; it shows. Take a look and see!
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